Bugs and beans

The day I received my giveaway winnings - the bug fat quarters from Follow the White Bunny - I cut right into them.  They're perfect for my cousin's little boys.  On of them will be 2 on Monday and the other will be 4 next month.  I used scraps of the fabrics to make a set of counting bean bags for them for Christmas.  Eagle-eyed readers may remember I wrote a tutorial for counting bean bags which you can find here.

I used a few of the other animal prints from my stash, but this time I didn't do the crazy patchwork around the animals in order to fit them in the apertures - this time I just cut the fabrics so they would fit. 

I also decided to machine applique the letters on.  I thought it would be hard, but it's not!  It's really easy.  That can be my first LANT (Learn a New Technique) of the month... certain readers think my LANT will be to piece and quilt an entire quilt but some readers would be wrong!

I didn't make a bag to put them in this time, but with two boys in the house, I think they'll spend most of the time airborne anyway!

I love making these bean bags and have thought about making some colour ones, or a set of ABCs, though that would take a long time and use a lot of dried peas!  I could perhaps do a set of animal bean bags to help with reading, but I'd need to collect together the fabrics first.