Craqzy Quilt Question...
 

I'm making my second quilt ever and started to piece together mens neck ties to make a crazy quilt. My question: After I get all of my pieces sewn together when do I add the embellishements. I am piecing the ties fabric to a backing fabric. Do I add the embellishments when I'm finished the complete top or do I sandwich the top, batting and back and then add embellishments. AND, If I add embellishments after I sandwich, do I embroider through the whole quilt. Anyone know of any good books on crazy quilting. Maybe a book will help. Thanks so much.

i think you enbelish befor quilting that would be a few to many layers to sew through im thinking. most off the old crazy quilts dident even have batting they used he foundation material as batting or you could put a layer off flannel in as batting you definityl dont whant anything high loft or heavy since the top will already be kind off heavy on its own i would probly use silk batting in a crazy quilt since its thin and light wheight. i think ther is a book called crazy quilts or somethung like that cant totally remember it good lots off ideas for stiches. hope that helps i have a gerbage bag full of ties planning to make a crazy quilt but havent gotten that far yet

OK. Are you making a "quilt" that will hang on the wall? Or one to use on a bed/couch?

If a wall hanging, sew on the embellishments before the sandwiching. You could put the batting on and sew through that and then add a backing. Or before the batting if you've used a fusing to stabilize it.

BUT...if this is going to be a bed quilt that needs to be washed, what kind of "embellishments" are you adding? Can they be washed? If they can be washed, decide if you want the sewing of the embellishments to be part of the quilt or not. Are they hand sewn or machine sewn? Part of the back of the quilting to show or not? Either way would work out, I'm sure.

Since I have a question out there about this I am interested in your experiences...

crazy quilts are (traditionally) not quilted---they are generally tied---because of all the embellishments.
the traditional crazy quilt- blocks are created with different size/shape texture pieces-on a foundation- then every seam is covered with decorative stitching- all of the blocks are joined- embellishments are added- then a backing is added & tied then a binding.
but you do not have to follow the (traditional) method- if you want to use your decorative stitching as your quilting it would go through to the back-
and it probably depends on what you plan to use for embellishments how it would be best to go about that part...but a traditional crazy quilt is not quilted. the quilting would interfere with the decorative stitching & embellishing.

Allison Aller, Judith Baker Montano, J. Marsha Michler, Barbara Randle and several others have books on Crazy quilts. There are many, many articles if you Google crazy quilts that will give you each person's view of crazy quilts - There is not just one view of crazy quilts...You will note in a previous comment that they did not suggest batting. I have made one crazy quilt with high loft batting that my parents loved. It went on a bed in their beach house and was especially appreciated when the air conditioning was cold and my parents were not young. I have also made crazy quilts without batting and some with a thin felt batting - It is all up to you. Most of the crazy quilts I have seen are put together by tying. I have done the embellishment usually before I tied the quilts because it is harder to hide my beginning knot when I am doing the pretty stitchery to embellish the seams. <<See the blog http://www.pintangle.com for wonderful eye candy on this process.> I do suggest, since ties are usually made of silk and when silk is "rubbed" it often frays easily, that you put a little thought into how it is stabilized or where it is on the quilt <an area that receives less wear and tear.>
I made a hexagonal jacket with 84 hexagons that I used some silk fabric that are red with butterflies with a couple of the patches and may have to replace one because of fraying. But most of all - enjoy the process!!!!