Cluck! Cluck! Let’s Talk Chickens!!!

 I’m sure that in my previous post when I mentioned that this post would be about chickens you suspected that I now have a chicken coop on my castle estate. You would have been wrong although I do think having a few laying hens would be cool.

No, I am simply working on a quilt for my soon to be fourteen year old cousin, the actress in the family. The last quilt that I made her I think was when she was five. That was a Halloween themed quilt as that is also her birthday. I thought it was time for a new quilt as I had made quilts for four other older cousins when they became teens. So, I asked her what she would like. I was envisioning a modern, colorful batik quilt or perhaps a teen friendly black and white quilt. Nope, she said she would like a chicken quilt. I checked with her a couple of times, and she confirmed that was what she wanted.  (With teens you never can tell if they are serious, but in any event, she is getting a whole flock of colorful chickens! )

I had a chicken pattern in my stash but decided instead to go with one based on Lori Holt’s recent Chicken Salad design. She doesn’t sell patterns, but instead on her blog, Bee in My Bonnet she shows you step-by-step how to make the quilt. The wonderful thing about Lori Holt is that the directions for each of her quilts remain on her blog, so say you bought the templates for one of her quilts, you could always find the directions for it in later years.

I purchased the Chicken Salad templates but not the fabric kit. Before the pandemic, I had purchased her Happiness quilt kit. Then in March of 2020 as you know things began going down hill fast, and I wasn’t motivated or in the right mindset to make a Happiness quilt. So, I decided to use that Lori Holt for Riley Blake Design fabric kit for this quilt. I also added a few pieces from my stash; the tiny red and white print used throughout, a couple of neutral backgrounds, and honestly, who wouldn’t want a navy blue polka dot chicken! Polka dots make me smile.

I had used Lori’s step-by-step interfacing method for her Let’s Bake Quilt, but this time decided to simply do raw edge applique. Here is my Let’s Bake quilt from 2018. It was great fun to make! You may click on it for a more detailed look. The small blocks around the edges are cross stitch on gingham. :-)

This time I decided to make Lori’s design boards. If you go to Youtube and search for Lori Holt Design Boards, you will find her tutorial for making them. You may make them any size. Since I already had a sheet of foam core, I was able to divide it to make six twelve inch square blocks. It’s an easy process. She used a hot glue gun on hers as did I for my first four boards,  but then my finger tips began loudly complaining as you need to fold the fabric over the edges. I found that Aleene’s Tacky Glue worked just as well for the last two.
  

Here I have my pieces of fabric and the traced template on Wonder Under and am heading to the ironing board. In this way, I was able to prepare a stack of separate blocks. Then I was able to cut out each shape and lay out the design for the next step. 

If you make any kind of pieced blocks, these boards are invaluable. You may purchases Lori Holt design boards, but they a bit expensive if you want to have more than one or two. Following her tutorial, they are super simple to make. (My fingertips wanted me to remind you to use the tacky glue.)

Lori Holt is a quilting and cross stitch goddess and so giving with all her tips, designs, and tutorials. Be sure to check out her blog, Bee in My Bonnet and her quilting and cross stitch episodes on Youtube.

Now, after posting this I’m going back to continue stitching the chickens’ beaks, legs and feet. I’m using a tiny zigzag stitch, and it takes a l-o-n-g time. Lori had suggested that you work on one color at a time for all twelve blocks so you would not be constantly changing thread colors. That’s why I am up to my eyeballs in yellow!!!

Cluck! Cluck! That’s all for now. Cluck! Cluck! Have a great weekend.