The Celebration of Easter + Free Chicken and Nests Patterns Updated 2024

Happy Easter: Ostern, Pesach, Eosturmonath, Great Day and Great Night and I hope you have a blessed and holy Passover!

The Jewish celebration of Passover, The Feast of the Unleavened Bread was practiced by ancient Israelites at the beginning of their New Year, the Spring Equinox. 

The Christian Easter, depends on Passover for not only much of its symbolic meaning, but for its dating on the calendar.

The Christian celebration is linked with the observance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ three days after his entombment. Falling on the first Sunday after the first full moon and the multicultural belief in the meaning of rebirth and the promise in the seasonal cycle therefore of life everlasting.

The name of our holy day 'Easter', is derived from that of the Teutonic goddess Eostre, or Eoster, or Ostern and was celebrated during the pascal month of Eosturnmonath, meaning Great Day or Great Night.

Connected of course to the earliest nature based celebration to welcome in Spring. It is common to see wild hares or rabbits which ushered in our conception of the association with bunnies or the bunny rabbit bringing in a new cycle of birth and rebirth year after year symbolized by the laying hens and their ongoing cycles of laying eggs.

What may appear as diverse rites of Spring reveal themselves as sharing common cultural beliefs in life, death, resurrection and rebirth.

As the night begins her retreat, and the dawn of the new light and life, begin their ascent and resurrection, the balance shifts within each of us.

It becomes a time of renewal, and rebirth and a time to lay down the old, and begin life anew. 

We set out our baskets of eggs and we celebrate this happy occasion, just as nature celebrates her own time of new growth.

In the wild forest, the hens sense the spring time change and begin to lay their colorful eggs. 

Perhaps our own ancestors went out to hunt them, perhaps bringing them back in their nests, or in baskets imitating them. 

Our nest-like baskets of decorated eggs and the Eoster Egg Hunt, remind us of this lovely revitalization of nature and our common sharing in the joys, goodness and abundance of life.

The symbol of the egg banishes the past and starts afresh. It is a symbol of purification and it is a symbol of rebirth. As we crack our eggs, we peel back the white of the melting snow, and we release and free the golden sun within.

Easter blessings to all of you, in all countries, with all customs and cultures. And happiest days of rebirth and re-awakenings for a new and blessed season.

Free Easter Quilt Patterns

Free Chicken Patterns Courtesy of All the Girls in the Coop!!!

CHICKENS, CHICKENS, CHICKENS! FREE PATTERNS AND TUTORIALS!

Steel Scraps: Chicken Pincushions with Thread Caddy Nests

http://steelscraps.blogspot.com/2008/12/chicken-pincushions-with-thread-caddy.html

Nests!

Monkeyroom: Tutorial

http://monkeyroom.blogspot.com/2007/01/tutorial.html

 

Weathervane wall quilt, free pattern by Debbie Busby at All People Quilt

(Sign in to see and to use for free)

Rise and Shine wall hanging, free pattern by Wendy Sheppard at Ivory Spring

 

Mr. Rooster, free pattern by Caroll at West Michigan Quilter

Cat's Rooster, free pattern by Jennifer Ofenstein at Sew Hooked

Jaunty Rooster, free pattern by Julie Lynch for Benartex

Birds of a Feather wall quilt by Cynthia Scott at Janome

Redwork Chicken Embroidery Pattern by Cheryl C. Fall for About.com

Rise and Shine Placemat Tutorial by Vicki Welsh

 Rooster Quilt Block, free pattern at How Stuff Works

Chickens in the Coop, inspired by “Birds of a Feather” from Kevin Kosbab, made by Laura Boehnke for All People Quilt 

Hen and Flowers wall hanging, free pattern at All People Quilt

Cocks Crow in the Morn, free pattern by Kaaren Johnston at The Painted Quilt with blessings and gratitude.

Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands sharing an imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon and back again. Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting from my heart and with my hands.

Praying for Peace and Healing

"Creator, open our hearts to peace and healing between all people.

Creator, open our hearts to provide and protect for all children of the earth.

Creator, open our hearts to respect for the earth, and all the gifts of the earth.

Creator, open our hearts to end exclusion, violence, and fear among all.

Thank-you for the gifts of this day and every day."

