Crazy for Crazy Quilts

I'm in the midst of preparing for a crazy quilting workshop that I am teaching this weekend.  I think there is some connection between the late 1800s crazy quilting and what we art quilters now call fabric collage.  I'm just not sure of the intermediary steps, if there are any. 

I only have one example of antique crazy quilting, this lone unfinished block:

I have had it for some time, and I do not recall where I bought it.  Someday, I will put a back and border on it.  I should do that sooner rather then later, to protect it.  Just as with the 1930s unfinished quilt top I found recently, I wish it could talk.  There are stories in the stitches that I will never know.  The story inherent in a piece of art is something that I have been pondering this year.  Perhaps I am worrying too much about it.  I just need to go make more stuff!

If you cannot get enough crazy quilting, there is another new book out on the subject: The Visual Guide to Crazy Quilting Design by Sharon Boggon (C&T Publishing, 2017).  As the title implies, it is heavy on design and composition principles, but this is a good thing.  If we want to have textile art taken more seriously, we need to approach the creation of it with the eye of serious fine artists.