Finally! My Crazy Quilt Pillow is Finished!

I just don’t know where the time goes. It’s been way too long since my last post. But I finally have something I MUST blog about – I FINALLY finished my own crazy quilt pillow! I started one for myself after the one I made for the birthday gift in mid-March. I think I get things done faster when I have a deadline, like a birthday. Of course, I did put mine on hold while I made my lamp shade, my Easter Peeps wreaths, did my Easter baking, etc. But now it’s finally finished! Now I’ll let myself move on to all the other projects that are accumulating. But here is MY pillow…

In case you don’t recognize it, the ruffle and border fabric (along with the back, which you can’t see) is the leftover fabric from my lamp shade. So even though I don’t like the lamp shade much, I do like this fabric in my pillow. I wish I hadn’t made the ruffle so wide. Or I wish I had bought wider lace. I would like the double ruffle better that way. But it is what it is...DONE!

I made four 6-inch square crazy quilt blocks and used a 1-inch border for my 14-inch pillow form. Here are close-up photos of each square.

Upper left…I didn’t use a fan in my gift pillow, but they were a pretty common type of block used in Victorian crazy quilts. I decided to embellish the bottom of my fan with silk ribbon embroidery.
The highlights of my lower left block are the ribbon bow, tacked down using French knots. And the center fabric is a ram. I have a piece of fabric that has various country-looking animals on it. I cut out parts of the fabric for various projects. I used the ram here because I am an Aries.

My upper right block has a variety of beads and embroidery. I like the gathered lace circle (I’ve used some of these on greeting cards with a flatter button in the center) and my flower made of beads.

And finally, the lower right block contains my woven ribbon piece. And my spider web and bead spider. Spider webs were very common on Victorian crazy quilts because they were believed to be symbols of good luck. (Glad I didn’t live back then. I personally don’t care for spiders and don’t see how they can represent good luck!)

I guess I’ll see how well I perform to meet a deadline. Just this morning, I was still wondering what to give my mom for Mother’s Day. I’m seriously considering making her a pillow with photos of my son printed on it. I’ve never printed photos on fabric before, so why not try something totally new with a deadline three days away? We’ll see what I end up with!