Crazy Quilt -- Cotton African Wax Print

Here's another NYC creation. I drafted the sewing pattern from an Afghani tunic that Bina [correction: Wendy] gave me in 1971. Another garment I never felt all that comfortable wearing. Maybe it was too bold.

Haha. "Too bold." I was being a little disingenuous there.

What I DO find interesting is that I have only one patch on the quilt with both the green/yellow/cream motif and the pin dotted brown background. So even while placing patches on the quilt, there was something about the print that made me uncomfortable. File it under "nice to view, not to wear." I have a few textiles that fall into that category.

I got this fabric (along with the qiana in the previous post) at Jerry Brown's, 54 West 57th Street [closed --thank you Aline and Cindy for researching and finding this emporium from our past!]. Not sure if it is authentic African wax print or a stateside interpretation. Here's a link about wax print, a textile with an interesting provenance.

On to the original tunic -- another garment that I wore to shreds.

my senior photo from my 74 yearbook -- no formal portraits for us 70s gals!

I found my "pattern" for it when I was retrieving the quilt.

if you click on these images, you can see/print them bigger

Discoveries like this justify my pack rat tendencies, imho. That and living in a house big enough to hold lots of stuff.

Thus concludes my pages of the Crazy Quilt Dossier, 70's Edition. I'll post a video tomorrow of the entire book along with information about the Art House Sketchbook 2013 tour, which starts in Brooklyn this Friday, 3/1/13, 6-10pm.

I'm a little sad these posts are over, but never fear -- next up is my 79-82 Maps of Providence sketchbook. Maybe SpyGirl with weasel her way into that book too! It's due 5/15. I WILL start working on it SOON. I've had it with my last minute nonsense.

Crazy Quilt SpyGirl July Tour Dates: Orlando, Chattanooga, Louisville, Chicago, Portland OR, San Francisco, Santa Barbara

The SpyGirl Crazy Quilt Dossier, 70s Edition is still making its way around the country.
Where is it now?

For my new visitors, here are all the sketchbook pages as a video:

Or clicking on "Crazy Quilt Sketchbook" will show you all the posts here on SpyGirl.

Click here to check out the tour as it travels the US and get detailed information.
[July dates and venues are below -- but be sure to check the link above, as plans may have changed]
This sketchbook can be found on the shelves with a call number of 204.14-5 

July 2- 3
Orlando, FL @ The Gallery at Avalon Island
5:00 - 9:00pm

Jul 8
Chattanooga, TN @ The Hunter Museum
11:00 - 5:00pm

Jul 9
Chattanooga, TN @ The Creative Discovery Museum
3:00 - 7:00pm

Jul 10
Louisville, KY @ Mellwood Art Center
2:00 - 8:00pm

Jul 12
Chicago, IL @ Chicago Arts District Second Friday
3:00 - 7:00pm

July 13-14
Chicago, IL @ Hyde Park Art Center
1:00 - 5:00pm

July 19-21
Portland, OR @ Jupiter Hotel
July 19 | 4:00 - 8:00pm
July 20 | 2:00 - 8:00pm
July 21 | 12:00 - 6:00pm

July 26-28
San Francisco, CA @ S.F. Center for the Book
July 26 | 4:00 - 8:00pm
July 27 | 2:00 - 8:00pm
July 28 | 12:00 - 6:00pm

Jul 31
Santa Barbara, CA @ Figueroa Mountain Brewing
5:00 - 9:00pm

August 1
Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Museum of Art
5:00 - 8:00pm

SpyGirl hopes to "see" you on tour!

The Crazy Quilt is Mended!

For this year, anyway.

Compare it to the last time I photographed the entire thing (2011):

My final mend, on 6/13 was an Old Faithful patch:

I was surprised that it was the last item I needed! (Yes, I can see the tweed has holes. Will mend next year!)

For more of the quilt story, here's a page indexing various Crazy Quilt entries

Linking with

Frédérique's Patchwork & Quilts

One Monthly Goal

Crazy Quilt -- Cotton Calico

My high school dress code became fairly lenient after the uniforms were abolished.
This camisole, however, was banned from the dining rooms for "indecency". I bought the fabric in Bennington, VT.

The jeans were also banned. Here again is the photo from Xmas 71:

These jeans became part of the original crazy quilt that I started sewing in 1974.
See the July post to read more about the quilt's history.

Crazy Quilt Dossier: 2024 Repairs

 

The quilt in 2020

It's quilt mending season, when it's too hot to have the quilt on the bed.
Last summer, it spent the entire summer draped on the living room coffee table, and I don't think I did a lick of stitching.

I will do better this year!

