A Batch of Stuffed Chicks

This was the display in the front of the church sanctuary this past Sunday:

Our planning materials for Lent suggested the visual of a mother hen gathering her chicks beneath her wings. My friend Ginger, who is very creative and does a fabulous job with the visuals for each church season, made this mama hen. The mama hen has little stuffed chicks underneath her wings and surrounding her on the table. Another young woman in the family, Amanda, made the chicks.

After many years of not having any young families with kids, our congregation has been blessed recently to have half a dozen little kids join us on a regular basis. We love their energy and laughter. When they came in on Sunday and saw this display, the temptation was too great. Soon, mama hen was bereft of her chicks, who were lovingly being carted around the church by all the little girls. One of them came up to me and said, “This is going to be my special chicken, because my mama says I can’t have a real one.”

Her mama instructed her to put the chick back where she found it. Ginger arrived and calmly reassembled the display. I found myself offering to make a batch of chicks for the kids to take home next Sunday if they promised to leave the ones on the table alone. I’ll use a simple chicken pincushion pattern and they won’t take long.

**************************************

The Sunbonnet Sue quilt is coming together. I have been taking my time on this project because it is a special one to me—the quilt blocks were sent to me by my college roommate, whose grandmother appliquéd them. Twenty-six of the blocks came finished, with six more Sunbonnet Sues finished but without backgrounds. I have been trying to decide if I wanted to do a layout with 24 or 30 blocks. I’ve got sashing strips sewn to most of the blocks and now I can’t dither any longer. I decided on the bigger quilt. Yesterday, I machine appliquéd the remaining blocks to background fabric. (I had checked with my roommate when she sent me the blocks, and she said that machine appliqué was fine. As I was sewing on the sashing strips, I noticed that parts of some of the blocks also had machine stitching.) I used a very fine 80wt thread, and once the quilt is finished, I doubt anyone will be able to tell the difference in the blocks.

I think the last two blocks might become pillows, but I need to finish the quilt, first.

I like the Oliso iron, but it took a bit of getting used to. You don’t set the iron on its heel when you’re not using it. You leave the sole plate on the ironing board, and a set of feet pop out and lift the sole plate off the surface. The iron itself is nice and heavy, though, and I can see why it’s so popular with quilters.

I’m working on another batch of makeup pads. I do a few here and there as a break between other tasks.

**************************************

The husband helped me measure for some shelving in DD#2’s bedroom. I need space to store bins of supplies I don’t use very often so that the bins of supplies I do use are easier to get to. I’ll pick up the shelving units in town and he’ll hang them up for me.

The BMW had a spa day on Sunday; the husband changed the oil, replaced the failed EGR valve, and cleared all the error codes. So far, the check engine light and drivetrain warning light have stayed off, although I’ve only driven the car a few miles around the neighborhood. We’re hoping that the new EGR valve fixes those issues, although the EGR cooler still needs to be replaced under the recall.