Guess What? Chicken Butt!

Chickens are the theme for this post so I have to start with a short story about my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter, Sofie.  Any time you say "Guess what?" to her, she quickly answers "Chicken butt".  She catches me off guard every single time!  :)

Not long after I started quilting I attended a quilt show in Lancaster, PA with friends. Our favorite quilt in the entire exhibit was a chicken quilt.  It had hens and roosters and eggs and  all things chicken related on it.  To make it even better it was made with chicken fabrics!  The three of us put our heads together and decided we needed to collect chicken fabric and make chicken blocks and swap them with each other and have our own chicken themed quilts.  

Well, when you start looking, chicken fabric is everywhere and it is so much fun! We found not only hens, roosters, and baskets of eggs, but, chicken wire and chicken feet, as well.  Our stash of chicken fabrics grew at an alarming rate!  We had no rules for our chicken blocks-they could be any size we wanted, appliqued, pieced or even wool.  We had a great time making them and sending them to each other through the mail.

After collecting, sewing and mailing for several years, we decided to call a halt to chicken blocks and put our quilts together.  Assembly required adding a four-patch here and a sashing strip there to get the blocks to fit together.  Each of us has entered our quilt in a different show and won a ribbon. It was fun to share them with others.  And now I am sharing them with you.

 

My chicken quilt

Pam and her quilt

Anne and her quilt-the only picture I have of it is before she had it quilted

After we made all these blocks we each had so much chicken fabric left over that we sewed large pieces together and used it for our backs!  I still had enough fabric left to make this quilt for a friend.

Cindy's quilt

After all of this we had the "chicken bug".  Anne, Pam and I now each have an extensive chicken collection.  We have chicken plates, ceramic chickens, yard ornaments, etc.  We even swap chicken ornaments for Christmas!  

If you decide to make a chicken quilt, let me know~I think I still have some chicken fabric around here and could help you start your very own chicken stash.