How to Make a Hedgie Bag

With the addition of a 3rd hedgehog into my house I've found myself having to make new hedgie bags. The ones the boys like the best are getting a bit worn and the rest are either too big or too small. I took one of the "favorites" and did some measurements to make sure I got the size right. I've had folks ask how I make these, so I decided to do a blog post about it.

My hedgie bags are made out of 100% cotton. I use cotton flannel for the inside and regular cotton fabric for the outside. While I do use fleece in their cages, I don't like making the bags out of fleece. I try to have a minimum of seams and very little thread for the hedgies to find. They can get their nails caught in loops of thread, so no decorative stitching please.

I try to pick darker fabrics for the outside, but don't always have some on hand. Hedgies are nocturnal, have poor eyesight, and are sensitive to sunlight. Lighter fabrics can let more light into the bags. My first hedgehog, Ender, would hesitate sometimes before entering his bag if he could see light coming through the pattern on the fabric.

Anyway, start with cotton fabric. 1 yard of flannel + 1 yard of cotton fabric, carefully cut, will make 3 hedgie bags.

Cut your fabrics into 1 long piece, 12" x 25". I like to use June Taylor cutting tools, so I cut my fabric when folded

In this picture I've kept the fabric folded the way it came off the bolt and just folded it over one more time. I then cut the fabric in to 12" segments. This is the width.

In this picture is one of the segments from above, turned sideways and unfolded once so there are two layers. I measured from the fold (on the left) and cut it at 12.5". This is your height.

Do this to your flannel pieces and your regular cotton fabric

Now it's time to sew.

Turn your pieces right sides together and sew up each side. I sew from the fold up with a 1/2" seam. At the top and bottom I backstitch a couple stitches to keep it from unraveling.

You should have two inside out little sacks. Take the flannel one and turn it right side in. Now, stuff it into the cotton fabric sack. It should look a bit like this: 

Next, you need to pin the top edges together, making sure to match the side seams together.

More sewing. Pick a spot that is NOT one of the seam lines and sew around the top of the bag. DON'T sew it closed. Leave a opening big enough to fit two fingers. About 2 inches? Use a 1/2" seam again and backstitch again at the beginning and end of the sewing.

Now for the fun part. You get to reach in the hole and pull the whole thing through the hole. Huh? You ask. Trust me, it works.

try to grab a corner to pull through first

pull the WHOLE thing through

finally!

You're almost there!The next step is to push the flannel back inside to make the inside of the bag.

Now it's time to sew up the hole. Line the folded edges together. Sometimes I pin them together so they don't wiggle. Now for the sewing. I sew as close to the edge of the bag as possible, starting about 1/2" before the opening and going 1/2" on the other side. Once again, backstitch at the beginning and end and you are done!

You now have a completed hedgie bag! 

Of course, the next thing you get to do is throw it in the washing machine. You've got to get all that sizing out. If you have some dirty hedgehog laundry (towels, liners, fleece, other bags) wash them together. I try to get the bag to smell as familiar as the old bags. The flannel part will probably come out in the wash. As annoying as it is to stuff it back in, you know it's clean.

With ALL of my hedgies I have to wash their bags 2-3 times before they'll take to them. I try every time after the first wash, but they all go in, sniff around and then poop or pee in the bag. Be prepared :-)

Ender and Calvin (RIP)

T.H. and his friend Rhoda Q Tripp take a cruise!

Travel Hedgie (T.H.) here. I just got back from an awesome cruise with Jodi and Sue. The even let me take a friend along, Miss Rhoda Q. Tripp. We had a great time and want to tell you all about it. The humans are still recovering, so I'm taking over the laptop.

Our trip started off with a drive down to Orlando, Florida. Because the state of South Carolina won't give us a driver's license, Rhoda and I slept most of the trip. We woke up in Georgia just in time for a healthy breakfast:

Miss Joyce said something about Rhoda watching her caffeine intake, but we didn't have ANY problems. I always bounce up and down on the suitcases during road trips. How else are we supposed to get our exercise?

