The Chickens

So I had made a reference in my last post to the Chickens & promised to explain.  Here it is:

Back in the first couple years after my quilt guild, Great Lakes Heritage Quilters, began, I was invited into a small group, along with a couple of friends.  A few years went by, the group was up to between 10-12 members, and for some reason we became interested in the concept of chickens and quilts.  I think right after we had a speaker that had a quilt with chicken in it as roadkill, with tiretracks over it.  So we decided to have a challenge with Chickens as the theme.

We had quite awhile to work on them, at least 6 months, then would present them at a certain meeting.  We thought about renting a limo & driving to Frankenmuth for a chicken dinner, but decided against it.  At the unveiling, we ate deviled eggs, chicken wings & other similar things, and showed our quilts, which were all different & quite fun.

You're getting tired of reading now and wish there were some pictures.  Here you go---this was my Chicken quilt:

  Rather drab, huh?  Not my style any more.....

 Sometime later, at guild, someone heard us talking about the Great Chicken Challenge & began to refer to us as 'you chicken people'.   Thank you, Barb!!!!   We began to refer to ourselves that way as well, and so our brief, never loved name of The Material Girls went to the wayside, and ever since, we have been "The Chickens". 

We've been together as a group for 15 years or a little more and changed from a room of almost strangers to good friends who have now together been through almost everything life has to offer. Our kids have grown from young to young adults, some married & with young children themselves.  We frequently have sewing weekend getaways at member cottages or travel for quilt shows, quilt retreats, etc.

2008 Chicken

Chickens are a recurring theme, and in 2008, at a girls weekend at our friend Jackie's on Torch Lake, we had  Gwen Marston, reknowned quilter, come for a couple of days to do her "Henny Penny by Gwenny' Workshop, and we all designed our own folk art custom chicken quilts.  I don't remember how many of us finished ours, but at least a few.  They were all wonderful & I wish I could show them all, but I only have a photo of mine, to the right.

OOhhhh, colorful!





So our area has a new local chapter of  the Modern Quilt Guild  called the Detroit Area Modern Quilt Guild (DAMQG).  YES---it's called the DAM Quilt Guild!  So we can all say, 'honey, I won't be home---I'm going to the DAM Quilt Guild'!

We are going to have a round robin challenge & needed to make a block for our project.  They will then be passed around, from person to person, and over one month, you will add something to it, then it will get passed to someone else.  At the end, you'll have your top back.   This is the MODERN Guild, so bright colors, graphic design etc.
 
  This is my block that will get added onto by others in the group.

:

She is a:   MODERN CHICKEN

Close up

I have been making 'made fabric', a la Victoria Findlay Wolfe and "Fifteen Minutes of Play", and used a piece of that fabric, fusible web, and a chicken pattern by Sandy Klop.  Then decided it needed to be perfectly clear that she was a MODERN chicken, and my Bernina 820 helped to clarify.

So, before I go for now, here is one more chicken, a FREE chicken, in Key West, roaming around, enjoying the sunshine!