Quilted Heart #25

My friend M has a friend, C, who is going through a rough patch. Stage 4 cancer. 

Not good. 

When M told me about her profound sadness, I offered to make a Quilted Heart for him as a way to help him know there are folks around who care. I'm grateful M said yes. I like making these hearts and appreciate having a reason to make another.

I started with a blue fabric with a snowflake/star design. To it I added a delicate lace heart. Then I popped on a darker blue ribbon. I sewed the pieces together with a backstitch using matching blue thread. 

M told me C likes penguins, I made one from felt, adding googly eyes for lightheartedness and whimsy. 

I finished it off with a bow of the same blue ribbon and a charm: the Tree of Life.

Please join me in a quick little prayer for C's difficult health journey ahead. Bless M, too, for giving me this small opportunity to serve.

We are all so connected to the joys and pain of one another.

Dragonfly Blue

Dale and I discovered a wonderful park not far from home called Golden Gardens Park. It's a large open space with groomed paths around three good-sized ponds. We didn't take much time there the day we found it, so I returned to walk some of the trails today.

I walked past a tree that attracted many of these blue dragonflies. This one sat still long enough for me to take a decent picture with my phone's camera.

I'm fascinated by the details in the wing shadows.

On the far side of the largest pond I hung Quilted Heart #12 in a pine tree. This is the final Quilted Heart of the 24 that I plan to release into the wild. (So far, I'm keeping two for myself).

I have many ideas that I'd like to explore on making future Quilted Hearts. But I need to let those ideas simmer in my mind for a while.

This morning I went looking through my stash for a particular 4th of July cross-stitch pattern. I found a new-to-me red, white, and blue star kit that I'm thinking about buying. But I didn't want to spend 25 bucks on something new if I already have a similar cross-stitch design.

While petting all my kits and patterns and fabrics and tools and supplies, I came to be very grateful for what I collected over the years. There's plenty here to fill my retirement years. I'll need to spend very little of our limited income on art and craft supplies.

But I admit that the sheer volume of creative ideas that rushed over me made me start to shake. Having so much to choose from can sometimes make me paralyzed about what to do next. I got overwhelmed. That's when I thought taking a walk and getting some distance vision might help. It did. And I was rewarded by witnessing the wonder of nature up close in the form of dragonflies.

Placing More Quilted Hearts

I placed four more of my Quilted Hearts in the last couple weeks.

Two weeks ago Dale and I visited gorgeous Hendricks Park in southeast Eugene. I have lots more to share about that park. It's magnificent. While there I left two quilted hearts. 

I left Quilted Heart #1 on a bush at the entrance to the hydrangea garden.

I forgot to take a photo for #17 in place, but here's a reminder of what it looks like.

I do hope they found a good homes.

Last week I walked a different route through my neighborhood and found these two Little Free Libraries. The short one holds kids books. The tall one holds adult books. 

A couple days later I returned to the libraries and left three books and Quilted Heart #21.

Books freely given; hearts freely given.

Finally, I took a walk through Bethel Community Park yesterday. This is the park closest to my home. I found a good place to leave Quilted heart #02 near the baseball fields.

I have only three more hearts to place ... 

though I may keep my two favorites for myself.  

😊

Mother's Day Card

Gosh, I haven't posted for over a week. I've been busy and have lots to share. I'll start with a special Mother's Day card I made for my daughter Julie.

This card represents another first for me. I added a "belly band." It's a strip of paper that wraps around the card to hold it closed. I actually sewed the large white button to the belly band to make it look like it was holding a belt closed. The rest of the buttons were glued in place.

I added one more flower-shaped button to the inside. Then stamped the back with my "handmade by" stamp and signed it.

I tucked one of my very favorite Quilted Hearts into her package. She can keep the heart for herself, or set in out into the wild of Idaho.

Julie said our grandkids got a kick out of all the colorful buttons.

