| First Mention Was Just a Joke The earliest mention of a "crazy" quilt discovered so far comes out of Cleveland, Ohio, where there is a description in Our Acre and Its Harvest (a history of the Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio), which references a "crazy bedquilt" made out of newspaper patchwork, which was sold each day at 12 noon as a fund raiser during the Cleveland Sanitary Fair in February 1864. Described as "grotesque", it was understood that the purchaser of this crazy quilt was not obligated to keep it, but could present it back to the fair for sale again the next day. Although this raised a considerable sum of money and was the instrument of humor and fun, it did not inspire the crazy quilt movement that followed several years later. Reshaping the Traditional Quilt What is credited with inspiring the crazy quilt is the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, which occurred in 1876. At this event, Japanese exhibits were plentiful and quite popular with American women. Americans thought the Japanese artwork was eccentric and even bizarre, but were intrigued by it. The Japanese works were asymmetrical and often uneven, but were exquisitely crafted and showed intricate workmanship. The American women took the age-old log cabin design that they were so familiar with, and adapted it by using irregular pieces of fabric and arranging them in a haphazard manner on foundation fabric to achieve an Oriental mosaic effect. They used Japanese silks and elaborate embroidery to embellish these new creations. Various publications of the time picked up this "new work" and the craze was off and running! Have Needle, Need Work Also influential on this new style was the display of the Royal School of Art Needlework at the Centennial Exhibition. This London school trained "gentlewomen" to embroider antique and modern day designs on items offered for sale on their premises. At this time just after the Civil War, when many American women were in need of employment, this idea of utilizing women's traditional skills for profit was ripe for harvest. Following the Exhibition, the socialites of New York founded the New York Society of Decorative Arts, which offered classes and opened a salesroom for consignment of artistic work that came from all over the country. Other cities began to open similar schools and art societies. In response to these new opportunities, women who prided themselves on their needlework techniques, looked for ways to showcase them in their new "crazy quilts". La Tee Dah - the Aesthetic Era The heavily decorated crazy quilts were recognized by fashionable and elite pacesetters as a works of art and received by them with much enthusiasm. These quilts often had embroidery, outline work, silk painting, appliqué, satinwork, ribbon and tinsel work. Needless to say, these were not utilitarian quilts. These were to be admired and discussed at close range - even bragged on! Often the crazy patches were framed in plush fabric borders to make them pop. Silks and velvets were most commonly used, often taken from discarded dresses. Vivid colors were their hallmark. Many of the crazy quilts from this era are wonderful examples of stitch samplers, exhibiting a variety of hand embroidered stitches in hundreds of differing patterns and designs. Naturally, entrepreneurs began to seize upon the fad and by the mid-1880's patterns of questionable artistic merit were plentiful. The previous crazy quilts had taken countless hours to complete. Women wishing to save time could purchase alternative ways to beautify their quilts, such as hand-painted silk blocks, silk-embroidered appliqués, metallic threads and other "artistic" aids. This was the kiss of death as far as the elite were concerned - they abandoned the movement and even began to ban crazy quilts from shows and contests. But You Can't Keep a Good Quilt Down However women across the country continued to garner satisfaction from making these quilts as they do to this day. It is still a perfect quilt style to showcase fine needlework and it offers a venue for using up those fabric scraps in an artistic "crazy" way. The crazy quilts of the 1800's, reflect the artistic ideals and domestic lifestyles that were enjoyed at that time. They are a testimony to Yankee ingenuity and remind us of women's active and effective involvement in shaping American culture. |
| About Crazy Quilts |
| Quilt History |
Heart to Heart
Celebration Quilts
| See a crazy quilt made by Claudia Crazy for Color |
| Most of this information was researched from the book, America's Glorious Quilt, Edited by Dennis Duke and Deborah Harding and published in 1987 by Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. |
Want to see a
traditional log cabin
quilt made by
Claudia? See Heart
to Heart's Light From
the Cabin Window.
traditional log cabin
quilt made by
Claudia? See Heart
to Heart's Light From
the Cabin Window.
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