Finish Off Friday - Hedgehogs!

In September, my brother married the lovely Jemma.  Being a crazy person, I decided, having done a bit of patchwork, to make them a quilt.  They are big hedgehog fans so when I saw this pattern, Hazel by Elizabeth Hartman, I knew it had to be done.  This is not a beginners pattern and I had a deadline.  I decided I wanted to make the middle size which involved 25 (!) hedgehogs.  This is because it turns out I have no concept of size expressed in inches.  Like I said, crazy person!

Here are all the billions of tiny pieces all cut out and ready to sew together.

Lots of little hedgehog faces!

First almost complete hedgie

All the hedgehogs!  Not quite finished as they need their side spines added but now we can see all the different fabrics.  I chose 8 different browns with a single show off turquoise one.

Trying to work out a layout.  This was a total pain as I was fussy about where they could repeat and where the turquoise one went.

First row sewn together!

All sewn up!

All laid out ready for pinning together.  The only bit of floor we have that's big enough is in Ollie's room.  

Quilting!  I chose to do a spiral as it was really big and this way no more than half the quilt was under the machine at any one time.  This took me two days!!

Middle hedgie.  Try to ignore the fact he looks like a target!

Done!  I'm so pleased with it!

I love the way that, with the spiral, they all have slightly different quilting lines :)

The back I love just as much.  This is actually one side of a duvet cover and it matches perfectly.  The turquoise hedgehog is made from the pillow case in the set.

Detail of the birdies on the back.

I love love love it and I'm so pleased I got it finished for them.  Thankfully, they like it too!  Next one will be a bit simpler.

Linked up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish up Friday

Work In Progress Wednesday

I'm close to finishing Ollie's quilt.  Again!  I already quilted it once but that was before I had the proper equipment and it went horribly wrong.  Now I have to right foot for my machine I can do it properly.

I started the quilting in the middle and am gradually working out in a spiral.  The stitches are quite close together which means it's taking quite a while.  Oh well!

Throwback Tuesday - 10th November

2013 - A walk with Grandma

2010 - Sleepy Mani

Work In Progress Wednesday

A few of the many things I seem to be working on at the moment!

First up, a quilt for Ollie. I had actually already nearly finished it but the quilting was rubbish and made me sad. So I unpicked it all and added the rocket to the back. I'm really pleased with the rocket. It's my first paper pieced patchwork. It's nearly ready to quilt again, this time with the proper equipment!

Rocket Quilt

Next up, a tortoise cosy. Yep! A colleague asked me if I could as her new tortoise, Heathcliff, is very small and apparently may not hibernate. I found a pattern that used Aran weight bad reduced it down by using DK. Heathcliff is only 9cm across so this is really tiny! This one is a pumpkin for Halloween!

Tortoise cosy

This is part of a gift so no more details, yet!

Blue star

Last up, my Hitchiker. This is a lovely, simple scarf pattern in garter stitch with an increase every row and 5 cast off every eighth row to make a point. It's perfect mindless knitting and I love how the yarn is pooling.

Hitchiker

This doesn't include my flamingo cross stitch, the busy book I'm making for Ollie, the little earphone pouch I'm sewing or the cardigan I'm working on! Maybe I need to finish something!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Throwback Tuesday - 13th October

This one's a bit cat heavy!  Oh well ;-)

2013 - Cat in a box

2010 - Kitty Cuddles

Throwback Tuesday - 8th September

2013 - Tiny Ollie! 

2012 - blocking a jumper I made for Dad for his birthday

A Weekend in Reading

This weekend we went back home to Reading.  I needed to do some shopping and we were meeting up with my brother on the Sunday so we took the opportunity to go and see Grandma and Grumps as well.

Concentrating on picking up rice with his chopsticks

Did it!

Riding on the train at the Oracle.  He remembered it from last time even before we'd parked the car!

Playing trains with Grumps

On Sunday we met Andy and Jemma at Wellington Country Park, It's just south of Reading and although we've driven past hundreds of times, we've never visited.  What a fantastic place!  So much to do for little children with about 5 different play areas as well as a petting farm and a train.  Ollie heaven!

On the big swing with Daddy

On the train with Daddy and Uncle Andy

Alpacas!

In a little house with a bridge and stairs.  Ollie in his element!

The view from the cafe where we stopped for ice cream.

Sharing ice cream with Daddy

Driving an old red tracter

On the big swing with Mummy

On the train with Daddy (yes, another one!!)

Meeting the goats

Stroking a chicken ever so carefully

Playing with his new trains at lunch time

On the slide with Jemma.  A whole playground just with slides!

Wheeeee!

Randomly, a load of dinosaur models

Feeding the ducks.  Just out of shot, the bag of food floating in the water from where Ollie tried to throw the food before taking his hand out of the bag :-/

On the train with Mummy and Auntie Jemma

Stealing Mummy's ice cream

Thanks Andy for taking the pictures!