#82: Lainey's Ladybug

I've been having a rough go in the craft room lately. Between my broken foot and an uncooperative quilt, I haven't had a finish in awhile. I'm happy to report that my quilting ship has turned around and I have a finish to share today!

Lainey is the daughter of a local friend. She has always left nice comments about my quilts, which is a good way to get on my quilting queue! When her mom first referred to her as Ladybug--a year ago!--I knew I wanted to make her a ladybug quilt.

Most of the fabric was taken from my stash, but I did buy the adorable ladybug print from Urban Zoologie and found the smaller ladybug print on clearance from Joann.

I designed the original version of the quilt on EQ7. But as you can guess, I varied a bit from this once I realized how big I made my ladybugs!

I made two different versions of nine patches, nine of each one. The squares are 3.5" so the blocks are 9.5".

I put my Silhouette Cameo to good use for the ladybugs. 

I cut 9.5" squares of a white tonal for the background. At this point, I remembered that I wanted to do my applique differently, but since all the pieces were backed with Heat N Bond Lite before I cut them, I keep going. 

If I were to make this quilt again, I would have ironed the fabric onto freezer paper instead of Heat N Bond, then used basting spray to attach the pieces on to the background temporarily, and appliqued the way I did for Gioia's French Roses.  I also would have designed the red ladybug shell with holes cut out for the dots. This would have made the ladybugs softer and thinner. Ah well, as they say in the Netherlands, helaas pindakaas.

Originally, I planned to make the quilt as a square, since Lainey is a baby. When I first pieced it, it was 54" x 54", which is pretty big for a baby quilt. So I took off one row and added it to the bottom to make it a rectangle instead. I think this will let her grow with it a little more.

Once I saw how big it was compared to our king size bed, I made the decision to skip the border. 

Lainey will be able to grow with this quilt for a long time!

The quilt stayed like this for a few weeks while I worked like mad to finish Mrs. Gentry's Library. In the meantime, I found the perfect minky to go on the back. 

I love the way applique looks from the back.

I quilted straight lines, one inch apart, using invisible thread. 

For the label, I used an image of one of the ladybugs.

I had an extra ladybug block left over when I changed the quilt from a square to a rectangle so I made a little taggie blanket, too. 

To see more pictures of this quilt in progress, look for #LaineysLadybug on Instagram.  If you'd like to see what I'm currently working on, follow me at de Jong Dream House.

Linked to:

Friday Link Party @ Busy Hands Quilts

Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Linky Tuesday @ Free Motion Tuesday

Made by You Monday @ Skip to My Lou

Main Crush Monday @ Cooking Up Quilts

Midweek Makers @ Quilt Fabrication

Monday Making @ Love Laugh Quilt

Moving it Forward @ Em's Scrapbag

Needle & Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation 

Off the Wall Friday @ Nina Marie

Oh Scrap @ Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Show off Saturday @ Sew Can She

Work in Progress Wednesday @ Esther's Quilt Blog

Whoop Whoop Friday @ Confessions of  Fabric Addict