The Price of Craziness

If you look on eBay and Etsy, you can find vintage crazy quilts and crazy quilt pieces for sale. The nicest Victorian-era crazy quilts can sell for thousands of dollars, depending on the condition. But are these pieces really worth that much?

For museums and quilt collectors, sometimes they can be. A mint-condition 19th century crazy quilt is a historical treasure, especially if the maker was well-known or particularly skilled. Also, there aren't that many that have survived since the trend started back in 1876. Crazy quilts were showcases for the makers' needlework skills, so the quality of the embroidery is often stunning. Their jewel-like colors and the kaleidoscope effect of the patchwork are really attractive, too. Nothing says quilt like a crazy, either.

That said, before you invest in any vintage crazy quilt, you should know what you're getting. First and foremost, these quilts were never laundered, so you're going to have some odor from even the most carefully preserved. Old quilts smell, and since you shouldn't wash a crazy quilt -- ever -- you're going to have to live with that.

Fragility is another issue. Silks of the 19th century, scraps of which were often used in crazy quilts, deteriorated quickly due to dyes and metal content (the latter was added to silk to make gown skirts stiffer, according to one article I read.) This is also true of the remembrance ribbons often used as well. These patches will "shatter" over time and end up fragmented, as you see here in the crazy quilt I have in my sewing room:

Any Victorian crazy quilt that is genuine will almost inevitably contain these silks. Even if they've been carefully preserved, the patchwork will be brittle, making them virtually unusable except for mounted wall display (and always display them away from any source of sunlight.) Then there are the country crazy quilts that were made with wool patchwork. Old wool holds up better than old silk, but if stored incorrectly moth damage is almost guaranteed. Also, old wool is an odor-sponge, and as it ages takes on an unpleasant odor of its own.

I don't have thousands to spend on the real deal, so I like to buy pieces and blocks. Sometimes, if the price is right, I will save an old beauty like this one:

Basically when investing in any crazy quilt, be sure you know what you're getting into, and whether it's worth it. Fifteen bucks is my current limit for any crazy I buy, for example. If it costs more than that, I'll leave it to the museums and collectors who are crazy enough to pay more.