Quiltmakers often incorporated non-traditional materials into their Crazy quilts. This one has commemorative ribbons scattered across it—their shiny texture and small size are suited to the Crazy quilt format. In the United States, ribbons commemorating annual meetings of the Grand Army of the Republic, a U.S. Civil War Union Army veterans' group, were common additions to Crazy quilts, but this Canadian piece contains over a dozen ribbons from the Catholic Order of Foresters and the Ancient Order of Foresters. These fraternal organizations, based on British mutual aid societies, were popular across North America and still exist today.