Who's This? A blind painter.
The facts: Crazy Quilt was created by Jack Kirby for Boy Commandos #15 (March 1946) and #18 later that year. In 1963, a new Crazy Quilt by the name of Paul Dekker shows up in Blackhawk #180, but aside from the name being erroneously attributed to him (in Widening Gyre, for example), the returning Crazy Quilt (or his Earth-1 doppelganger, if you consider the original CQ Earth-2) is not the same character. Somehow, Quilt has migrated to Batman's rogues gallery and makes that return in 1979's Batman #316, appearing in a couple of storylines across half a dozen issues in the late Bronze Age. (I would have expected early Silver Age.) He was then relegated to Arkham Asylum or Belle Reve crowd scenes for a long time. Only more recently has he shown up in Batman and Harley Quinn comics again (2018-19) as for a while there, a female Crazy Quilt had taken the name.
How you could have heard of him: Surely, most people would have noted him on the Brave and the Bold cartoon show, where his inherent silliness allowed him to shine. He was voiced by Jeoffrey Tambor in several episodes. DC Super Hero Girls also uses him, as a teacher at Super Hero High. He's even in the Lego Batman Movie.
Example story: Detective Comics #535 (February 1984) "One Hole in a Quilt of Madness" by Doug Moench, Gene Colan and Bob Smith
For all his inherent silliness, Crazy Quilt was revived as a Batman villain in the late 70s, and in '84, was being drawn by Gene Colan. WHAT?! I hade to check it out. To be a Batman villain, you need a certain pathology. In this case, it's easy to figure out that being defeated by the Boy Commandos (in some reality) and then Robin might lead him to hate kid heroes especially. In the previous chapter, he severely beat up the NEW Robin, Jason Todd, thinking he was the original.
This was Jason's first mission and it didn't end well. But once he feels better, instead of resting up, he dons his costume, knocks Batman out and heads for the docks, looking for Crazy Quilt (oh, Jason, you were a trouble maker from the start). And he finds him in his hideout on Pier 17.
This version of the helmet gives him eyesight, apparently through psychic means, because its shining lights rip through your psyche. And given that Robin has to go through a bunch of grubby-looking henchmen to get to him, he doesn't stand much of a chance. But though he wanted his shot at Quilt, he nevertheless left Batman a note a to where he was going, so he did arrange for back-up.
It's not all psychic beams, Batman! Lasers too! But Robin disappears in the melee and Quilt goes looking for him while Batman takes care of the hypnotized thugs. Robin, however, is tracking HIM. Jason finds the helmet before the man... why would he take it off?
Periscope vision? That's probably not the best trick when Batman is just around the corner. And in fact, he intervenes, preventing Quilt from bashing Jason's head in, forcing him to punch wildly until he can get his hat back on.
Ok, ok, here come the painting puns. You know, I'm sure puns related to your shtick is one of the things Arkham looks at when evaluating if you're criminally insane or not. His attention turned to hypnotizing Batman into killing Robin, it leaves the Boy Wonder free to act. He uses a simple hand-held fan to reflect the colored lights back at Quilt (scientific accuracy pending), putting him in a suggestible state.
Jason makes him destroy his helmet then go to sleep. Jason explains that he was himself in a trance when he attacked Batman, but Quilt didn't have time to make him forget he was hypnotized or tell him what to do OTHER than attack the Bat. So Jason's first mission WAS a success after all.
Though absorbed in the dank universe of Gotham City, Crazy Quilt didn't go on to become a major threat. It's no surprise, though I would have loved to see him retooled as Red Hood's archnemesis at some point. Or even Nightwing's, since his beef was with him. Or even the modern-day Robins.
Who's Next? World War II's Munsters.
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