Now we didn't go to the cruise ship right away. Jodi wanted to go to someplace called The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at a place called Universal's Island's of Adventure. I'm not sure who this Harry Potter guy is, but his world sounded pretty fun. She was very excited about going there.

Sue and Jodi hit a mall once they settled into the hotel. Strangely enough, we never made it to a quilt shop on this trip. Rhoda was a bit shocked at that. Anyway, they left us alone in the hotel room while they went to eat. They did bring us back some yummy pizza and Sue found us some wine! Her friend Buddy even joined the party. That was some gooood pizza. Sue wasn't too happy that we ate so much. I think she wanted to eat hers for breakfast in the morning.

 

The next day was Harry Potter World. It was kind of cold out so we got to ride in Jodi's backpack. The houses were really neat and covered in snow and there was this giant castle with a ride in it. Rhoda and I didn't go on the ride. We actually got stuffed in a locker (hmph) but it's probably a good thing. Jodi anti-dizzy meds hadn't kicked in so she didn't enjoy it too much. Not sure we would've either. We did get to meet this nice girl with a pet owl outside one of the stores. Thank goodness we have quills and that owl was a pet. Normally we don't care for owls.

Jodi said the girl is a Hufflepuff. Not sure what that means. Maybe she ought to read these books to us. Then we can go back down again!

Rhoda and I did get to try a yummy drink after lunch. We were in the Hog's Head bar when Jodi let us try some Butterbeer. We wanted to take some home, but they only served it by the glass or mug. We tried to smuggle some into the backpack, but it spilled all over the floor. The barkeep kicked us out after that.

The rest of Harry Potter world got pretty crowded so we hid in the backpack for a while. Jodi shopped and bought some pumpkin juice and took lots of pictures. She stayed off the other rides, just in case :-) More of the pictures can be seen on her Webshots page.

Sue was nice and found us a quiet place to rest while she shopped in the Dr. Seuss part of the park. She likes the Grinch. See the cool furniture? Rhoda wants to know if Joyce or Beth will buy her one of the chairs?

We napped on the ride down to Tampa. The party last night and being stuffed in a locker (sniff) takes a lot out of a hedgie (and porcupine) The next time we woke up, there was new friend to talk to:

The ship we were going on was called the Norwegian Star. It was very big!
Rhoda and I wanted to explore on our own, but Jodi and Sue were afraid we'd get lost or scare someone. Unaccompanied rodents and hedgies usually aren't welcome on board cruise ship. We don't think that's fair. Sniff.

Day one was a day at sea while they travel down to the Caribbean. Jodi and Sue were busy around the ship, so Rhoda and I snuck out of the cabin and joined something called a "Pub Crawl." The organizer's name was Orlando and he let us join for free! Apparently they normally charge you a lot of money, but he figured we probably would be about to drink too much. (Rhoda laughed at that)

PUB CRAWL!!!

We had a hard time trying to get back to the room before Jodi and Sue got back. This nice cat helped us get there. She was kind of laughing at us. Rhoda said she reminded her of the cats she lives with, Janis and Bette.

The first stop of the ship was on an island called Roatan, off the coast of Honduras. It was kind of rainy, thank goodness we were on a bus tour around the island. It was a very small bus and the humans had a hard time getting through the aisle, said something about it being 6 inches wide? Rhoda and I didn't have a problem.

The bus drove around the island and made 4 stops. One was at this little resort type place where there was a replica of the Black Pearl (no Johnny Depp) and we went on a short boat ride. We got to see a couple wrecks and some sights.

Two of the other stops were at places where immigrants from Africa demonstrated some of the traditions they've still kept after 250+ years. We even tried some local food.

What did we learn about Roatan? What, this was vacation, not school! Ok, on the mainland (Honduras) the first language people learn is Spanish. On Roatan, it is English. It was a very pretty island, but very poor.

Back on the ship, Jodi treated us to a Pina Colada and the guy who cleaned the room introduced us to a new friend to party with.

More pictures of Roatan can be found on Jodi's Web Shots album.


