Cowardly lion ...

.. is probably what I am, not having posted for a long time. 

The reason?

I've been procrastinating about quilting the present for my grannie's birthday.

It's taken me about a week to gather up the courage to do it, and I'm still not pleased with it.  The free-motion quilting is somewhat erratic, and sewing through the top of my finger didn't help either.  Mind you, I was very impressed by Mr Z&Z, who rushed to my side when the accident happened - to make sure that the fabric was okay - he has been VERY well trained!! 

I think the fear comes from knowing that grannie, like my mother and my aunt, is a very talented needlewoman, and will be able to spot loopy stitches and uneven sewing at 100 paces.

So all I now have to do is to finish sewing the binding down and make a label - ready to hand over at the weekend. I've used a very lightweight wadding, to make it as portable as possible for her, but I've also added a hanging loop in case she wants to display it.  To be honest, I wasn't convinced about buying the more expensive wadding, but it really does drape beautifully and is so cosy and warm.  The one that I made for my mother some time ago and in which I used polyster wadding is a lot more rigid by contrast. All the other things that I've made have either left the family or are up in the loft, so I haven't been able to carry out a very scientific comparison!!

And as part of my procrastination, I also paper pieced this.  It's waiting for a border, or two, and then I'll quilt it up (and practice some more free-motion quilting on it).  It's the Princess and the Pea - the scene where the princess is able to feel the presence of a pea beneath a whole heap of mattresses, thereby proving how sensitive she is and therefore of royal blood.

Apologies if you have no interest at all in our new kitchen - but my mother and sister will - so here are the photos to show progress so far.  It's all now been replastered, and Mr Z&Z has painted the ceiling and the top 6 inches of the wall bright white.  The idea behind doing the top 6 inches or so is because once the cupboards are in place, it will be nearly impossible to paint behind them, right at the top of the wall.  I'm tempted to have the whole room white, as it's so dark in there - but as the units are ivory, I think they may end up looking dingy.

But then the units were delivered......

I had though that they were arriving in flatpacked - apparently not!

This is quite a daunting pile of boxes and bits and bobs.  It's so tempting to open some and have a look, but I feel that I need to restrain myself!