On the table, ready to mend

Random restitching patch joins are not worth documenting, but when it gets to new patches and/or visible mending (embroidery), I'm going to go into before/afters and my textile memories.

Older posts about the quilt can be found via this link

Crazy Quilt SpyGirl August Tour Dates: Santa Barbara, LA, KC, St Louis, Baltimore, Richmond, Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis

The SpyGirl Crazy Quilt Dossier, 70s Edition is still making its way around the country.
Where is it now?
Click here to check out the tour as it travels the US and get detailed information.
[August 2013 dates and venues are below -- but be sure to check the link above, as plans may have changed]
This sketchbook can be found on the shelves with a call number of 204.14-5 


Super excited to "be" in Santa Barbara, since there is a UCSB outfit in the book!

read the UCSB entry here

Jul 31
Santa Barbara, CA @ Figueroa Mountain Brewing
5:00 - 9:00pm

August 1
Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Museum of Art
5:00 - 8:00pm

August 2- 4
LA, CA @ iam8bit
August 2 | 11:00 - 7:00pm
August 3 | 4:00 - 10:00pm
August 4 | 12:00 - 6:00pm

August 14-15
Kansas City, MO @ The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
August 14-15 | 12:00 - 4:00pm

Aug 16
Kansas City, MO @ Hammer Press
August 16 | 4:00 - 10:00pm

Aug 17
St. Louis, MO @ Arts St. Louis
August 17 |

Aug 22
Baltimore, MD @ American Visionary Art Museum
August 22 | 2:00 - 8:00pm

Aug 23
Richmond, VA @ Virginia Commonwealth University
August 23 | 2:00 - 8:00pm

Aug 26
Knoxville, TN @ Knoxville Musuem of Art
August 26 | 10:00 - 4:00pm

Aug 27
Nashville, TN @ Watkins College of Art and Design
August 27 | 12:00 - 6:00pm

Aug 29
Memphis, TN @ Crosstown Arts/The Dixon
August 29 |

Aug 30
St Louis, MO @ City Museum
August 30 | 12:00 - 10:00pm

SpyGirl hopes to "see" you on tour!

Crazy Quilt SpyGirl September Tour Dates: Indianapolis, Alexandria, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Rapid City, Wichita

CREATED/ LINKS/ 

My Crazy Quilt sketchbook continues its journey around the country.
Ruth and I caught the Mobile Library when it stopped in LA earlier this month.

Find my sketchbook filed under Anne M Bray.

Here are the scheduled locations and dates for September.
Check the tour page for up to date information!

September 3- 4
Indianapolis, IN @ Indianapolis Art Center
September 3- 4 | 2:00 - 8:00pm

September 7- 8
Alexandria, VA @ Torpedo Factory Art Center
September 7- 8 | 12:00 - 6:00pm

September 18
Milwaukee, WI @ Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
September 18 | 2:00 - 8:00pm

September 20
Minneapolis, MN @ Light Grey
September 20 | 2:00 - 8:00pm

September 23
Rapid City, SD @ Dahl Art Center/Rapid City Public Library
September 23 | 2:00 - 8:00pm

September 26-27
Wichita, KS @ Ulrich Museum
September 26 | 12:00 - 6:00pm
September 27 | 6:00 - 9:30pm

September 29
Santa Fe, NM @ Santa Fe Art Institue/SFUAD
September 29 |

The Crazy Quilt Dossier: 70's Edition in Brooklyn 3/1-3/2013

Here are all the sketchbook pages as a video:

Or clicking on "Crazy Quilt Sketchbook" will show you all the posts.

The Sketchbook Tour 2013 starts TODAY! First stop: Brooklyn

Click here to check out the tour as it travels to Brooklyn, Austin, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Portland, SF and LA.

SpyGirl hopes to "see" you on tour!
This sketchbook can be found on the shelves with a call number of 204.14-5 

Crazy Quilt Sketchbook Project

Do you remember me talking about my old crazy quilt back in July?
Here it is again:

I'm using it as the inspiration for my next Arthouse Sketchbook Project.
It will be a trip back to the 70s, SpyGirl style.

The Sketchbook has to be sent to Brooklyn by 1/15. I spent all day yesterday furiously working on it (oh the Sharpie fumes!). I'll post the pages slowly, however. Come back every Wednesday Tuesday and Thursday through February to see how it looks.

How I Became a Pattern Mixer

Pattern mixing is one of the big trends this year. Some of my blogging cohorts have written great "How To" posts on the subject (see links at end). I love to pattern mix (have you noticed?) and I got to thinking: what is MY method?

