Thursday, April 16, 2009

A Little Chicken Inspiration...

We have new baby chicks at our house and they have inspired me to pull this landscape quilt out of the mothballs and finish it up. This is a piece I started in a Joyce Becker Luscious Landscapes Class. If you ever get the opportunity to take one of Joyce's classes, don't miss it. Her landscape quilts and techniques are in a class all their own.

Click Images to Enlarge:

I found some fabric in the cupboard that resembles barn boards. I think it would frame this piece perfectly, and look just like a wooden frame around the quilt. I will miter the border corners to complete the affect.

The roses you see on the quilt are all individually put on there. I could not find the fabric I needed, so I cut out roses and put them on one by one. The barn door is not wooden fabric, I sliced up gray fabric, added shading and made the door from scratch. The rock wall is a piece of landscaping fabric, and saved me lots of time, it gave me the exact look I wanted on the barn wall. The chickens are cut from commercial fabric, and will eventually be covered with thread as I machine quilt.




New Baby Chicks at our house. We picked them up at the feed store today.


We have raised laying hens for 20 years, and I still find the new babies delightful.


This is Gunnr's first experience with baby chicks. Until now, all he has seen is grown hens that lay eggs in the hen house. This baby bird business is all new to him!


We opened the box and there they are.......little cotton balls with legs.


First baby out of the box is a Rhode Island Red. She will begin to lay beautiful brown eggs for us in September when she is 5 months old.



Brad built a brooder box 4 feet wide and 8 feet long and 4 feet tall. The chicks will live in here all summer until they are grown and can live in the hen house with the mature chickens. We keep the brooder box on the patio behind our house, so we can keep a close eye on the new babies.


Lots of peeping going on right now. These little cotton balls with legs are darting back and forth here and there checking out their new home.


They eventually settled down and enjoyed the warmth from the heat lamp hanging above.




I see we have a babysitter for the new babies. Gunnr quietly whimpers out of concern and keeps a steady watch on them.


We will all enjoy watching the new chicks grow into big, beautiful hens.


CLICK HERE to view My Quilts


p.s. To see more Chickens Click HERE

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,
LuAnn

1 comment:

  1. Your barnyard quilt is turning out really great..I love the composition..and all those roses - my gosh! That must have taken a while to do. The door looks so real... good job!
    The baby chicks are cute too..we used to have dairy farm houses behind us... and occasionally a broody hen would hop our wall and raise a clutch in the 'back 40'.. it was cute seeing the changes in the chicks... drove the dogs nuts... but those hens kept doing it!

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