Done Chickens---The FINAL Installment (First Finish for 4th Quarter Finish A Long 2017)

Quilting complete and at the blocking stage

Done Chickens. . . .no. . .there is no recipe to share. I couldn't resist the play on words! Finished would be a better term!

Wow! What a journey--10 years 10 months--this project has been! Another serendipity moment was that I actually completed it on the 10th day of the 10th month. That is a lot of tens!!

It's been on my finish list for years. I've posted about my progress lots. I began this project when a friend asked me to take this Block of the Month (BOM) with her. The orientation to each pattern was held at a local quilt shop, Canby Quilts which sadly is no longer in business. Participants could choose either Maggie Walker's Country Journal pattern or her Garden Party pattern. I decided on the Country Journal and my friend decided on the Garden Party pattern.  I began this project in in January of 2007!

Completed border

If you want to check out or revisit the journey since January, here are the links:
When A Good Idea Sort of Works
Chickens--on the Home Stretch
Pebbles--complete!
Little Helpers and Pebbles
Quilting Lines Among the Pebbles
Endless Pebbles
A Little More Quilting on the Chicken
A Little More--A Chicken Update
Quilting the Center Panel on the Chicken
Chicken Update--Still Anchoring
Basted Chicken
The Chicken is a Top!
March Madness and Chicken Appliqué
Chicken--2nd Section
An Update on the Chicken 

Since, my  Chickens--on the Home Stretch post about this project, I finished quilting the border. I blocked the piece. Some of the shadow stitching is tiny. Please look at the photo with the skinny border next to the outer border to view what I'm trying to describe.

Yes, it took a long time to quilt this project. Because I wanted the quilting to be more of a texture rather than a feature, I stitched the top with silk thread from Superior and YLI. The back is a cotton thread--two ply Masterpiece until I used it up and then a spool of 60 weight Aurifil. Most of the time, you need to be up close to the quilt to see the quilting.

Close up of the shadow stitching

While it was drying, I inked a label. I picked up some labels off of the guild's free table last spring and I thought that this one would work great for the label. This project was a pattern called Country Journal written by Maggie Walker.

Chicken label

Of course, I didn't finish it in September as I had thought I could do. . .but, what is another day or two considering the life journey of this project???

After I finished the label, I took a look at the drying quilt. YIKES, I had not noticed that some of the fabrics bled. . .a red in particular. So I shared with you in my last post what I tried to make the bleeding less evident.


In 2009, I was in a car accident that left me unable to do much handwork. There was a time that I didn't think physically that I would be able to appliqué. In a class, Nancy Chong helped me learn how to sit and hold my work so that I could needle turn appliqué. I still have mobility issues from the accident; but, am pleased that I didn't have to give up on needle turn appliqué! I am appreciative of Nancy's help to encourage me to keep trying.

Back of project

For this project, I spent about $333 for materials. I estimate that I have about 500 hours of work in these "Chickens" and yes, I quilted it on Joyie (my 790 Bernina). It took me about 60 hours to quilt all those pebbles. I have about four and a half yards of fabric from my stash in this project. This brings my total of fabric used for the year to 34 and three quarters yards of fabric used from my stash. My goal is to use 50 yards from my stash. I'm edging closer to that goal!

When it was time to square up the piece and stitch the facing, I kept pinching myself that I really was so close to the finish!  Of course, when I added the hanging sleeve, I was smiling from ear to ear because I FINISHED!!!!!! Note the feather fabric that makes up a part of the hanging sleeve and part of the facing. I originally purchased this fabric for this project; but, decided it was too whimsical. I still liked it so I used it to dress up the back!

My quilting has improved over the last decade. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have quilted it as heavily nor would I have used silk thread.

Finished "Chickens"

This was one of the last projects that I shared with my dad. As I have worked through the family issues of following his final wishes, there were many times that I just didn't feel creative nor did I feel like even stitching! The repetition of quilting in the ditch and quilting hours of pebbles was therapeutic. I'll be raising a glass of scotch to him letting him know that I've finished. As for his estate, there are a couple more steps that are in process before I have completed what he asked me to do. Perhaps, this was God's plan all along. God knew that I would need this project during this time in my life.  Perhaps, taking all this time to finish was THE plan the entire time!

As a final chuckle, the spot where I had planned to display this wall hanging is about two inches too short to adequately display it. Gee whiz, even in its finished state, it is giving me yet another challenge!

This is my first finish for the 4th quarter of FAL 2017. I listed it as goal number one of my list. You can read my list here.