Chicken Quilt Block Tutorial

Here are instructions for making a chicken quilt block. This block is 7x8 inches as shown and will end up 6.5x7.5 inches when sewn into a quilt. All seam allowances are 1/4".

 

Step 1: Cutting. 

From your chicken body fabric, cut a rectangle 5.5x6.5 inches, and a 2x2 inch square. 

From your background fabric, cut 3 squares, 2x2 inches, a strip 6.5x2 inches, and a strip 5.5x2 inches. 

From your beak fabric, cut a 1.25" square. 

From your comb fabric, cut 2 rectangles about 2x2.5 inches.

 

Step 2: Draw diagonal lines on all your squares except for one of the background fabric squares. Mine are kind of light, I will make up for that by stitching them in a bright color so you can see them better! (It was a good excuse to not change my thread.)

 

Step 3: Stitch on all the diagonal lines as shown in the above photo. The stitching on the tail square doesn't show up really well--it goes from the upper left corner to the bottom right corner. 

Step 4: Trim the excess fabric along the seams you just sewed, leaving about 1/4" seam allowance.

Step 5: Press your seam allowances toward the darker fabric. Also, draw a comb shape on one of the comb fabric pieces (this didn't show up very well in my photo, sorry). You can use a water soluble marker or whatever else you have on hand. I used a regular pen and will put the side with ink facing backwards when I stitched it into the block. Place the 2 comb fabric rectangles wrong sides together. 

Step 6: Sew close to your comb shape drawing, and cut out the comb shape close to your stitching. Pin the comb so that the bottom edge lines up with the bottom edge of the upper left rectangle and the right side is about 1/4" in from the right edge of that rectangle. You can baste it in place if you want, or not. 

 

Step 7: Sew the two left pieces and the two right pieces together. Press the seam on the left side down and the seam on the right side up.

Step 8: Sew the right side and left side together, nesting the seam allowances so they match up well. Press that seam and you're done! 

If you make a chicken quilt block using this tutorial, I'd love to see it! Can you think of any variations? Maybe a patchwork chicken, maybe a wing, maybe a change in size... I might have to make a couple more of these.

Also I would love to see your chicken blocks on instagram, feel free to tag me @vickidjl and use the hashtag #chickenquilt.

 

Update March 2025
All images and designs are copyright protected. Please feel free to share the link to this blog post. Do not sell patterns based on this block or rewrite the instructions for this block to distribute to others. You may use this tutorial to make personal projects as well as items you make for sale. Thank you for respecting my intellectual property and copyright.

doll quilt finish--"Six of One"

So... I hardly ever name my quilts, maybe this is the start of something new for me. Here's my finished quilt for DQS8, "Six of One":

 

And here are some thoughts about this quilt:

*baby chick pattern is from A Quilter's Ark: More Than 50 Designs for Foundation Piecing 

*hen pattern is something I came up with based on one of the chickens in this quilt--I'm going to get a tutorial up here on the blog ASAP so you can make your own chicken

*wonky shoo-fly blocks--idea is from Collaborative Quilting and also from this quilt by Sarah/krommama

*hand quilting is done with 2 strands of DMC floss in red, yellow, and gray

*bound in soft Heather Ross stripes
*the blue plaid is from scraps leftover from the little baby blessing romper I made for my son who's now 5 1/2, don't worry I didn't use it all
*I LOVE it!

p.s. does anyone "get" the name of the quilt, or am I a huge dork and need to explain it?

one of my favorite parts of making a quilt

I love it when a quilt is pin basted and ready to quilt. It gets a tiny bit of the quilted feeling, and it's the first time all 3 layers are together as one. I get really excited about getting it done!

Here's the back of my DQS8 quilt. Pin basted, ready to quilt. I'm not going to show the front until it's all done.

My 9-year-old's blue scrappy placemat. He did the sewing and helped with layout choices. I did most of the pairing up of fabrics for him to sew. He's going to machine quilt it himself.

What parts of quilting do you like best?

thank you for voting for me!

