I have a friend who loves chickens. She once complained to me that "no one ever gives me 'chicken' anything!" So I decided I'd make her a chicken quilt.
It just so happens that Family Threads in San Juan Bautista, where I go for a quilt retreat, features chicken fabric. I stopped in on my way to my retreat and purchased a panel of groovy looking chickens, and a couple pieces of coordinating chicken fabric. This should be easy, and fast, I thought. It all came home with me and was promptly put on the bottom of my to-do list.
Several months later, I saw a picture of a quilt which featured alternating blocks and I thought the setting might work for the chickens. I took the picture plus all the chicken fabric to my retreat the following year, and made the blocks. When I got home it all went back in the bin, and the bottom of my list.
Anyway, the next year (this is now year three) I brought the blocks back to my retreat and sewed them together. I went back to the quilt shop for border fabric. The egg fabric was perfect, esp. considering my friend I was making the quilt for has an egg business. Unfortunately, we miscalculated the amount, so I had to improvise corners from scraps.
You can probably tell I lost my enthusiasm for this quilt pretty much right away. Its just not the kind of thing that makes my heart beat fast, ya know? And relegating it to the back burner probably didn't help. Sometimes those deadlines can be doing you a favor, and I almost wished I'd had one for this. It all went back into the bin when I got home, where it languished for another several months. There was a point when I actually wanted to throw it away and be done with it. Those improvised corners really killed it for me.
I eventually pushed on tho, and finally layered, basted and machine quilted it this last March. I still wasn't finished, tho. I thought it needed at least a little bit of hand quilting around the chickens.
The quilting went pretty quickly, tho it seemed like it took forever. I really wanted to get this done! Finally last weekend I put the binding on. I finished it yesterday morning, washed it, and gave it to my friend last night.
I can't believe this simple little quilt took me four years. However, I am happy it has at last moved on to its new life, and is out of mine.
Hey Sandy! I think that turned out really well, especially considering you were pulling yourself along. I think that setting is great for the chicken blocks. I have a bunch of printed blocks that I might try that on! I hope your friend loves it. It's always a great gift of time to make and give a quilt! cheers, cw
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