19th century Crazy Quilt from the Lewis Collection
The image you see above constitutes a quilt top only, not a finished quilt. The 16 blocks were assembled by an ancestor in the Lewis family, a group that encompasses four generations of needleworkers / and quilters. I have photo edited the edges so that they are straight. If I were going to finish this quilt, which I have no intention of doing, I would trim the edges so that they would be straight. I prefer not to tamper with antique artifacts. I have enough of my own quilts to worry about whether or not they will be completed in my lifetime, let alone all the unfinished needlework I started in good faith but have not found the time to complete.
I like Crazy Quilts. The height of popularity for Victorian Crazy Quilts with fancy fabrics and fibers was from 1880-1900. A few people, late to the trend made some of these beauties after that time. Of course, I have seen a woolen Crazy Quilt carriage cover in Maine, and quite a few all-cotton Crazy Quilts from the 1930s, some of them sans the fancy embroidery that usually accompanies asymmetrical piecing, the two main characteristics of Crazy Quilts.
In the quilt above, I like the balance of color. It seems that the quilter had a good sense of placement for light and dark fabrics, and the repetition of certain fabrics and colors yields some unity to the overall design. I hope that you enjoy seeing this quilt. It has another special feature, a unique silk ribbon that may have come from the lining of a man’s hat.
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications and Virtual Museum … on the Internet since 2002
