Wishing you a Heartfelt New Year

26 heart rocks found on the trail this year❤

Mon Oeuvre - Frolic Mystery Quilt progress 5

This week's clue 5 of Bonnie Hunter's Winter Mystery Quilt "Frolic" was another easy and quick one.

Photo credit: Jennifer Marshal, Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville)

 Lots of chain sewing:

After pressing and trimming, here's my clue 5 - complete!

Past progress:

Clue one

Clue two

Clue three

Clue four

Picture of the week ~ 2019 Spartan race year in review

Mon Oeuvre - Frolic Mystery Quilt progress 4

In this week's clue for Bonnie Hunter's "Quiltville Winter Mystery" Quilt she wrote: "Curiouser and curiouser!" Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English." - Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass. 

I think she did a good job of having us all scratching our heads wondering just where on earth she's going with this clue.

Photo credit: Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville)

We got to put together little kits of units. 

Here are some of my progress photos:

Working on sewing my chains together.

First kits begun.

Trying to have an "organized" assembly line going and holding my breath as these were being cut, hoping I had enough fabric to finish it. After a few of my units had been cut I began to over think her instructions, by my calculations (she doesn't tell us how many strips to cut to get the number of units for the clue. That's for us to figure out on our own). I was going to be very close to the end of one of my blues. I panicked and went out and got a couple of fat quarters, just in case I was short. Of course the store no longer had my blue fabric, so I had to substitute a new blue😥, which completely discombobulated me. This set up a whole nother stress level for me since I'm not doing this quilt "scrappy". How on earth was I going to fit the new material into an "organized" entry into these units when I have no idea how they'll fit into the final quilt pattern. 😧.

Sure enough I was wrong, I had just enough to finish with a bit left over. I also was going to be close to the end on my Aqua fabric, I'm glad I hadn't over worried about that as well. My head probably would've popped off.

This is how close I came to the end of those two fabrics for this clue.

Yikes!!

What did I learn through this week's clue?

Don't overthink the process

Don't panic

TRUST the instructions

Whew.... and now I have some bonus fat quarters for another project. So in the long run good for me!

Clue four

Past progress:

Clue one

Clue two

Clue three

Mon Oeuvre ~ Elizabeth Hartman quilt patterns

"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.)

Elizabeth Hartman's quilt patterns are unique and fun. I did one before that I loved -  "Dogs in Sweaters", you can read that post here: https://hearsdifferentdrummer.blogspot.com/2017/08/mon-oeuvre-dogs-in-sweaters-quilt_21.html

This time I tackled 3 of her other quilts, but one block at a time as pillows. They have been gifted as early Christmas gifts, so I can now share them.

The patterns called for a 26" finished pillow, my husband did the math calculations for me to resize the blocks to fit a 20" pillow. I also had the fun of making my first envelope closure on the back of the pillows. The first two pillows I made: Legendary & Lisa the Unicorn had pillow patterns included with the quilt pattern, Frances the Firefly did not.

Here they are:

Legendary

Lisa the Unicorn

Frances the Firefly

This was the only one I did without a pillow pattern, this pattern only had the full quilt directions.

We had to bring Frances' wide wings in quite a bit to fit so now it's a new species:  a Firefly that is morphing into a Butterfly.

All together!

Such a fun project❤

Elizabeth Hartman creates whimsical quilt patterns, if you'd like to see what I mean click on this link to her site: https://elizabethhartman.com/ 

Picture of the week ~ Whose stick is it?

Harpo and Jasmine - What a pair they were❤

Positivity note🎵 for December 18, 2019

This is a favorite plaque of mine with this saying: 

A smile

A smile costs nothing, but gives much.

It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give. 

It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.

None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it,

 and none is so poor but that he can be made rich by it.

A Smile creates happiness in the home, 

fosters good will in business, 

and is the countersign of friendship. 

It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, 

and it is natures's best antidote for trouble. 

Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, 

for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. 

Some people are too tired to give you a smile

Give them one of your friendliest smiles 

and win blessings of smiles in return.

I began this positivity note series in February of this year, you can read that first post HERE.

*This will be my last positivity note🎵 post, it's been an interesting exercise for me and I hope it helped you a bit as we are all just trying to get through this journey we call "life".

Keep smiling

Mon Oeuvre - Frolic Mystery Quilt progress 3

Photo credit: Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville)

Clue three, was another quick and easy clue. I'm thinking we've got some hard ones ahead, but for now this has been nice.

Chain sewing.

Clue three

Past progress:

Clue one

Clue two

Picture of the week ~ Share the trail

Hiking to Mordor aka Port Gamble trails

Where did we hike? In a wonderful network of trails with most of the names taken from the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars stories. Mordor was just one of the trails we hiked on, and where is this again? The Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park or as I found on Wikipedia😉 “In J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional world of middle earth, Mordor is the realm and base of the arch villain Sauron. It was located in southeast of northwestern middle-earth, east of the great river Anduin. Mount Doom a volcano in Mordor was the goal of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to destroy the One Ring.” 

This trail system has a wonderful variety of ecosystems to walk through. We walked mostly through Fir, Cedar & Hemlock trees with fern undergrowth. At times it seemed we were in a rain forest with wonderful long strands of Goats beard and mosses hanging off the trees. There were a few open logged areas, some dirt road walking as well as trails in Alder groves alongside Holly bushes,  Salal, Huckleberries, Blackberries, Turkey tails and several varieties of mushrooms! My husband and I joined my brother and my dad for a day of exploring in another area.

My husband was the photographer for the day. He did a great job. Enjoy our day on the trail through “his” eyes for a change!

Yes, he found some heart rocks too❤️

“MORDOR”

Orange jelly fungus was growing on many of the fallen logs.

Alder forest

A photo of our photographer for the day.

Ripe & budding Huckleberries?

Golden leaves still hanging around.

I love this photo of me looking at my dad & my brother❤️.

Rain forest trees

Wildlife sighting!

Road walking

Walking along an Emerald lane💚

Coral mushrooms

We almost lost Hope, but we found it along the road. You never know what you’ll on a day’s hike.

The mountain bikers use these trails as well, this section was full of jumps and crazy turns.

Finally we were at the “Stump” trail and our last section.

Now that was a fun day in a new area, even “MORDOR” wasn’t too daunting! 

Relive video of our route: 

https://youtu.be/_S6A_0QBkYc

Garmin stats:

Total miles hiked - 7.63

Total ascent - 833