Here a Chick, There a Chick

Needlework, Quilting

At the Guild’s 2023 quilt show there as a display from Woolies on the Coast of a chicken block done in wool felt embroidery. I couldn’t get it out of my mind and before I knew it I had convinced Stacia and Deloise to stitch along with me. Not only did we get that first block but we bought the entire series of six, and each of those six had a bonus block.

I was very tentative in starting out and really didn’t have a lot of confidence when I got to the end. I enjoyed the stitching but was thankful for the pile of embroidery books and youtube videos to help me with the various stitches. I also admit I copied some of Stacia’s ideas.

When it came to putting it all together I made up my own version. I wanted to add all the bonus blocks in with the main blocks so added some appliqué vines and flowers. In the end, I was very happy with it.

The next chore was to figure out a way to quilt the project. For the appliqué blocks I as able to do a mattress stitch but I didn’t want to stitch over the embroidered blocks. I decided to hand quilt those larger blocks. I used a big stitch hand quilting technique to finish the project.

This was an entry into the Guild’s 2025 quilt show.

I saw one block of this on display at the 2023 quilt show and before I knew what I was doing I had ordered kits for six blocks. It is my first attempt at wool felt embroidery. I quilted some of this by hand (another first for me) and some on my domestic Janome.

A Spool of Blue Thread

Books

Author: Anne Tyler

I’m a fan of this author and will read anything she writes. This story is a little harder to describe than many of her others.

The Whitshank’s, Abby and Red, live in the home that Red grew up in. Their four children have left home but Denny really hasn’t settle well at anything. When Abby starts to display some dementia symptoms everyone wants to help out. Denny moves back home but Stem and his family also move into the family home. Their stories cover the first section of the book.

The next two sections take us back to Red’s parents, Junior and Linnie Mae, and the story of how they came together and obtained the family home. It also recounts Red and Abby’s love story. The final section gives us the meaning for the title – a spool of blue thread that appears almost magically.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Jessy

Journal
Jessy (from Little Handfuls of Scraps by Edyta Sitar)

I was playing catch-up for the February sewing session with Stacia and Deloise so I was happy that this one was small. It may have been small but there were a lot of small pieces that went into it – 152 to be precise. I admit to having a bit of a head start on my cutting because I used squares that I had already cut for my Postage Stamp quilt. Still, it took some time to get enough pieces cut.

Once the pieces were done it was relatively simple to put them all together. Plus, I had some helpful hints from Deloise who had already done the project.

Quilting was very simple straight lines and I had plenty of time to finish up the January project during our two days of sewing.

Jane

Journal
Jane (from Little Handfuls of Scraps by Edyta Sitar)

This was my January sewing project with Stacia and Deloise, but I didn’t finish it until our February sewing day.

Appliqué isn’t my favourite technique but I happen to like stars so this was a mixture of the two. I had everything done but the quilting when I set it aside to work on quilt show projects.

When I got back to the quilting I found a method to do what looks like free-motion quilting but all done with my walking foot. I’ll use this technique often in the future.

When the Guild requested more items for the show I decided to enter this one. Except for that darker than neutral square I’m happy with it (and to be honest I never noticed that until just now).

For several years I have enjoyed virtual monthly sewing sessions with my sisters. This year we are all working from the same book (Little Handfuls of Scraps) but we each pick and choose which pattern we want to do in any given month. I look forward to an in-person sewing session with them this fall. It was quilted on my domestic Janome.