Today I continue my quest in creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan Claire. This is day one hundred and seventy-three of that project.

This quilt block shows a plant with a brown trunk and green leaves. The branches and singular leaves jut out in various directions. On one leaf on the left hanging down is a large ladybug with seven dark spots on its back. On the same leave are white dotted pen marks. There is outline stitching on all the pieces of fabric, and all of it is set against a blue background. — Click To Enlarge

Here is our garden friend, the Ladybug or Ladybird Beetle.

Long recognized as a friend to gardeners, her little seven-spotted self lends itself to countless childhood images and stories.

One of my granddaughter’s favorite characters is Ladybug Girl. Farmhand 4 is particularly fond of The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle.

For anyone who doesn’t know, ladybugs eat aphids. That’s what the little whitish spots are on the leaf with her. When Farmhand 1 (FH1) was four and living in California, he and his Dad did all the gardening together. As organic gardeners, they used insects to help out.

One day a neighbor came over with some very sorry-looking kale and wanted to know what was wrong with it. FH1 looked at it and said, “You have aphids.”

The neighbor looked at Dad, and he nodded that, indeed, he had aphids.

So the man asked FH1 what to do. FH1 said, “You need to get ladybugs.”

The neighbor asked, “What happens when I have too many ladybugs?

FH1 replied, “You won’t, but if you do, a praying mantis will come to your garden and eat some.”

The neighbor then asked, “What happens when there are too many Praying Mantis?”

FH1 rolled his eyes and said, “You won’t, but a bird can eat a Praying Mantis.”

He turned and left then. I think he thought the neighbor was hopeless.