(Native American Micmac Tribe, Alycia Longriver 1995)



Alycia Longriver was a participant in the "Sunbow 5 Walk" in which a small coalition of Native Americans walked from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to California on a journey that covered more than 3,000 miles and took more than seven months to complete."

Ms. Longriver states, "In 1995 I walked with a group across the US, speaking to other groups, and praying all the way (15 million steps) for the healing of people and the earth."

I prayed asking Creator 'to bring', but after the walk realized we already have these things. It is a matter of opening our hearts to the gifts within."



Oh such wisdom from these words. Truth and wisdom.

And I, always straddled between one world and the next, have done it with multitudes of challenges, changes, and losses.

Such is hope. And such also, is the endless lessons and understanding as I let good and let goodness in - cleaning out of the grief and pains of loss and sadness and even darkness as I grieve the unkindness of others in this world, and all of the dark they carry within.

I seek to bring back into myself - the light, the love, the caring mindfulness of wishing for the other what I wish for myself.



I remember so many openings of my heart after many periods of sadness. I am thinking of losing my sister in law who tried so hard to survive end stage kidney failure. Then I lost another sister-in-law who had battled cancer. Every chemo treatment required she and my brother flying from Juneau to Seattle ever 3 to 4 week. She went through a lot as did my brother who was with her in her last trip to Seattle when he had to call paramedics but she was already gone. So many other losses from my parents, to my aunts and uncles in both Alaska and Louisiana where  my French mother was from..

So many beloved pets. I grieved their losses just as I grieved each of our dozen chicken pets.  Four of my precious chickens I lost to to a neighbor's dog and two to pair of raccoons that are most likely the pair I saved from starvation when their mother was killed last winter.

Such are the cycles of nature and of life.





I have opened my heart to never giving up by getting even more baby chickens to raise and then because I just loved them so, a few more. On and on my chicken stories supplied me with fun and blog posts. 

Then my pig stories! Oh my! Now those are some of our wildest stories. Again...good times...sad times...and crazy crazy "I can't believe it times!"

Michele Bilyeu Creates *With Heart and Hands*:

 Search results for my Chicken stories

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/search?q=Chickens

And all those visiting pigs!

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/search?q=Pigs

Thank you Creator for this life and these opportunities to grow and to learn so very much by being and doing.



Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands sharing an imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon and back again. 

Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting "from my heart and with my hands."

Preparing for May Day 2022

The month of May 2019 started with a wild snort and a snuffle and an unexpected guest invading our home.

It was more of a May Day! May Day! than I'd ever imagined.

Little did I know that my house would turn into a bed and breakfast for some caged escapees and my house a pigsty.

This little pig tale began early in the morning as I heard a noise, glanced out the door and was startled by this charmer.

We don't entertain many house guests out here in our looney boonies other than family. And this one was a bit of a boar as far as guests go and didn't have much to say.

Before I could grab for my phone to call back up, he made himself right at home! After a quick tour through my house and finding no breakfast on the table (or even on the stove) he lost interest in my decorating style (well worn vintage) and more interested in my patio door and greener pastures.

He allowed an armed escort, as in my arms raised and wildly waving and me calling out "here piggy piggy" and finally "sue-y sue-y" or however I thought you were supposed to call pigs to come to you (my apologies to anyone named Sue)and yes, he headed out our back door.

Pookie the Miracle Dog

Now, I've written extensively over the past decade of how animals love me. I've even blogged about one little Pomeranian who'd traveled 5 miles after being spooked by 4th of July Fireworks going off at nearby Volcano Stadium. Traveling from a Primrose Farm in Brooks not far from I-5 and down fields and farms and down a hodge podge of country roads to our house seeking refuge.

Stray or abandoned cats, dogs, discarded Easter bunnies, goats, a cow calming eating our entire garden and once I looked out onto our back deck to see a huge horse with his nose pressed against my living room window.

And there have been countless raccoons and possums glaring scary eyes at me in the dark as Inpeered out at weird noises on that same back deck. One night I saw a pack of three wild marauding dogs out in the pitch dark, casing out our chicken coop trying to break through the chicken wire. And then a few weeks later, a coyote leaping, pushing, and clawing at their coop door as well

We're a strangely popular night spot.

