The Stitchin’ Chicken

Here’s the Quilt that I Sent…..

Posted on January 26, 2010 by thestitchinchicken

Falling Leaves

This is the mini quilt that I sent to my swap partner, Kim Kiley for the 2009 Fall Mini Quilt Swap. I did a patchwork background in light, subtle colored fabrics, then I did a raw applique tree, which I sewed up and down to create lines (bark). I then did random cutting on the leaves, sewed them using raw applique, and then I machine stitched (quilted) around them with a brown varigated thread to give them a 3-dimensional look. A little hard to see in the pictures that I took.

Closeup of sewing around the leaves.

These swaps are so addicting! The small quilts are fun to make and I love seeing all of the creativity that is out there! All of these quilters have such a wide range of talents. Click on over to the Flicker group and check them out!

Thanks for stopping by! Take care,

Cheryl

Filed under: Quilting, Swaps | Tagged: 2009 Fall Mini Quilt Swap, fall, quilt | 3 Comments »

Fall Mini Quilt Swap

Posted on January 24, 2010 by thestitchinchicken

I received my package on Friday from the Fall Mini Quilt Swap.

Fall Mini Quilt Swap Package

There were also some other wonderful handmade goodies! The card is so sweet, and the tablet is just too cute to use! I love just looking at it!

Handmade Card and Magnetic Memo Pad

Sarah also made this wonderful quilt…..

Fall Mini Quilt

And she added this great label on the back…..

Fall Mini Quilt Label

I thank Sarah for such a wonderful swap! I absolutely adore the quilt! She put so much work into it, and the detail is amazing. Such a talented lady! And please stop by and visit her blog ‘Lovin’ My Quilts’.

Filed under: Quilting, Swaps | Tagged: Fall Mini Quilt Swap, Quilting, Swaps | 4 Comments »

A Little Here, a Little There….

Posted on January 18, 2010 by thestitchinchicken

I managed to fit in a small amount of sewing this weekend.

Free Form Quilting Practice

I have taken some scraps and batting spent some time practicing free form quilting with my springform open toe foot. I first maneuvered the fabric up and down (from top to bottom), and then I went from side to side, trying to get some practice doing this quilting technique without using up too many scraps! I can see that it is going to take a few hours of practice before I apply this to any projects that I am working on!

And I have also been working on this:

Just a sneak peek at the Fall Quilt Swap Quilt that I am finishing up and sending out the door! I had hoped that I would get more practice in with the quilting, but I decided that I am pushing it, trying to freeform quilt this for someone else!

That’s it for now, kind of quiet on the sewing front. Hopefully, I will only have a couple more weeks of slow sewing and make enough headway getting the house together enough that I can actually spend quality time with my sewing machine!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Take care,

Cheryl

Filed under: Quilting, Swaps | Tagged: fall quilt, mini quilt, Quilting, Swaps | 1 Comment »

Things That You Probably Don’t Know About Me……

Posted on January 17, 2010 by thestitchinchicken

I am so humbled! Terri, over at Terri’s Notebook has nominated me with a blogging award. I am truly blushing! Terri has been such a wonderful blogging friend to me, giving me support and encouragement for such a long, long time! I truly cherish our friendship. She is an inspiration in so many ways, is incredibly talented, and has such a wonderful way with fabrics!

So here are the rules:

Thank the person that gave you the award: Thank you so much Terri!
Paste the award on your blog,
Link to the person that nominated you,
Tell 7 interesting things about you (I’ll try…LOL),
Nominate 7 blogs (coming up!),
Post links to those blogs.

7 (interesting) things about me:

1. I was born in Hartford, Connecticut.

2. I went back to school at the age of 35 to get my BA in finance.

3. I also started running at the age of 35, and ran on my college cross country team,

4. When my children were young, I lived out in the country and had a mini farm (chickens, ducks, rabbits, a goat, several cats and a dog!)

5. At one point in my crafting life I taught basket weaving classes and how to make jointed teddy bears

6. I am a DIY person, and my husband and I laid hand-scrapped oak wood floors in our house, 1600 sq. ft. of them!

7. I love John Steinbeck books!

Here are seven blogs that I am so honored to nominate:

1. Debra @ Wagonwife Designs

2. Sarah @ My Spare Time

3. Lisa @ Life With 4!

4. Nanette @ Freda’s Hive

5. Robyn @ Daisy Quilts

6. Aimee @ Heartstrings and Precious Things

7. Marilyn @ Marilyn Butler

And of course, I always would nominate Terri (but I’m guessing that I can’t pass it back to her?)

So there you go! I hope that you go by and visit these wonderful blogs. All of these ladies are so inspirational!

Take care, and thanks for stopping by!

Cheryl

Filed under: Awards, Blogging | Tagged: Awards, Blogging, friends | 2 Comments »

Experimenting and Prototypes……

Posted on January 6, 2010 by thestitchinchicken

I have found little bits and pieces of time where I have gotten in a little sewing! I’ve been wanting to make some fabric buckets from the coffee bean bags that I purchased some time ago on E-bay. As with anything new, there tends to be some experiementing with new fabrics and how they react when using them in different ways.

I managed to get a small bucket made, which I lined with some unbleached muslin:

I folded over the lining to cover the top edge and sewed it with a decorative stitch. Using the muslin worked fine, but I think that I need to do something else on the upper edge. I like the top folded over, but looking at it closer, I need to attach it further down.

I’m using this one for the storage of some small needlework I’m working on. I’ll make some adjustments on the next one, and should be able to put some up into my Etsy and Artfire shops.

And the large bucket is lined with an unbleached canvas, to give it more strength:

I love how the large basket turned out, but the top seam was hard to sew, and pretty bulky. I use a double layer of cotton batting for stability in this size of basket, and I have to overlock stitch the inside seams of the burlap so that they don’t unravel with use. This makes the seams a lot harder to sew over.

When I cut these buckets out, I fussy cut, and try to place the front, bottom and back over the most wording I can. I love how this works out, although the back has upside down words, ooops! It can’t be helped when using a one piece pattern.

Anyhow, I think that I’ve learned quite a lot about sewing with the burlap, and I know that I will have several made before you know it, and in the shop! Meantime, I’m sure that I will find a use for this basket as well!

Thanks for stopping by!

Take care, Cheryl

Filed under: Baskets | Tagged: burlap, coffee sack, fabric buckets | 6 Comments »

Moving on to 2010…….

Posted on December 31, 2009 by thestitchinchicken

2009 has been such a full and satisfying year for me. Although I always wish I could do more sewing, I’ll always feel like I should be doing more. That is just my nature. Allowing me to share my projects with each of you through my blog, and visiting each of your blogs and sharing everything that you create has been such an inspiration to me.