Make it Work!

Hahaha -- a few days ago I showed the finished product, talking about how I forgot to come back and show the finish. Turns out I never shared the beginning! 

I have been drooling over Elizabeth Hartman's Hazel Hedgehog pattern for ages, and I bought it for myself / baby projects over the winter holidays. Then, it just kind of sat around and waited for me to get back to it. Honestly, it was a little overwhelming and life was just too busy.

Over the weekend, we managed to get out the last of the excess furniture and bring in the mattress for the nursery, so the room is beginning to come together.

We'd planned to put up some prettier wall paper over the mobile-home-standard splotches I hate so much, but after the first application of removable sticker style wall paper had so many issues I was about to scream, we're back to bare walls. on both sides of the mattress. That just doesn't seem fun.

My goal is to keep the lower area clear so it can be safe for sleeping, and so I can put up pictures for him to look at during awake time, but I want some art work at a slightly higher level for color, interest, and... well, my sake. We'd been looking at various art pieces and debating what would work when suddenly I remembered Hazel Hedgehog. A few mini quilts as over the bed decor seem like the perfect solution. In theory, I have time and supplies. I might even have a few already made that would work. And, no worries about weight, falling, or clean up as life invariably happens to the room.

So, last night I pulled out Hazel Hedgehog's pattern and got to work.

Tip #1 -- I should have printed the pattern, or at least some pages of it, rather than thinking I could just scroll through the digital version. Flipping pages on the computer was confusing.

Tip #2 -- I should have labeled all my cut pieces. I grabbed what I thought was the right piece, only to later learn it was the wrong one, but by then it was too late to un-do my mistake -- more so because I was working with really limited pieces of fabric than because it took me that long to figure it out!

So, I had a make it work moment in which I trimmed down the hedgehog's face to match the improperly made legs. Which later meant I had to trim down each of the spines to make them the "right" size.

In the end, my hedgehog has slightly chubby legs, and is a little taller than wide rather than being something closer to square, but I think it turned out adorable anyway. Right now it's about 21 x 17, but I think it'll lose a little more size after quilting and squaring up. I've got it basted and ready for quilting -- as soon as I figure out what is going on with my machine's tension.

There were some horrible noises last night as I was piecing the block, and I finally opened up the machine to search out the problem.

I've never seen this before, but apparently the thread company just ties on a new piece and keeps going when the thread isn't long enough for their requirements. Unfortunately, this really changed the tension I was sewing with, and even after cutting out the knot and re-threading my machine, things are still unhappy. I don't know if it is my freshly wound bobbin (from the thread before the knot) or if the thread after the knot is really that different in tension, but things just aren't right. I'm hoping to figure it out yet today. I want this hedgehog finished and up on the wall!