I clashed pots and pans lids to scare that coyote off. (I've learned to keep protective noise makers handy). The sight of me in red polka dot pajamas running at him (I'm sleep deprived and not in my right mind any time but especially at night) screaming and clashing pot lids at him had him off and running in a hurry!

My husband claimed he'd probably ran all the way to Silverton (5 miles away) before taking a a single breath. This after my clink and a clatter had him (the husband) jolting awake and ready to grab a gun and defend his hearth and home. (He was just surprised no one had called Noise Control on me!)

But this pig was cut (so to speak) from a different hide. Really, really friendly he was more of a high quality silk purse kind of a fellow.

After a small snack of frozen corn, he was happy to follow me into our fenced chicken field and eat chicken food pellets and cracked corn courtesy of Duke, our rooster and his girls, our chicken harem of Ping, Priscilla, Hazel, Nellie, Esther, Milly, and Clementine.

The chickens were not too happy watching as this pig consumed their personal food supply. They lined up at the fenceline and flew up on the gate in self defense and vocal protest.

After all I am ALSO the blogger who's posted about my own chickens sashaying into my dining room and out again! Oh the life I lead!

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2014/04/seriously.html?m=1

Historically, May Day is not just about pagan rites of Spring and leaving flowers at doors. It is also about the commemoration of the struggle for fair labor practices and the Haymarket Affair of 1886. We had hay, we had piggies refusing to go to market and all of the hullabaloo was quite an affair!

We had a struggle of the species and the invasion of their chicken dance hoe and hay down and their fervent wish that this little piggy eat roast beef not their cracked corn, go to market, or at least cry all the way home...to his own home, not theirs.

By early evening, our greatly spoiled pig guest had broken out, flew the coop and disappeared.

Without a break in any fence that we could see, he'd somehow flew the coop and proved the whole "when pigs fly " story entirely possible.

However, by mid-morning of May 2nd, he was back. He decided this was a five star b abd b after all. and he not only wanted more, he apparently sent out a pig song through the pig airwaves to call his tribe over for a visit.

Within 5 minutes he was joined by his brother, within 10 minutes they were joined by 2 sisters.

It was wild and crazy chaos. Four large, pigs all desperate for attention, scratching, and food. They loved us and if they hadn't been so big, such voracious eaters and far too many at once, we might have adopted the one who'd already gotten close to us inside and out.

But alas his little love affair with us was not meant to be. It was obvious they were on the loose and eventually would be found out and I was pretty sure the food and clean up was going to end up on us.

Our only evidence of its previous houseguests being rather large dark brown to black "cigar" shaped parting gifts. And while their tokens adorned our fields and flower bed, thankfully none were left as house warming gifts.

Moral of this story:

All's well that ends well.
The owner eventually showed up and while his idea of a pigsty was more of a reality than ours as he had more pigs yet at home and hadn't even noticed anything awry much less missing.

And our abode at least returned to its somewhat more peaceful and buccolic natural state of chick, chick, chick and "green acres is the place to be, farm living is the life for me"...at least for our chickens!

And all I can add to this curly tail of 3 days of phew was a final adieu......

Other Pig Visitations

When Pigs Fly

https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2019/05/when-pigs-fly.html?m=1

Chickens and Pigtails
https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2015/03/chickens-and-pigtails.html?m=0

Green Acres
https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2013/02/green-acres.html?m=1

 Here You Come Again
https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2019/11/here-you-come-again.html?m=1

And because I believe in Paying It Forward

So on the various days I Google my own name just in case I missed anything I've been up to (I am the woman who almost never sleeps) I also discovered before Easter long ago I was in various denominations Sunday Sermons! I loved that! I mean isn't that loverly?

And the most interesting places I found me included this:

The craziest fun of all!

A Blog A Day ~ A Month Of Random (And Totally Awesome) Blogs To Check Out For October 2020 – Blogger (Blogspot) Edition – ~Plucking Of My Heartstrings~

https://pluckingofmyheartstrings.com/2020/10/01/a-blog-a-day-a-month-of-random-and-totally-awesome-blogs-to-check-out-for-october-2020-blogger-blogspot-edition/

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Michele Bilyeu Creates With Heart and Hands as she shares her imaginative, magical, and healing journey from Alaska to Oregon. Creating, designing, sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting... from my heart and with my hands.