Quiltingboard Forums - Antique Crazy quilt

My customer, Tina, brought me this antique Crazy quilt to finish for her daughter, who bought it at a church auction fund raiser.

I estimate that the fabrics are from the early 1900s or 1890s, they are all cotton and some are faded and show fold and wear marks as if the quilter used the best parts of worn clothing for her fabrics.

The sections were foundation pieced, by machine, onto a pink cotton backing, and there are a few pink cotton ties to hold the layers together, perhaps for a summer spread, but the edge was not finished, so I don't think it was used like that. Along the seams the quilter did some feathery cross stitch embroidery with what looks like pearl cotton in an off white.

I quilted it on my Gammill, doing different designs in each section and hiding pictures like flowers, dragon flies and words like Jesus loves you, in the tradition of Crazy quilts. I reinforced the fragile parts of the fabrics and the embroidery with extra stitching. I printed out a whole history of the quilt, as I think it could be anyway, with care instructions for her too.

I had fun doing it for her.