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Chicken Quilt Block Tutorial

Here are instructions for making a chicken quilt block. This block is 7x8 inches as shown and will end up 6.5x7.5 inches when sewn into a quilt. All seam allowances are 1/4".

 

Step 1: Cutting. 

From your chicken body fabric, cut a rectangle 5.5x6.5 inches, and a 2x2 inch square. 

From your background fabric, cut 3 squares, 2x2 inches, a strip 6.5x2 inches, and a strip 5.5x2 inches. 

From your beak fabric, cut a 1.25" square. 

From your comb fabric, cut 2 rectangles about 2x2.5 inches.

 

Step 2: Draw diagonal lines on all your squares except for one of the background fabric squares. Mine are kind of light, I will make up for that by stitching them in a bright color so you can see them better! (It was a good excuse to not change my thread.)

 

Step 3: Stitch on all the diagonal lines as shown in the above photo. The stitching on the tail square doesn't show up really well--it goes from the upper left corner to the bottom right corner. 

Step 4: Trim the excess fabric along the seams you just sewed, leaving about 1/4" seam allowance.

Step 5: Press your seam allowances toward the darker fabric. Also, draw a comb shape on one of the comb fabric pieces (this didn't show up very well in my photo, sorry). You can use a water soluble marker or whatever else you have on hand. I used a regular pen and will put the side with ink facing backwards when I stitched it into the block. Place the 2 comb fabric rectangles wrong sides together. 

Step 6: Sew close to your comb shape drawing, and cut out the comb shape close to your stitching. Pin the comb so that the bottom edge lines up with the bottom edge of the upper left rectangle and the right side is about 1/4" in from the right edge of that rectangle. You can baste it in place if you want, or not. 

 

Step 7: Sew the two left pieces and the two right pieces together. Press the seam on the left side down and the seam on the right side up.

Step 8: Sew the right side and left side together, nesting the seam allowances so they match up well. Press that seam and you're done! 

If you make a chicken quilt block using this tutorial, I'd love to see it! Can you think of any variations? Maybe a patchwork chicken, maybe a wing, maybe a change in size... I might have to make a couple more of these.

Also--please feel free to use this tutorial to make personal projects as w