Hazel Hedgehog quilt-a-long

Happy Friday! Greetings to all of the new folks following the HazelQAL blog hop, and a warm welcome to all the regulars as well.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of woodland creatures (I made a hedgehog out of cheese last fall, after all), so when the opportunity popped up to join Gnome Angel for the Hazel Hedgehog Quilt-A-Long blog hop, I was all over it. I had no idea what a quilt-a-long actually was, nor had I ever participated in a blog hop before, but I wasn't going to let a little thing like complete-and-utter-lack-of-knowledge stop me.

If you're interested in making one for yourself, the pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman. Angie over at Gnome Angel has a discount code available. I love a good discount. I used the Hazel II pattern to whip up this child sized quilt.




Henry's first comment: "Mom, do we really need another quilt?" Well, he's kind of got me there. BUT one of my very best friends, Stephanie, just so happens to be great with child, expecting her second little boy in March, and I wanted to make her a quilt for her new addition. That was all the excuse I needed.

If you follow along much around here, you've probably picked up on the fact that I LOVE patterned fabric. All patterns, all the time. I thought, though, that it might be time to try something different, so I opted for all solid fabrics for this quilt. The new baby's nursery is done in tans, blues, and greens, which was the starting point for the palette. So soooooothing.

I went to JoAnn's to buy the fabric on Columbus Day. Since I have never had a job where Columbus Day was an actual holiday, I was not prepared for the mayhem that ensued at the cutting table. So many old ladies with so many coupons. I needed a quarter yard of about a million fabrics to make this quilt, and let's just say that the fine women at JoAnn's were perhaps less than thrilled when I moseyed up to the counter with approximately 147 bolts. Many dirty looks from the other Columbus Day patrons and what seemed like 3 hours later, I was home with my fabric to get going.

Here are a few helpful tips you may want to keep in mind when you start crafting your Hazels:

Try it once, first. Although I made this quilt for a baby, I decided to do the larger child sized quilt because it includes 4 hedgehogs; the baby size has only one giant one. I wanted lots of color variation to make it interesting since I wasn't using any patterned fabric. If you're going to attempt either the child size or throw size, I would advise completing the first block, start-to-finish, before cutting fabric for the remaining blocks. The pattern is pretty easy to follow, but I still made a couple of snafus when assembling that first block. The seam ripper MAY have been employed and I MAY have had to recut a few pieces. It's all a blur. Get through that first one so you know you have the hang of the pattern.

Label all your friggin pieces. When I'm quilting, I seem to think a bit too highly of my ability to commit things to memory and wholeheartedly believe that I will remember what size each and every piece is and where it will go. Not for this pattern, friends. Each block has more than 15 ever so slightly different sizes of fabric, and multiple quantities of some, in 5 colors. Unless you're Sheldon Cooper, you're not going to be able to keep them all straight. I tried a couple of different methods but found that garage sale dots (or Drafting Dots if for some reason you also have these left over from architecture or design school like me) really did the trick.

Economy of scale. Once you've got that first block down, I found it most efficient to cut the fabric for all remaining blocks at the same time. If you're working from fabrics of the same size (half yards, fat quarters, skinny quarters - it varies based on the pattern size) you can cut multiple fabrics at the once and really shave off some time of what - in my humble opinion - is the most boringly tedious part of the quilting process. I swear, the day my kids are old enough to cut fabric accurately and safely is the last time I pick up a rotary cutter. Which leads me to...

Establish a reward system. Once you have all of those fabric pieces cut, you might feel a wee bit overwhelmed. There are a LOT of pieces, friends. I stared at them for about 3 days on my dining room table before I got up the gall to actually sew something. 

I currently cannot stop reading the Outlander series for anything, so I reward myself for doing the things I need to do (finish a quilt block, mop the floor, etc.) with a chapter of the book. Cut fabric - read a section. Press the seams - read a section. Sew together hedgehog quills - read a section. Your reward can be candy or napping or wine. Whatever your little heart desires.

Chain piecing is your friend. I'm a recent convert to the concept of chain piecing. I didn't really think it would save that much time or thread, but now I'm a believer. I assembled all three of the last blocks simultaneously, which was awesome, because I then got the satisfaction of having 3 blocks complete at the very same time. It only took slightly more time to make three than it took to make the first one.

Definitely add the glasses. The pattern comes with an applique pair of glasses. For the love of all that is adorable, add the glasses.

Spray basting is much easier without a baby. This probably goes without saying. And before you report me to CPS, his little lungs were safely out of the way when I did the actual spraying. He was exceedingly helpful in stomping and squirming on top of the quilt sandwich once assembled. Call it factory testing of quilt quality. 

He did return to strike a pose before the finished quilt. He has a natural predisposition for modeling, I think.

Those are my very official tips for creating your hedgehog quilt. Henry has decided that he was perhaps a bit hasty in his declaration that we have too many quilts and now wants a hedgehog quilt for our house. I think I'll make a floor cushion or something. And after seeing some of the other cute hedgehogs that folks are making in this quit along, I'll probably go back to my roots and add some pattern this time around.

Here's a list of all of the other bloggers participating in the quilt along. Hop around and see how they've been dressing up Hazel.

• Friday 6 February – Interview with Elizabeth Hartman @ GnomeAngel.com
• Monday 9 February – Fiona @ Bendigo Lioness
• Wednesday 11 February – Anita @ Daydreams of Quilts
• Friday 13 February – Raylee @ Sunflower Quilting
• Monday 16 February – Brandy @ M3 Quilts
• Wednesday 18 February – Melissa @ Ms Midge
• Friday 20 February – Tara @ Simply Crafted (that's me!)
• Monday 23 February – Cassie @ Cassandra Madge
• Wednesday 25 February – Kate @ Stitched with Love
• Friday 27 February – QAL Finishes with a Link Up @ GnomeAngel.com & Gotham Quilts

Now, back to reading Outlander.

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