Crazy Quilting in Your Dreams?
For some time now, I’ve admired crazy quilting from a distance. I even took a class back in October, 2001, in Romulus, Michigan with the legendary Carole Samples (why does this woman not have a website?), during which my grandmother passed away and I also learned I did not get a job I really wanted and had been fully led to expect to get.
Unfortunately, the class organizers had done a very poor job of organizing anything (for instance, there was not enough food for all of the attendees to eat, even when it was served to us instead of buffet style). On top of it all, when I had the “nerve to complain” I was hungry and expected something to eat, especially since we were being hosted at a Hilton, the retreat organizers demanded I leave! Somehow my stomach growling loudly and rather angrily sounding after missing two meals had upset a couple of people in the class sitting nowhere near me who had no idea what was going on, or what was making the noise. I was deemed to be setting a bad example and ruining the retreat for others, and so I was ordered to leave without being allowed to explain “my side,” without being able to make any appeal, without being able to inform them of my grandmother’s death, and without even receiving any portion of my money back! Oh, and I did not get my class kits either. My one big regret is that I did not make my complaints known to Carole Samples, who, as far as I know, would have been appalled at the treatment I received from the organizers. As a result of this experience, I have had a bad taste in my mouth for crazy quilting that has lasted to this day.
However, I’m still very attracted to the idea of crazy quilting. Probably not to a lot of the crazy quilting that has come into fashion quite recently — I don’t see myself using pictures on crazy quilts, for example. I’m also not crazy about things that are Victorian style, so I would be doing things which reflect an entirely different decorating style and color palette. I also think that most of the time I would tend to go for the simpler look — although the style known as “encrusted crazy quilting” (which is a type of crazy quilting just smothered with beads and all sorts of sparkly doodads and whatnots until it seems there isn’t any more space to add another bit of sparkle to a piece) is extremely popular right now, it also is really not my particular style or interest.
It’s all yummy eye candy and terrific inspiration for sure, but what interests ME, as a needleworker, about crazy quilting is having a purpose to use all sorts of lovely fancy embroidery stitches in something other than a band sampler.
However, one of several things which has held me back from giving crazy quilting much of a try on my own — besides not having my class kit and supplies from the class I mentioned above — has been wondering how I’ll ever be able to make such nice, neat stitches as all the crazy quilters seem to do. Well, it turns out that at least some of the best crazy quilters out there, including Carole Samples herself, use a little help to make everything come out looking so nice and neat. Some of us might call it cheating; others of us would call it smart or a trick of the trade.
Personally, I’m just surprised because, still being outside the crazy quilting world myself, the thought that this wasn’t all done completely by hand — and that it’s actually OKAY to use a tool to help you get things just right — hadn’t even occurred to me. 
Suddenly, if I could get my hands on this tool (the shops I’ve found who carry it are currently out of stock, sigh … well, perhaps they know I’m broke!), I feel like maybe I could grasp crazy quilting by myself now.
Sharon Boggon reviewed Carole Samples’ Dream-a-Seam Templates in excellent detail, and from the point of view of how they can be useful to an experienced crazy quilter. The fact that one of the most well known crazy quilters in the stitching universe thinks so highly of the Dream-a-Seam Templates tells me they are a super tool.
But read all the comments on Sharon’s post, too. Carole Samples actually posted a comment on Sharon’s review (in response to a question from another commenter) that one of her intentions in creating the Dream-A-Seam Templates was to help crazy quilters get over a hurdle preventing them from even getting started creating a piece of crazy quilted artwork. That’s pretty much where I fall, so the Dream-A-Seam Templates should be helpful and a lot of fun for me — if I can just get my hands on them in the first place! :D Then the hardest decision left to make will be which seam to use — and from Sharon’s review, that sounds like a decision which could confound me for months, LOL …
By the way, the commenter to whom Carole was responding, Sarah E., felt using Carole’s Dream-A-Seam tool might not be all that historically accurate with what crazy quilters in days long past used to do — and went on from there to make some very insightful remarks regarding crazy quilters today having a bit of a hangup about making things perfect. I think Sarah’s thoughts apply to needleworkers of any kind and are relevant in several types of discussions, so I will likely be referring back to Sarah E.’s comments at some point in the future — as well as trying to locate her. (If anyone can help me locate her, I would really appreciate it!)
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