Bugs 'R Us Coming Together

I've assembled the top of Bugs R Us. The pattern in the kit called for four concentric borders but after I'd added the first three – a leaf-bright green, a bug blue, and a second leaf-bright green – I liked the size and the look and decided to stop before adding a fourth wide border. The quilt top at this point measured 34½" x 46½".

Here is closer look at the upper left corner pulling together all the elements that have been giving me so much fun. There are the checkerboards, the appliqué spiral antennae, the embroidered eyes, the rickrack smiles, and that adorable, blue, flitting bug fabric in the border - inspiration for the name Bugs R Us.

The original kit made a quilt size of 45" x 57". This was too long for a baby and annoyingly wide enough I would have needed to piece the back. Here is the leaflet cover for the original design. Although I loved the outermost border bug print, I felt it competed with the whimsy of the central blocks, because it was slightly serious and a bit too realistic. But instead it made for a wonderful backing.

I ran the one yard of the large bug print crosswise as the backing fabric. I had to add several inches to the selvages, now at the top and bottom, to make it long enough. I used horizontal bands of a small ladybug print leftover from the front. It can bee seen at the very bottom of the following photo. It blends in,  in a camouflage sort of way, just like bugs do. Frankly there was too little of that ladybug print on the front as cute as it was. For the binding, I will be using the four spotted fabrics from the checkerboards. They were too cute not to introduce again somewhere in the quilt.

Now I am ready to make my quilt sandwich and "quilt as desired". I hope I do not lose as much sleep over deciding the quilting pattern as I did over finding the right name.

What's In a Name?

In my previous post I revealed the smiling crawly critters that were to go with the checkerboards of my soon to be revealed quilt. It gave me a happy feeling to have these five smiling faces watching over me from my design wall. Next up was naming this grinning crew.

The fabric line was Backyard Safari and the quilt kit had the same title but I was not fond of Backyard Safari for a name. It was too advanced a vocabulary, especially for a baby quilt. Here is one checkerboard block next to one critter block. I wanted something with bugs in the title or something that hinted at the smiles on the critters and perhaps checkerboards.

I could not let go of trying to find a name. I was driving my husband crazy. In fact, when I went to bed at night I could not fall asleep as possibilities kept running through my mind. Counting bug titles does not work like counting sheep! I finally had to resort to an old trick of writing things down on a pad by my bed to let go and let slumber take over. I rejected a whole collection of potential names.

Names that rhyme
Bug Hug, Snug as a Bug,  Hug-a-Bug, Bugs with Hugs

Names that are alliterative
Bucket of Bugs, Bunch of Bugs, Bug Bounty, Bug Brigade, Snips and Snails, Bug Buddies

Names that convey a message that is not very friendly (especially if you google their meaning)
Doodlebug (sounds cute but it is a gross-looking larva of the ant-lion or a woodlouse, yuk!),
Bug Off, Bug Out, Bah Humbug, Bugaboo, Quit Buggin' Me

Names that convey friendship
Friendly Bugs, Bug Games, My Bug Friends, Smiley Bugs, Bug Grins, Happy Bugs, Bug Friends

Names from movies
Love Bug, A Bug's Life

Names that hint at non-creative desperation
Bug Medley, My Bugs, Bugs and Me, Checkerboard, Bugs

Alas, none of the previous options seemed quite right. But, by the following morning, I think my subconscious had stumbled upon a winner. Eureka! I found it! I hit upon a name that just felt right.

The name will be Bugs R Us. Yes. Bugs R Us is just right. I cannot do a backwards R or an apostrophe on my sewing machine, but the idea is still there. The name hints about toys or fun things and suggests camaraderie because of the "us" part.  I wrote it down quickly before I forgot it. I used the alphabet stitch on my Pfaff to embroider the label on grosgrain ribbon before I changed my mind.

I am linking up now to this week's WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Then I am back to work on Bugs R Us. Aah... it feels must better now to say Bugs R Us then to stumble over saying "my checkerboard/bug/smiley-critter/mystery/soon-to-be revealed quilt."

Let's Face It!

The spirals that I worked so hard to appliqué in my previous two posts are five pair of antennae to top the heads of some crawly critters. But, these critters needed faces! The pattern I was using called for 1/2" blue buttons for eyes. Since this quilt is intended for a baby, I did not want it to have any potential choking hazards so I decided to add embroidered eyes instead. I used 1/2" plastic rings to draw around. I laid my ruler on my block to place the eyes at approximately the same height and same distance apart for each critter. I drew lightly around each ring with mechanical pencil then set the rings aside.

I do not have an embroidery machine so instead I dropped the feed dogs on my Pfaff and filled in the eyes free motion quilting style. First I stitched over the circle I had penciled in and then spiraled inward and back outward until no more of the green background fabric peeked through. I'd practiced first on a scrap and, just as I suspected, without a backing of some sort this dense embroidery would pucker the area around the eye.

I cut out generous size circles of batting. I used bamboo batting, but Warm & Natural or felt or any other batting that does not shred easily when pulled should work. I wanted the circle to be large enough that I could hold my fingers on it as I moved the eye about under the pressure foot. Afterward I trimmed it really close to the embroidered area.

To cut out these circles I used a new tool I'd bought at a craft show a few months ago. This is an Olfa cutter that cuts circles. I was fascinated watching the vendor demo it for me, He helped me learn the technique and with a bit, but not a lot, of practice I could swing circles like a pro. The motion is different from cutting a straight line or even a gentle curve since this works like a compass with a central ratchet. I was pleased with the results. I could have just cut square or rectangles for under the eye embroidery but where is the fun of learning a new tool with that?

A face needs a smile to go with those eyes. Purple rickrack was suggested but I chose a blue instead, the better to match the eyes. I rejected red because it looked very garish and almost blood-like - not really the friendly vibe I was going for. I wanted a consistent placement and curvature for the smile so I pressed into service part of a set of longarm quilting rulers I got as a Christmas present this year from my son and daughter-in-law. This was not their original intended use but, hey, I try to take advantage of versatility wherever I can. I set the height at either end by the intersection of the block piecing and choose a radius that gave me a smile that I liked. I drew a light line with a mechanical pencil at the bottom edge of the arced ruler. I counted eight peaks for each length of rickrack smile. I lined the peaks along the drawn line and turned under the raw edges at the corners of the mouth when I sewed it on.

It annoys me when rickrack is washed and curls up at the peaks and valleys. To avoid this I set my machine at a short stitch length and went back to slowly sew up and down along the rickrack to secure the tips. I chanted "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, turn, repeat" across the smile.  The next photo shows the detail on the backside once the eye backing was trimmed down and the rickrack was secured zigzag fashion.

Here is one of the embellished bug blocks.

What is the saying, something like "putting a face to a name?" Now I need to name this quilt so I guess I will be "putting a name to a face." But parents do that all the time with new babies, right?