Hello! I'm Cathy Highland and I recently became interested in learning to crazy quilt when I saw a beautiful crazy quilted throw in a magazine and desired to create one for using in my paper arts studio. I quickly googled "Crazy Quilting", read everything I possibly could on "how to do it". I bookmarked and visited a lot of contributor's blogs, followed many, many links, purchased "The Magic of Crazy Quilting: A Complete Resource for Embellished Quilting" 2nd Ed. by J. Marsha Michler, and joined the CQ For Newbies Yahoo Group [user name = nchantin} where I quickly discovered I faced another obstacle --- a lack of fabrics, trims, and embellishments. My solution was to host a Squishie Mingle Swap to assist 9 other participants, as well as myself, with a solution to the problem many of us faced. The "mingle" was a huge success as every participant mailed and received a "Squishie"!
My "Squishie" mingle came from Julie Coates. Julie choose a color scheme of blue, green, and pink which worked perfectly with some of the fabrics I currently had on hand, and she enclosed some dyed lace motifs, beads, and silk ribbons. Another participant, Kate, was kind enough to send me a "hostess gift" of the most beautiful silk ribbons for setting up this mingle. Having everything I needed to create a small project, I set out one day to use what I've received by creating a 7"x9" block. I made a few mistakes along the way, like not leaving enough of the muslin backing to bind this piece, as I had originally envisioned, into a lavender filled sachet. Deciding there certainly had to be a use for what I'd created, I never lost hope of being able to use it. As I began binding it with a calico backing using a blanket stitch, I discovered it was the perfect size to use as a sunglass case! The CQ'd pattern overlaps just a bit and provides just enough cushion for protecting for those delicate sunglass lenses
I recently made myself a little crazy quilt cell phone pouch/bag and have come to love it so much that I decided to send some photos in.
The pouch is just large enough to hold my cell phone, ID and credit cards, some cash, a pen, and a lip stick. The strap is also changeable.
Hopefully, it will inspire readers to try a project of their own.
The bag is made from an 8" block, vintage lace, handyed ribbon and fabric, and a gifted silkie.
The spirit dolls were made for a "Spirit of Friendship" between the members of the Crazy Quilting International yahoo group. they are approx 6" in length.
I completed a project using ties and thought it, ahem, tied-in with the new issue. One of the professors I work with gave me a shopping bag full of wide silk ties, likely from the 80s, that had been lurking in the corners of his office for years. I spent the winter deconstructing them and now I’m beginning to work.
My first project was a tiny (business-card-size) cq boxtop desing. My second is a thank-you oak box with a cq lid for the generous professor (or, more likely, his patient wife).
My CQ will be in the August issue of the $100,000 Quilt Challenge Magazine as the winner in the Crazy Patch category. The name of my quilt is Vintage Vignettes. I have attached a picture. I will be glad to send a picture of the entire quilt for you October issue.
