Jan 18, 2016

Farm Girl Vintage, Mama Hen Quilt!


I'm going to tell you the story of how my "Mama Hen" quilt was born....
I made the quilt for my son Jordan's family.
Jordan built a really nice chicken coup in their backyard, which houses their chickens.
This is one of my little grandsons in their coup, he was a little nervous of the chickens, lol!


I thought Jordan's family would appreciate this quilt.
I'm a member of the Bees Knees, a Quilting Bee, and my month was September.
I cut out the fabric (all of it is Lori Holt fabric) for each Mama Hen block with some details, and mailed them all out.


This is the block that I made, red is my favorite color and I love the Mason jars!


Eventually, the blocks began to arrive, very exciting!


I was making a Country Fair quilt for my daughter Rebecca at the same time.
The block that my friend Nedra (her blog is Cactus Needle) sent matched Rebecca's quilt so well, that I used it in her quilt, instead of the hen with the star that I had planned to use.


So exciting, Lori Holt (her blog is Bee in my Bonnet) was in the quilting bee and this is the block that she sent me, along with one of her fabulous Seams Sew Easy!  for sewing flying geese.


Here are all 12 hens, notice the hen with the star that I made?
I think she's a great focal point.
Sinta from the blog Pink Pincushion, very graciously made me an extra hen, because she knew I was missing one.
It's the cute hen under the star one, with the wing upside down.
I just love that little hen, I wouldn't change a thing about her!
The little hen represents kindness and thoughtfulness :)


I used the trick of taking a black and white photo to make sure that the color saturation was even.


All the posts are a different print, and I used chicken wire fabric for the sashing.


I have a long, wide tiled hallway where I lay my sandwiched quilts to pin them before I machine quilt.
The border fabric looks like newsprint, which is often used to line the chicken coop with.
I don't really know why, I've just heard that!  LOL




I bought a class on Craftsy and loved it!
Jacquie Gehring was the instructor, she taught how to machine quilt with your walking foot.
I learned a lot!
I taped painter's tape from one corner to the other, to keep a straight line.
It's so much easier to keep straight lines on a mini quilt though :)


I used the little arm to measure my lines 1" apart.


It took 3 days to finish the quilting, and I really like all the little 1" squares.


Ta da!!!
I used yellow fabric for the binding.


Here's the sweet family who I made the quilt for.
My son Jordan, my daughter in law Kimalee, and their precious little girls.
 Reagan is 5 years old, and Paisley is 20 months old.
Paisley is named after me, we both have the same middle name, Louise :)
Jordan and Kim are expecting their third baby girl on February 26.
I wonder if she'll look just like her sisters, I can hardly wait!!!

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4 comments:

  1. Oh - love this quilt with all the Hen Blocks. Love the Newspaper border fabric. What a great quilt to snuggle with!

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  2. Hi Cynthia! It's been awhile since I visited your blog!i think this is the most adorable quilt I have ever seen! I also admire your courage to try machine quilting on your sewing machine. I am still hand quilting my quilts because I am afraid to ruin them if I try to machine quilt them. You did a great job and I love, love, love this hen quilt! Teresa

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  3. I am going to attempt machine quilting this year with the walking foot. I may have to get those tips before I try. We love the quilt. Thank you.

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  4. I am making the mama hen quilt now. I plan on quilt as you go. Have you ever done that. It’s very easy doing a block at a time. Thanks I loved your editorial

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