The second day of stops was in Belize City, Belize. The ship had to anchor offshore about 4-5 miles so we took tenders to the pier. It was a very nice boat ride. Sue decided to do some less strenuous excursions than Jodi, so it was just the three of us. Our excursion was a boat ride up the Old Belize River and a visit to the Altun Ha Mayan ruins.

It was a very hot and sunny day, thank goodness Jodi brought sunscreen. I think she had some booze too (she kept saying something about 85 proof) but didn't share any with us.

The first part we did the river ride. That was sooo cool. We tried to help drive the boat, but Jodi snatched us back to our seat.

We saw lots of animals: dolphins, manatee snouts, egrets, herons, other birds, bats, monkeys, iguanas, and (EEK!) crocodiles! Lots of crocodiles! Rhoda and I kept a very low and careful profile around the crocodiles. I don't think they would've been too bothered by our quills and Rhoda would've been a tasty meal.

The pics of all the river sites can been on the Webshots album, of course. The link does go to start of the Belize pictures.

The river tour ended at a place where they served us lunch and we caught a bus to the Altun Ha ruins. There aren't any pictures of us at the ruins, and not too many of the ruins. Jodi took so many pictures on the river (with a lot of zooms) that her battery died and she didn't have a spare. The three of us did climb up the temple below. Well, Jodi did. They had a handrail off to the side. She was exhausted and blamed it on US! She said we'd been pigging out too much in the buffet and weighed her down. The nerve!

We were exhausted at the end of this day. Immediately went to the room and took cold showers and went to bed early. Whew!

Oh. Belize used to be called British Honduras. Because they were a British colony, their official language is still English.

Day 3 of stops was Costa Maya Mexico. Our excursion was to see another Mayan ruin, but we didn't have to leave until after lunch. Thank goodness, we welcomed sleeping in. Sue had a different excursion in the morning, but she decided not to go. She needed to sleep in too. Vacation can be exhausting!

Today's Mayan ruins were called Chacchoben. They left a lot of trees up around this site so it was much, much cooler. We weren't allowed to do much climbing on the ruins. The large structures were all roped off we could only climb up some steps to a plaza area. Rhoda and I tried to climb one of the temples, but we got caught just past the rope.

CAN YOU SEE US?

Jodi even allowed herself to be photographed. She did crop most of her body off before showing people. Crazy humans.

Around the back of the other temple on this plaza was a ravine. Some others in our group spotted some monkeys in the trees there. They were sooo cute. Yes they can be found in the Webshots album, (starts on the bottom row) but Jodi also took a small video of one of them eating. Let's see, we should be able to insert that...

There he is. If this doesn't work I'll put it on Youtube. We wanted to go play with him, but Jodi wouldn't let us.

Not as an exhausting day as the one before, but we did have a cool shower when we got back. We had to have another one later after playing on the chocolate buffet on the ship. They had some chocolate mice to eat, but no hedgies or porcupines.

Day 4 of ports was Cozumel, Mexico and the Tulum Mayan ruins. Rhoda and I were exhausted so we decided to stay on the ship instead of going with Jodi. It was going to be another loong day. She had to take a 45 minute ferry ride to the mainland, then an hour or so bus ride to the ruins and then the reverse after the ruins. 

Jodi said it was beautiful. It was the largest of the 3 sites she visited, but also the most commercial. In the shopping/food area there was a Subway and a Haagen Daz. The place was huge with a lot of neat ruins. There was a beach and Jodi brought her bathing suit, but there really wasn't time to go down in the hour they had to look around after the guide finished talking.

She took an awful lot of pictures of iguanas. Apparently they were all over the place. We're kind of glad we didn't go. I have a feeling she would've tried to take a picture of us with one. Who knows how that would've ended! Pictures, of course, can be seen in her Webshots album (starting on the bottom row).

Instead of the ruins (and wherever Sue went) Rhoda, Buddy, and I had our own little party with the towel critters that came to the room. Did we mention there was a mini bar in the room? Party Time!

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. The 2nd day at see was a hangover day, for obvious reasons. Jodi and Sue were not very sympathetic with our problems. They just left us in the room to recover. That's ok, we slept through the day and even the drive home. Hey, we had a busy vacation. 

