Fab Farm Sew Along – Chicken – Block 5

Cluck, cluck, and away we go – welcome to week 5 of the Fab Farm Sew Along, from the Fab Farm* pattern by Elizabeth Hartman! This week’s quilt block is the chicken – I promise I won’t make you do the chicken dance. However, I am now thinking would you rather be a chicken then a duck (very silly lyrics)? The really great news is that Wendy is co-hosting with me this week at Pieceful Thoughts about Quilting so be sure to check out her blog and how she fared with making her chicken.

I did move my site back to Siteground and hope that the mailing works as it should. Forgive me if it doesn’t…there were a few simple things Bluehost could not fix and I could no longer longer stand it – spent 6 weeks trying. I had tested Mailerlite, for emailing new posts to subscribers, with Siteground before the move and it seemed to fine. Fingers crossed that it behaves as it did before.

Cutting The Block

The cutting instructions for the large and small quilts begins on page 26. Again, in order to make the cutting and identification of the pieces easy, let’s use SEPC.

• Scan the cutting instructions
• Enlarge the cutting instructions
• Print the cutting instructions
• Cut – both the paper and the fabric, attaching the paper label to the fabric pieces.

HINT #1: Label and keep your background strips together. You can then make use of the scraps from earlier blocks and maybe save some of the others for borders.

As with the prior blocks from Elizabeth Hartman, there are quite a few pieces. As I looked at the background I remembered that I have been keeping a bag of the leftover background pieces. I labeled them and decided to begin using them this week to cut some of the background pieces. I know I will have some leftover strips – maybe some will work for the inner borders/strips. We shall see.

HINT #2: If using directional fabric, check the direction of the pieces on the finished block picture on to make it work.

Directional fabric can be scary, but I used it for Piece 4 and was able to figure it out and it all worked out. The good thing is there are no half square triangles, so it makes it easy to make sure you are doing the folded diagonal when the correct way when piecing.

Making Block 5

Begin by laying out the first few pieces and getting ready to sew.

The eye section was easy, but the other sections, were a little confusing. I do rely on the photo I take of the completed block on page 25 rather than flipping back and forth. Often the pieces are in order of assembly on the page, but not for the chicken. There is a foot at the top of page 27, above the head unit, so confusing!

HINT#3: Lay your finished pieces on a block board (here is the tutorial for mine) or scrap of batting so you can see where the piece is heading.

And now we can see the sassy little chicken coming together.

HINT #4: The chicken continues in the back on page 46.

HINT #5: Use a basting stitch to line up tricky parts.

I tried to worry matching on a few pieces (R….P…O should line up) that make up the diagonal line of the head. Often I take a quick basting stitch over those lines and then do the piecing if I am satisfied with the basted section.

The Finished Block

This chicken couldn’t be cuter. In this layout it looks a little like the chicken is kicking the cow. The small layout has the chicken on the outside row so no animals will be harmed in this quilt. I looked and the large quilt the chicken faces the sunflower twice and the horse once…so there may be some injures…just kidding. I may even play with the layout but right now I think the original will probably suit me.

Linky Party Blocks 1-5

Let’s see how your blocks are coming along. Feel free to link up as many as you like and visit the others when you have a chance.

The Schedule

Here’s the schedule including co-hosts. You can begin at any time and find the posts here or on this page.

Pattern and Kits Available

I am listing some links for patterns and kits. They are affiliate links, so a little comes to me (no additional cost to you) to support the costs of running the blog.

• Amazon: Fab Farm pattern*
• Annie’s: Fab Farm Pattern*
• Fat Quarter Shop: Fab Farm Pattern*
• Fat Quarter Shop: Fab Farm Quilt Kit* (currently scheduled for July)

Coming Up on My Blog

Today is also Tips and Tutorials which will publish late this afternoon if all goes well with the mailing of this post to my users! I am working along with by other QALs, but the website stuff has slowed me and I have 2 days of company this week. Hope to try to get one of the other posts up by the end of the week and the Ships Ahoy quilt quilted!

Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd (5/22)
Ships Ahoy
Fixing a T-Shirt Quilt
Fab Farm SAL – Block 6 (5/29)
Fab Farm SAL – Block 7 (6/5)

Linking Up

Monday Musings
Monday Sew and Tell
Patchwork & Quilts #156