Quilt, Maker unknown
Possibly made in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
1880-1900
80” x 79”
International Quilt Study Center, Ardis and Robert James Collection
1997.007.0764

The explosive, kaleidoscopic look of the crazy quilt was made possible by industrialization and technological advances. Late 19th century textile manufacturers offered an astonishing assortment of sophisticated fabrics with a wide range of color and technical effects. The public loved these, and crazy quilt makers often worked hundreds of different fabrics into a single textile. The most sought-after pieces were silks and velvets, which implied luxury but were produced at this time at relatively low cost in American factories.  The visual impact of the quilts was heightened by the way the fabrics reflected and played with light, resulting in an always-changing surface. Cloth textures were also dizzyingly complex. Many of the novelty fabrics were three dimensional; plushes and velvets, especially, might have different pile heights, cut-away areas, or additional layers of pattern. There were also dimensional corduroys, damasks, and boucles; textured ribbons; fabrics with variegated, iridescent, shaded (“ombre”) and “watercolor” effects; and “fool-the-eye” designs.  The exuberant stitches that typically covered the fabric joins were themselves worked in a range of colors and variegated yarns.

The new abundance of manufactured goods in the late 19th century –the sheer amount of available “stuff”—was also reflected in a new preoccupation with collecting. Crazy quilts functioned as textile scrapbooks, collections of appealing materials and of color, pattern, texture, imagery, stitches, and ornament. Some quilts were like autograph albums, featuring scraps with initials or signatures, either of friends and family, or of celebrities. Others were made from fabrics that had been part of someone’s clothing, and functioned as souvenir albums of their lives.

Advances in printing and photo transfer technology resulted in fabric patches with a surprising array of words and images.  Victorians delighted in printing silk “badges” for events ranging from lodge meetings and political campaigns to private parties and wedding dinners, and printed ribbons also served as festive seasonal greetings. These small fabrics were subsequently collected, both as souvenirs of the events they came from and as further examples of novel fabrics. Many crazy quilts incorporated and pointedly highlighted these badges, to the extent that when we look at the quilts, we can piece together stories of the lives of the makers and their families.