Ladybug Quilt

I finished my niece's quilt yesterday.   The theme of her nursery is ladybugs using a black, white, and red color scheme.  When my sister-in-law told me the nursery theme, I immediately had an idea.   Brenna really liked this.   I thought I could do better.  I wanted to do vertical columns of black and white fabrics with ladybugs walking across them.  I wanted a more modern look for the quilt.  I wanted the fabrics to match up at odd angles.  Surfing blogs I came across the type of quilt I had in my mind.   I figured out the name and publisher of it.  The book is called Denyse Schmidt Quilts.   I used the pattern called Hop, Skip, and Jump.  I modified the quilt slightly.   I wanted everything to be on a smaller scale since it was going to be a wall hanging.  The book recommended to enlarge the pattern template by 400%.  I enlarged mine by 200%.   I also added black lattice between the columns instead of sewing the column one to another.  I went to my local Joanns to find the fabrics.  

Constructing the quilt was not hard.   I stacked my seven fabrics on top of one another, pinned the stack to keep it from moving and traced my template piece on the top fabric.   I used my fabric scissors to cut the pieces.  Denyse Schmidt has some good suggestions for piecing and keeping your fabrics correct directionally in the book.   Once the cutting was done the sewing went very quickly.    

Here is it once the columns are done. 

 I used 7 different black/white fabrics and a solid white cotton.  I tried to vary the scale of the prints.  I also wanted most of them read as black.  One print reads more white, but it blends with the others.   After I completed this stage I started on the ladybugs.  

I made the decision to use five ladybugs because seven seemed too many.  I wanted to use an odd number.  Using what I know about design from photography, I strategically placed them in a couple of non symmetric triangles.   I used a circle cutter to cut a pattern from card stock so I could play with size and placement.   I used a red fabric for my ladybugs.   I ironed Wonder Under onto the backside of my red fabric.   Then, I traced the circle pattern and cut.  After cutting all the circles, I went back and cut out a small wedge on one side.  I planned to add black fabric in this space to give the look of wings.   I added the ladybug spots by cutting the circles out of the black and white polka dot fabric.  I ironed Wonder Under to the backside of the black and white polka dot fabric prior to cutting.  This is what my scrap of fabric looked like before cutting out the white circles:

I ironed them on the red ladybug body and used my zigzag stitch set to the very short stitch length to sew around them.  

I added Wonder Under to the back side of my black fabric so I could trace and cut out the negative space for the wings and the head.  For the heads, I eyeballed a crescent and cut it.   Next, I pinned the ladybugs to the quilt to take another look at placement before ironing them down. 

Since, I was happy with the placement, I headed over the ironing board.  I peeled the backing fabric off the red fabric circles and ironed them on.   Next, I repeated the process with the black negative space and the head.  I zigzagged around the black parts first and then the red ones.   When I was finished it looked like this.

I made tabs and the binding from the black and white polka dotted print.   Now, I was ready to quilt.   I typically do the stitch in the ditch type quilting.   This time I decided that I wanted to try something different so I free motion quilted this one.   I didn't draw any designs, I just quilted random squiggles and loops.  When I finished, it looked like this:

I think she likes it. 

Lego Organization

My son loves his Legos.   He has several small sets and one big set.   He also got three pounds of random Lego pieces from his grandparents last year.  Currently, we have all the pieces in one big bin. 

I wonder if it would be easier to rebuild his sets if he sorted the bricks by color.   I'm not ready to commit to doing that so I'll let the Lego free-for-all continue.   The little manuals that come with the Lego sets is truly what makes me crazy.   They are necessary because they have assembly instructions.   Unfortunately, they rip easily and seem to be scattered from one end of the playroom to the other.  Today, I tamed the madness.   My solution involved an old binder and sheet protectors.   First, I put each book/leaflet in a sheet protector.   Then, I sorted them by what type of Lego they were.  For example all the Lego "City" manuals went together.   The "Cars" manuals went together.  At the end of the binder, I put all his Lego Club Jr. magazines in individual sheet protectors together.  

I hope this works to tame the mess.   I showed him how to use his binder and put it at the base of his Lego table.  Will it tame the clutter?  I can hope...

Thankfulness!

I think I am in a post family visiting, post vacation funk.   I actually got teary dropping my daughter off at choir camp  this morning.   To combat the funk, I am going to list all the things I am thankful for.  These are in no particular order, just written as they rolled off my brain.

#1 For my husband who is a wonderful provider

#2 For Jason's stable job

#3 For a church that is growing and reaching people daily

#4 For a church that encourages me and my family to grow spiritually

#5 For children who are healthy

#6 For a house that has all the square footage I could ever want

#7 For the opportunity to do a missions project in my own city, which I treasure because I can't see myself 

going out of the country again until the children are older.  

# 8 To get to live near family again

#9 For a little boy who loves to talk to me nonstop after his sister talked to me nonstop while she was home this morning.

#10 To live in a country where we can worship Jesus freely.

#11 For a washer and dryer that work and I don't have to wash by hand

#12 & #13 For a computer whose hard drive has not died yet and for a husband who is taking care of fixing it

#14 For the opportunity to stay home with my children

#15 For the time to explore various creative outlets

#16 For running water and sanitation

#17 For a wonderful violin teacher

#18 For vacations that are relaxing

#19 For a spring garden that worked and allowed me to freeze some veggies

#20 For a blog that records slices of our daily life so that I can have a written record of our lives.  

Vacations, Missions, and Birthdays, oh my!

I have tons to write about.   While I was on vacation, I worked on several blogs, but didn't finish any to post.  I hope to get that done soon.   As a family, we did Houston Project last week.   Houston Project is a week long city-wide mission project.   My family is visiting right now and we have been on the go!   We celebrated my son's birthday yesterday at the Children's Museum.   I hosted a party with a friend of mine whose son turns five in a couple of weeks.   The boys have the same group of friends, so we had a joint party.  The museum was crazy crowded, but we had a really good time.   We had a guide that took the kids to various parts of the museum.  It was a play tour!   The playtime for the party flew by!  The newly renovated museum is really cool it makes me wish I was a kid again.   My sister-in-law and I are off to The Woodlands today.   She lives in a small town in Alabama and loves to come explore my big city after being raised in a big city.