In one of the rooms of the American newspaper "The Carpet Trade and Review" (late 1880s), dedicated to the carpet industry, the origin of Crazy-Quilt said they were born in an English crazy house as an art therapy ...
But in order.
When in 1876, American needlewomen saw at a central exhibition in Philadelphia the exposition of Japanese ceramics and fabrics, the imagination of needlework America was shocked.
Asymmetric motifs, subtlety finishes, wealth of patterns, grace of silk kimono, decorative seams - all this opened a desire to reproduce in the lanes of the new world, to repeat something similar, stylized under Japanese art. This desire, with all his passion, collapsed to the Favorite American quilt, on which they trained, stitching silk flaps and decorating them with decorative seams peeped in Japanese masters.
It was a wild, spontaneous combination of colors, sizes, shapes and textures. The new quilt could consist of completely different pieces, two the same in one quilt could simply not meet! This in the traditional and strictly "regulated" quilt has not yet happened. Ladies' logs immediately dubbed a new direction in the Quilt "Japanese Patchwork", and then simply "crazy" Crazy Quilt.
It's funny, but in one of the rooms of the American newspaper "The Carpet Trade and Review" (late 1880s) dedicated to the carpet industry, the origin of Crazy-Quilt said they were born in a certain English crazy house as an art therapy.
In fairness, I must say that the technique of Crazy-Quilt was born immediately after the Japanese exposition. The World Expert on Crazy-Quilit Camille Cognac suggests that Crazy Cvitt appeared in the royal palaces, in the jets. Well-made clothing in patchwork equipment was found even in Egyptian tombs. However, it was the Philadelphian exhibition that gave the strongest impetus to the development of Crazy Quilt.
Some ladies' magazines talked about the quilt, sewn from randomly selected flaps, as a complete challenge, others were enthusiastic, but most importantly, they talked about him. This was enough so that Crazy-Quilit appears in each American house, the big, small. After all, even novice seamstresses could make it - the technique of execution of Crazy Cvitt made it available absolutely to everyone.
Many typography and magazines did on the new American passion of the business, the release of the scheme for Crazy Quilt, and in the newspapers it was constantly able to find ads from individuals about the sale of this or that quantity of diverse losks. Even the tobacco industry used the passion for the Americans to benefit!
Tobacco manufacturers were invested in packs with cigars and cigarettes pieces of silk fabrics with images of flowers, flags, animals, people, butterflies, etc. The cunning marketing move was invented not in order to teach women to smoking, and so that women would not jean from this habit of their men, and on the contrary, in every way encouraged them. Silk bribing looked like that.
From the traditional, geometrically correct quilt, Crazy Quilt was different in the most radical way. In the first years of the development of Crazy-Quilt, the tone set him a combination of thin exotic tissues (atlas, silk, tulle) with abundant, sometimes bulky decoration embroidery, buttons, ribbons, lace, beads.
The generosity of the finishing of embroidery and decorative stitches in Crazy Quilt is explained not so much by the Japanese influence (embroidery of Sashiko or the complexity of the patterns of Japanese tissues themselves), how many stereotypes of the time about women's classes.
The traditional duty of a respectable wife was a virtuoso possession of a needle. And the excessive embroidery decoration, which occupied in the early Crazy Quilt, almost the entire surface of the quilt, because of which the fabric found it was difficult to even see, it was essentially a demonstration of the skill of the needlewoman in front of each other.
Creation of Crazy Quilt occupied quite a long time, sometimes several years. These were blankets and wall panels made by most of the most cases and reasons. In the collections of museums, collecting quilt around the world, there are blankets devoted to not only personal events, but also by the events of the country, historical personalities, for example, soldiers of the civil war, presidents, actors, etc.
Most Crazy Quilt is not quilt in their true sense - they were originally created for the sake of heat and comfort, unlike traditional quilt. To the same decorative "series" includes such focus techniques like Yo-Yo Quilt, Quilit "Cathedral Window" and Biscuit Quilit
Because of its impracticality, fragility, many Crazy-Quilt could not find their place in American families at the end of the 19th century. After even a very short period of time, expensive silk, from which Crazy Cvita sewed, began to crumble.
And in this absolutely there was no fault of the needlewoman, as a shame. Silk sellers to sell their goods are more expensive, increased its weight with salt - soaked silk in salt water, and then dried. About the trunk became known after only a few years.
Silk and Atlas were, of course, not the only materials for Crazy-Quilt. At first they were only available to needlewomen, prosperity of whose families was above average. The needlewomen used the pillars of more affordable fabrics, cotton, for example. And, by the way, the easier there were fabrics of Crazy Cvitton, the easier it was their finish - there were no complex decorative seams, embroidery, stripes, etc.
As the industry and economic relations, silk and satin became affected by pocket and ordinary families, which only popularized Crazy Cvita in America. In addition, the appearance of sewing machines facilitated and accelerated the creation of decorative cruise blankets.
Crazy-quilt's passion began to go to no after 1920. And then it was practically conjunction at all. Feminist sentiments who were fascinated by women and the development of the industry did their job - interest in needlework became becoming less. But the time passed, and Crazy-Quilt again paid attention.
His revival began in the late 1980s and is still going. Today, Crazy-Quilit is a full-fledged art with their own laws, principles and trends that need to be said separately. Thanks to the talent and accuracy of some craftsmen, Crazy Cvitt is no longer perceived as the art of deficiency, but becomes the art of luxury and taste, it becomes not only artistic value, but also everyday practicality. Crazy-quilt again returns to the house, and now it already takes his worthy place in them. Perhaps and in your house there is such?
Unfortunately, it did not work out to find high-quality photos showing the quilt, created at the end of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Therefore, in this post, work in the technique of Crazy Quilit, made by modern needlewomen, to give a general idea about this amazing form of patchwork sewing.
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