May 282 min read

Is Crumb Patchwork Art?

A new arrival into the world, a baby boy and as I always do, I went straight to my fabric boxes upon hearing, and began to choose fabrics.

I always gift a new baby a patchwork quilt. My standard size is 90 x 120 cm. A size the child can use for a number of years. To cover himself and keep him warm and also to become that much loved, carried around blankie.

My technique of choice for gifted blankets is my crumb quilting technique. It creates a random art style with different colors and patterns which merge into a visually pleasing blend.

I have a message in my gifted quilts. Colors that symbolize something. I thought of ocean and sky, something cool and free and then I saw a patterned cotton shirt at the bottom of the box and it was the perfect completion. Brown and beige and green - earth and land. The last color in the mix was yellow for sun. And his father is a soccer fan of a team that wears yellow :)

selection of fabric strips in ocean colors with 2 spools of sewing thread on the table

I always lay my chosen fabrics together on the table to get the feel of the piece.

I laid some pieces out in a crumb patchwork design and felt that something was missing.

layout of fabric pieces in a patchwork design on the table

I had initially thought that the blue was too dark. And then reminded myself that my best pieces are the ones where I push boundaries and choose colors that I feel a bit uncomfortable with. That they are too strong or too dark or too much. To place them down and look at the piece. I could always remove them. Those pieces of blue make all the difference. They were the colors that were missing.

layout of patchwork pieces in a crumb design with blue pieces of fabric added

I began to sew the pieces together.

sewing patchwork pieces on the sewing machine

Creating a large selection of fabric elements. I am not worried if I end up having more than I need. I always have a use for crumb patchwork pieces. It saves me time when creating gifts, pouches, bags or pillows to have a supply of crumb patchwork panels in a box ready to be used.