Writings
This page contains written material from my notebooks on the general topic of crazy quilting. Having done the how-to's of it (see the Books page), it's been fun to mentally process some theories.
And I've chosen a few of the questions that have come to me over the years, giving them the best answers I could. Your comments and questions are welcome and invited-- please send them to my email address on the Contact page. Questions, if they have answers may get added to the list.
Questions and Answers
The Process (Snippets)
Crazy Quilting: Evolution, Manipulation, Metaphor
QUESTIONS and ANSWERS
"It seems to take so long to do a quilt top, I'm afraid I'll never get there!"
- The work done on a crazy quilt is only a microcosmic mote in the eye of a lifetime, regardless of how long it takes. Never fear that it will not be finished. A few stitches a day WILL get it there. Find joy in the process and remove the emphasis on "getting there."
"I can't seem to finish anything, never mind an entire quilt!"
- How to finish a quilt: finish a quilt. Because once you do it you will know that you CAN do it. (Finishing is an important thing to do if you never have).
"How do I know when it's finished?"
- Its more of a "sense" than a knowledge. You will feel like there's not much more you need to say. It's a nice feeling!
"I don't like what I did!"
- Sometimes changes are needed until the finished entity makes itself apparent. This can mean ripping out and redoing, or adding something- a color or different texture perhaps. One works with it until it gets right. Never leave in something that doesn't look right, and if necessary do not be afraid to begin all over again.
"I don't like what I just did, I feel like a failure!"
- It might get personal. One experiences a failure so therefore one must BE a failure? No, one is not a failure for being willing to experiment. Toss out the fear and invite rationality back in the door. Think it through and begin again.
"I love colors, how do I pick one color scheme?"
- Pick one for now, and reserve your other ideas for the future. If you need help picking colors, refer to a color reference - there are many books on this topic.
THE PROCESS (Snippets)
One collects and accumulates a pile of cloths/ threads/ ribbons - and - other - stuffs and then the questions start. How am I going to approach this? What methods, techniques, what size, border or binding? What will come about in the end? If one were to sum this up as a manipulation of textiles, a mere rote assembly process, the whole point is missed. Because isn't this an opportunity: a one-time-only mix of ingredients and mood? That stack of stuffs may be mind boggling to look at, but isn't it what gets the juices flowing?
A crazy quilt can have one strong focal point, or simply present as a balanced piece. Whichever, the whole most often encompasses a multitude of smaller, less obvious focal points. This is great fun in the making, and is the epitome of crazy quilting itself.
A new quilt project is often a long term construct. The end result is not viewable until one actually gets to the end. One must contain one's desire at first, but along the way it (desire) seems to become one with the project itself. One's sense of patience grows along with the project. How's that for character-building?
When beginning or pursuing a project, it often helps to entertain some way of thinking about it that makes sense. This can be a general concept or a specific theme, some kind of linking one thing or idea with another. I think all artists live through some form of this. Why would we do something that makes no sense to us? Can a project be mindless?
It may seem simple- a bundle of fabrics/ textures/ threads/ colors all stitched together. But these very elements throw disparities into the works. How commonly they refuse to blend or to meld. Then it may become necessary to dispose of selected parts, and perhaps to rework the strategy of the piece as a whole. One does what one must. Sometimes, this is the way things work.
CRAZY QUILTING: EVOLUTION, MANIPULATION, METAPHOR
Looking back to age four or so, it occurs to me that I've spent large chunks of the first half-century of my life doing various forms of fiber work, the vast majority of it original. This has granted me a handful of successes and a vast number of not exactly failures, but more in the way of learning experiences. Doing creative work carries with it the challenge of producing something new based on some imagined concept or idea or as a significant variation of something already in existence. This seldom "just happens," more often evolving through some combination of sketching, diagramming, research, self-critique, experimentation, and generally being involved in the arts and life itself.
My creative experiences have generated ideas and philosophies coinciding with hands-on manipulation of fibers. Some of the ideas are so entwined in the act that they sometimes seem a part of the fibers themselves. One striking idea is that creating original stitched works allows one a place in the timeline of the fiber works/arts of women. Although it may at first seem a simple concept, the quantity/quality of the works preceding my own "stuff" stops me in my tracks and boggles my mind every time I think about it.
