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These quilts for Grace and Anne are what made me start thinking about making quilts for my grandchildren. I saw a quilt pattern entitled “Cuddle Bugs” in a book called, Quilts and Totes for Little Folks and knew I just had to make these quilts for Grace and Anne! The quilts had ladybugs on them along with butterflies and dragonflies. We have a fairly new park across the street from our home and the girls call it “the ladybug park”. I wanted to make them these quilts so they would always remember going to the ladybug park with their Grammie!
Picture of Grace and Anne taken January 25, 2011.
This is why they call it the Ladybug Park!
Grace has a hat on that says 100 because it was the 100th day of school that day!
So in honor of the ladybug park, the name of these quilts are:
ANNE AND THE LADYBUG PARK and GRACE AND THE LADYBUG PARK.
There was a lot of work involved in the making of these quilts. Not only were they machine stitched together, they had appliquéd bugs, along with hand embroidered French knots for the spots on the ladybugs, stem stitches for the antennas and the lazy daisy embroidered flowers. Their names were also appliquéd. I machine stitched using a blanket stitch around all the bugs and their names. Then I machine quilted to finish the quilt. I use 100% cotton batting and did not prewash it so that when I washed it afterwards, it gives it more of an antique look somewhat.
Anne’s favorite color is purple. I wasn’t able to make hers in purple but I choose red and blue because when you combine those colors, they make purple.
Grace loves all the colors of the rainbow but pink the most so hers was done in pink with a special surprise – the backing of the quilt was in rainbow fabric and when you hold it up to the light, the rainbow shines through onto the front of the quilt!
I was able to get Anne’s quilt done for Christmas 2010 but I only got the top done for Grace due to my being ill several times during the fall season. Jer told me not to be disappointed when the girls opened their quilts and didn’t seem excited about them but he was wrong! You can see in the pictures that they loved their quilts! The girls keep them on the top of their beds and Anne’s dad said she makes her bed everyday so she can lay her quilt on the top!
I try to do something new on every quilt and on Grace's quilt, I added Prairie Points on the outside edge. I also machine stitched hearts at all four corners of the solid pink border. After Anne saw that, she asked if I could put a purple flower on hers. So I added a purple flower on the top center border of Anne's quilt.
As in my other blogs, Here are Grace’s Favorite Things as told to me April 2010:
Number: 5 because I’m 5
Season: Fall because I like to rake up the leaves and jump into them
Sport: Baseball because I like to hit the bat and ball and have people catch it
TV Show: Strawberry Shortcake
Color: All the colors but most of all red and pink the best
Movie: Sleeping Beauty
Dessert: Ice Cream with chocolate syrup with sprinkles and a cherry on top
Food: Chicken Nuggets
Other things I like: my sister and clothes and pajamas, rainbows, unicorns that fly with wings, valentines, spring, summer and my dad
Favorite Book: The Nutcracker – the one with the girl Clara
Book of Mormon figure and why: I like to sing Book of Mormon Stories and make the Book of Mormon with my hands
Bible story: Noah and the Ark
Favorite place to go: To my friend Owen’s house
Someday I’d like to: Be a Mom and take care of my children
Just a note about Grace from me: Grace is a very sweet girl. One time I took her shopping for a new dress and she kept finding things that she thought her sister Anne would like. She would see something and say, Anne would love this or oh, this would look so good on Anne. She continues to watch over her little sister and baby brother, John.
Grace is also very obedient and tries to be a good girl. She is very artistic. She can sit for hours and draw or color and create things out of paper. Just like all my grandkids, she is very smart!!! She has done very well with her reading this year and I enjoy sitting with her and having her read me books from the library ( I keep a basket full of library books on the fireplace for Grace and Anne).
Grace is finishing up her first year of Kindergarten this week and then she will be moving along with Anne and John (and their parents, of course) to Ely Nevada. I am going to miss her very much!!! She has brought a lot of sunshine into my life!
Gracie, I love you! I hope you will always remember the fun times you had at the Ladybug Park as well as at Grammie and Papi’s house!
Enjoy your quilt Grace and know that Grammie is always thinking of you! I love you!
Here are Anne’s Favorite Things as told to me April 2010:
Number: 3 – because I’m three
Season: Winter because of Christmas
Favorite thing to do outside: The slide at the playground
TV Show: Chuggington
Color: Purple
Animal: Kitties
Favorite thing to do at home: Play with my tea set and have a tea party
Movie: Snow White
Dessert: Brownies
Food: Chicken Nuggets
Other things I like: To wear dresses, read, shoes, Arial (the little Mermaid) & ladybugs
Favorite place to go: Grammie’s house
Someday I’d like to: be a ballerina
A note about Anne from me: Anne is a lot of fun! She has so much energy and is so smart! The other evening I was trying to keep her in the "playroom" with Grace and John and it was dark out in the hall. When she went out I told her the "boggieman" was out there. (Shame on me but you have to know Anne - she is one determined little gal!) She proceeded to tell me (with her hands counting) Number 1 - there are no such things as ghosts, Number 2 - there are no such things as monsters!!! Then she just looked at me like, but without saying anything I know she was putting the boggieman in the same categories as the other two! I told her she was right. There was no boggieman, I just wanted her to stay with us!
Anne loves "fashion". If I have something different on, or get a haircut, she'll tell me it's cute. She has always been very observant. She also likes to change her name. I am never quite sure what the name is for the week. She has been Annie, Annabel, and this past week it has been Anna. When she was Annabel, I put some stickers on a color book and told her the way to spell Annabel was Annabelle. Later she came out and told me she took the LE off because that is not how she wanted to spell it!!!!
Anne loves her sister Grace and her baby brother John. She always says to me, Grammie, isn't he just so cute? He's the cutest baby EVER!
Anne, Grammie and Papi are going to miss you so much when you move to Ely, Nevada. We hope you will have alot of fun making new friends. I hope you will always enjoy your ladybug quilt and will think of the fun we had at the park! Papi and I love you very much! Love, Grammie
Mom, thank you so much. You put a lot of work into their beautiful quilts, asking them about their "likes" and even doing this post! It made me cry. We will miss you alot too but I dont want to talk about it. I'm so glad they will always have their special quilts and memories from their Grammie.
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