Some time ago, when I had my wardrobe malfunction, I came across a bag containing two long forgotten projects, neutral strings and chickens, and decided that I would deal with these as soon as I could. The string blocks have been stitched into a quilt and donated, and now it's time to work on those chickens.
Chickens and strings
The chicken panel was given to me quite some time ago by my friend Eileen, and had been hiding in a bag in the wardrobe, until it all came crashing down last year. It is really meant to be a stuffed toy, but I decided I didn't want to do that. Oh, look, she's called Henny Penny, how sweet. How about a cot quilt instead?
Henny Penny and her chickens
So I cut around them, adding some visoflix to the edges, and machine button hole appliqued them onto a white background.
Hello chickens
And made the binding, luckily I had a FQ that toned in with the chickens.
A donated piece of rather wild looking red, blue and yellow low stretch fabric was used for the backing. I have used stretch fabric before on the back of quilts, and never had a problem. How to quilt it? Stitch around each of the birds, then lines of serpentine stitch side to side. Finally, I quilted through the birds feathers.
Machine quilting
The binding was attached, clipped down, then folded up waiting for the final hand stitching. Gemma decided I must have put it there just for her.
So comfy, thanks Mum
After a pleasant couple of hours sitting and stitching on a nasty rainy wet afternoon, it was finally done. The rain showers had stopped, so I raced outside for a quick photo shoot.
Hello, chooky
This will probably be a donation quilt, but I think I'd like to keep and admire it for a while. Now it is Spring it will look nice hanging on the quilt ladder for a while, it's time to change the quilts with some other lighter seasonal quilts.
The backing is a bit wild, using what I have
With this one finally finished, I'm aiming to work on some Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. There are such a lot of block sets from previous years, all sitting in a crate and calling me. But I'll probably start with one which is pinned up on a chair in the sewing room waiting to be quilted. Wish me luck, I've got so much to choose from.
