Tag Archives: pinkalicious

Pinkalicious Hazel Hedgehog Baby Quilt Finish

May 29, 2015 kittywilkin 21 Comments

No, I have not yet had my baby. I know I’m getting into the window where I should just automatically say, “Here, visit this site: http://haveyouhadthatbabyyet.com” and be done with it. He will come when he’s ready. I’m thinking I’m ready now, so whenever he’s ready, I’m game!

In the meantime, I can share some of my finishes with you! In these past few weeks, I have been nesting in all sorts of ways, trying to wrap up big projects before our home is graced with the presence of a newborn. One of my big finishes was the Pinkalicious Hazel Hedgehog Baby Quilt I made for my sister-in-law’s first baby, Reagan. She’s due June 14th but is actually showing more progress toward that end than I am! I am excited that I finished her quilt before baby time.

As you’ve seen in a previous post, I used matchstick quilting to relief quilt the baby’s name into the heart. I used Aurifil 50wt variegated Bubblegum-3660 to match the background fabric, since I wanted the name to be subtle.

I opted for an all-over flower and swirl free motion quilting (FMQ) pattern in the background, using 50 wt Aurifil 2600 – Dove. I used matching 40wt thread (Aurifil 1100 – Red Plum) to quilt a similar but more linear flower/daisy chain type pattern in her hair. For Hazel’s face and body, I used 40 wt Aurifil 2423 – Baby Pink with a more subtle, outlining features approach with my walking foot. I’m super happy with how all of the quilting turned out!

I love the look of this quilt folded, since turquoise and magenta trimmed with black is SO aesthetically appealing to me. (One day, I really will finish this quilt for myself so that I can enjoy this color combination daily.)

I bound the quilt with Architextures Words in Black (Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman Fabrics). My thought is that the black frames the quilt really well, and the white words will help it hide dust and dirt much better than a solid black would.

I bound the quilt using Cluck Cluck Sew’s Machine Binding method, since I’m hoping that this quilt sees a LOT of action and washes in its lifetime. I love how neatly the machine binding squares up the front of the quilt, and you really can’t beat its ease.

I hand stitched the label onto the back using my first attempt at blanket stitch. Admittedly, it was a lot tougher to keep even and secure than I anticipated, but I’m hoping that with practice, that will all improve. I realized while writing this label that I will be an Aunt for the first time once baby Reagan is born! So exciting!

Pinkalicious Hazel Hedgehog Baby Quilt

Completed May 2015
Pattern: Giant Hazel Hedgehog pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, speech bubble heart and layout is of my own design.
Size: 48″ x 52″
Fabric:
Front: Background: Michael Miller Stitch Circles in Aqua; Heart: Pink Star fabric, Starlet by Blank Quilting; Speech bubble: Cotton + Steel Basics by Rashida Coleman Hale; Hazel’s Face & Body: two shades of Kona pinks–I didn’t write down the names back when I bought them!; Hazel’s hair:
Back: Calypso by Ro Gregg for Paintbrush Studio
Binding: Architextures Words in Black by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman Fabrics
Batting: 100% cotton Soft n’ Crafty batting
Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2600 – Dove for piecing, quilting background and speech bubble, and sewing down binding; Aurifil 50wt variegated 3660 – Bubblegum for matchstick quilting the heart; Aurifil 40 wt 1100 – Red Plum for quilting Hazel’s hair; and, Aurifil 50 wt 2423 – Baby Pink for quilting Hazel’s face and body.

Time:
Planning: 1 hr 30 min (includes designing speech bubble heart)
Cutting & Pressing: 3 hours
Piecing the top: 5 hours 30 min
Piecing the back: 30 minutes
Squaring, layering, and basting: 40 min
Quilting: 6 hours 20 min
Finishing (making binding, squaring quilt, burying threads): 45 min
Binding: 1 hour 45 min
Total: Approx. 20 hours

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday, and hoping that another little bundle decides he’s finished and ready to make his way to the outside world before next Friday!

