swabbing the deck and other fun

when we moved into this house there was nothing but mud when you stepped out of the side door of the garage

the DH remedied that by building a deck out there - which is nice because it also provides an area where I can move tubs around when I work in the storage shed

but it's been a few years it looked pretty dirty and the wood was drying out

a few days ago we scrubbed it with a bleach solution to clean it off

and yesterday we rolled on the stain/sealer stuff -- it looks really good now -- it still smells like fresh stain so we'll be staying off of it for a while



let the fringing begin

did just a little bit of it yesterday afternoon - being careful to count out the beads that go at the ends so I get the same number on each side

I think I'm going to like the way this looks





the quilting on the cone flower piece has begun

yesterday afternoon I put together the piece work that is the backing for this piece out of fabrics that came with the challenge print

actually, the pieces with the flowers and birds on them ARE the challenge print

(I just hope this challenge group is as open minded about the use of their challenge fabric as the Hoffman folks are -- you just have to use it somewhere!)

after I put the back together I pinned the "sandwich" and last night I started on the quilting -- I had rust colored thread to start on that area, but not really the right yellow -- I'll be taking care of that today

time to get moving -- I want to get the lawn mowed before it gets really hot!!