Our client has a Kentucky-born crazy quilt top dated 1900, shown above left, and brought it to us for repairs. It was made to be a wedding quilt for her grandmother, Lula Shirrell, and her grandfather, Pleasant Melvin Cook, but it was never finished. One of the bright center quilt squares has “Ples Lula” in crewel work on the burgundy silk, detail above right. PLES stands for Pleasant. They were hill country people from Green County Kentucky and spoke English, and while they had some informal schooling, most in their part of the country had little to no formal education. There are many spelling mistakes on the quilt, which is part of it’s history and charm.
Our clients wish they knew about the other people whose names are on the quilt: Mabel, Bette, Curt & Ana, and her parents (or were they for Ples and Lula’s parents?), but at this time our client doesn’t know the people attached to the names.
MY BRIEF HISTORY OF CRAZY QUILTS
Crazy Quilts are favorites of mine! I have two of my families quilts (see Quilts as a Microcosm of History), and possibly because they do not have a set pattern, I see a different form of creative freedom in them. My family was well off, and so my crazy quilt fabrics are rich in silks and velvets, but this quilt has few silks and velvet, and many more fabrics suitable for working shirts, skirts or pants.
Below left, the entire quilt with the 13 squares we propose to remove.
When I see Crazy Quilts, I am reminded that fabrics were often hard to acquire, especially for working or poorer families. Crazy Quilts were an excellent way to use every bit of scrap fabric, and I imagine many poor women worked long days and then stitched on their quilts alone or with family members at the end of a day as a way to relax. It may have been their only creative outlet in a hard life.
Crazy Quilts could start as a topper, which was not quilted, like our client’s, while some went on to become quilted with warm batting. They were made even more beautiful by the application of embroidery, or in this case, crewel work!
Crewel is distinguished from embroidery by the use of two threads of fine worsted wool
instead of cotton or silk threads, and the word may derive from the Welsh word ‘krua,’ meaning wool. The needle used has a wide body, large eye, and sharp point.
The thirteen squares on entire right (in this image) and bottom may have been added later. I proposed to remove those squares: I believed they were added later, and they also were torn and had NO embroidery. This allowed me to scavenge scrap fabric to use as infill into the smaller 6×6 square topper shown above, with leftovers to be saved or used for a pillow.
When quilts were made from scratch, the embroidery was most often stitched before the squares were sewn together, and each square could be stretched on a hoop. This makes it so much easier to have lovely straight lines and even stitches! I was stitching free-form, without a hoop, which sometimes made my crewel work difficult and sometimes wonky, because I was also straddling a thin silk and heavier wool fabric seam.
It is likely this topper was intended to be made into a quilt, but was never completed, though as you will see below, each square was backed with a single piece of fabric. I believe this was used to allow the various pieces to be stitched onto the fabric for stability.
Note 1: This was a difficult topper to photograph, and many images were taken
with and without flash, under different types of lighting to get a good photograph,
but even so, sometimes a color glares out at you!
Note 2: Many images have descriptions attached to them; run your mouse over the image to view the writing.
ASSESSMENT
OVERALL ISSUES IN THE SQUARES OF THE TOPPER
The following issues were found in many squares, so to avoid repetition these are common issues:
- Damaged fabrics with huge holes, whether moth eaten or torn.
- There were teeny-tiny pieces, which made me think that she was poor, and that ever little bit was valued by her.
- The differences in the weights of the fabrics sometimes made restoration difficult, because of how unruly it was to embroider a seam when one piece was a wool, and the other a silk.
- Also, note the backing fabrics (shown below) of the squares that would become the final topper; many were beautiful, but terribly stained.
This shows the historic backing fabrics of the
four quarters that became the final topper.
- “Squares” were not all the same size, and….
- “Squares” were sometimes not square at all, evident in the corner of the first image below with the large red flower!
- The size and lack of being square made the quilt quite wonky, a highly technical term! It is both charming and caused issues when I began to finish off the topper with an edge trim.
THE FOUR QUARTERS BEFORE TREATMENT
FIRST QUARTER SQUARES
The first quarter’s nine squares below photographed during assessment.
SECOND QUARTER SQUARES
The second quarter’s nine squares below photographed during assessment.
THIRD QUARTER SQUARES
The third quarter’s nine squares below photographed during assessment.
FOURTH QUARTER SQUARES
The fourth quarter’s nine squares below photographed during assessment.
TREATMENT
The pile as each square was dismantled.
I began by removing the thirteen squares sitting to the right and bottom, shown again above left. I further dismantled the two long rows into a pile of squares, image #3 above. She used the tiniest seam allotment I have ever worked with, shown in the second image above!