We're back home now hiding from the humans. Sue has a cold and Jodi has what is probably a lighter version of it. They keep hacking and sneezing so we're playing with the real hedgies. Rhoda will probably have to go home soon, but we're having fun until then. Maybe we'll go play in some fabric tomorrow.

still alive

Gotta update this blog one of these days. Maybe when I'm off the evil prednisone. Evil evil drug.

Finally recovered from New Orleans. $n pt. 2, $p Quilters

What, did you think ALA was just about food? Technically I guess it's about work, but that for another blog (that doesn't exist).

Saturday night's gathering was with the ALA Biblioquilters. We are librarians and library related folks who make quilts (imagine that) for charity. Read all about us HERE. There was a really nice write up about us this year prior to ALA. If you read the article, we did four quilts this year. Our display was set up across from the exhibits in the main convention center space and we had our own official sign! Yes, I was rather excited by the sign.

So, we did four quilts this year. I worked on the bookshelf quilt again. I may branch out next year and work on a different one. Everyone's hashing out what we want to do, so I'll just wait and see.

We have the library related t-shirt quilt:

I actually own two of those shirts. At least one will probably end up in my own quilt some day. Notice the Mardi Gras fabric?

This is the Music Quilt. If you haven't read the article, it was made by 2 librarians for a fellow librarian who had pancreatic cancer. They never got to give it to her and decided to donate it to the auction this year. One of them, Pat, died in January of this year (also of pancreatic cancer)

This is the Wonky Quilt. My mom likes to make these:

(no, we were not blocking the elevator)

And my favorite (because I worked on it), The bookshelf quilt. There's a neat hummel figurine on the top shelf that you can't see, but it is visible in the article. I did the bottom row, the one with the ereader

Here's how we looked all nice and lined up. To the right of the picture were some tables with the bid sheets and some donated artwork. I was all about the quilts, though.

I did not make it to a quilt shop in NO. There weren't any down town and I didn't want to spend taxi fare to get to it. One of the biblioquilters did go. Said she spent more on taxi fare to get there and back than on fabric. I think I'm fine with my pictures, food, and free books (oh, and work)

Here we are at dinner at Jacques-Imo's Cafe. See previous post for the food consumed. We do have one infiltrator. My roommate Jodi isn't a quilter. She does have a library degree and cross-stitches so I guess that counts :-)

It was great to meet everyone. I think I have faces with most of the names.

--end part 2--

Finally recovered from New Orleans. $n pt. 1, $p Food

Can you believe it's taken me a month to write my ALA update? I can. Laziness always seemed to set in. Hmm, you should update your blog - noo, I need to harvest these melons in farmville. Jodi-blog: no, just need to clobber one more ground hog in frontierville!

Let's see, before ALA my Hello Kitty vans came in. These are the shoes that kept me out of Harrah's. Huh? With shipping, they cost the same amount I would gamble (lose) at Harrah's in NO. Then I'd come home and order my shoes cause I had to have them. I allowed myself to order them BEFORE ALA on the condition that I couldn't go into Harrahs since I'd already spent that moolah. Don't roll your eyes at me, it worked. I didn't even go in to check out the decor or restaurants.

So very me.

On to New Orleans. ALA (American Library Association) was 5 days of RDA (gotta cover the work related stuff), food, authors, and friends. Did I mention food? So, lets cover the food.

Dinner the first night was at the Acme Oyster House. Since I was alone I sat at the bar. I ordered a ... (looking up menu) I ordered the New Orleans Medley (sampling of gumbo, jambalaya, red beans & rice, grilled smoke sausage). The pic is kinda dark. No flash on my cell phone. My neighbor (who turned out to be a pilot from my flight) let me take a picture of his raw oysters.

I don't do oysters - yuck. Not to mention the dire warning from my seatmate on the plane "don't eat summer oysters"

Thursday and Friday were work related days. Yes, I had to work for my dinner(s). Two days of RDA training. Very intense and rather mind-numbing. As usual, my day revolved around lunch. Heck, why not?

