Baby Quilt: Great Galloping Grasshoppers!

Just over a year ago, my niece Stacy gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. She had a very difficult time getting pregnant, but she finally succeeded after numerous fertility treatments. I don't think that any child was wanted more than her son Kolsen was nor loved more once he finally arrived.
He turned one recently, and I was happy to be included in the celebration for his first birthday.
I am a bit slow, but I finally made a quilt for Kolsen and gave it to him at his party. I used my Grasshopper Stencil, scanned the stencil, and enlarged the image from 5" to 16" wide ( a little over 300%).
Although Kolsen looks pretty angelic, I think he is really contemplating who to throw cake at next.



My Grasshopper Stencil

 

Here are a few detail shots of the quilt in progress.

The grasshoppers are machine appliqued on, and I am choosing the fabrics for the other shapes.

The shapes are all stitched on and the borders are ready to be added. I could hardly wait to start on the machine quilting.

Detail of Applique

 

TA DAAAA!!!! Finished at last.
I have some pretty fond memories of grasshoppers. We had a summer place in the mountains when I was growing up, and there were always loads of grasshoppers everywhere during the warm summer months.

Also, when I lived in Canada with my husband, the grasshoppers were so thick sometimes that the farmers would use a fine screen in front of their radiators so that that it wouldn't plug up and overheat their engine when they were driving through a swarm of the lovely critters. I used to go out and dig up fresh potatoes for dinner sometimes, and they would dive bomb me as the air was filled with a deafening clicking sound from the whir of the wings around my head. Those are very fond memories indeed!