Tag Archives: inspiration

Crazy Quilts at RMQM

Uncategorized, ,

I knew I wanted to do a crazy quilt for my cousin’s memory quilt, and RMQM did a whole crazy quilt exhibit this past fall! Crazy quilts became popular in the late 1800s and generally include colorful scraps of cotton and silk and velvet, ribbons, buttons, other baubles, and embroidery. They vary in the level of complexity of course, and I wanted to find a style or inspiration that I was comfortable using for my crazy quilt.

I went on a Saturday morning, and if you go right when it opens, usually one of the employees will walk around with you and tell you about the quilts. I was the only one there for a while, and a very nice employee walked around with me and we talked about the quilts. As a note, this post won’t have many credits because I forgot to take pictures of most the signs.

One thing I loved was that not all the quilts had borders. I struggle with borders and knowing what fabric to choose, how to quilt it, and it’s an optional step that stands between me and finishing the quilt so I tend to skip them. So I was instantly inspired by border-less quilts.

It also made so much more sense to create crazy-pieced square blocks and then put the blocks together instead of trying to crazy-piece an entire quilt. I also went into this knowing my cousin wanted a small-ish lap quilt, so I wasn’t overly intimidated by the size and scale of most of these quilts.

I liked this one that was kind of a medallion type of quilt, and you’ll see the very typical embroidery with that fun ribbon flower in the very center.

I loved this twisting and twirling quilt. It’s pieced rhombi, where each rhombus is one of the arcs.

Star Crazy Quilt, Maker Unknown

This next quilt was my favorite of the entire exhibit. I loved the on point blocks, each with its own story. This quilt was made by Patricia and Allen Brown of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Boom, Boom! Ain’t it Great to be Crazy? by Patricia and Allen Brown
Those adorable leaf and bird buttons!!!
More ribbon flowers
Really awesome embroidered fish and leaves
Stumpwork (3d embroidery) flowers, really cool lace, and some intricate embroidery

And here are some other up-close inspirations!

Super detailed flowers
A lace fan! Plus a cute heart button, ribbon, and tiny beads
A zipper flower!
Wavy ribbons and beads, embroidery, and lace
Embroidery over a printed fabric to create a little scene
Printed fabric with flowers, ribbon flowers, and that adorable ladybug button!

I definitely walked away with a better idea of what I wanted to do with my cousin’s quilt, and so much inspiration for future projects. I don’t think I’d do a whole embroidered crazy quilt, but maybe something more like a mini art quilt. I really liked the idea of embroidering over printed fabric to enhance or create a new picture, and making little flowers with ribbon and zippers. Could be a fun mini project!

Stay tuned for the post on my second memory quilt coming up soon 🙂

Little close up of my own crazy quilt 🙂

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum

Uncategorized,

Yesterday my mom and I went to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum (check out their search feature, they have tons of pictures of quilts). It was so cool. The main exhibition they had was called Evolution, so all the quilts were art quilts meant to reflect that theme. These were truly works of art with mixed media (lots of painting), and machine and hand quilting together. It showed me the more artistic limit of what quilting can be – meanwhile I’m hanging out on the more “function over form” side. We saw some really intricate strip piecing (some strips were 1/10th of an inch wide, which is crazy thin) and some cool improv/random piecing. Some people included different types of threads, types of fabric – like cotton with silk and organza, and lots of fun applique. There was an incredible mandala type quilt with buttons, a piece that looked like an abstract painting, and improv/cut up strip piecing to recreate geologic formations.

  • High Desert Garden –
    Shannon Conley
  • Geology quilt!!
    Orogeny – Vicky Conley
  • Karen Fisher
  • Karen Fisher
  • Bethlehem Star – Tina M. Gravatt
  • Ribbon Log Cabin and Yoyos – Tina M. Gravatt
  • Oh gosh the sign said this was made of 5,000 little pieces. It’s 47″x47″.
    Roman Music Tapestry – Sue Sherman

What my mom and I noticed, apart from the art, was that a lot of the quilters hailed from scientific fields – the quilt that won the exhibition was a former molecular bioscientist, she carved a wood block depicting mitosis, printed it on her fabric, and then quilted it (below).

CELL-ebration – Kathy Suprenant

The one that struck me the most was this koi fish quilt called Ritsurin in the Rain by Martha Wolfe. It has a pieced background with appliqued fish, covered with organza, then quilted with “rain” lines and “ripples”. I’ve been thinking about using organza over a landscape applique to mimic a sunbeam, and seeing it in person confirmed that it could work. And the fish! They’re made with layered applique, so each of the patches on the fish is a different piece of fabric, all (I assume) fused together and then placed on the background.

The sign indicated the techniques included: raw-edge applique, machine piecing, machine quilting, hand quilting
Look at the layers of fabric – they’re raw edge, she cut those out and layered them to make it look like a fish

Needless to say, I will definitely be going back when they rotate exhibitions. The talent – and vision – of these artists is insane.