Day one, LG and I ate at Mulate's. It was pretty close to the convention center and within walking distance. Did I mention the weather? Actually cooler than Columbia. The humidity was there of course, but probably 10-12 degrees cooler than home.

After thoroughly interrogating the waiter on what exactly went into a shrimp po-boy (not much) I ordered and dug in. It was good, of course. How can you go wrong with fried shrimp, french bread, mayo, lettuce, and tomatoes?

Since I so obviously ate light for lunch, I was able to stay awake during the second half of the day's session. I was lazy for dinner. There was a Subway and a Walgreens near the hotel so I just got a sub and hit the Walgreens for desser: the delicacy known as the Choco Taco

Talk about yummy!

Lunch on day 2 of RDA was even more interesting (no, not being sarcastic). We ate at Cochon. LG mentioned this restaurant and their shop where you could buy pralines with bacon. I'd actually seen the place from the shuttle that morning, so talked LG and MM into going. We ate outside, which totally indicates the weather in NO. LG's must not have had anything too exciting. I didn't take a picture of her food.

Everything on the menu is a la carte, I had the Meat pie (which did have oysters in it, but they were buried and COOKED) and the eggplant & shrimp dressing. Both were very good.

MM had the fried alligator with chili garlic aioli (and some veggee). That was also good, much much better than the gator on a stick I had at the Taste of Charleston years ago

Saturday afternoon (yes, stupid timing) was beignet day. I cheated and ate at the one in the Riverwalk. After traipsing around the exhibit hall all day I was NOT walking to the original one. Almost forgot to take a picture:

Dinner that night was at Jacques-Imo's Cafe. I gathered up my roommate and a bunch of fellow quilters (the ALA Biblioquilters - more on them later) to eat there. I wanted to try an appetizer I'd seen on the food network. We did have reservations, thank goodness. The place was PACKED (yeah, Saturday) and we could barely hear each other but the food was awesome. The appetizer I wanted was totally worth the trip and the crowds. When it became obvious I was not sharing my Shrimp and Alligator-Sausage Cheesecake with my tablemates (beignets at 4 means a 2 appetizer dinner), the restaurant brought the table a slice. Everyone agreed it was wonderful. Even Travel Hedgie agreed it was wonderful

Totally recommend this restaurant, but would like to go on a weekday and not ruin my dinner with beignets.

-end part 1-

Countdown to ALA

Less than two weeks until I head off to New Orleans for ALA! (American Library Association) Yay! I'm really more excited about going to ALA itself than the actual city it is in. New Orleans seems to be out to get me sometimes: bruised tail bone one trip, picked up a parasite another (before Katrina), lost money at Harrahs another... Heat and humidity. Iceland would be better, oh well.

Plans so far:

Thurs-Fri - preconference
dinner Sat at Jacques-Imo's Cafe.  I saw an appetizer on tv that I want to try. I've got my friend Jodi and a bunch of quilters going with me so should be a blast.

Found another restaurant I want to try, it's a Thai place. Not sure when I'll it it though.

I was actually reading my ALA snail mail spam today and found out that one of my favorite paranormal authors is going to be speaking/signing in the exhibit hall on Saturday! Don't know what was on my agenda at that time. It no longer is. She lives in New Zealand so it's not like I'll get to see her that often. I've got all my books on my Kindle, so she'll be signing that. Who is it? Nalini Singh for you fellow romance readers.

There's an exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art of Madeline Albright's pins. Jodi and I want to try to make it to that.

Meetings you ask? Yeah, there are some scheduled in there :-)

Other news:

The quilt I made for SOS Aloha raised $250 and will benefit the Navy SEALs. Kim sent me a Navy Seal coin as a thank you. Did you know Magnum PI was a SEAL?

Ender and Calvin are doing well. Calvin had surgery last week on 2 masses. One on his side and regrowth on his leg. He's doing great.

Oh, and found some shoes I WILL be getting after I get back from ALA. Just not sure which pair. Have I grown up? No, why would I want to?

Off to design group. Expect lots of pics to look at for the post-ala post.