Spring Has Sprung!

I love Spring!  The temperature is rising, the air is fresh and everything is sprouting!  Of course that means those pesky weeds too!  I've spent the past week weeding like a mad women!  It also means the windows can be open all day long.  Good-bye stale winter air...spring is here!

Spring.  It inspired me to make some thing springy.  Light, airy and fresh.  Too bad it didn't work out! Or did it?!

Have you ever began something with great confidence only to realize too late that you messed up?  Maybe you back tracked and fixed it, or maybe you didn't.  Maybe you thought it won't make that much of a difference (or will it?), so you decided to power through and hope for the best.

That would be me!  I needed to make a gift, something I have made a couple times before and really didn't think it would be such an ordeal!

Hazel the Hedgehog.  Oh Hazel.  With Spring on the mind I carefully picked fabrics that were light, airy and fresh.  I began feeling very confident, after all I've made Hazel a few times, and I was sure I had it in the bag even before I started.

I was careful.  I knew there was one step that always tripped me up, but I aced it!  I made it through without a hitch.

But my cockiness was short lived.  I screwed up!  What the heck was I thinking?  I missed one step, but had sewn and trimmed before I realized it.  At this point I was at a cross roads. The right thing would be rip it out, re-cut and start over.  The right thing.  

I may take a little heat for this, but I totally didn't do the right thing.  Rationalizing, I decided to move on and hope it would all come together and look fine.  

What did I do?  Where was the mistake?  Look at Springy Hazel and now look at my previous Hazels...

   
See the dark strip between the ears?  I forgot to add it.  I missed that step.  I was betting it wouldn't make that much of a difference.  That after adding the glasses, it would be fine.  

I'll let you be the judge of that!  In my mind, she still turned out to be a winner, a keeper.  

I know most everyone would take the time and make it right.  I should have.  But plain and simply...I did not.  

After adding the glasses, and they did help, I finished her up with the usual straight line quilting. Naturally highlighting her highlight!  

The question is:  Was I wrong or was I right?  Is it okay or is it not?  I don't know that there is always a right or wrong way.  How many times have you modified a pattern to make it easier or different?  I feel like I should have gone the extra mile and fixed the mistake.  Then again, she doesn't look bad either!  

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TGIFF

Lessons Learned

Fabric Frenzy Friday

Pillow Talk

If I have a pillow to rest my head on, and a quilt to cover up with...then I have nothing to complain about!

I believe that is the life of a quilter at the end of a long day of productive quilting!  I have finally come to the point where my dreary old couch and sad old pillows needed some attention.

Enter Hazel The Hedgehog times two.  Pieced, quilted and washed.  A powerful punch of color.

19" x 19"

For Miss Pink, I added the trademark cat eye glasses.  This time I did a tight zigzag stitch around the edges.  These pillows will be used every day and I didn't want the glasses to fray.  

You'll notice that I added a strip of personality to each pillow, and arranged it so they were on opposite sides.  Straight line quilting works for me on these pillows and the personality strips got more personality by adding more lines in different thread colors.  

I didn't realize it at the time I was picking out fabric, but they ended up being a boy and girl! Not intentional at all!  I'm not a gender specific kind of person!

I will say that these guys make a boring ugly couch a much better place.  When you walk in to the room you see bright and pretty.  That I like!

When I decided I was going to make an entire quilt using my Confetti idea (waiting to be quilted), I first tried a test block.  That block didn't make the final cut for the quilt, but it wasn't going to linger in the deep dark closet either.  It just needed a border and viola!  it became a pillow.

16" x 16"

The color slices at the corners were an idea I was trying with the quilt.  Nice for a pillow, not for the quilt.  The extra detail works well in pillow form.

A simple quilted grid was all it needed for the finish, and washing but that almost goes without saying.

You know me and quilt porn...I love a good close up, that's for sure!

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Oh Scrap

Sew Cute 

Here Comes Hazel!

Finally!  I get to share Hazel!  

Isn't there one project you admire, wish and want to make just once?  (more, of course) Enter Hazel!  Seriously, it isn't a surprise that this little lady captured so many hearts in the quilting world!  Elizabeth Hartman @Oh, Fransson knocked it out of the park with this one!

The truth is, when I hear the name Hazel I immediately flashback to Shirley Booth as Hazel in the sitcom back in the early 60's.  She made me want to have a maid (who wouldn't) just like her!  The tag line 'Here Comes Hazel' sticks with me...right or wrong...it's there!

Shirley Booth

Moving along so as not to date myself too much, I bought the Hazel Hedgehog II pattern and could barely contain myself.  I couldn't wait to give it a try!  

Hazel
17 1/2" x 19 1/2"

Ain't she sweet!  I wasn't sure which fabric to use.  Prints, solids?  In the end I decided it was time to use my secret stash of Tula Pink Plume.  It was time.  My sister was worthy, Hazel is worthy...no question!

I decided she was going to get a streak of personality!  Hot pink!  She rocks it big time!  I had to do the glasses.  Cat eyes are just too damn cute to ignore!

       
Because I was cutting it close, really close to Christmas I needed to kick it in to high gear and get it done.  The quilting is good old straight lines.  Perfect for this wall hanging and fast and effective. 

The pink streak received extra lines using pink thread.  Personality on steroids!

I used Pellon Wonder Under 805R for the glasses.  I should have machine stitched them on after ironing in place.  You can see how they frayed a little on the edges.  I did think about it, then promptly let it go.  It was a wall hanging, not a quilt...it'll be okay!

The backing fabric is a piece I've had lurking around in my stash for far too long.  And of course, the hanging corners and tabs for the wood slat.  

It did make it across the country just in time for Christmas!  Whew!  I don't know why I wait so long!  Maybe in 2016 I'll make random 'things' throughout the year.  That would be too easy and too organized I think!

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Let's Bee Social