Welcome to the Hazel Hedgehog Quilt-a-Long Blog Hop...
The gorgeous Angie at Gnome Angel kicked off the Hazel Hedgehog Quilt-a-Long last week and asked if I would be her guest blogger for today. How could I say no? We all love Angie and we all love Hazel the Hedgehog! Before we get going I wanted to extend a very special hello to all new visitors who are blog hopping today. If you would like to follow my blog there is an email subscription option and a Bloglovin button on the right hand side. I promise not to spam you!
Today I would like to show you a few tips on how to make the regular sized Hazel Hedgehog quilt block and the Hazel Hedgehog Glasses. You will need to purchase a copy of the pattern from Elizabeth Hartman (see below for how to save 25% off the cost of your pattern/s).
Selecting Fabrics
Choosing fabric can sometimes be one of the hardest parts about making a quilt or quilt block. Lately I have been experimenting with bright fabrics and I recently purchased some Kaffe Fassett prints. I'm not a huge fan of all of his designs but some of them are just amazing, especially this particular colour combination. One of my current favourites is called "Curly Baskets". This fabric features beautiful large blue and purple swirls called Curly Baskets. It also has touches of teal and mint swirled through it. I decided to let this fabric be the hero of my Hazels and would use it for the hedgehog spines. As I only had a fat quarter of this fabric I decided to make 3 hedgehogs (based on the first Hazel Hedgehog pattern release. These quilt blocks will measure 8" x 9" or can be turned into 12" blocks by adding sashing - refer to page 5 of the pattern).
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| Curly Baskets by Phillip Jacobs for Kaffe Fassett for Westminster fabrics. |
I sorted through my collection of solids and found three coordinating sets of colours to match my print - Mint, Purple & Blue. Don't forget that you will need a light fabric for the faces and a medium fabric for the bodies, so I grabbed two shades of each. I also grabbed some black for the eyes & nose and for the background I chose to use some black Essex Linen.
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| My fabric pull. |
Some Tips to Piecing Which Will Give You Better Accuracy
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Making the Block: After you have cut all of your pieces, I strongly advise you to label all of your pieces. When you move them from your cutting area to your machine, do remeasure to ensure that you label the correct pieces as many look similar to the naked eye. This will save you from growing a few grey hairs and a lot of unpicking (yes I speak from experience)!
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Make the Spines Unit - Step 5. Does your Hazel have a wonky ear? Use a pencil or a water erasable pen to mark a diagonal on the reverse side of piece E so that you have a straight line to sew on. Can you see how wonky my sewing line was before I accurately marked it from corner to corner with a ruler. It was only a few millimetres out but just a few millimetres here and there can make a huge difference to your finished hedgehog.
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| Now my Hazel has a lovely straight ear. |
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Finish the Block Step 1 - When sewing the Spines Unit to the top of the Head Unit. Use pins to line up your seams. Where the red arrows are I have poked pins from the top layer to the bottom layer where the seam allowance is to ensure that they line up. You want the bottom of the ears to match up with the inner top corners of the C's (yep the rectangles above the eyes). I have then secured the fabric by pinning it (see the three other pins). The top pins marked with arrows were removed prior to sewing.
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Here is another view of that same photo. As you can see the top pins are just poked through the two layers to check for alignment. Before I remove them for sewing I have secured the fabric by pinning it in place using flat quilters pins.
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Finish the Block Step 2. Sew the Side Units to the left and right sides to finish the block. I have used a pin to align the top and bottom layers of fabric. You need to make sure that the join of the top of the body (G) lines up with the lower left (or right) corner of the ear. Once you have correctly aligned your fabric, pin it in place with flat quilters pins and remove the pin (marked with the red arrow).
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Making the Glasses
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| I've decided to add glasses to my minty green Hazel |
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I have used a product called "Therm O Web Heat N Bond Ultrahold" It is an ultra strong paper backed iron-on adhesive designed specifically for all no-sew apparel, craft & home decorating projects. Unlike other fusible web products, HeatnBond's solid layer of glue provides three times more bonding strength and requires less heat and shorter pressing time. With HeatnBond Ultrahold, materials won't lift or pucker. Edges don't need to be sealed. Materials can be machine washed.
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| And now my Hazel looks like a Librarian! ;0) |
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| My completed top |
How Did I finish off my Hazels?
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I used a polyester batting and stitched around the ditch of my hazels to make them nice & puffy. I ended up ordering some extra Kaffe Fassett fabric so that I could bind my quilt in the same fabric. My finished quilt measured 12.5" x 31" which is an ideal size for a table runner or a long mini quilt.
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| Table Runner |
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| Hazel and the Hedgehogs |
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| Hazel and the Hedgehogs |
Thank you for joining me today. I hope that you will find these tips useful and that it will encourage more of you to try Hazel's glasses.
Would you like to save 25% off the purchase of the Hazel Hedgehog patterns from Elizabeth Hartman?
Would you like to save 20% off your next fabric purchase from Cotton Factory (Australia) or Gotham Quilts (USA)?
Would you like to make your own Hazel the Hedgehog and win a prize?
If so, please visit Angie's blog post at Gnome Angel (links below):
KEY DATES WITH BLOGGERS
During the Hazel Hedgehog Quilt-a-Long, the hashtag that we
are using for all social media is: #HazelQAL Other hashtags
are #hazelhedgehogquilt and #hazelhedgehog - however only "compulsory" hashtag is #HazelQAL
