Sew Crazy For You!

 My Crazy Quilt Journey...
As I am preparing for my two classes coming up, I am collecting "show and tell" items, like books, samples of my work, etc.  I have also been reminiscing about my personal crazy quilt journey.  I pulled out an old Penny McMorris book to see when it was published (1984) and found this inside of the book....didn't even remember it was there!!! This article is from McCalls dated 1969-1970!

The thing is, the next two pics are copies of the same article, I have had since back that far...I had always enjoyed embroidery since I was about 12 or so...but got bored with doing only pillow cases!!!! When I first saw this article, I was completely in awe... I knew that there was something else I could embroider...and this was my first introduction of a crazy quilt....took me years to finally do my first crazy quilt....

In fact, it was in the middle 70's, when a new puppy, Yankee, decided to chew up holes in my sofa, and not having money back then for a new one...I crazy-quilted it!!!

  

 Once I did the love seat, I went back and did the full couch, tops, and sides...had those couches for a number of years. Yankee is the black and brown shepherd above,  Charlie is the white one below.

  

Well, after a divorce, and then remarriage, both dogs having passed away, my husband and I were care givers for his mom for 3 1/2 years in the mid 1990's.  When she passed away in August of 1997, we discovered quite a bin of crazy quilt squares that she had made, a huge box of fabric remnants and some full quilts that each family member received.

Maybe these were on my mind one evening watching TV with hubby in September 1997...  maybe my copy of the article above flashed in my mind....I don't know how....but I got up from the couch and dug a big box of fabrics from the closet, pulled a handful of fancy fabrics, and sat down and put a crazy quilt piece together.  Pretty basic compared to what I do today...

When my husband saw what I had created and asked what it was...I showed him the article. He couldn't believe this just came out of the blue!
 Not a single book to help me, no internet to study....nothing but the memory of one article!!! Then my husband says why don't you make each family member a stocking out of mom's big stash of fabrics!!!!
 Now this is going into October!!!! And I hardly knew what I was doing....but...

I no longer know who got which one, but they became the family's favorite that year. Grand-children could remember blouses, shirts, etc. from clothing that Grandma had made! And I had no idea that they would remember the fabrics!

Quite a few stockings for a Newbie!!!! Well the next year I made a couple more for my sisters....

As you can see the embellishing of these two, a year's difference shows up...more fancy fabrics, more stitches....

Maybe it's time to make more stockings!!!!! Next post will be about setting up my students for their first day of class....stay tuned!!!