"In the Coop" is DONE!

Finally, a sunny day and my husband was home to hold the quilt for the photoshoot!  I spent Sunday hand sewing the binding and managed to get it all done.  Yesterday was too cold and rainy/snowy to take pictures outside. 

Cathy at Eagles' Wings Quilts did a lovely job with the custom quilting.  There is wood grain quilting on the coop looks great!  The chickens have feathers and the wings have a paisley quilting pattern.  There are eggs in the chicken wire border.

Sorry about the shadows from my Eastern Redbud tree in the pictures.

My chickens are happy to be out in the sunshine!!!

I like the pebbles in the yellow backgrounds too.

It is so nice to have a finished quilt to show to all of you.  I will be taking my quilt to the Elgin Piecemakers meeting later this week for show and tell.  This fall, the London Friendship Quilters Guild will be holding their quilt show and this quilt will make an appearance there too.

Progress and Some Slow Sunday Stitching

My crocuses are in bloom so it must be Spring!  The daffodils are in bud but no flowers yet...maybe by next week.

I have spent some time most days working on my daughter's graduation quilt.  I finished the first half last week.

This week, I have been working on the mirror image which will go to the right side of the half shown above.

2/3 of the second half is done.  Only 10 more rows to go.  With any luck, I will be able to finish this off this week.  I still need to get some fabric for the backing --my daughter wants a flannel backing.  I have ordered a new 40 yard roll of batting.  I have run out again...I find it easier to just buy a roll and then I don't have to keep going out to buy batting.  This will be my 4th roll...

I took my chicken quilt to Cathy at Eagle's Wings quilts a few weeks ago and picked it up yesterday.  Today, I did a poll with some friends to see what colour I should use for the binding.

After all the votes were counted  (6 people weighed in with their opinions...), red won!

This afternoon, I machine sewed the binding to the front of the quilt. Tomorrow, I will do the hand sewing for my Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy and the other hand stitchers.

I know this picture is upside-down, but it shows the custom quilting that Cathy and I decided on...

There are eggs quilted into the chicken wire border.

With any luck, I should have a finished quilt for show and tell at our Elgin Piecemaker's Guild meeting on Thursday night.

Chicken Quilt Label

This week, I made a 6" chick block from Lori Holt's "Farm Girl Vintage" book as a label for my chicken quilt.  This involved some embroidery to give the chick some legs!

Here is the completed block:

I turned under a 1/4" on all sides and machine top stitched it to the backing of the quilt.  The quilt is all ready to go to Cathy's house for long arm quilting.  Here is the backing fabric:

Here is the front of the quilt:

I'm calling it "In The Coop."

My daughter and I went shopping for fabric for a new quilt for her yesterday at Mad About Patchwork.  She graduated from university last year and has finally decided on a pattern and fabric for her grad gift.  This will be my project for the next little while!!!  It will be queen sized...

My Pincushion is DONE and a Couple of WIP's

I finished off my paper pieced pin cushion in time for show and tell at the London Friendship Quilter's guild meeting tonight. I had to make a mad dash to Len's Mills store today between appointments to buy more plastic beads to fill it up. I had 5 minutes after supper tonight to hand stitch the last seam before I put it into my bag to take to the meeting.  It has 72 pieces in the top...and took hours to make but the results are so worth the effort!

I had to hand stitch each of the corners but the rest was sewn by machine. I will add this pincushion to my growing collection!

I am in the process of quilting a quilt for a refugee child from Syria and made some progress this week.  I am a little over half way done.

I also added the final chicken wire fabric border to my chicken coop quilt. I need to purchase some backing for this quilt and then it will be off to the long armer's house for quilting.

I hope to get the child's quilt done this weekend.  The family will be arriving from Syria soon.

All Cooped Up

I was at a quilting class, "Improvising with Intent", on Saturday with Christine.  Cheryl Arkison from Dining Room Empire was our teacher.  I will do another post soon about the class and her trunk show but I wanted to show you our treats:  

 

 

Quilter's Chocolate!

 

 

Tonight was sewing night with Christine.  I worked on an attic windows setting for my chicken blocks I made earlier this year.  I am going to call this quilt "All Cooped Up!"   The 3D boxes really show up with this picture. I have some fun fabric to use for the border which I will add once the blocks are together. 

 

 

I also made two pillowcases for our local "Inn out of the Cold" program.  The Elgin Piecemakers Guild members each make two pillowcases to donate each November. 

Christine worked on a placemat for Meals on Wheels and on a pieced backing for a quilt top she made earlier this year.   Next week, we are going to make Christmas stockings for a homeless women's shelter before working on our own projects.  I already have fabric picked out for the stockings...

The Whole Flock

Christine came over for our weekly sewing night tonight....at least we try to get together to sew every week.  I finished off the last 4 chickens in my flock.

 

My daughter thinks the chickens need eyes.  Maybe I will add button eyes after this project is quilted.

Christine donated the Orange wing fabric for this chicken,

And the green wing as well.  

These chickens were fun to make. 

Here is the whole flock.  I just thought of an idea for setting these blocks....come back next week and there should be more to show.

Bye for now!

Adding to the Flock

Christine was her for a couple of hours last night to sew.  I decided to make a couple of chicken blocks to add to the one I made last week. 

I am using my small stash of 30's prints for my chickens.  The background is a pale yellow Kona cotton.  I made all of the beak strips and the red parts for the heads of the chickens last week so that makes it easier to make the rest of the block when I have a bit of sewing time.

There is going to be sashing and cornerstones between the chickens.

The flock is growing...three chickens as of last night.

Tonight, I made two more chickens--a blue chicken (if you look closely, you can see little chicks on the blue fabric!)...

And a yellow chicken.

Here is the entire flock so far:

I plan on making 4 more chickens before adding the sashing and cornerstones.

Chicken #1 and Stash Enhancement

Christine and I got together to sew on Thursday evening.  She finished assembling a quilt top and I made a chicken!

 

The pattern is from "Farm Girl Vintage".

 

 

 

 

The plan is to make 9 30's print chickens and make a wall hanging.

 

 

I would like to use this fabric for the sashing, but have not been able to find it yet.  If you know of a place where I can get some locally (Southwestern Ontario), please let me know.

 

 

 

 

On our recent vacation, I went to two quilt stores and some, (let's be honest---lots!) of fabric (and some thread) begged to come home with me...

 

Neutrals can always come in handy.

 

I needed these for my future hand stitching projects...







These 30's prints just jumped in so they can play with the others that I had already.

A sale is always hard to resist.  This flannel will become a backing for a charity quilt.

 

 

I see a spinning 4 patch in my future with this fabric.

 

 

My yellow and orange stash drawers were looking depleted.

 

 

Who can resist some eggs and chicken wire?

 

 

I have a friend who loves civil war fabrics so these came home for her.

 

 

I just could not resist these fun fabrics.

 

 

This chambray will get used for something--it was on sale too.

 

 

 

Just to keep me honest, here is my very red stash report.

 

Fabric used since my last stash report: 2.6 yards

Total fabric used this year: 20.6 yards
Fabric added to the stash since my last report: Too much! 23 yards.
Total fabric added this year: 39.25 yards
Net fabric added this year:  18.65 yards

 

I keep learning over and over again that resisting is futile.  I need to go and do some serious sewing now...