Send in the Hedgehogs

Ah, April break. A week off of school clearly not planned by a quilt professional due to its proximity to Quilt Market, but whatever. This year I just gave up on trying to get the final design I wanted out to Checker before market done. And by done, I mean, get a frickin frackin decent photo for the cover because everything else is done and has been done for what seems like years but is really only months. It's been a pitifully comical horror show, really.

Even my magical photo woman was unable to make this work.

Thankful for the loan of a clothesline, but just no.

Yeah, no.

Not straight on enough, although I do like the rock itself.

 It's just been so much fun. It also does not help that my camera (nee iphone, upon which I have taken all of my previous cover shots for four years and they all look great) does not love polka dots as I do. Unfortunately this is not destined to be a great cover, but the quilt itself is quite pretty. It's a sad thing.

The trials and tribulations of a designer. So moving on....

Troop 11009 and their cool breast cancer recovery pillows.

Several weeks ago I volunteered to host a cadette Girl Scout troop in my sewing studio (basement) and auxiliary sewing studio (dining room table) so they could make some breast cancer recovery pillows for a local organization. They did a great job, and everyone wanted to come back and sew some more, specifically everyone wanted to make a hedgehog from the pattern featured on the polyfil bag. Those crafty polyfil marketers. But because I have not completely lost my mind, I allowed my daughters to each invite one of them to come hog it up during an otherwise cold and windy and icky April break day. I would have loved to have all of them as I enjoy each of these girls greatly, but I am not insane.

I wish I had gotten a photo of the whirlwind of fabric picking for their hogs; while I don't have the stash of some/most quilters, to a 12 year old girl I guess it's fairly impressive. At least a 12 year old girl or two who aren't my own. In any case, after much fabric auditioning, callbacks, rejection, and casting, the pieces were cut and we were ready to move to the auxiliary studio, all set up with my two sewing machines.

This was the moment I blew their minds. How, you ask? Well, clearly it wasn't my abilities to make sure a picture is hanging straight on the wall. No, the truth is I possess an incredible and amazing skill bordering on the "magical" (their word) I like to call "winding a bobbin." There was ooooo-ing and aaaaah-ing the likes of which I haven't heard since pretty much forever.

Look at the joy I created. I rock.

 For those of us who put pins in things (preferably not our children) on a regular basis, it may come as a bit shocking that the population at large, as represented by preteens, has no idea how to put them in. So that was another lesson. I was very impressed, though, that they totally understood why the pieces had to be sewn right sides together, and also why the hedgehog spikey thing had to be sewn inside the little pillow as part of the seam, probably more so than you do right now because it is very hard to describe what I mean.

The actual sewing portion of our day-o-hedgehog-fun vascillated between forgetting to put the presser foot down, sewing at the speed of light, screaming with joy and/or fear of the needle, and happily lots of working together and laughing at and with each other.

A rare moment of serious sewing. Paige actually looks like she knows what she is doing.

 

Anneliese's "OMG I might be going too fast but I don't really know OMG OMG OMG" face.

Eva practicing surgery through handsewing.

Julie attaching some ears, because a hedgehog who can't hear you is just sad.

Eva is all excited about eyes she glued on. Anneliese is all "Girl, look at the mess you made on the table."

 Eventually the hogs were done, so we took them outside for a photo session. Like you do.

How many hogs can you fit on a tire swing?

If nothing else, the dying tree in the yard makes for a great photo backdrop.

Joining the hog treefest.

They needed a snack, so we stuck them in the grass to let them dig for bugs.

So did I get much work done over break? Do I ever? But I got to sew with some cool chicks who might actually sew something on their own someday because they will think back on Hogfest and say to themselves "I want to be cool like Paige and Eva's mom" so it's all good.