Star quilt is done

It was more than four years ago that I learned how to do chicken scratch embroidery.  A very nice lady from my quilting group shared her knowledge of the old art.  Up until she brought in some of her work, I had not seen this technique before.

It probably took me close to a year to finish the blocks.  There are 20 blocks and they are 16" square.  When I dug the quilt top out about a month ago because of a post I saw online, I decided it was time for me to get busy and quilt it.  Before I started the quilting I found a scripture that I wanted to add on the sashing strips.  The stars are the only part that is hand stitched.  The scripture verse, Proverbs 3:5-6, is machine embroidered. 

Chicken Scratch anyone?

I answered a question today about a quilt that I had packed away in a bin on the top shelf... which meant that I had to go pull the bin down and take it out to look at it.  Chicken Scratch is an old hand stitching technique.  One of the ladies in my quilt group who is 80 something introduced this art to me, maybe 5 years ago.  It probably was close to a year that I worked on these hand stitched blocks before I had the right number of blocks completed so that I could put the top together.  There are 20 blocks and the blocks are 15" square.  I have procrastinated on the quilting phase because I want it to be just the right quilting.  It was pointed out that if I had the quilt out, what would be a good reason to put it back up on the shelf.  My husband would be happy to have a new quilt for our bed.  He said he was anxious to see what I would come up with.

For those who have not seen chicken scratch before, I have a close up here.  It is probably not a quilt I would do again... not because it is hard to do, but rather it just takes a long time.  I'm sure that I will find the right way to quilt it and it will be a beautiful display of an old art.