Something rather unique

[alma]

For years sue and i have saved bits and pieces from throw away doilies and table clothes, etc. to salvage the beautiful embroidery on them that we could recover.

She used some on a blouse like a collage years ago, but we still had a lot left.

I sewed two together and embroidered designs along the sewed seams, and did this over and over with other pieces, and then sewed one two-part piece to another, etc. until i had a cotton crazy qullt made up of all kinds of beautiful designs that someone else had made.

All i had to do was embroidery along the seams as i joined them.

I tried not ot leve too much of the plain part, saving only close to the embroidery someone had done years ago.

If there were any plain areas on them, i embroidered branches and flowers on them.

--and now i have some weird kind of beautiful thing. It's amazing, like my velvet crazy quilt pillows.

I've never seen a cotton crazy quilt.

Of course, these things are now family heirlooms. Ha!
love, alma

[MYellowRose]

Alma do you use any kind of a pattern when you are cutting pieces for a crazy quilt? I was under the impression that such things were made without one but in a couple of the quilting books I've looked at they have patterns for different pieces that are then sewed together to form a block then the blocks are put together.
I want to try to make a crazy quilt but since I don't have a working machine I don't think I'll try it quite yet.

[alma]

Hey, Molly,
I cut off a lot of the plain area and save as much of the original embroidery as i can and sew two together like i said, and then embroider all along the seam line. It is easier to handle when you are dealing with just a few pieces.

When i am ready to put the two-part pieces together, i lay one over the other. this way and that. until it pleases me, and then sew these together, making a 4 unit pieces and when i get enough 4 units, i lay them here and there over one another until i like the colors and shapes, and sew them together.

There may be a lot of left over stuff that you can cut away when you finish sewing the pieces together.

I don't use *a pattern, only twist and turn them until the shapes and colors please me.

Then when you get them all together you have to embroider any places where they have been sewn together.

I like to use bright colors to make it as noisey as i can .

I have a way of embroidering that is also unique.

Lets see, after i have sewed two pieces together, before i begin to embroider, i sew along the length of the seam on either side with strong thread, about the wideth of the presser foot.

I can embroideer, using them as a guage, so my work comes out real even and nice.

I sometimes zig and zag through these stitches when i embroider, and make patterns through them, looping my needle through them in differnt ways to make designs that please me.

You have to use strong thread that will hold the embroidering that you are doing.

It's almost like one dimentional sewing, so much of the work being done on the surface without having to go through the fabric as much.

It's trial and error, error, error like all things, but worth *the effort. love, alma

[alma]

Molly, i think you were referring to velvet.
Usually i cut the center piece so it has 5 to seven sides and then work around them, one piece at a time,shifting them a little as it pleases me, no fast rules. Hope you have started on one by now. love, and merry xmas, alma