The Handmade Olympics are over, and I wanted to thank everyone who went over and voted for my Noah's Ark Quilt. I really appreciate your support! I didn't win, but I got 148 votes. Thank you so much for voting!

Speaking of voting... you might remember back in December I entered my Wreath of Doves quilt in the Holiday Traditions quilt contest at quiltinggallery.com. Well, turns out, I did win a prize in that contest! A few weeks ago I received the book Creative Ways With Books & Journals by Sue Bleiweiss and Terri Stegmiller. It's a fun book-making book filled with fabric, paper and mixed media ideas for bookmaking. Here's my favorite project in the book:

Bookmaking is one of the things I've been interested in for a long time, and it's on my list of things to do in 2010. Maybe I'll start with this little stab stitched book!

Doll quilt swap progress

So here's where mama hen and her chickies are at now. I am thinking I will probably make two more, maybe 3, of the shoo-fly blocks to fill out the bottom border row. My ailing deadline for this is March 1 so I am going to work on this now until it is done--meaning no getting sidetracked with other projects!

tree applique block

This block is for Melissa in my Block Swap 2 group. Based on this tutorial over at Cluck, Cluck, Sew.

 

I couldn't make it with the simple, oval leaf shapes--I made mine a tulip tree. One of my favorite trees when I was studying botany in college. One of my friends has one in her yard at her new house--lucky! I think they have a very cool leaf shape and pretty flowers too. If you were wondering, the scientific name is Liriodendron tulipifera. 

Have a great Wednesday!

Valentine's girl. And dress.

Last week my friend and I made Valentine's dresses for our girls. Here's my girlie.

 

Today I spent some time working on one of my bee blocks; hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow so I can blog about it. (It is my first botany quilt block!)

string block for Rachel

Here's what I made today:

It's my block for Rachel of p.s. i quilt. She is the February person in our bee beautiful group. She sent the fabric strings and said we could use whatever fabric we wanted for the center strips--I decided to use all greens. I think I have enough leftover to make another block and am planning on using purple for the centers of that one. Her tutorial for this block is here. It's the first time I've used small stitches along with paper piecing; I should have done it that way sooner! I set my stitches at 1.5 and the paper ripped off really easily.

I am planning on making a little chicken block tutorial in the next few days so check back for that....

also--please go over to the Handmade Olympics and vote for my Noah's Ark Quilt! Thanks so much to those that have already voted :).

Reverse Applique Quilted Coasters

 

My tutorial for these heart coasters is posted on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog today! Go check it out!

(and--please go vote for my Noah's Ark Quilt, if you haven't yet! thanks!)

hen and chicks

 

I made a few more chicks today and their mother hen for DQS8. At first I didn't like the hen (these are colors I hope my quilt swap recipient will like but they wouldn't be my first choice for me, you know?) But after I added the polka-dot comb I decided I like her. 

Paper piecing can get confusing, I didn't get the right number of chicks facing the way I wanted so I might make a couple more; I want most of them to be following behind her.  I turned one of the chicks over so you can get a better idea what they will look like finished.

I am still planning on making some eggs but I'm not sure about how the quilt will be arranged yet. Maybe with a vertical row of eggs and some Collaborative Quilting-style wonky stars or shoo-fly blocks too. 

p.s. if you haven't voted yet, please check out the Handmade Olympics at Rikrak Studio and vote for my Noah's Ark Quilt! (You can only vote once, voting is open until 2/17.) I looked through all the categories and I love all the quirky things (especially the elephant) in event 7, check it out! :)

The Handmade Olympics

I am so excited that I made the short list in the "favourite handmade goodie for kids" category over at the Handmade Olympics! (Thank you so much, Candy, for nominating my quilt!)

Here is my entry:

This is my niece's baby quilt that I finished making last April. You can read more about it here if you want.