From there I further dismantled each square into the various quilt pieces, with an eye for the ones that were worth reusing, shown left. Many were too stained, or were threadbare or torn. Along with the historic fabrics, shown bottom in the image left, there were two different and lovely backing fabrics, black and white, shown piled above them in the same image.
We are getting ahead of ourselves, but I wanted to show the
backing fabrics in two squares of the restored topper, above.
The backing fabrics of her squares was so pretty, I decided at the time to find a few nice pieces to put onto the front of the Crazy Quilt, because all of the black and white backing fabrics were now removed. While I planned on returning the various leftover pieces to my client, this was the only place the backing fabrics from those missing thirteen squares along the bottom and side would exist on front squares or be seen in the restored topper.
I would restore on my work area tables, above.
MATERIALS
For the crewel threads I tried several types to find a good match. I never found a perfect match for her yarn, which had a smooth feel to it, but came close in weight and material in Appletons Wool LTD Crewel Embroidery, 100% wool in a 2-ply twist.
HM Nabavian & Sons out of NYC
info@hmnabavian.com / 800-352-7510
If you purchase from their site the prices are better and Daniel, one of the owners, was wonderfully helpful. But know that you can also purchase a smaller put-up and only 1-2 skeins from their Etsy site for a few cents more to sample before you commit.
Hand-stitching is hard on my hands, and longer needles make it easier. I used several types of needles, but found the Embroidery and Tapestry needles from Bohin and John James the best for the embroidery, especially the longer Tapestry needle. Smaller but longer quilters needles from Bohin and Dritz were used.
RESTORATION: ADDING NEW
FABRIC PIECES AND CREWEL WORK
This long blog post would be too long if I showed all the restoration on the squares, though our client was provided with all images. What I offer below are general notes, followed by a sampling of a few squares and detailed notes about what was done during the restoration on those squares, plus the trim.
In terms of the crewel work, if I could I saved a well preserved line of her historic stitching, repairing what I could. I then added to or completed the line by shifting to a different stitch in a compatible color.
However, she knotted her stitches so frequently that when I had to remove her stitches it was time consuming, shown left: I cut the top and lifted using tweezers, then turned the topper over and removed more from the back!
Sometimes I stitched one of her patterns down, above left, or repaired/completed a piece that was missing, above right. In the latter case I tried to match the yarn perfectly, but due to fading of historic yarns it was sometimes difficult.
I used many of her crewel patterns during restoration, but also added my own, especially in terms of several flowers (and their variations) that I often use in my own projects. I used these throughout the Crazy Quilt. Some were couched to cover holes in otherwise viable fabric pieces, some were part of the edging patterns along seams.
Sometimes it was a challenge to understand what she was stitching in the written areas, especially as her English was not always spelled correctly, as in “KIND Reseption”, above. Once I realized what it was I felt foolish for not getting it, but until then it stumped me.
SQUARES: PROCESS
RED FLORAL CORNER
Above, before and after treatment, left and right.
Below, process images and their description. The first image shows the back of the floral square and the deterioration.
I pinned a large piece of historic fabric taken from one of the thirteen squares to cover the tattered damage. It was stitched using Gütermann thread, then gently ironed on low setting. Several holes still are exposed in the gold historic fabric, but there is no way to properly cover them with the large piece applied, shown in the second image below. To cover the largest hole, I embroidered a large flower. The flower was outlined then infilled, image six below.
In the fifth image below, I show placement of the larger hole, and the smaller hole next to it, to give context for the other bits of crewel work placement along this line.
Final image shows the final line of crewel work: vine, large infilled flower, and small buds.
TATTERED GREY WOOL SQUARE
Above, before and after treatment (with trim), left and right.
Below, process images and the description. The first shows a detail of the degradation in the fine grey wool.
A piece of brick-colored historic fabric was cut to the area and pinned over the tattered wool, then stitched into place, images two and three below.
The corner had the same wool, and it too was full of holes, image four below. Note too, that the square edge is not straight, but missing a piece that makes it bend. I pinned a historic dark blue wool piece, but was not satisfied with it.
My priority was to keep the embroidered name on the dark blue between the wool pieces, “BETTIE B HINDS” while straightening out the edge. I found a large finely milled historic taupe grey piece and layered it over the edge, and onto the brick-colored piece, then pinned and basted it into place, images five and six below, sacrificing 3/4-inch of the historic green vine and red flower.
Crewel work began, and you can see an unusual version, in image seven below, of my flower in blue with an infilled green center, which covers/repairs a small hole in the brick fabric.
In the last image, the final pattern has a line of whimsical white flower “pop-ups” running along a line of green. That morphs into a larger flower pop-up with a blue petal, referring back to the large blue flower. To the left of the final image along the squares seam line, you can see some infill stitching to complete her historic blue stitching above, just slightly different.
Looking at the after image top right, you can also see the white herringbone stitch that runs along the taupe grey fabric line, and the purple trim which I’ll talk about later.
