Fiber Babble: The Sparkly Chicken

The Sparkly Chicken

June 09, 2011

Abandoned book "The Sunday Philosophy Club" by Alexander McCall Smith ♦♦◊◊◊

Sparkly Chicken - (n) 1. anything that causes a distraction
2. sparkly chickens are only visible to those who are distracted
3. especially useful when concentration is compromised for any reason whatsoever (I was going to do the laundry until the sparkly chicken ran across the room and then I spent the rest of the day playing with fabric.)
definition found online a long time ago, sorry I didn't keep the source.

I suppose I should stop telling you 'Next time I'll tell you about this...' or 'This is Part 1'. That seems to be a guaranteed way to make sure that I'll drop the ball and go off in another direction until weeks later. But there will be attendant guilt about leaving you hanging.

Here. Bare bones. Because if I try to be clever, this will take us both all day:

Our first group project, Laura brought instructions and walked us through making a hexagonal wall-hanging/table topper. It's 3-D-ish. And mine is bright and happy.

I liked the method so much that I actually made one (and finished it) in time to send to Mom for Mother's Day. Of course I forgot to take a picture of hers before I mailed it off!

And here's a shot of everyone's projects! (That's Patchwork Polly posing with the projects)

Be sure to click-to-big: Hopefully you'll be able to see how my very artistic retreat-mates really made each of their projects special.

Another day Joann guided us through a Moda Bake Shop project for a Grocery Bag Dispenser.

Hmmm. I think I need to make it a point to hang that one up - though I'm pretty adamant about bringing my own grocery bags, we still seem to acquire way too many of the plastic ones (ahem, but I still love him). Maybe using the holder thingy - a finite space - will be a way to keep so many of them from accumulating in the house.

A group photo!

Marilee had brought a few Pennie Pocket kits with her and was kind enough to share them with the group.

Marilee's "teaching" style made me laugh. In fact, we all laughed a LOT. I could hear my voice and that of BossLady (Marilee's taken multiple classes from both of us) sometimes, but her instructions for certain technical aspects of the pockets (specifically how to turn them right-side-out) had everyone in the room screaming with laughter.

(Mine is the one with the green ruffle)

I ended up "teaching" everyone how to make a chicken pincushion. I have literally made hundreds of these (and the instructions can be found in many places online for free).

It was a fun time, even though most of our chickens were a bit anorexic.

We had no stuffing*, though clever (and patient) Laura took some discarded batting scraps & shredded them with her rotary cutter to stuff hers.

* So here's the explanation: Pam, Marilee & I kinda didn't plan ahead (and by kinda I mean totally). When Mary Ann handed out some wonderful gifties and Laura and Joann had organized projects (with handouts!) and Carol provided a real tea complete with china place settings and homemade lemon curd (oy!) we were pretty much scrambling to find something to share with the group. Marilee's already come up with at least one idea for a fun project to bring to next year's retreat. I'll come up with something, too, though probably at the last minute.

I'm fairly sure that if we hadn't shared a project no one would have rescinded the invitation for next year, but it was something we wanted to do. And anyway, we would have missed Marilee's Pennie Pockets 'lessons' - and certainly missed out on a whole lotta fun!

Labels: babble, quilting

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4 Comments:

At 6/10/2011 3:01 AM,

Gimpy Cat Babbled Back:

Ahhhhh finally things in the world are coming back to normal - FiberBabble has blogged again, phew! Love all your pictures and stories, I like the chickens. Your hex table topper is so cheery, love the smiley flower faces peeping out. Best of all, I love your sparkly chicken explanation, I think there is one around here somewhere too! Thanks for posting!

At 6/10/2011 3:43 AM,

Crispy Babbled Back:

Well, you certainly took your time to show what you did at the retreat LOL. I can hear the echos of your groups laughter. All the projects are wonderful!! Love the ruffle on your penny pocket and the hexes are wonderful!! :0)

Crispy

At 6/13/2011 2:14 PM,

Carrie P. Babbled Back:

OH, what fun to see all the projects. Our guild has made lots of those chicken too.

At 2/28/2013 5:13 AM,

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle Babbled Back:

Sounds like a you had a blast! Love your stories. How fun to have a group of ladies who get together to sew, share, laugh, sew, and laugh and sew some more!