The Handmade Olympics are being held over at the Rikrak Studio--you can go and vote for your favorites in 8 events/categories:

 handmade item with innovative design

handmade for kids

eco-friendly handmade goodies

goodies that inspire loveliness and wellness 

those who forward kindness through handmaking

thrifty and sustainable blogs, shops, or sites
handmade/vintage item that's fun!
blog with a handmaking focus

I would love it if you head on over and vote for me (I'm in category 2). 

thank you!

birthday service

I came across this birthday service project via V and Co. today. I think it's such a brilliant idea and I totally want to do a service project for my birthday this year. I have 7 months and 1 day until my birthday. (oh it is after midnight so 7 months exactly). I am going to be thinking about what I want to do and how I can invite my blog friends to help me in some kind of service project. This makes me excited for a different kind of birthday this year!

Sew and Tell Friday--baby dress

Hey, I actually have something I can post for Sew and Tell Friday!

I still need to get buttons for this (and sew them on/make buttonholes) but I wanted to show it off now.

The pattern is from Sew for Toddlers by Kerstin Martensson, the 1979 version. My mom made dresses for me and my sisters using this book. I lined the bodice and added interfacing to the back opening and collar. I also shortened/updated the sleeves a bit. The sleeve edges are bound with bias cut self-fabric and these sleeves are really tiny so I hand basted the binding on before sewing it--pins just weren't going to work.

If I make this pattern again I think I might add some pleats in the bodice front or something else for added interest. This fabric doesn't really need any extra details though.... I might add a little length to the skirt too, in the future.

Head on over to Amy's to see more Sew and Tell projects!

chicks

 

I started making some chicks for my DQS8 quilt. I am going to make twin quilts this time and keep one. I'm making mod chicks and traditional chicks. Cute, huh? Ok, they will look more like chicks when the seam allowances are sewn and details are embroidered. 

Can you believe I enlarged the pattern for these 200%?

I am also going to make some eggs.

no reply commenters (your blogger profile)

Hi friends, I just wanted to bring something to your attention, relating to blogger profile settings. I didn't even really understand this until a few weeks ago. I like to, and I try to respond to the comments I receive here, but sometimes I can't because you have your profile set to "no reply". If you could kindly change that, I will try to write back to you when you leave me a comment. All you need to do is go to blogger.com, click on "edit profile" and then "show my email address."

Amy over at Park City Girl has some more information on this if you're interested! Thank you!

p.s. DL and Eileen I'm talking to you, among others :)

pink

Today I sorted my quilt fabric scraps. And I made this:

Here's the chunk I had left over, and the much smaller pink scrap pile:

 

And yes, I'm kind of copying Amanda Jean.

What should I do with the leftover rectangle?

Guest Blogger: Natalia from Piece N Quilt

Hello, I am Natalia from Piece N Quilt. I am so honored that Vicki asked me to be a guest blogger here on her blog today! I am really inspired by Vicki's work, I really love her Figgy Pudding quilt and someday I'm going to make one for myself!

A little about me, I was born and raised in Heber, UT, a small town in the Utah mountains. I was born on my Great Grandmother's birthday who was a very avid quilter and won many awards for her quilts. I claim that's where my love for quilting came from. My mom is very talented with fabric, decorating and designing so I have, and still do lean to her for a lot of advice and support.

Three years ago, while pregnant with my daughter I got this crazy idea, a pregnant mind, and made an impulse purchase and bought a Gammill long arm quilting machine. I initially bought it with the intent that I would have something to do while being a stay at home mom. I didn't realize that I had a drive to do more and more. Just quilting for fun wasn't enough. Within a year of purchasing my machine I had won two different awards for my quilt "Daisies and Lattice". My mom designed this quilt and I pieced and quilted it. It did go on and win a few other awards as well.

Last year something crazy hit me and I became OBSESSED with pre-cut fabrics. I traveled around Utah teaching at quilt guilds, retreats and presenting trunk shows about pre-cut fabrics. My mom and I again made this "Strut Your Stuff" quilt entirely from Jelly Rolls and won Judges' Choice at one show and Best of Show at another quilt show.

(I intentionally used pictures with my daughter so you can see how most of my time is spent.)
This past December I was honored when I was contacted by Moda Bake Shop and asked to design quilts for them from pre-cut fabrics. I have designed two quilts so far and have two more in the works.

