Stitch Talk

In the basics of all crazy quilts there is the block construction and the stitching.  Block construction is very important there is a little formula to it.  Of course I don't follow it as well as I should as I have been taught to sew and quilt by my grandmother.  If you look at the vintage and antique crazy quilts there are quilts out there that don't follow the "basic formula" of construction.

Okay that argument aside let me describe to you how my grandmother taught me.  When I first started getting into crazy quilting I went to my grandmother Myrtle Jane Painter and asked her about the block construction.

She told me that a crazy block is easy to make.  You just grab a piece of fabric and put it in the middle(Middle of the foundation) and then just grab another piece of fabric and sew it on then repeat the process going around and around until the block is full.  She did not tell me to pull out a piece with a certain number of sides. She said just pull one out.  I have got to let you know I just pull one out to this day and sew around and around.

As you can see from this block I used my grandmothers formula.  I can pull out more samples of my habit.  I won't call it a bad habit as one of my friends would as I tend to think of my grandmother being right.

Both of my grandmothers are perfect and make no mistakes. (I know that there are quite a few ladies and gentlemen out there who feel the same way.)

The above block just does not follow the basic CQ formula.

Now lets just talk about that formula.  What do you think that it is?  Lets start with the foundation.  the foundation most ladies start with a plain muslin of some kind.  You do not have to have a muslin foundation if you don't want one but I will just say this, it really needs to be a loose weave fabric of some kind.  Remember you are going to fill the foundation with the block fabric then embellish it and you are going to have to pull the needle through all that fabric.  So loose weave foundation.

The middle fabric to put on the foundation should have five sides.  Then you sew your other chosen pieces of fabric around and around until the foundation piece is full.

 The middle piece in this block has five sides. 

How do you construct your blocks?

Remember to always construct the block in a way you can pull your needle and thread through easily.  You just might want to use SRE on it and that really needs to be pulled through your fabric with ease.

TTFN
The Lion