Slow Start to the Week

Ours hasn’t been a very well household at all this week.  Robin came down with a dose of “man flu” on Sunday and that clipped his wings for several days.  Then of course, the bug left him behind and hopped over to me.  With a sore throat, coughing, and head aches I was feeling so poorly that I didn’t make it to our monthly quilt guild meeting, much better to be tucked up safe and warm at home, and keep my hacking cough to myself.

Of course, I just had to roll the dice this week on Monday, although I didn’t start sewing for several days.  The dice rolled 1, which is my Chicken Quilt.  For the background I’m using neutral string blocks from Bonnie Hunter’s pattern “Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll” which I made some years ago when the mystery quilt was introduced.  Sadly, that’s as far as I got, and these blocks have been sitting quietly waiting all this time.

String blocks stitched on light Vilene

I’m making a cot sized donation quilt so laid the blocks out four across and six down, then stitched the rows together.

The top assembled

Originally, I had planned on appliqueing a couple of large colourful chickens on this top, (hence the name Chicken Quilt) but I’ve since changed my mind.  The neutral string blocks have a lot more colour than I remembered, so I’ve decided to quilt it and use a colourful binding. I feel that the chicken applique might be too much, and I can use them on a plainer background, sometime in the future.  What do you think – have I made the right decision? 

It’s been put aside today as I was getting a little peaky sitting and stitching away, but will get back to it tomorrow.  We are home this weekend so I should have some spare time to do more on this project, depending how I feel.

I had a bit of “down time” relaxing today in front of the TV, watching “The Great British Sewing Bee”.  This programme is always fun to watch, but I’m sure I couldn’t perform in such a pressure cooker environment.  Slow and steady, that’s me!