Crumb Quilt VS Crazy Quilt, both patchwork techniques are made with scraps of fabric, but which one is better and easier to make?
When you love to make quilts or to sew, sooner or later you will end with a basket full of scraps of fabric, small and big, and as any other quilter these scraps are like the biggest treasure of all!
Quilters around the world know well how much we treasure every scrap of fabric, because it is pretty, because it has a special meaning for you, or because these fabrics are so expensive and hard to get.
When your basket full of scraps of fabrics begins to get to the top or when you even need a second basket to keep all those scraps in one place, it’s time to get an idea of what to do with them.
Luckily as you’re a quilter, you have many resources to make a pretty quilt with those scraps, the Crazy quilt and the Crumb quilt among others, but which one is better and easier to make, so lets take a look to both patchwork techniques so you can decide which one is best for you.
Crumb Quilt VS Crazy Quilt, Which One Is Better?
On the image above, you can take a look to two patchwork blocks made with these two techniques, on the left is the Crazy Quilt, and on the right the Crumb Quilt.
Both are made with scraps of fabric, that we save after finishing any quilt.
So let’s take a look to each one of them in detail to learn more about each one, so you can decide which one is best for you.
How To Make The Crazy Quilt
If I think about sewers in the old times, saving every single scrap of fabric, because fabric was expensive and many times sewers didn’t have enough money to buy their own fabrics, but they were hired to sew for other people, but they save all the scraps from every project they made.
One sewer might be the first one to start stitching one scrap to another scrap to make a project for herself or for her family, this is why in old quilts you can see they were made with different types of fabric: cotton, taffeta, velvet, and any other fabric they had at hand.
In the old times, sewers used to add some embroidery on their projects, this might have been the reason why the Crazy Quilt was always quilted with embroidery stitching, most of the times very elaborate.
Crazy quilts were also made with all type of notions the quilter had in their notion’s basket: ribbons, beads, lace and even some precious stones, it’s not hard to find one with one earing piece or a button made with a pearl or other semiprecious or precious stones.
Another good idea when making a Crazy quilt is to add some scraps from your children and grandchildren s clothing when they were young, it will add a special meaning to your quilt.
Pros Of Making A Crazy Quilt
- There is no pattern to follow, it’s a free stitching patchwork technique, you need to decide what size your block will be and you will cover it with all the scraps of fabric you have in your hands.
- There’s no rule about how small or how big the scrap of fabric should be, you can even use patchwork blocks already made as a part of a block made for a crazy quilt and even use a half block that was left from a quilt.
- Everything goes, fabric, lace, beans, jewelry.
- The quilting is made with embroidery stitches.
- The quilting is made with embroidery threads.
Cons Of Making A Crazy Quilt
- Because of the quilting is made with embroidery, it can take some time to finish it, weeks, months and even years.
How To Make A Crumb Quilt
Two things that you will find on any Crumb Quilt is that they are made with cotton fabrics and they are made with small scraps of fabric.
No big pieces of fabric on these quilts and no patchwork blocks that were left after you finish your last quilt.
Another thing you will notice on these quilts is they are quilted with regular quilting stitches, not any embroidery stitches.
Pros Of Making a Crumb Quilt
- You can use any scrap of fabric, even the smaller scraps will go on this quilt
- It’s a good way to use any piece of fabric, no waste of fabric at all
- No pattern, every block will be unique and pretty.
- No rules, easy to make for any level quilter.
- You can make a pretty Crumb Quilt in no time
- It can be quilted by hand or with your sewing machine
Cons Of Making a Crumb Quilt
- I couldn’t find any reason why not to make a Crumb Quilt.
Closing
The Crazy Quilt and The Crumb Quilt are both pretty patchwork techniques to make a quilt, both are made using scraps of fabric to make them, one is more elaborate and with different types of fabric and the second one is made using cotton fabric and with a regular quilting stitch, but both will make a pretty quilt.
Whether you like more one to the other, both are good to make anything you want to, from making a regular size quilt to make anything you want to make.
On the image above, you can take a look to two patchwork bags I made with these two patchwork techniques and both are pretty.
I hope this article helps you to decide which patchwork technique you will use for your next quilt, and I’m sure it will be pretty!
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You can find more Quilting and Patchwork tutorials here:
- How To Make A Crazy Quilt Clutch – Crazy quilt blocks are perfect to make a cute quilted clutch!
Puedes leer la misma entrada para saber cual es mejor hacer el Crazy Quilt O Crumb Quilt en espanol!
Watch the video here: