Mon Oeuvre - Rhododendron trail Mystery Quilt progress

  "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.)

I haven't blogged any of my Mystery Quilt work this year, how can that be?? I do post my progress on my Instagram account however. If you are an Instagram user or if you just want to see my account you can find me here: @kims_projects.

So this post will be a picture journey of my progress, as I've currently completed the flimsy (top) of the quilt. I still have to purchase the batting, back and binding fabrics.

In November we got the clue about the quilt title: Rhododendron quilt.

and the color pallete for the quilt.

I'm not a pink girl so I switched the pink to purple. I didn't know for sure if the garnet would work with the purple, but went that direction anyway. For the neutral I chose one that had a white background and both the aqua and the purple in it. I was hoping the dark feathers would match the garnet after the quilt reveal. Can you tell I was nervous about the garnet??

Here's my progress up to today:

Half square triangles

Flying Geese

Hourglass units, it snowed the week I finished these so I arranged them into a snowflake.

Starting to put some of the units together.

Putting units into our first block and a cutting assignment that was put aside for another clue.

Our hourglass units became a block and turned into butterflies.

The quilt was to be on-point, so working from one corner to another. Here's the first completed corner and row with the aqua sashing.

Corner triangle units.

Making progress with my rows.

My ironing board became my shelf for storing the rows that were methodically being added to each other, and some flying geese border units that had been put together.

The center of the quilt done✔ The garnet edge had to be trimmed off before the border could be added.

The borders each had one paper pieced diamond added to them.

Completed flimsy (top of the quilt), the photo was taken on a bright sunny day so the color is a bit washed out. The colors seem very Eastery to me. I changed the name of the quilt to "Don't fence me in" since all I can see is barbwire where the garnet lines are. The butterfly blocks are no longer butterflies in the quilt.

This quilt is so busy it will be a challenge to find just the right fabric for the backing and binding.

Fragrance Lake hike

 We enjoyed a sunny day hiking to Fragrance lake today. I wore my day pack for the first time today. I've been trying to sort out how to comfortably wear a back pack with my port. At my last Oncologist "checkup" appointment I was told they want the port left in for two years. I've had two of the "every three month" checkups, so far I'm NED (no evidence of disease).

I have a port pillow that tucks nicely into my shirt and stays in place, it worked great. It also worked to just loosen the chest strap from time to time. The chest strap hits right where my port is, so that is why I've been reluctant to strap on my packs. If I do have to keep the port in longer I need to figure it out, we have backpacking plans for the summer!

Anyway enough of that....

We did a loop hike. First up the Fragrance lake road. 

We passed the waterfall that is along the road.

We came to a slide, there was no info. about this at the parking lot or along the road at the 1 mile burnout junction. We saw that there is a bike trail just before the slide. So there is a way to get around this and to the lake. The photo below shows the slide area.

The photo below shows the sign for the detour route direction, it is only at the north end of the slide. It would be helpful if a detour sign was at the south end of the slide as well.

We came to the trail entrance and made our way around the lake.

The lake had great reflections

We sat on a bench on the sunny side of the lake for our lunch break.

Then we made our way down the Fragrance lake trail.

We stopped to enjoy the view at the viewpoint.

Of course I always take pictures of the great roots growing around the rock.

We joined the interurban trail and ended where we began at the Lost Lake parking lot.

Catching up: walks, hikes and birding

I've been hit and miss with my blog, just posting when I feel like it. 

I made some collages of some of our 2022 adventures.

*Click on each photo or zoom in to enlarge collages.

Northern State Recreation Area

Ebey Landing

Skagit Wildlife Reserve

Anacortes Forest Lands

Stimpson Reserve

Hope you enjoyed catching up with our journeys.