You Had Me At Hedgehog

Em here, so I am hoping by now you get the feel that I am a huge animal fan. I love them, all of them, and that is probably the reason I am in the Biology field. 

I am also hoping by now you get the gist that I have a hedgehog. Her name is Gypsy, and besides my sweet husband, she is my whole world. 

That girl is spoiled rotten...crazy hedgehog. 

For those of you saying "What the heck is a hedgehog?!" (much like my friends an family), here is a picture!

Sweet Gypsy, I never forgo an opportunity to show her off ;)

So there you have it, a hedgehog, these were taken a few days after she came to live with us, she was about 8 weeks old. She is much bigger now, and well very  moody, but that is a common hedgie trait so it is just one of those things you just have to take in stride.

When Melodie sent us this Pinstrosity I was instantly in love, and while she thinks it turned out awful I think it's adorable!Check it out!

The Original

http://maker-land.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/hedgehog-pincushion-tutorial.html

Adorable right?! I love the texture of the fabric she used, and I love that she made a cute little girl hedgehog with a bow :) Here is Melodies take on this Hedgehog pin cushion!

The Pinstrosity

I think that is super cute! I love all the multicolored pins that are the "quills", I think it is simply adorable! Here is what Melodie had to say about it though:

"...Honestly, 2/3rds into making [this], I couldn't stop laughing because I could see how much of a FAIL this was becoming.

And now I love my Pinstrosity because it's so ugly and ridiculous-looking! The original was so cute....

I absolutely wanted to make this really cute hedgehog pincushion to replace my old, boring square-shaped pincushion. How hard could it be, with the right instructions ? Well...

First, she advises to use faux fur or towelling. I used and old brown towel thinking "It's going to be fine and cute, no problem".

But I wanted a bigger pincushion than this one... and I didn't have a printer to print the pattern. You see where this is going ?

I put a sheet of paper onto my screen to trace the original pattern, then made it bigger using the well-known "that's probably about right" method. I could see I had already lost some of the shapes, but I still thought "it's going to be just fine".

For the rest... I think the picture speaks for itself. I think the worst (and funniest) part was choosing the eyes and nose that were the least creepy given the very limited choice of beads I had.

Yes, yes i know, it's still pretty creepy. It looks at me with its empty eyes while I sew, crying "I want to die now". But I still like it because it reminds me of all the terrible Pinstrosities I've seen on your website..."

I think that her creation is unique and very cute! Considering that she made this without a pattern on hand, and then adjusted it to the size she wanted I think she did awesome! 

There are a few things that I think would have perhaps helped her out besides the obvious printing out the pattern, and having it be the same size as the pattern.

-Eyes and Nose, I know the original used small beads but I think she could have gotten away with just using black thread to create eyes and a nose. 

-Ears, physically speaking, hedgehog ears are pretty small compared to their body (baby hedgehogs are the exception to this, they have to grow into their ears). Melodies ears are a little big considering the rest of the body size, but I think it just adds to the charm here.

-I know she didn't like the towelling she used, but I think that the pins being the quills is fun and quarky, in fact she has kind of created her own pin on this one, and I might just follow suite and make one based off her  alterations. I will keep you posted on that

Thanks Melodie!

I do have to say that this little guy reminds me of a cartoon character but I can't quite put my finger on who it is...anyone have any clue? First person to figure it out gets a metaphorical Shiny Nickle (A real honor in my family). 

So give it your best shot! Also, has anyone made some fun hedgehog crafts?! I am always up for hedgie crafts of ANY sort. I would love to hear/see them! 

Happy Friday Pinstrosipeeps!