Crazy Quilt Block of the Month Class

Dean Deerfield © 2007

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My Crazy Quilt Block of the Month class is my favorite class to teach. I enjoy watching my students come alive as they get into the process of making crazy blocks. The students really love the embellishing and are thrilled when they realize they can do it. I embellish so heavily that it intimidates some of the students when they see my quilts. As you know, it looks harder than it is.

Students start showing up with all kinds of original ideas and embellishments they have found at home, or at Hobby Lobby, and they usually have enough to share.

It is fun to hear them share stories about how they stayed up very late working on their blocks because they just couldn't put them down.

After three or four classes, they have begun to gain confidence in their creative ability, and produce very nice work and they feel good about what they have done.

Each student starts with the same fabric, but each block turns out to be very different.

The quilt featured in this article is my 2006 quilt. I work along with my students and use my blocks to demonstrate techniques that can be used to stitch seams and embellish. This allows me to finish a crazy quilt a year that I would not do otherwise.

January	February
March	April
May	June
July	August
September	October
November	December
I saw a crazy quilt done by Sharon B, and it had many buttons on it. She called it “I Dropped the Button Box”. I loved the look and decided to do one with buttons. I am trying to clear out years of “stuff” I have collected and this was a good place to get rid of some of the many buttons I have. I have never used buttons this way before, but I was pleased with the outcome. I won't do it again for two reasons, buttons are not really my thing, and all of my good glass buttons and pearl buttons are on this quilt.
I used lace on the sashing to soften the look. I am going to remove the lace in the corner stone area and embellish that area some way, I am not sure just what I will do, probably something with silk ribbon and of course a few beads.

I love all kinds of quilting techniques, and each method creates beautiful quilts. Crazy Quilts and Art Quilts will always be my favorite because they allow me more freedom and opportunity to be creative.

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