Have you ever wanted to learn how to crazy quilt in machine embroidery?  Here is your chance to get learning!

Crazy Quilting came about in the early 1800’s and was really popular.  The idea of crazy quilting came about by using up every scrap of very expensive fabric so that there would be no waste.  Back then, rich fabrics were really expensive, so every piece counted.  Literally!  people who could not afford such rich fabrics used whatever they had on hand, and then embellished it to make it look pretty.  Some of these quilts were actually sewn together using an old table-cloth as the foundation!  Whatever they had around would work!

Embellishments:  same thing as the fabrics, whatever embellishments you had would work.  They used buttons, small pieces of lace, ribbons and of course beautiful embroidery thread in different colors.  Pretty much anything worked, and the end results are very pretty!

Old Traditions:  there are a few old traditions that were applied to these hand-made crazy quilts.  There was usually saying on the front of the quilt or a name and date of the quilter.  More often than not, there would be a fancy initial somewhere on the quilt – either for the person receiving the quilt or the person who made the quilt.  There were special stitches that were used, and certain ways that the squares were divided.

I did quite a bit of research and looked at some stunning, beautiful quilts made with lavish and intricate embellishments.    I decided that it would be really fun to do these quilts on the embroidery machine.  Of course people have been doing this for years, and the results are awesome.  I thought it would be a great YouTube series to learn how to crazy quilt.  Here is the first video – basically an introduction and how to set up your blocks.  There are 3 parts to this block, so make sure you watch all of the videos.