Crazy for Quilts Exhibit

This past week, I had the opportunity to see an exhibit sponsored by The Alliance for American Quilts and HandMade in America. The exhibit - Crazy for Quilts featured 85 16" square quilts, each highlighting their version of crazy quilting. From the serious to whimsical, from the modern to traditional, each was interesting and wonderful to see. All these wonderful quilts will be auctioned off on Ebay starting October 26 as a fundraiser for The Alliance for American Quilts. Here is a sampling.
Sheila Rauens, one of my favorite fiber artists did this first piece - "Crazy for Ewes".
Amy Munson did "Crazy for Beads" and the beading is amazing. The borders are beaded along the edge, along with the stitching and the inside edge.

"Crazy for Batiks" by Bridget Marie Wideman had old fashioned rick-rack and a great variety of crazy quilt stitches.

Valerie Sue Bothell did "A Crazy Quilt Colonial Lady. Valerie used lots of silky type fabrics such as moire taffeta, typical of older crazy quilts.

"Victorian Rose" by Ruth Ann Mundy had beautiful hand stitching and touches of doilies.

"Velvet Makes me Crazy" by Meg Cox was great fun to look at and great use of novelty print fabrics.

"Quilt Crazy" by Sonja Lee Barrington was one of my favorites. I love wool and using it in a quilt gives it such a rich look.

"Respite" by Suzanne Byrd is one of the more modern crazy quilts featured in this exhibit. It's quite colorful with beautiful decorative machine stitching.

"Crazy Cow Polarity" by Karthryn Wagar Wright was a great piece. I love the intricate piecing of the cow's head.

Each piece was wonderful in its own way and I'm sure very personal to the maker. There was an interesting essay written in conjunction with this exhibit having to do with Crazy Quilts; the part that grabbed me was about how wonderful it would be to know exactly what quiltmakers of 100 years ago were thinking when making their own crazy quilts. As a quilter, I know how my mind wanders during many of the processes. The things that may be of concern or delight me at the moment or just life in general, either way, it's a time of escape - to be with myself and my own thoughts.

I do have more to show so stay tuned.