My grandmother taught me how to tat when she was 94 years old. I had tried once, but couldn't get the hang of it. And then I decided that if I didn't learn to tat, it would die with her. So I would sit down with her and have her teach me. Except she kind of forgot the flip trick with the thread. I finally figured it out after looking at charts and tutorials on the Internet. I'm glad I learned.
Here's a nice article on crazy quilts:
http://www.caron-net.com/featurefiles/featmay.html
When I was a kid, already bit with images of reenacting, although I didn't know it yet, I read a story about a pioneer girl who had a crazy quilt, and how they had to use her quilt to protect something during the fire, and afterwards, how they patched the burn spot over. The image, if not much about the story, always stuck with me, and I wanted a crazy quilt for a long time.
Never did make one, but I can appreciate the work that goes into a nicely done one. It was a Victorian pasttime for upperclass ladies to gather enough silks or velvets to make one of these quilts. Because it's done in an applique technique, it took a lot of time to make one, which showed you had a lots of time on your hands and you were able to afford the fabrics involved, so having one was a status symbol.
This site has some interesting pics of victoriana.