Um, sorry, I still can't verbalize it. [This is why I teach technical classes and not design or fine art].
Throwing like colored garments into heaps sometimes helps: 

Too bad these are all tops. They'd make a great mix.

What I HAVE figured out is how I acquired my skills -- I was the "go to" girl for jean patching in high school!
It was the early 70s. One patched one's jeans -- more patches = more cool. I inherited a pair from Allison, pre-patched (some by me). They required constant repairing.

Xmas, 1971

I went to a girls' boarding school and even though we were allowed to dress casually, there WERE some arbitrary dress code standards. Eventually, the above jeans were banned from the dining room (along with a camisole that I made -- more on that later). Since they were already loaded with so many patches, I figured they were a great start for a crazy quilt. I was crafty that way.

The quilt today -- every patch holds a memory.

The quilt itself has been through many permutations. I no longer have the original section with the jeans, that part went missing in Santa Barbara while I was working on an extension to it in upstate NY the summer of 75. It was in constant usage until about 2000, when I finally tired of repairing it. Oops, I've taken a detour down memory lane! Anyway, it was while working on this quilt that I developed my eye for pattern mixing. I still recall the joy I felt when I'd find "the right" scrap for an area that needed a new patch.

I imagine that starting a project such as this is WAY overwhelming. You just want to mix stripes and florals and not look like a clown, right? Click on one of the links below. These ladies explain it better than I ever will!

The Citizen Rosebud -- Pattern Play: 6 Simple Tips for Wearing Mixed Prints

Already Pretty -- Print Mixing for Beginners

Unusual Forum -- Pattern Mixing 101 (found through Already Pretty)

Suze Geeks Out -- How to: 8 simple rules for mixing patterns (found through Citizen Rosebud)

Is there another link that has helped you in your pattern mixing journey? Do tell in the comments!

Make It Yourself March, Week 2: Sustainable Treasure!

Wendy has me doing some deep thinking with her MIY March this year!
I'm loving the slow approach of weekly prompts and creating thoughtful posts.

This week's subjects are Sharing and Caring:
• Sustainable sewing tips
• Material sourcing
• Our most treasured textiles

I'm going to start with my number one textile treasure: The Crazy Quilt!

photo from 2013
click to embiggen

This is my major mending WIP and I'm featuring it in the daily prompts for #MendMarch2020 (see last week's post. The IG hashtag is #crazyquilt_amb). This was "on hiatus" in storage for a few years, I brought it back into use last year, inspired by the mending workshop I took with Ruth Katzenstein Souza. It is both "in progress" and on my bed, so the shredded, holey parts are getting progressively worse.

Moth holes, shredded parts revealing the base sleeping bag, these patches dating from 1973-1987

It's not easy to work on while in active use (potential stabbing from forgotten pins or lost needles) and last summer I got lazy when it was off the bed and more workable and I did no mending.

It's full of nostalgic scraps -- I started it my Junior or Senior year of high school in 1973-74.
I've also made half of it twice! [Here's THAT story]
I think the oldest scrap is from the fabric that covered the couch in our living room and I'm thinking the couch was reupholstered with it when we moved to Millbrook, NY in 1968.

The newest addition has been cut but not yet sewn.
I think I'll use some visible mending, the former sock is super bulky.

View this post on Instagram

#mendmarch 3/8 FUNDAMENTAL Measure twice, cut once. #mendmarch2020 #crazyquilt #crazyquilt_amb #patchwork

A post shared by anne m bray (@annembray) on Mar 8, 2020 at 12:47pm PDT

I made a memory sketchbook about the quilt in 2013 (here's the video compilation).

Last year, I started a new digital version, which I quickly abandoned.

I digitally collaged this using the Notebook app on my iPad.
Wasn't sure about the results and it was a lot of work.

I'm feeling the urge to resuscitate the project here on SpyGirl.
Tests done quickly this morning in Photoshop:

Quilt Dossier concept -- memories of each patch

Patchwork quilts have been a way to use scraps for centuries! Historical sustainability!
And there are "sew" many ways to approach the craft.

Linking up with
Catherine's #sharealllinkup
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness

Crazy Quilt Dossier: 6.26 Friend Patch Visible Mends

Laurey created this patch for the Mend and Make Friends 2023 patch exchange.
We were patch pairs.
I decided to add it to the quilt, and I don't remember what I covered up.

This is the patch in March 2023 before it went on the quilt

Installed

Fast forward 15 months, it now looks like this

worse for wear, as they say

First I worked on the sad orange circle, lower right

French Knots! Blanket Stitching!

Then I decided to do preventative mending on all the other raw edges

It's a Bonanza of Blanket Stitching!

We'll see how this lasts.

Crazy Quilt Dossier: 2024 Repairs Are DONE!

