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Crazy Cushions
Ref: 1999-2
A pair of cushions with covers made of crazy patchwork in brightly coloured cottons, silks and satins, some patterned with checks, spots and stripes.
The Victorian era saw a real enthusiasm for crazy patchwork which uses irregular pieces of usually rich fabrics such as silks and velvets to produce sumptuous pieces for use in the home. The scraps, of any shape and size, were sewn on to a foundation fabric before being elaborately stitched and sometimes embellished with beads and sequins. Crazy patchwork broke all the rules of more traditional patchwork quilts which relied for their impact on their repetition and symmetry. The makers were not afraid to experiment with clashing colours or to cover the fabric in detailed designs or symbols.
Each patch on these cushions features fly stitch embroidery over the seams in various colours of thread. The cushions are filled with feathers, and the reverse fabric is a pink moiré taffeta, featuring a wavy or watermark effect. This is produced by ribbed rollers used at high temperature and pressure during the fabric finishing process.
Crazy Pyjama Bag
Ref: 1999-3
This pyjama bag is 370 x 285mm, and made of silks applied in the crazy patchwork style with fly stitch covering the seams in sage green and pale blue. A striped cord in red, brown, yellow and black has been fitted all around the bag. The flap is lined with striped cotton satin, and the body of the case is lined with flannelette sheet. The bag, probably made in the Victorian era when such crazy patchwork was all the rage, is in excellent condition, except for some of the silks which have degraded.
1970s Crazy Patchwork Quilt
Ref: 2006-1
This is a crazy patchwork quilt made by Ellen Hamer from Glynbrochan near Llanidloes of mainly seventies fabrics.
The crazy patches have been applied to an old quilt. Brightly coloured fabrics popular in the 1970s feature predominantly, including crimpolene, cotton, needlecord, and furnishing fabrics. Many are, however, dress fabrics. There are florals, solids, and abstract patterns.
The crazy patchwork features four red crosses and a blue cross in the centre with four red triangles. There are four purple squares near the corners. The patches are applied with featherstitch in various colours, using a stranded cotton embroidery thread. The quilt has been bound with scraps of a furnishing fabric, and embroidered on both sides with featherstitch.
On the reverse quilting stitches from the original quilt are visible, showing flying geese in a border, triangles, squares, and a small central medallion with borders around.
I.O.D.E Quilt
Ref: 2014-3
The key to the history of this quilt is a small label in one of the front corners with the initials IODE and Canada written beneath. The Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire is a Canadian organisation which, like the Red Cross, made and shipped quilts to the UK during the Second World War as part of its charitable activities. There were over 35,000 members across Canada at the time. The colourful quilts, of every possible design, would bring colour, cheer and warmth to the rest centres following air raids.
This crazy patchwork quilt was found in a charity shop in Llanidloes. It is made from bright floral cotton fabrics (typical of “grannies pinnies”), and hand quilted in a clamshell design. The reverse fabric is pieced together from old feedsacks, as was common practice in Canada and the United States during this period.
The twenty crazy blocks feature colourful floral and spotty fabrics machine stitched onto a foundation fabric. Some of the blocks have been repaired at a later date which shows that the quilt was well-used by the wartime recipients.
The IODE is still active in Canada today: “With more than 3,500 members across Canada in 200 chapters, the IODE tradition of serving children, youth, and those in need continues”.
Crazy Patchwork Top
Ref: 2002-27-A
Made in about 1903, this is a crazy patchwork top made from a variety of fabrics including velvets, paisley cottons and silks. It is one of a pair of quilts made by the same person and donated in 2002. The quilt is very striking with a great deal of texture and bright colours. The patchwork has been feather stitched onto a reverse of striped blue and white dress fabrics and white plain weave cotton and is unfinished with tacking stitches around the edge. 1270 x 1080mm.
Crazy Patchwork Top
Ref: 2002-27-B
Made in about 1903, this is a crazy patchwork top made from a variety of fabrics including velvets, paisley cottons and silks. It is one of a pair of quilts made by the same person and donated in 2002. This quilt is made of darker fabrics than its companion and is made from printed and plain cotton, woollen and crepe fabrics including a red tartan.
The top pieces are joined together by double feather stitching with mercerised cotton thread in red, pink and yellow. On the reverse side, half is a cotton twill weave fabric and the other half is made up of strips of furnishing fabrics. 1520 x 1470mm.
Crazy Patchwork Quilt with Border
Ref: 2003-12
This quilt was being used as a dust sheet in Llanidloes High School when a pupil rescued it and the school donated it to us. Because of its history, the quilt is rather grubby and paint stained. The top is a crazy patchwork of printed and plain cottons and seersucker. It has been machine pieced and the crazy patchwork section is surrounded by two simple, rectangular borders. The wadding is a woollen blanket and the reverse is a piece of pink floral cotton sateen which has large stains on. 1325 x 1715mm.
