All dotty and all done

Only roughly three and a half months past its deadline, Paula's Princess II Bed quilt is finished. I used IKEA toddler bed linen and a fleece baby blanket for this project.

I threw my back out trying to load laundry into the washer and got to spend the majority of Saturday cuddled up with a hot water bottle while finishing this project.

It feels good to move on to the next one.

Lessons learned:
1.) Piping is not so difficult to make.
2.) Ironing is a good thing.

More impressions on Flickr.

Tying up loose ends and getting ready

I'm finishing up Paula's Princess quilt and mentally preparing for my retreat project.

It is inspired by this tiling from my favourite local pub in West Didsbury, Manchester (England), the Metropolitan on Lapwing Lane.





I will substitute the blue for green, there actually is another hallway tiled in that colour scheme. My biggest challenge will be deciding on a size and planning the size of blocks for it. This will hopefully be finished before I leave on October 23.

In the meantime, I also plan to complete Natalia's Quilt-in-a-day which I hope to be shipping from England when I visit in two weeks' time.

Moving right along ...

with the bed spread for Paula's Princess Bed:





I have to confess that I used to think ironing was superfluous and an unnecessary waste of my time. But it's become clear to me that really it can help both during the sewing process and with a better finish ... and I can hear y'all go "duh!".

Homemade piping

I prepped this on Sunday night and fretted over (im)perfections



Having ironed it like a good girl, I found that all the fretting was in



vain and now that everything is pinned into place, I'm not only pleased but also off to bed.

Almost done quilting

I'm happy to report that I am almost finished quilting the dragon, now it's onto wrinkles and creases that need to be added to add more structure.



Looking at the calendar, I think I will have to interrupt this project to free up time for Paula's princess bed kit. Her birthday is later this month whereas the Dragon only needs to be finished by July 24.

Gotta love IKEA: the material mosquito netting, already dressed, bed linen and a fleece blankie



and preliminary lay-out: