Chickens!

Next Saturday the 14th November my quilt group, Tuesday Quilters, will be hosting a coffee morning and small quilt display in Wetherby Town Hall. I've booked a stall to sell a few gifty things as well as fabric, patterns, books etc from my groaning shelves to make way for new things! Yesterday I started a flock of chicken pincushions - I love them! They are SO easy to make. Here's what you need:

 Two squares of fabric -mine were 4". For the beak and 'crown' I used 2 layer of fabric which I'd fused together with Bondaweb (Wonder Under). I also used a decorative thread or yarn for the tail feathers which I wrapped around 3 fingers to make loops.

Arrange the pieces on top of one piece of fabric like this:

Now  place the other square of fabric on top right sides together and stitch around 3 sides - starting at the top left in my picture. Next take the two side seams and pin them together squashing the shape like this:

 Sew about an inch along from each adge leaving a gap in the centre. Turn right sides out. Now you can stuff your chicken before stitching the gap closed. You can also stitch fench knots for the eyes and trim the tail feathers. Ta da!

I couldn't find my toy stuffing (it must be in a very safe place!) but I did find a brand new (budget) bed pillow which I'd put away because it had a horrible plasticky paper cover on it. I cut it open and used the polyester filling. This is probably a cheaper source than buying it from craft shops so I'll remember that in future - look out for pillows on offer in the supermarket!

Now I'm off to stitch more  gifts for my stall. Come and see me next week if you're in the area! Wetherby is a lovely little town to spend a morning in and the tea or coffee and scones will be waiting for you!