A VERY LONG RIP AND SEVERAL HOLES
Above, before and after treatment, left and right; the tattered edge which is
covered by new fabric is in the upper left corner in the before image.
The grey wool again made a tattered appearance, and it was on a sweet square with a bouquet that had the writing, “FOR MY LOVE” along the top of the floral arrangement. Next to this sweet bit of crewel work was a long rip in the gold fabric sewn to a heavy mauve velvet.
As a cautionary tale for anyone making a Crazy Quilt, balancing the weight of fabrics is important. Placing a very heavy velvet next to this lightweight gold fabric allowed the velvet to pull continuously on the gold fabric, and as it wore, it finally tore a 1.5-inch rip next to the velvet, images #1 and #2 below.
My task was to cover the rip, and then mask the torn grey wool.
I basted the hole (not shown — photo was blurred) in gold Gütermann thread, and then reinforced the long rip using yarn.
In images #3-#4, I started with the pink yarn in a herringbone pattern to bind the velvet to the gold. Then I used a variation of my floral pattern and a couched leaf to cover much of the rip, which also reinforced its repair.
I covered two degraded areas by basting two of the scavenged historic fabrics onto the top of the degraded areas, then worked the seams, shown in images #5-#7. In a few areas of the scavenged fabric, I had to cover tiny holes.
A SIMPLER SQUARE GETS A TOUCH OF COLOR
Many of the squares in the second row in from the edge contain enough historic embroidery to be left as is, but not all. Some were muted but pretty fabrics, and needed a little help after the degraded historic crewel work was removed.
Above, before and after treatment, left and right.
Because this square lost most of its embroidery, I wanted to add enough to balance it with the rest of the topper. This was outside of the estimate, and I did this in two squares, gifting this crewel work as it was outside the scope of work.
Below, details of the (mostly) simple additions to brighten the piece.
THE BRILLIANT SILK CENTER FOUR SQUARES
The center of the Crazy Quilt topper is a departure from the entire quilt, and in my opinion, was meant to be a focal point. The silk colors are bright pinks, brilliant burgundys and purples, and deep blues. It appears she saved some of her most precious pieces for the center, as they are not the kinds of materials one would find in work clothes or even most going-to-church clothes during that period. I wondered from what project she might have acquired these scraps!
Above, the center four squares together,
before and after treatment, left and right.
Below, each center square before and after treatment, left and right..
The above square was the only square in the topper which was intact!
Once pinned, I hand-stitched the pieces, shown left and below in images #5-#8, and readied them for crewel.
I decided to cover all the tiny rips with coral flowers and a bit of green in a vine/leaf motif. This is seen in in image #2, below.
I used several historic fabrics in small amounts, shown in images #3, #9, and #10 below. Crewel stitches tied the fabrics together, and bordered the four squares of the central brilliant motif. A sampling of the many stitches used in the three squares and in the square borders is shown below.
I like to think that she would be pleased with this rendition of what she intended.
EDGE TRIM
Applying a trim around the topper was essential to its future longevity, but it was not going to be easy because the squares did not often offer a straight line to which a trim could be applied.
BTW, note one of my favorite patterns that worked the seam between the two squares, a feather stitch for the vine, and chain stitches for the petals culminating in a flowered top, left.
The long sides of the purple trim were hand stitched, which took a bit longer, but we were concerned about running the fragile fabrics through a commercial sewing machine, and in the end, it allowed us to make the small adjustments necessary to ensure a nice edge.
The long trim pieces during attachment, sitting open, shown above left, with the Crazy Quilt topper square adjusted into the proper position, then stitched into place, above right.
Below, a few border details after hand stitching.
CLEANING
After treatment I vacuumed the Crazy Quilt thoroughly through a screen using a hepafilter.
I spot cleaned a few areas before adding new crewel work, but the truth is that I was unable to remove stains (see above), and after spot cleaning was disappointed in the outcome.
I could not advocate for overall wet or dry cleaning, however, as I was concerned any type of cleaning of this nature would result in running dyes or further damage to the incredibly fragile topper. While many damaged and degraded fabrics were replaced, almost all of the remaining fabrics had issues that made them likely to come to ruination if cleaning was performed. Remember, dry cleaning is not dry, but done with a chemical solution.
AFTER TREATMENT
Here are the 36 squares after treatment, from left to right, and top to bottom;
every time you encounter a purple trim piece along the side it is the beginning of a new row. I chose not to display them as rows so you can scroll through all the squares.
Below, the finished topper.
☾
dkatiepowell@aol.com / mitchellrpowell@aol.com
503.970.2509 / 541.531.2383
©MPF Conservation. May be printed for your own use.
Notify us if you repost, and use our url + copyright in reference.