When I consider the art of crazy quilting in context of the history of needle arts in general, three terms borrowed from modern art philosophy come to mind: evolution, manipulation, and metaphor.
I. Evolution
There was angst in the making. In the early history of humankind in which textiles were involved, I reason that if one had an idea for achieving an end result of fabric through knotting, knitting, crochet, weaving, felting, braiding, or etc., that getting there would have to have been angst-provoking. Because, before one arrives at fabric, one must derive the means to create fabric.
First, some plant or animal material (cotton/ silk/ sinew/ flax/ fleece) must be processed into fiber. This involves raveling cocoons, using a drop spindle, thrashing flax to rid it of its rotted hull, and/or some other method of creating string/thread/yarn. Following this, the fiber must be of a size, evenness, strength, AND unbroken length that can be efficiently and effectively worked. (You can research this yourself with a hunk of fleece and a drop spindle, if you have not already.)
Following the design of the fiber comes that of figuring out how to do the knotting, knitting, crochet, weaving, felting, braiding, or etc. And from where?: a sudden inspiration to try a brainstormed idea? You can probably imagine a tangle of threads being thrown to the ground a few times before a useable piece of fabric was created. What comes to us today was achieved through trial and error and a lot of exploration. I would not take for granted that any of this came easily.
II. Manipulation
What do textiles represent? To begin to explore this question it may be helpful to look at how fibers are and have been used. We can be reasonably sure that early textiles provided warmth and protection from the elements as they still do.
As skills improved, textiles surpassed need and entered the desire mode. Ideas of beauty and enhancement kicked in. Cloth was enhanced with stitched-on beads, quills, feathers, threads, etc. There were also new weaves, new knots, purling as well as knitting, new ways of braiding, coloring and dyes, exploring to find other/additional sources of fiber, and so on and so forth because the list is extensive.
As fiber-ingenuity progressed, ideas continued to grow in many creative directions. Such refinements as mixing fibers to create blends, natural and chemical dyes, extracting dyes (bleaching), new structures of threads such as chenilles and loopy yarns, surface finishes such as sheens, mattes and other textures, printing and photographic imagery on cloth, new and newer synthetics, and so on and on (with such initiatives occurring in bits and pieces in different areas of the planet, never progressing along one smooth avenue).
A lot has happened over a great many years in the way of fibers and fabrics. Now, for one thing, the lines are blurred between the NEED for a garment, and its role in enhancing the image that one wishes to portray. This enhancement calls for a continual renewal of ideas, a process of invention. Is this easy? Probably not. Invention puts a person in a tough spot: that of creating something never done before. Ok, YOU try it: think up something new… um, yes that means TOTALLY new. Angst?
III. Metaphor (and back to Crazy Quilting)
On a small scale, a crazy quilt reflects its maker's personality. The palette of colors, the hand writing of the stitches, and the embellishments represent choices made consciously or intuitively. Embroidery and embellishments create infinite complexities as they build on a patched surface, and as stitches are added, a piece necessarily takes on a persona of its own. Have you ever had someone viewing your finished quilt say, "Each time I look at it, I see something new"? A crazy quilt becomes an archiving system in the moment, capturing choices as they are made.
On a broad scale, a crazy quilt easily provides a metaphor for a lifetime. Small areas (events) draw the viewer's attention to them. It is the composite of these microcosmic areas that create the whole of the quilt (a lifetime). Especially true with crazy quilting is that the laying of patches is only a minor phase. It is not the end in itself as with other forms of quilting. Patching acts predominantly as background. The complexity of the crazy quilt is in the embroidery and embellishments on top of the patching. Much like how we embellish our own lives.
Like each one of us, each crazy quilt is unique. How we express ourselves in fiber work is a reflection of how we react to life itself. We patiently work at it, knowing the project will finish when it does. Or not: and hurriedly make something regardless of the quality. We pay attention to details and get it right. Or not. We combine colors with thought and care. Or not. We try to learn; or forget learning and simply enjoy the process.
Each added stitch acts as a metamorphic in the cosmology of the whole with the entirety of the experience in the sum of its parts. And, each crazy quilted piece we make is a metaphor for a dauntingly larger concept: that of a culmination-up-to-now of the journey of (mainly) womens' experience in fiber arts. Each piece takes its place in this matriarchal progression.