Design, Quilting

Hazel Hedgehog Progress

April 22, 2015 kittywilkin 23 Comments

The giant version of Elizabeth Hartman’s Hazel the Hedgehog pattern goes together quickly! I thought that it might, but I’m pleasantly surprised by exactly how quickly I was able to get this adorable pinkalicious hedgehog together. I cut the fabric for this project on Monday, and after only two short nights of sewing (a total of just under 3 hours), Hazel is complete!

She finishes at 24″x27″ since I have not yet put the borders on. She’s huge! Here are a few photos of Hazel with my kiddos for scale. Don’t mind my sword-bearing super hero son; he’s harmless, really!

I want to use a single giant hazel, but have the baby quilt finish a bit larger than the 34″x37″ baby quilt version in the pattern. Since I’ve pieced Hazel so quickly, of course my brain immediately came up with a lovely idea of how to make it super adorable (and not as quick to finish).

sketchbook plans for hazel layout — Glimpse into my sketchbook.

Originally, I was planning to add borders to have Hazel in the bottom right of a 48″x52″ baby quilt, with simple negative space/background around her. Easy peasy. There is actually a good chance I could have the quilt entirely finished by the baby shower on Sunday if this plan is chosen. Then, as I was sketching it out to calculate how big the borders should be, I thought an appliquéd heart in the top left would be a cute touch, which then progressed to a pieced speech bubble heart. How adorable would that be, though!? This is how my brain works, folks. If something is easy, I will immediately find a too-cute-to-ignore way to make it more complex (but awesome).

What would you do? Stick with the original, adorable, but super simple and easily completable-ahead-of-schedule plan? or try out the speech bubble heart idea? Only time will tell which I will choose!

I’m linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced .

Quilting, Stash Building

Pinkalicious Hazel Hedgehog Baby Quilt Beginnings

April 20, 2015 kittywilkin 10 Comments

My pink-loving sister-in-law is having a baby girl in June. When I say she’s pink-loving, note that that is a dire understatement. I mean, she loves pink. Pink on pink on pink with an accent of pink is her signature style. As a long-time pink avoider who is just recently embracing the joy that pink conveys, I am planning to work a *little* out of my comfort zone for the sake of making a quilt for her baby girl that she will love. I’m making a pinkalicious Hazel Hedgehog baby quilt, with one giant sized super-pink Hazel.

Hazel will be completely pink, with the lightest pink for her face, the bright pink her body, and the swirly magenta-pink as hair. The majority of you who commented on my last blog post about this project voted for the grey face and body and pink hair. As much as I think the grey face and body would look awesome, too, I just didn’t feel like the resulting giant grey-bodied Hazel would be pinkalicious enough for my sister-in-law. So pink it is. The turquoise Stitch Circle by Michael Miller will be the background, and my aesthetic anchor. I have to admit, I’m quite excited!

My sister-in-law’s baby shower is this coming weekend, which means I’m giving myself a typical time-squeeze goal of completing the quilt top before her shower. This is also my ALYoF goal for April, so it’s a good thing I’m finally getting started on it!

So far I’ve finished cutting for Hazel and her immediate background, which finally gave me a great opportunity to use the numbered pins my husband got for me for Christmas. They are called Marilee’s Numbered Q-Pins (*Amazon affiliate link) and are super useful. They can also be purchased from the Quilting Pins website, and you can visit them on Facebook. (Tell them Kitty aka Night Quilter sent you!) I took the advice of the little sticker on the back of the pins that suggested customizing the backs with letters, colors, etc. if more than numbers were needed. Elizabeth Hartman’s Hazel Hedgehog pattern clearly lays out the cutting and piecing instructions with letters, so the pins were perfect for keeping track of pieces.

With 20 numbered pins, I was able to create letters enough for all the Hazel pieces, while letting the letters correspond to the numbers (1 = A, 2 = B, etc.). This lets my OCD side rest easy knowing that my letters will be as easily organized and found as the numbers.

I also did a TINY bit of fabric buying for this project, so I’ll show you another addition to my stash. While auditioning fabrics, nothing worked better for the background than the little scrap of this Michael Miller Stitch Circle I had remaining from a previous project. I scoured local shops and the internet and finally found some at FreshStash on Etsy. I ordered the 1.5 yards needed for this project, and added in 1 yard of Essex Linen Blend in Smoke.