I work full time from home with my online quilt shop Piece N Quilt or my blog. You can come over there and check out what I'm up to each day!
I'm also offering a 15% discount off your total purchase today only when you use discount code "Vickiblog".

Thanks again Vicki! Thanks for inspiring me each day!
~Natalia

Book Review: Tranquilista by Kimberly Wilson

I recently received a review copy of Tranquilista: Mastering the Art of Enlightened Work and Mindful Play by Kimberly Wilson. There is a lot of great stuff packed into this book! The book is comprised of 8 chapters about topics including spirituality, style, creativity, and becoming and growing as an entrepreneur.

There were several parts of the book that I really enjoyed; first is the section about the tenets of yoga in chapter 1. There's more to yoga than just the poses, and the author talks about how the way we treat others and ourselves, doing yoga poses and breathing, and meditating are all essential parts of living a mindful life.

Chapter 2 is a guide to taking stock of our lives and setting goals, both long term and short term. Wilson recommends evaluating your goals and your life at several different times throughout the year and explains how to break goals down into doable action steps. I am planning to use some of the goal and action steps techniques outlined in this book as I continue working on my creative and personal goals this year.

Chapter 4 is another one I really enjoyed; it's the creativity chapter. This chapter encourages you to try out different creative disciplines, along with treating yourself to weekly artist dates, as originally outlined in The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. This chapter is a good reminder that things like cooking, gardening, and fashion can all be great ways to express your creativity.

The last three chapters of the book are a guide to starting your own business and expanding it over time. Lots of great information that could be useful to people starting similar ventures as Kimberly's (yoga studio, clothing line, nonprofit, and more) and also to those interested in starting or growing an online business as well.

Overall, Tranquilista: Mastering the Art of Enlightened Work and Mindful Play is easy to read and is jam packed with great ideas for transforming your life and realistically accomplishing your goals. Kimberly Wilson draws from her experience of being an entrepreneur for over 10 years and thoroughly explains the consistent work and planning it takes to achieve your dreams, while also reminding you to take care of yourself along the way. I really liked this quote from the afterword: "Take the ideas that most resonate with you, try a few that don't, and do all you can to live your life in a way that shines."

Simple Squares Sashing + Cornerstone Instructions, baby quilt size

Here is the sashing + cornerstones tutorial for my Simple Squares Quiltalong. You can find all the other links (fabric requirements for 2 sizes and both block tutorials) here. Feel free to join in at any time; there's no set time frame for this project. If you want to see other variations of this quilt, take a look at our flickr group. Also, please let me know if you have any questions!

Step 1: Lay out your blocks

Step 2: Cut your sashing/border:
Cut 17, 10 1/2" x 2 1/2" strips
Cut 5 strips 2 1/2" x width of fabric
Cut 6 cornerstones, 2 1/2" squares

Step 3: Sew 10 1/2" x  2 1/2" strips to the right side of 8 of the blocks as shown below (press all seams as you go):

Step 4: Sew cornerstones to 6 of the 10 1/2" x 2 1/2" strips; these will be sewn to the bottom of 6 of the blocks as shown below. 10 1/2" x 2 1/2" strips will be sewn to the bottom of the blocks in the right hand column as well, except for the bottom right block.

The following photo shows the strips that are arranged in the above photo, all sewn on.

Step 5: Sew your rows together. Some of my blocks were a little uneven on the left edge:

So I straightened them up with my rotary cutter before assembling my rows:

Here are the rows all sewn together:

Step 6: Sew the rows together.

 

Step 7:  Borders. You will use your width-of-fabric strips for the borders. Cut off the selvedges from two of the strips and piece them together. Then press that seam and sew the border to one of your long sides. Cut off the excess--I cut about 1/2" beyond the quilt top edge with my scissors and then go back and trim with the rotary cutter after pressing the border piece.

Then make sure you have a straight edge on your short piece and repeat for the other long side. Press and trim the border pieces on the long sides.

Sew the remaining border pieces to the short sides of your quilt, trim the edges and you're done with the quilt top!

my next project

Well, one of them.

The fabric on the left will be the dress, the one on the right--bloomers.