Hello - Happy Labor Day Weekend! It is hard to believe that Summer is officially over... although I have no problem letting go of heat and humidity... the weather last week was glorious!!! Highs only in the low to mid 70's... lows in the upper 50's... humidity waaaaay down... I opened all the windows and turned off the AC...I wish it would stay like this forever... and I am grateful that the 10 day forecast has this weather trend continuing and even getting a bit cooler... meteorological Fall starts tomorrow and I'm ready for it!
Well as for the unexpected happenings for a change they were happy ones... first off I finally was able to get my front porch/deck/landing project completed ... and it came together unexpectedly and quickly. I had given up on the contractor who came and looked at the job back in April... we exchanged texts and phone calls for a while but then he went silent. Last time I contacted him was a text back in mid-June inquiring when he thought he'd get to the project ... and I still haven't gotten a reply. Then my dear friends Bill and Linda had a project done at their house about 2 weeks ago and gave my info to the contractor they used and who did a great job for them. His name is Corey... he came to my house on Monday afternoon, emailed me a written bid on Tuesday, I thought about it for a couple of hours and asked for a break out of materials versus labor which he sent and then told him "DO IT"... he ordered the materials on Wednesday, they were delivered at the crack of dawn (7am) on Thursday morning and his crew showed up shortly after that to start the work. It took 3 days but I am very happy with the results...
Here's what it looked like before...
Here is the finished project...
the Trex decking is a great match for the siding and blends well with the yellow brick. Now when I open the door to retrieve a package I won't be hanging out over those concrete steps wondering if I'm going to take another header onto the sidewalk...
Now I'm always anxious when I have people working at my house... I had a bad experience 10 years ago when I moved into the house with 2 guys who lied to me about a mold issue (the wall just need to be washed down, no chemicals were needed) and while one was giving me a sales pitch the other stole jewelry out of my bedroom dresser. I didn't realize the jewelry was missing for about 3 weeks and by that time I'm certain it was pawned and broken up. My older son went to a bunch of pawn shops looking for the jewelry to no avail... anyway sorry for that tangent... but like I said other than Dan my handyman, oh and Larry the plumber, I'm leery of people I don't know working at my house. So I had a hard time settling down with a crafty projects... oh now you can see where I was going with that story... I stitched a little but not on Halloween. Instead I picked back up Every Opening Flower by WTN&T... and a little progress was made... where it was when I picked it up...
and where it is now... got that border in the bottom left corner roughed in and did a couple of letters of the alphabet...I want to get the house outline done so I can watch a movie and do some mindless stitching.
I'd like to finish this by mid-September as that would be 2 years from when I started this as part of my "7 for my 70th birthday" extravaganza that went down in flames when I had a bout of diverticulitis and caught C-diff at the hospital... I still LOVE this sampler and want to get it stitched and framed and be a central part of the sampler wall in my living room that I want to expand.
And then another project appeared unexpectedly. Now I have not 1, not 2 but 3 Christmas quilts I'd like to make this year... and I have fabric for all of them... and I had a plan for which one I would do first... ummm, this quilt was not number 1 or number 2 but it said "make me, make me" ... and I did. Now this started with this fabric from J. Wecker Frisch's Classic Christmas collection. Oh I LOVE a good vintage collage!!
So I decided that I didn't want to chop it up a lot and I cut it into 10" square and then used a layer cake pattern I found on Etsy... you can see it here... called Simple Layer Cake Quilt Pattern. For the sashing I used coordinating prints from the collection. I tried to cut the 10" squares at different intervals so that no two were exactly alike. What I didn't realize till I started laying it out was how dominate that red rectangle that says Herald would be... but I think I scattered it about pretty well.
It is a Large throw... almost a twin... 71" x 78"... some of my favorite blocks...
As for decor I was going to start putting away the chicken and garden stuff but it didn't happen... maybe this week ... but here is the last of that decor, my large shelf display... lots of stuff I stitched previously and one new addition...
At the top I have Sunnyside Sampler by The Drawn Thread and a giant getting to be vintage Debbie Mumm platter...
To the left of the platter is a new addition, the small chart from Kathy Barrick's Vibrant Flowers...
And to the right of the giant platter is one of many Pineberry Lane pieces I've stitched... this is Mrs. Maguire's Garden... I brighten up the palette on all of my Pineberry Lane pieces... love the prim look but not a big fan of the grungy brown... that's just me...
On the middle shelf starting on the left hand side I have The Queen's Garden by The Scarlett House and
In the middle I have another Pineberry Lane, Mrs. Maguire Bee Charmer and Bee's Knees from Notforgotten Farm...
Next week has something going on every day... Monday night we're doing dinner with friends, Tuesday I have Elliot, Wednesday I have an appointment to get my teeth cleaned and I work out with Anna in the afternoon, Thursday my cleaning lady in coming in the morning and I have my standing hair appointment in the afternoon. Nothing on Friday so far, but I bet something will come up. And as I said before I'd like to get out my Fall stuff... other than an occasional 80 degree day there is lots of cool weather in the forecast and I am loving it!!
Your porch looks great! It's so disappointing when people don't respond or show up to do the work. That seems to be the norm these days. Your Christmas quilt looks great, too. I don't usually comment on blogs, but I do enjoy reading what everyone is up to.
ReplyDeleteYour place looks great.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful projects you are working on, and great redo of your front porch!
ReplyDeleteYour front porch looks great. A wonderful improvement, handrails and all. Love looking at your large shelf display. So many pretty things. Looking forward to seeing fall displays!
ReplyDeleteThe new steps look great, especially with the addition of the hand rail.
ReplyDeleteWow! Your new porch is beautiful!!
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