Chickens, Chickens, All in a Row

At the same guild meeting where Halsey-Bear was turned in to the Salvation Army Drive, I took the chance to shop a bit.  Many members of the guild have little projects that they make, and I'd had my eye on one woman's chicken pincushions for several months.  For once, I had cash on me, and I picked out the chicken below. I keep her as a little token on my desk at work these days.

I decided her name was Audrey.

However, something a friend said that night stuck with me. "Why buy one?" she asked. "There are tutorials everywhere!" At the time, my response was simple - I'd had a cold and I could only spare energy for getting my quilt binding done on "Roman Holiday".  This was true, but that didn't mean my friend was wrong.  I did some research, and found that Missouri Star Quilt company had a video for making chicken pincushions (I swear, they have tutorials for everything).

Remember how I'd had a leftover 9-patch from "Roman Holiday"?  When the MSQC video said that each project needed two halves plus decoration - BINGO! That was two chickens worth of material if I cut the patch in four pieces!

Funnily enough, like getting the binding on "Roman Holiday", this was one of those "Sit down and work, work, work" kinds of projects.  I wasn't quite alone in the house this time, but it was still pretty quiet around, so I could get into my groove without much trouble.

The stitching was pretty straight-forward. This turned out to be a good thing because somehow, I managed to get my first chicken backwards -I put her tail in front of her instead of behind her!  Oh well, I figured. This is why we have seam rippers.  After that little delay, I sat and watched TV, and stuffed the two chickens with spare batting.

I finished the chickens the next day with whip stitches that admittedly looked more like surgical scars than good sewing.  Regardless, done is done, and the recipients, my cousin and a coworker, were thrilled.  This convinced me to give it another try, and I made up another pair of hens that I gave as small Christmas gifts to some other coworkers.

I've found that it's a bit of a relief to have small projects that you know you can make.  Quilts are still my first love, but sometimes it's nice to think "Ok, I don't have to do anything fancy today - I'll just make up a chicken and it'll be done in 30 minutes."  Besides, who doesn't loved stuffed animals, right?