Day 266 - September 22

My mother in law retired from a career as a school teacher two years ago. At her retirement party, there was a lot of talk of her taking quilting classes and then actually using the skill. I knew she was serious, but I didn't realize how quickly she'd get really good!

A while back, she sent a twin size blanket to Michaela, using fabric from "The Grouchy Ladybug." (That's an Eric Carle book, and a favorite at our house. So if you ever hear Michaela say, "Hey, you! Wanna fight?" don't be alarmed... she's just quoting the book!)

Then, when she and Jim came to visit after Cate was born, she brought a baby-sized quilt with ladybugs on it, too. We haven't used it at all yet, because I've been using a different quilt for floor-time with Cate. But we're out of town this weekend for a little vacation and the other blanket was too covered in Fred hair from being on the floor in our house, so I brought this one along.

As I spread it out on the floor today, I was struck again with how cute it is, and with how great a job Maryanne did! And it's really fitting that the one nickname for Cate that seems to be sticking is Bug!

(And now that I have the picture uploaded, I'm not thrilled with using this one. It's not as yellow as this... I just used Hipstamatic on my iPhone.)