Today I continue my quest in creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan-Claire Mayfield. This is day three hundred and seventeen of that project.

This quilt block shows a hen house against a blue salmon-patterned background. The hen house is up off the ground, held up by a light brown arch. The front of the hen house is green, and the ladder/stair going up into the house is a dark green. Inside the hen house, on the black arch of the entrance is a white chicken made of white fabric. There is a red markings for the head. The stitching outlining each part of the hen house is a golden yellow color. — Click To Enlarge

Here’s a little chook (hen) house.

Just about any farm will have a few chickens for fresh eggs, and this dairy farm is no exception. Along with a “kitchen garden,” the families on this farm will be pretty well set.

A trip into town for flour, sugar, and coffee, and they will want for very little. A sound I always enjoyed when I had a backyard flock was the pleasant clucking of the hens as they “hunt a little, scratch a little, peck a little” about the farmyard.

I liked how the grains felt through my fingers when I threw scratch grains by the handful from my gathered apron. The sounds were so different from when I would bring a pan of kitchen or garden scraps to them.

I usually had one hen that was more of a pet and would squat down when I came near, so I would pick her up, pet her feathers, and coo to her for a bit.

She’d close her eyes and lean into me for a few minutes before I put her down, and she went back to being a chicken.