 

Here it is, all mended for this year.

My "in process" posts fell by the wayside. Too much life happening.

I was more diligent on Instagram, you can click here to see just those posts (probably not in chronological order because IG has ruined hashtags).

Anyhow, I will eventually get to them, and will back date the posts to the proper days (just as I am with this post - haha).

Here are quilt iterations from years past:

2020

2012

Another plan I have is to create a proper index of all the quilt posts.
I'll save that for a day when I want to procrastinate on something.
I find writing blog posts is a great procrastination technique!

Linking up with:
Is This Mutton's WOW on Wednesday

One Monthly Goal Challenge - June

I had fun spending May with the #mendmay Instagram Challenge. I focused my mending on the Crazy Quilt, my endless work in progress. I will continue to work on it, and to fill my scrap diary, a record I'm keeping of the new patches teamed with the patches I'm covering up. 

Will I finish it in June? Doubtful, if the Quilt King has anything to say about it.

Linking up with

One Monthly Goal
Creative Compulsions
Shelbee's Spread the Kindness

Wednesday is #Mendsday

I've started a Crazy Quilt Dossier in Noteshelf (visual organizing app).
I'm dividing the quilt into sections and will reminisce about each patch.
We'll see how far I get!

Here is page 1:

Below is the mending. I have no special memories for this dot fabric.
It's a random strikeoff from work, I didn't "design" this dot.

Lots of pins. Must not leave any laying around

Here is page 2:

Here's the Sketchbook Project page

Crazy Quilt -- Nylon Blend Plaid

I enjoyed sewing dresses even if I had nowhere to wear them.
This one got to shine at my my wedding rehearsal dinner in 79.

I bought the yardage from my Aunt Ricky. In the 70s, she had a home business selling Leiter's Fabrics. Based out of Kansas City, it was kind of like Avon, but for home sewers with a taste for couture fabrics. They had all kinds of fabric -- from basic knit jersey to fancy brocades. I guess they worked out some kind of deal with fabric wholesalers -- one of the fabrics I still haven't cut into is from Fischer and Gentile - not your everyday stock from the local fabric store. (And there was NO local fabric store in Barneveld, NY and the one in Utica is unmemorable).
She got long boxes full of swatch cards organized by fabrication every season and was constantly pulling the cards of yardage that had sold out. I diverted many of them and lots of those swatches went onto the quilt.

I have a worse-for-wear paperback book, Secrets of Creative Tailoring and Finishing, by Leadell Hall with illustrations by Michaele Vollbracht that was published by Leiter's in 1971.
It's still available on Amazon! The internet is a wonderful thing!
Here are some scans from it:

Aren't the illustrations great?
I love the paper bag on the head!
(I kept these 3 last images higher rez, if you want to click on them and read the text)

Back cover
Look how hep (and young) Michaele looks!

Wow, I forgot how good this book is! Helpful, even. Must re-read!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! The timing of this post was totally accidental -- didn't even realize the date until a few days ago. GAH! Featuring a photo from a marriage that didn't last on VD... Oh well, I'll go lounge on the fainting couch and wear my paper bag chapeau and call it a day. Sev's off on the east coast playing gigs. Where are the bon bons?

Crazy Quilt SpyGirl Hits the Road June Gigs in Brooklyn, Toronto, Providence, Portland ME, Montreal, Atlanta

CREATED/ LINKS/

The quilt in my van, June 1994. Car camping in Strafford, Missouri.

"Check out" my sketchbook at these venues in June!

This sketchbook can be found with call# 204.14-5 
or under my name: Anne M Bray

Jun 1
Brooklyn, NY @ 3rd Ward
3rd Ward 7th Birthday Celebration

June 7- 9
Toronto, ON @ The Distillery Historic District
9 Trinity Street, Suite 200
Toronto, ON M5A 3C4
June 7 | 4:00 - 8:00pm
June 8 | 2:00 - 8:00pm
June 9 | 12:00 - 6:00pm

June 13 
Providence, RI @AS220
115 Empire Street
Providence, RI 02903
June 13 | 4:00 - 8:00pm

Jun 14
Portland, ME @ Space Gallery
538 Congress Street
Portland, ME 04101
June 14 | 4:00 - 8:00pm

Jun 16
Montreal, QC @ Darling Foundry
745 Rue Ottawa
Montreal, QC H3C 1R8
June 16 | 12:00 - 6:00pm

June 26-27
Atlanta, GA @ The Goat Farm Art Center
1200 Foster Street
Atlanta, GA 30318
June 26-27 | 5:00 - 9:00pm

hours are subject to change -- check with the venue before embarking