Sew Crazy For You!

CRAZY QUILT BUSY MONTH!!!

March was a fun and busy month for me in my favorite passion...Crazy Quilting!!!

First, another successful and fun class with  New Knowledge Adventures!The class was on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with a total of 12 hours. 

With 9 students we were on a roll. I had the table behind me covered in packets of fabrics and after talking a little about color theory, I had the students choose their own color choices!

Each week I would have the table covered with different projects I have done over the years to give the ladies ideas of how to embellish.

One of the first things I teach them, is to let the creative genie out of the lamp, and not copy cat me!!! Just because I do a stitch a certain way, does not mean that is the only way to do the stitch! It was really fun watching their creativity come to the surface!

Barbara did a great job in purple, love the stars! She especially loved my peacock blocks for she has wild peacocks in her yard!!!

 Bobbie won the drawing for a giveaway of a Judith Baker Montano book, the first one I ever had!

Diane was my facilitator, and the second time she took my class! Her skills are really shaping up and this is a special gift she is making! 

 Joyce is a neighbor and really picked up well on being creative with her embellishments!

 Mary Lou, another winner, this time of our Crazy Quilt Quarterly, also has gained a great grasp of embellishing!

Patti, who has also taken my class before, and a golfing buddie! has really developed her grasp of colors and embellishing!!!

Well done ladies all, and look forward to more stitching time together in our local library later in April and May!

This month was also a Trunk Show Presentation for Bannock Historical Society on March 20th! What a fun time I had and I think so did the audience. Here's what they had on their website for the event: 

Crazy Quilting by B.J. Sandusky. Brenda Sandusky will be giving a presentation for the Bannock County Historical Society on the history of crazy quilts and her personal journey with the art of crazy quilting.  Brenda has been crazy quilting since 1997 and her journey continues today. She has taken four extensive classes with globally recognized needlework expert and best-selling author Judith Baker Montano, taught basic crazy quilt classes for New Knowledge Adventures and the Pocatello Art Center, and received several awards for her handiwork at the Idaho State Fair. Brenda has also been published in Crazy Quilt Quarterly and participated in their 2015 Crazy Quilt Calendar. For more about Brenda and her journey check out her blog - https://sewkrazzy4you.blogspot.com/ and Flickr site (over 400 photos!) documenting her journey - https://www.flickr.com/photos/60882932@N06/  If you enjoy handwork, this presentation is a must see. There will be examples of Brenda’s art on display for this event.
First I gave them about 20 minute talk on the history of Crazy Quilts. My first question was to ask for a show of hands who knew what crazy quilts are? I was flabbergasted at how many hands went up! I knew I had a great audience.  

Here are my projects I had laid out on the table.

 Above,  the left quilt is one I did for my parents 50th anniversary in 1999. The middle quilt is an old one the my mother-in-law had made years ago, but we didn't know till after she had passed. The last is an antique quilt gifted to me by a friend and shows the art form from the beginning years.

 Again, more of my projects that I showed how many sizes and purposes for crazy quilts.

 Above, many of these, I call my "door knockers"...they are on the front door during the corresponding month!

This piece above, I stared in 2007 as part of my first Judith Baker Montano class. It took me 5 years to finish, and it did get award special recognition at the Idaho State Fair in 2017!

 Above a few more of my projects. The left frame was in the 2015 Crazy Quilt Calendar; while the other one won a ribbon at the Idaho State Fair. 

 The old quilt above and below, is another one my mother-in-law had made, using a number of different traditional blocks, with crazy quilting in between the blocks!

 I started demonstrating the pieces of art with the oldest quilt and talked about how the silk is frayed because of how they were once treated with lead.

Here I am showing my mother-in-law's quilt. It is backed with crazy-quilted flannel.

And here I am showing my piece for my parents!

 This is a fascinating crazy quilt that the Museum has on display all the time. It is beautiful and well done, but alas they don't know who the creator is. It had been featured at the State Fair, so I emailed them and asked if they had any records on it, but they didn't.

This old crazy quilt is also on displayed.

So a great heartfelt thank you to the folks at the Bannock Historical Museum for inviting me to share my crazy quilt journey.

Now, somehow I still had some stitching time to work on my 2020 Challenge, Gospel in the Stars!

This is Pisces ready to be backed with the purple fabric. 

Aries is also ready for backing. And now Taurus is underway.

As usual, thanks for visiting. It has been a fun month and I hope others enjoyed it as much as I did!  You can also follow my journey on my Flickr site

Happy Stitching...

BJ