Flitting Around and Geocaching

Last Tuesday Dale and I had a great morning of geocaching. We found new-to-us country roads to explore and some geocaching gems. This was a favorite. The name of the cache is #Retweet. The container? A decorated birdhouse. Inside the birdhouse was a plastic container that had the log and a nice selection of swag. 

I have a particular love of leaving extra swag in each cache. I'll usually leave three new pieces of swag for any one piece I care to take. The swag I like best is, of course, hearts. In this cache I found the angel with patchwork hearts on its wings. It's a wooden lapel pin. From the 15 caches we found that morning, I found a total of four pieces of heart swag. The other three are small charms, two heart-shaped keys and a silver puffy heart that says "Lovely." 

Since I was taking the pin with three patchwork hearts, I thought I'd leave one of my Quilted Hearts near this cache. 

I hope it gives the next cacher an extra smile.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The warmer, drier, sunnier days will find me moseying around the neighborhood on walks again. Blooming trees and yards full of daffodils and tulips are a treat.

I can get close enough to stick my nose in some and take in their fragrance.

This week I wandered down a street I usually don't use. I found a very colorful Little Free Library in a neighbor's front yard.

They fixed it up adorably, including a stepping stone path. 

The little library seemed like exactly the right spot to place another Quilted Heart.

Little Free Quilted Heart

The final Quilted Heart placement of the day was at the Little Free Library down the street from Jodie's house.

Pick a book. Pick up a heart. Sounds about right to me.

I believe I've placed about a dozen hearts so far. Time to release more of them in the wild.

Adult Activity Center

For our final stop on Monday we went to the building that houses Jodie's office, the Willamalane Adult Activity Center. This connects to Island Park via the bridge where I left the last heart.

Most of the trees are in bloom right now. We had an extremely wet early Spring, but that means everything is green and growing.

Even the building's sign looks beautiful dressed in purple and yellow flowers.

I found a spot by the front door to leave a Quilted Heart. Jodie joked that this hardware is so our seniors can tie up their horses on the way in.

The heart looks tiny on this massive expanse of wall. That's a good thing, right? The red color makes it stand out. Someone will be sure to see it over the bench as they wait for their ride.

Quilted Heart Update

Oh, how lovely! One of my Quilted Hearts was found and recorded on the official website! It's one of the two I placed at the magnolia arboretum.

Here's the post:

SPRINGFIELD, OR USA

POSTED ON APR 25, 2023

While taking a walk at the local Magnolia Park I came across this beautiful heart that needed a home. It was hanging by some beautiful Magnolia blossoms. It was a birthday present from the heart angels.

You can read lots of wonderful stories about hearts all over the world on the I Found A Quilted Heart website. I've read several stories from my old home in the Spokane / Coeur d'Alene area on the site.

Island Park

The third park Jodie and I visited last Monday is Island Park. It sits along the Willamette River. The river is running high right now!

I left one of my Quilted Hearts on the bridge entering the park.

In this park, weeds become a joyful field of flowers.

The benches canopied with flowering trees make for a peaceful place to rest and watch the river roll.

We left another Quilted Heart near a second bridge on our way out of the park. Next stop? The Adult Activity Center.

It's good to see my Quilted Hearts go out into the wild. I hope the people that find them get a bit of joy and comfort.

Doris Ranch

After walking the paved path at Ruff Park on Monday, Jodie and I headed off to Doris Ranch. This heart-shaped rock met me in the parking lot. A good omen.

We wanted to hike the path on the hill to look at wildflowers. 

There's lots of trillium to be found.

Unfortunately, we missed the first wave of color, but can see that more wildflowers are on the way.

After our short hike, we stopped at the information kiosk to leave a Quilted Heart.

Ruff Park

Monday afternoon with Jodie at Ruff Park Magnolia Arboretum.

Soft, cloudy day. Wide expanse of grass surrounded with blooming magnolias.

Most of the white flowers bloomed a week ago. 

A lovely spot for lunch

Now the pinks and purples are showing off.

We sent a couple more Quilted Hearts out into the wild.