Crazy Chicken

This crazy chicken wall hanging is probably one of my all time favorite things that I've ever created. I made it a few years ago and it has hung on my sewing room door ever since. There's so much joy and color in this quilt that it always makes me smile. I can tell that I was really happy when I worked on this. I am my harshest critic and it sometimes shocks me that I created something that I like so much. The pattern is adapted from one by Sue Spargo who designs the most amazing wool applique quilts and patterns. I absolutely love her style and creativity. My Mom took a class from her earlier this year and she is having a total blast making and embellishing wool appliqued quilt blocks.I hand dyed the wool for this wall hanging in an all day crazy microwave dyeing session in my kitchen. I dyed fat quarter pieces using procion mx dyes and vinegar for the mordant. It was great fun experimenting with colors and I wound up with a drawer full of pretty dyed wool. My kitchen smelled oddly like wet sheep and vinegar for a day or two though!I think one of the things that I loved about this project was that it combined so many fun techniques. I got to play mad scientist with dyeing the fabric and then I got to select all of the fun colors of beads and fabrics and embroidery threads.I absolutely love doing embroidery. Even the simple blanket stitch in this project was fun to do. The feather stitch is one of my favorites as well. I used size 8 DMC perle cotton.I gathered up all of the size 6 and 8 matte beads that I had in my meager bead stash. The beads are one of my favorite parts of this quilt. I am crazy about matte beads. They look like candy and I would eat them if they were made of sugar and not glass. Check out the purple head feathers. Purple is my favorite color. Wouldn't it be great if there were chickens that really looked like this? I'd love to own real chickens, just a few of them. It would be wonderful to have fresh eggs. This chicken would lay eggs in lovely shades of magenta.