Fancy Forest QAL 2018 - Hazel Hedgehog

After the tricky bunnies, I was looking forward to easier hedgehog blocks.  Once again, I have stuck with the fabric suggestions in the pattern.  My chart is proving useful to help me stay on track of what fabrics I need!

I think the most time consuming part of making these blocks is the cutting.  The pattern does give you guidelines for cutting long strips of each fabric, to be sub-cut for each block.  While I imagine this saves lots of time, I am just too stingy with my fabric so I prefer to cut each piece separately (I do layer up fabric if it is the same size so that I can do several piece A, B etc at the same time).  I like to cut up everything I need for all 8 hedgehogs at once, so that I can chain piece.  I have also found a new use for all the magnetic letters that my boys used to use for spelling practice on the fridge! 

Depending on how many projects you have on the go at once, you might also want to use some of the early piecing as a Leaders and Enders pile.  For example, I have had a pile of the B and L pieces sitting to the side of my machine this week.  I am also making a baby quilt, so when I finish sewing pieces for that, I feed through a B/L combo - this keeps the thread going so I rarely cut my thread (prevents the horrid birds nest at the back of a starting piece of fabric).  I find that after an hour of working on a baby quilt, I also have a pile of pieced BL pieces.  I did the same with the F/S pieces. Before you know it, you have a finished project plus the beginning of another one too.

One gadget that I find really helpful with this pattern is my Seams Sew Easy seam guide.  It is a Lori Holt product that I bought from Sarah at Pretty Fabrics & Trims (although I don't think she still has them in stock unfortunately), and it is fantastic for guiding you as you sew each diagonal line across the corners.  It saves you drawing all those pencil lines.  If you don't have a guide though, a carefully positioned strip of washi tape would do the job too! 

Generally, I'm happy with my finished hedgehogs.  I particularly like those that have a solid or two to break up the prints - I love the dark blue one.  The other blue one is a bit OTT really - three different prints make for a rather busy looking hedgehog, but hopefully next to some of the other simpler blocks he will blend in.

If you would like to join in with the Fancy Forest QAL, pop over to the three hosts to find out all the details - Fiona, Abigail and Sharon.