September | 2008 | Nice people Nice things

Ladybugs

Lady bugs or Ladybirds? What do you call them?

Thankyou to Mrs. Seagraves’ for these facts

There are nearly 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs worldwide and 400 which live in North America.

A female ladybug will lay more than 1000 eggs in her lifetime.

A ladybug beats its wings 85 times a second when it flies.

Aphids are a ladybug’s favorite food.

Ladybugs chew from side to side and not up and down like people do.

A gallon jar will hold from 72,000 to 80,000 ladybugs.

Ladybugs make a chemical that smells and tastes terrible so that birds and other predators won’t eat them.

If you squeeze a ladybug it will bite you, but the bite won’t hurt.

The spots on a ladybug fade as the ladybug gets older.

During hibernation, ladybugs feed on their stored fat.

Ladybugs won’t fly if the temperature is below 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

The ladybug is the official state insect of Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Tennessee.

The male ladybug is usually smaller than the female.

The Asian Lady Beetle can live up to 2-3 years if the conditions are right.

Ladybugs have become a popular theme for stitchery and applique designers in recent years also. Here are a couple of my favourites –

‘Little Lady, Mom and baby’ by Cori Blunt of Chitter Chatter designs

The Little Lady Bug

The ‘Litte Lady Bug’ by Cinderberry Stitches

mmmm, I can feel another ladybug design coming….they are just ‘nice’ aren’t they and such a delight to find in the spring garden.

hugs and happy stitching

Helen

Published in:

on September 29, 2008 at 10:01 am Comments (2)

Much laughter and fun was had at The Quilted Crows Gathering at Campania, near Hobart on Saturday. Anni of Hatched and Patched and Natalie of The Birdhouse were this years guest designers and there were some lovely projects on offer as well as Leonie and Deidres’ great projects as usual.

many Tasmanian bloggers met up and it was great to put faces to blog names.

Tasmania Bloggers were- Jo from Jo in Tas, me –Helen’s Hugs, Alex from Stitchin School Girl, Fiona from My Beautiful Girls, Leanne from Lizzie’s Page, Kathy from Harmony Junky, Christine from Auntie Quaint Quilts, Cathy from Highland Quilter and Sarah from If only I had Chocolate. And if you look back through on many of these blogs you will see their Nice People Nice Things progress as many of the girls are also stitching along with us.

This was one of Anni’s projects – made from wool, we are doing a swap with these projects with many of the bloggers above each making 6 of one of them so we end up with the full set. I haven’t had time to do a swap for years but am looking forward to this. Thanks Sarah for organising it.

This was another of Anni’s projects, a lovely simple bag.

I managed to get most of Natalies’ designs stitched even though I didn’t arrive until lunch time due to Miss M winning a radio competition to meet the Olympians in the morning.

It is so “nice” to get together at these gatherings and enjoy good food, good company and good stitching with other likeminded ladies. I shall look forward to the next one eagerly.

hugs, Helen

Published in:

on September 22, 2008 at 11:07 am Comments (1)

Family

We have just had a few days of family holiday going home to my Husbands’ family and catching up with old memories.

This is the first time we have all been away together over the seas for a couple of years so it was a nice 5 day break. I treated Miss M and Tessie to Wicked. Fantastic show, not the best seats but a great day was had. Miss M and Dad then went to the Semi final of the great Cats (Geelong AFL footy team) vs St Kilda at the MCG (the MCG for our overseas friends is a great Melbourne icon of the cricket and Australian Rules Football world.) And the Cats were victorious – yayyy they are going for back to back premiers after a drought of about 44 years. Unless you live here you would probably find it difficult to understand AFL Footy fever – a bit like the World Soccer cup or the Baseball in the USA I would think.

Yes they got wet!

Dinner with cousins

and dinner with more cousins. We don’t see them very often so for Matilda this was a first time memory for her -she now knows what a cousin is although I am not sure she understands where the uncles fit in.

Family is special and living across a stretch of water on an island restricts us a little from having regular contact with much of our family. But we think of them often and the internet is wonderful for keeping in touch.

ON another note Terry of Patchwork by Sea in Adelaide sent in some photos of their finished NPNT quilt- yet another colourway and look, they have done a great job don’t you think?