My favorite quilt is usually my last quilt but at this time it is my interpretation of Sindy Rodenmayer’s Funky Chickens.
This was a BOM for 2012 and as soon as I saw the first one I was hooked. My mother has collected chickens for as long as I can remember so the first one was also made into a pillow for her. After that I was on the lookout for as many colors of batiks as I could find so my chickens would be beautiful in their chicken yard.
Then I wanted the chickens to be in a farm setting much like the ones of my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. So the backing has barns (with quilt block sides) and fields with chicken wire fencing.
If you like my entry, please go to Amy’s Creative Side and vote for my Funky Chickens. Edit: voting starts November 1.
Thanks for visiting and comments are always welcome.
gari
I can’t believe I am investing time and money into another hobby but here I am. I used to knit but then the arthritis in my fingers caused me to stop. For several years I machine knit, a truly fun hobby, but the company that made my machines stopped producing and my teacher/knitting group disbanded. To add to that it was at the same time I fell into quilting and it took over my spare time life. But the knitting bug never quite left and I am trying again because I want to knit socks. So what you see above is the yarn I got with my Craftsy knitting class. It is sock yarn and it didn’t take long for me to know that that wasn’t what I should be relearning on.
I was delighted to find this in my machine knitting leftovers. It is a ball wander and I have put it to good use already. This is after I paid a visit to the new yarn shop that has just opened in our very small town is South Alabama: Pale Moon Yarns. One should never visit a yarn shop when one already has a fiber addiction.
Anyway, I bought some orange, of course, DK weight yarn and #10 needles to begin my practice piece. I have always knit the English way but decided that maybe my hands would do better using the Continental method. I have to tell you that it is not easy, at 70 years of age, to make that kind of change. However, I think that I do not hold either the yarn or needles as tightly with this new to me method and thus my hands have not complained as much. I am still having some difficulty holding on to the yarn coming off the ball but am confident that I will get that figured out with practice.
Complete change of subject:
Some time ago our DIL sent me this owl butter dish. She has been great at finding unique owls and this was no exception. It has sat on the counter, unused, because we have been using tub butter and because DH does not like the butter to be left out (I do because I like soft butter). Recently I bought light stick butter and just this week put in in this little beauty.
And it works GREAT! I have had toast almost every morning just so I could use it. However, I have noticed that she and DS have not been doing so much antiquing since their daughter (see header picture) was born last Dec. Do you think that is the end of my great owl gifts?
I did get the rest of the Weave blocks sewn but have not decided on an arrangement, yet. That will probably be one of my weekend projects.
As for today, I am determined to begin quilting on the Funky Chickens. I have been avoiding that room because I am afraid of messing up my beautiful quilt top. Of course, this is not going to work so I did pick out the thread yesterday. I will need to wind several bobbins this morning so I can begin quilting “ready or not.” Oh, my……………
I am not going to show you what my blank design wall looks like: boring. Earlier in the week I had several blocks on there and they can be seen here.
And later in the week this is what it looked like. Here we have the parts for the backing of the Funky Chickens top.
And here it is all put together and ready to go on the HQ. I was excited to take it into the quilting room and get it on the frame.
And then the chicken top went on. You know, when the quilt was in waiting I almost forgot how bright and fun it is. But now it is out in the open and once again I makes me smile. Of course once I begin working on the quilting, that smile may dim, a bit. 
I had some questions about what fabric I am going to use to make the cushions for our deck swing. This is what is on the bolt end. I think it is kind of a plastic-like coating over canvas and is sold as an outside fabric.
This is what I am using inside.
I got it after I read all of this on the side of the box.
And it is made/sold by the company. I can’t say how either of these products work because I haven’t begun working on them but hope to soon.
Also during this past weekend we went to the movies (Superman) but before it started we had to walk off lunch. We walked the mall (way hot here) and while there I found this, a new cover for my iPhone. I have been looking for an owl cover ever since I got the new phone and there it was, and in ORANGE!!! I am so happy!
And that’s not all the good that happened. Our LQS had a fabric sale: $2.99 a yard on lots of fabric. I bought 34 yards. I see mostly backing fabric with a little applique thrown in.
So, if you read my last post you saw this little pillow I made for DH. Well, I came in from the studio and found it here, in the middle of the floor. Since both DH and I were out of the house, I suspected that one of the dogs had pulled it down.
However, when I asked them they assured me they both had been in this chair, behaving. Don’t they look innocent? Yea, right!
So, today all the BOMs I am doing come out. I have already downloaded the teapot (no I haven’t found the lost one) and the fish and owl will be on my drawing board this afternoon.
I will be sharing on Patchwork Times and What a Hoot Quilts.
Have a great week! Gari
Looky, looky, the chickens have a home. This is the center of the quilt (layout plan shown here). I had not sewn partial seams in some time but it was quite easy and this top went together very quickly.
While I was sewing this together I spotted the fabric hanging to the right. I immediately thought of using it as the second border. I could see it as “the grass is greener on the other side of the fence”. However, I don’t like the look so I will be saving that fabric for another day.
Over the weekend I finished the backing for this comfort quilt and it will be loaded on the frame today. I am going to use it to practice some freemotion quilting while viewing the Craftsy quilting class.
The last thing I got done was prepping these two FatCat BOMs. I windowed most of the pieces so it kind of looks like paper spaghetti. I have not figured out the fabrics for either one but that will be part of the fun this week.
And then, of course, I still have the Teapot BOM to do and the last block for the Carol Doak BOM mystery.
And, oh, I have a girls day out with my daughter on Thursday. We are going shopping to celebrate her new job and buying birthday gifts for both of our husbands. Gee, this is going to be a busy week.
But, as you can see, there will be rest times and boy do we have the quilts for that. Yea!
I put this picture on Facebook for Mother’s Day but thought I would share it here. This is our family’s 4 generations of mothers: My mother, me, my daughter and granddaughter. We have Mother’s Day all over the southeast. 
DH and I went to Mellow Mushroom for lunch: doesn’t this look good? Well I’m here to tell you that it was GREAT! 
I finally got the binding put on the Boots quilt. I had to wait until I had the label designed (EQ design wall?).
I am working with a new software: it is so much easier to stay with the old one but I like the challenge. 
I also have pinned the label on the Funky Chickens quilt but it isn’t sewn on yet. I plan to take a couple of these quilts to guild Tuesday and would like the labels to be there when I do.
I have started stitching down the Underground Railroad label. I have to say that all these labels have severely cut into my knitting time. 
And this also cuts into my knitting time. After DH and three dogs join me on the swing, there is precious little room for knitting. But who can say no to these cuties.
