I have had a photo of a crazy quilt from my grandma Rita’s house saved to my camera roll for years (shown below). It was on a bed at the farm in Nebraska where she lived and where I spent my summers as a kid. I’ve been a mega fan of “crazy quilts” forever, I love the messy look of an unconventional design.
What I didn’t know, until we started looking into the history of them while developing this print, is that their origin story is VERY LF coded.
Crazy quilts took off in the late 1800s, during an age of progress and changing ideas about women’s roles. They were unconventional by design: irregular pieces, unexpected fabrics, decorative stitching, no real rules. And, of course, there were people who thought women were wasting their time on all that fancywork and should be doing something more “productive” instead.
When it came time to make our own crazy quilt print, we found Edith Towner’s 1937 Patchwork Quilt and used it as our jumping-off point. The original artwork is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in DC. We put our own version on our best-selling pleated dress and the easiest, breeziest silky pants.
Turns out, there is an art to going crazy.
I love thinking about all the "crazy" ladies who came before us, making things their own way, ignoring the rules, stitching together pieces that weren’t necessarily supposed to go together. Now when I wear these pieces, I’ll think of them. And, of course, my equally crazy grandma Rita and that bed in Nebraska.
Go ahead. Get a little crazy.
xo Rachelle
Your favorite statement sweater!