Chicken Scratch Projects

Cutlery Pockets

Cutlery pockets are an easy way to dress up your table setting. I had some fabric left over and came up with some basic designs. The set of 4 green cutlery pockets have a different fabric on one side for added variety. These can be made to fit your cutlery and the number of utensils.

Pillow Cases

I don’t know about you but I love using throw pillows as a way to add a bit of color/design to a couch. With Chicken Scratch, the ideas are really limitless. You just have to pick the color scheme you want to use, come up with a design, and start stitching! For many Chicken Scratch designs, I create a kind of structure using either the white squares or the dark-colored squares. Depending on what embroidery floss I use, either the dark color or the white is emphasized. It creates a kind of optical illusion of a design.

Placemats

I love the look of placemats on a long wooden kitchen or diningroom table. My taste tends toward the less formal, which is why I find placemats such a great way to set a table. I have played around with the right size for a placemat and discovered it really depends on how big your plates are and what else you want to have on the table. Some of the above placemats were designed to be big enough so that there is enough room on the placemat itself for a plate, cutlery left and right, and a glass in one of the upper corners (I usually use the upper right corner). Other placemats were made with the idea of having a glass on a matching felt coaster. It all depends on how big your table is and how you set your table.

Table Runners

Table runners are also a great way to spice up your table setting or just have something decorative on the table in between meals. I sometimes combine a table runner with placemats, kind of mixing and matching colors and designs. As with the placemats or pillow cases, you first decide what color that fabric should be and then what the design will be and what colors you want to emphasize. And, as with the placemats, they can be made to fit any table size. Some of the table runners are 180 cm long while others are less than 100 cm.

Wall Hangings

If you have a spot on the wall that is crying out for some artwork or some sort of decoration, why not try a wall hanging? Designs can be holiday-themed or, as in the case of two of the above wall hangings, inspired by historical buildings nearby (thank you, Straubing and Bogen!). You can even combine different Chicken Scratch designs to make a pinboard, a handy place to hold pictures or business cards or other things you don’t want to lose track of.