Crazy Coverlet
Ref: 2004-4
A hand stitched crazy patchwork coverlet made from velvets, satins silks and silk ombré fabrics which was made c1880. The patches of fabric are joined with feather stitch in yellow thread. The reverse is plain weave white cotton. 560 x 587mm
Canadian Crazy Quilt
Ref: 2016-4
This interesting quilt was purchased on ebay from Canada in 2015 as a present to the donor from her husband. It was made in 1952 on an Indian reservation in Canada when all young girls in the tribe had to make a quilt. This multi-coloured quilt is made from a variety of fabrics – sateen, crepe, wool, artificial silk – some plain, some patterned including tartan. It is a reversible crazy quilt. one side is made of oblongs of crazy patchwork with a narrow strip across one end. The other side is constructed of crazy blocks with a strip down two sides. The pieces are machine stitched together and embroidered around the patches using feather stitch in multi coloured stranded cotton. The sides are hand quilted together in lines, along with the wadding which is an old quilt, in white cotton thread. 1850mm x 1430mm.
Small Crazy Quilt
Ref: 2016-8
This was bought from the Oxfam shop in Brecon and was possibly sent over as part of the war effort as it was probably made in the 1930s. The front is made from suiting fabrics, velvet, knitted jersey, plain jersey, faux animal fabric, flannelette, sateen. Some clothing can be identified, e.g.: waistcoat, darts, top of pocket. Mixture of men’s and ladies’ wear. There is crazy patchwork on the front of tweed/wool fabrics. The patchwork has two pieces sewn together and a border added. Three sides have one border, and the fourth has two borders.
The reverse 2.5 inch squares patchwork and made from cotton florals, stripes, spots and plains probably from seed sacks. Some of them have geometric shapes printed on them.
The three layers are tied together haphazardly in a brown wool which has felted so the quilt has been washed.
On one of the patches is embroidered: Love and Sympathy Mrs C C Green, Plain View, Texas.
There is dark and light blue embroidery on the front – blanket stitch and feather stitch around the crazy patches but not through all three layers. The quilt is bound in cotton gingham. 1225 x1140mm
Crazy Quilt
Ref: 2021-1-A
This is one of two quilts donated to us by a Llanidloes resident who had bought them from Leeds Market in the 1980s. Although it includes some 1930s fabrics it was possibly made in the late 1950s. The fabrics used are various woollens, brushed cotton flannelette, wool flannel, a cotton/wool tweed mix and some machine knitted wool (possibly scraps from an old vest). The quilt is of a crazy patchwork design having various irregular shapes machined onto cotton calico in mauve, various greens, yellows, fawns, brown and white.
There is no wadding between the quilt top and a reverse of cotton calico so the two have been machine stitched together and bound with cotton seersucker in a blue and white stripe with corners of a different cotton print. The quilt is very pretty and shows skilled use of colour. 1600mm x 1760mm.
Blue Edged Chinese Crazy Quilt
Ref: 2021-7-A
This is one of a pair of quilts which were made in China in the 1920s. It is believed they were made as part of a charitable project run by missionaries from the Irish Presbyterian Church – our donor’s grandparents were part of the group – using fabrics sent from the UK. The crazy patches on the top of the quilt are all silks (plain and printed) in a variety of colours, mostly in florals believed to be by Liberty of London, with some stripes and checks. The patches are appliquéd onto a background of loosely woven cotton muslin using a feather stitch in different shades of blue thread. These patches are in the shape of a central rectangle which is surrounded by a flange binding in black and then a wide border in a Wedgwood blue silk, formed by bringing the reverse of the quilt to the front. In between there is a silk wadding.
The reverse is in three pieces of fabric which have been pieced together by hand. The quilt has been hand quilted in a dark blue thread. A lattice design has been used over the patched area, surrounded by a clamshell design over the border, which has mitred corners. There is some evidence of ‘bearding’ on the reverse where the wadding has been pulled through the fabric during the quilting process – often caused when a blunt needle has been used. There is also evidence of darning in places and some faint staining in red and yellow, possibly from colour transfer during washing. We believe this quilt could possibly be a practice piece made before its partner (2012-7-B) as it is smaller and the other quilt has an improved lattice design of quilting. 1335mm x 1580mm.
Blue Edged Chinese Crazy Quilt
Ref: 2021-7-B
This is one of a pair of quilts which were made in China in the 1920s. It is believed they were made as part of a charitable project run by missionaries from the Irish Presbyterian Church – our donor’s grandparents were part of the group – using fabrics sent from the UK. The crazy patches on the top of the quilt are all silks (plain and printed) in a variety of colours, mostly in florals believed to be by Liberty of London, with some stripes and checks. The patches are appliquéd onto a background of loosely woven cotton muslin using a feather stitch in one shade of dark blue thread.
There are some repair patches made from more modern fabrics which have been directly applied over the top of the originals within the feather stitching. This has been very neatly done. These patches are in the shape of a central rectangle which is surrounded by a flange binding in black and then a wide border in a Wedgwood blue silk, formed by bringing the reverse of the quilt to the front. In between there is a silk wadding. The reverse is in four different widths of fabric which have been pieced together by machine. The quilt has been hand quilted in a slightly lighter blue thread.
A lattice design has been used over the patched area, surrounded by a clamshell design over the border, which has mitred corners. This quilt was possibly made after its ‘partner’ quilt (2021-7-A) as this one is larger and has an improved lattice design than the one used on the other. 1260mm x 1650mm.