Victorian Crazy Patchwork

I have to make a sample for my City and Guilds portfolio and I wasn’t very thrilled about it. With dark colours, black velvet, over-ornate stitching and every embroidery stitch invented it’s not my cup of tea at all.

However after a little research it seems it falls into two categories. It was a way of using up every scrap of cotton or wool by poorer people to make a quilt but women from richer classes, who had no need to work, it was another way to keep themselves occupied. With the wealth to buy rich fabrics such as silk, tulle, satin and velvet and trimmings it seems it all got a bit out of hand until the resulting patchwork was so encrusted with frills and furbelows, embroidery and beads, it was no longer a practical bedcovering and must have weighed rather a lot. It could be used to better effect for tea cosies, cushion covers or waistcoats.

As you can see I completely ignored the usual dark colours and used bright cottons. I have used feather, chevron, cretan, herringbone, and blanket stitch so far.

 

I’ve added one piece of lace and will add some ribbon too but maybe not buttons and beads!

The feather stitch is rather wonky as I managed to break my left thumb nail off including down on the nailbed. I didn’t realise how much my thumbnail is used to position and hold threads in place – it’s very difficult with a plaster and no nail!

Still a few more seams to cover and another sample is finished.

I am joining eveyone at Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. Why not have a look at all the beautiful work which you can find here