Picture of the week ~ North Whatcom county ice

Mon Oeuvre ~ On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt progress 6

This past week's clue #4 was much easier for me than clue #3. I breezed through the pieced triangle units. I'm starting to wonder what configuration Bonnie Hunter ("Quiltville Mystery quilt") is going to come up with when we put our blocks together.

As usual we had the usual cutting, sewing and pressing.

I like to line everything up in an orderly fashion before I sew.

The next task was sewing the triangles onto the sqaures in my chain.

After that it was time to cut them all apart and press the triangles to one side.

In the photo below you can see that I've cut some of them apart from the chain, and am pressing them to one side.

More chain sewing for the other side's triangle.

A few more "hundred" cut, sewn, pressed and trimmed!

This week's clue #5 will be made with our brown and neutral fabrics, and with the same construction as clue #2.

"Oeuvre" (the works of a painter, composer, or author regarded collectively: "the complete oeuvre of Mozart" a work of art, music or literature: "an early oeuvre" ORIGIN late 19th cent.: French, literally "work" - Oxford Dictionary.)

Picture of the week ~ Bowman Bay Winter Solstice

Bowman Bay hike

Today's "up" (2018 Spartan race/Backpacking training) hike began at Bowman Bay on Fidalgo Island. I was a wee bit cold when I got out of our car after the drive from Bellingham. It was a long john & fleece clothing day for me. 

Fitting weather for this Winter Solstice day

We first headed towards Lottie Bay,

but took a left turn and headed to Pass lake. We hiked past Pass lake and joined the John Tursi trail. 

I loved this little "fungi" on this fallen log.

We spied a little off shoot trail and took a side trip to explore where this trail went. We marched around a small field and then made our way back to the trail.

We followed the Ginnett hill trail.

More "fungi's".

We came to the Ginnett/Tursi trail junction sign. We followed this trail for an out and back before heading "up" the Big Cedar trail.

On a sunny day this old house concrete pad is a great place to sit and eat lunch, but we wanted to hike a bit more before we stopped today.

Yay! A heart rock on the trail. I love finding these.

Now we are officially on the John Tursi trail.

The trail wanders along past an old cabin and mine. I love the picture below of my husband standing on the trail under these very green young trees.

A glimpse of Campbell lake.

The trail comes to an end on Donnell road. The trail head parking lot at this end is a 1/2 mile walk up the road.

I really enjoyed the Tursi trail. Lots of "up" from the road, with a few nice rock steps added here and there. A few more Madrona's along the trail.

Finally time for lunch. We stopped where we had a view of Campbell lake through the trees. It was very cold at lunch, I couldn't keep my gloves off for very long while I ate. The hot cocoa I put in our thermoses was a wonderful treat.

As I said this section of our hike was an out and back. We walked past the concrete slab again.

Just down the trail there was a marshy area. A small trail led in that direction, so we explored again. It didn't go too far, so it was back to our main trail.

The Big Cedar trail.

I couldn't get a photo of the height of the tree, but here is the trunk. 

Such a big old tree.

It was another great "up" to the West Pass lake loop trail junction. We turned right at the sign, the trail goes to an old clearing then towards Rosario rd. We walked along a trail that parallels the road for a ways before coming to the Pass lake trail again.

We walked past this wonderful Madrona tree on a quick out and back. We then joined the trail that would take us back to the Lottie bay trail.

The perfect view to the end of our hike. 

"Bowman Bay" on this - the first day of Winter.

The "Relive" video of our route.

https://youtu.be/GQnEa0MNFo0

Garmin stats:

Total miles hiked - 8.13

total ascent - 2015 feet

Mon Oeuvre ~ On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt progress 5

This past week's clue #3 on Quiltville's Mystery Quilt was a challenge for me. I haven't cut and sewn Chevron's together before. Yikes, what a journey it was for me to get these done. I persevered and learned some new skills. I'm very thankful that Bonnie Hunter gives very clear instructions with photos for each clue she gives out. This clue was very tedious for me, since the pieces needed to be laid out just right and the seams had to be very precise or it would go "wonky" as Bonnie says. I had several "wonky" ones, until I got my seams adjusted correctly. So this past week was all about "LOTS" of cutting, layout, sewing, pressing and trimming. I stuck to my 10 at a time chains and that worked out well for me.

Some of my chains of "10", waiting to be cut apart and pressed.

Happy dance! All of my Chevron's are done ✔. We aren't supposed to give out the number of pieces we make or the dimensions, but I can tell you there are hundreds here in my nice little piles.

I quickly put together this past Friday's clue #4, so I could have at least one done before this posted.

"Oeuvre" (the works of a painter, composer, or author regarded collectively: "the complete oeuvre of Mozart" a work of art, music or literature: "an early oeuvre" ORIGIN late 19th cent.: French, literally "work" - Oxford Dictionary.)

Picture of the week ~ In the depth of Winter

Mon Oeuvre ~ On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt progress 4

Clue number 3 pieces of my mystery quilt from Quiltville are almost done being cut. 

My, so much cutting!

I need to cut the rectangle ends yet, then they'll be ready to sew.

Clue's one and two are done and stored away.

"Oeuvre" (the works of a painter, composer, or author regarded collectively: "the complete oeuvre of Mozart" a work of art, music or literature: "an early oeuvre" ORIGIN late 19th cent.: French, literally "work" - Oxford Dictionary.)

Picture of the week ~ Yellow Chrysanthemums

Fragrance lake loop hike

Today's "uphill" training hike was the Fragrance lake loop. My husband and I have begun our 2018 Spartan race/Summer backpacking training. We parked at the Lost Lake parking lot on Chuckanut drive. We then walked up the Interurban trail and past some fallen trees that had been cut up and moved off of the trail. I spied this cute face on a log that had been fashioned I believe by a chain saw. PSE is doing some line work on the Interurban trail and we were able to walk around their work on our way to the Cleator road.

Then it was up the Cleator road about a half mile to the Two Dollar Trailhead.

I found this heart shaped rock on the trail. I love to find hearts in nature.

Waterfall along the trail.

We continued on the Two dollar trail and went past the Fragrance lake turn off. We hiked on up the trail and along the ridge before dropping down to the lake. If you've ever hiked around Fragrance lake, the upper trail we were on is above the rock wall that is on the lake's loop trail.

I took this picture of the Lake looking down from the ridge trail.

We then joined the Fragrance Lake trail that originates from Larrabee state park. We hiked around the lake till we found a sunny spot for lunch.

After lunch we hiked down the Fragrance lake trail to join the Interurban trail again. On our way down we stopped at the Overlook and looked out over Bellingham Bay. The morning fog was still hanging around the islands in the distance.

On our return trip on the Interurban trail the PSE work crew were still at work, but this time with large vehicles on the trail so we walked across the Interurban trail and down to the road. This is where the trailhead parking lot is. We walked along the road to the secondary trail that leads up to the Interurban trail, it's short and steep. It stayed a little chilly while we were hiking, but it was so refreshing to hike with a blue sky overhead.

Garmin stats:

total miles hiked - 8.50 miles

total ascent - 1690 feet

Click on the link to watch the "Relive" video of our route

https://www.relive.cc/view/e1041654364

or view on YouTube https://youtu.be/8W640MWPIrs