MARIE: Two Quilts Finished

Thanks to DEANA for giving me the courage to make a New York Beauty Quilt, we started our quilts in January 2019, so it has taken me a while to finish this quilt. I have worked on other quilts during that time too, so I’m not as slow as it seems.  I love the quilt, but now that it is finished, I am wanting to make another one in a different color scheme.  I quilted it on my domestic sewing machine.

Last month I finished this pinwheel quilt.  It was a fun and easy quilt to work on while I was making the NYB.

MARIE: A FINISHED QUILT AND 2 OTHER GOALS MET

This quilt has been in the making for way too long, but I finally finished it. 

 The back is a little crazy, but I was able to use up the fabric that was left when I finished the top.

My second goal was to baste my New York Beauty and here it is all ready to machine quilt on my trusty home machine. It should be fun. I hope I don't ruin it. There is a lot of work in this quilt.

My third goal was to piece a pinwheel quilt, and here is the finished flimsy. It is currently on my quilt frames ready to be basted.

MARIE'S PROGRESS

I just wanted to post some photos of my progress.  I finished quilting two quilts last year that I failed to post on the blog.

This quilt is Deana's pattern called Shimmer Braid. I finished the top a long time ago, but just recently finished quilting it. I quilted this on my home machine and I did a lot of quilting on it--probably too much, but I am happy with the way it turned out.

The next quilt is my Optical Illusion Mystery Quilt. It has been pieced and waiting to be quilted even longer than the Shimmer Braid. It's a very different quilt, and I really struggled quilting it, but I learned a lot about machine quilting on a domestic machine on this quilt.

 My goal for last year was to get caught up on my quilting so that I could always just have one quilt on the frames being basted, one quilt being quilted and one quilt  being pieced, and no other unfinished quilts.  I like to have more than one quilt to work on so that I don't get too bored. When I finished quilting the Shimmer Braid I reached that goal.

I finished piecing my New York Beauty before the end of the year, but for some reason I failed to take a photo of the finished quilt top, so I just took a photo of it on the quilt frames being basted. Here are the three quilts I'm currently working on.

This top has been waiting for a long, long time to be quilted.

I decided it was time to something a little more simple this time and I am enjoying putting together a quilt that goes together quickly.

Linking up with:  TGIFF

NYB top is done!

Hooray for me!  I assembled my New York Beauty quilt.  I have been paper piecing these intricate blocks all year.  My goal was to finish the blocks by the end of December and I DID IT!  I put the top together yesterday and have begun cutting out the borders.  

I am linking up with Midweek Makers!

MARIE: PROGRESS FOR APRIL

My goal for April was to make 13 New York Beauty Blocks. I completed 15, so I'm pretty happy with that. I lined up all of my completed blocks on my design wall. It's fun to see the empty spots fill in as I finish another block.  Hopefully all my blocks will be finished by the end of May then I can start arranging, adding outer borders to the blocks that are missing them, and then put the whole top together.

11 NYB blocks completed in March!

I had twelve NYB blocks done in January/February and eleven during the month of March.  Marie is pushing me along.  Perhaps if I can do as many as she plans to do over the next two months, I will be able to quilt it this summer.  That would be wonderful since I barely planned to even piece this one this year.

Here was my March progress:

I have loved every second of making these blocks!  They are so easy for paper piecing projects because all the spikes are the same size and, for the most part, every ring can be done in one section.

The photo below shows all of my finished blocks thus far.  There are getting to be too many on my wall to get a good photo.  Most blocks have the corners on them, but I am starting to leave a few off until the end when I will be deciding the placement.  Most will need white corners, but a few will need red or black.

I am linking up with:

BOM's Away
Monday Making
Moving it Forward
Tish's UFO Busting

MARIE: New York Beauty blocks for March

I reached my goal of making 13 New York Beauty blocks this month. Now I have half of my blocks finished. I will make a goal of making 13 more in April and then again in May. I hope to have the quilt top finished by the end of June. This is a fun project!

MARIE: PROGRESS FOR FEBRUARY

It's been a short month, especially since I didn't sew for about half of the month, but this is what I have to show for February. I now have 13 blocks finished, including the blocks I made in January, which means I have 1/4 of them finished. I tried using more of my background fabric in these blocks and I like them a lot better that the first ones I did. It will be fun to arrange these blocks into the quilt top. These blocks are time-consuming, but addictive and fun!

15 Min to Stitch and a little progress

This past week I finished another NYB block and Jasmine.  

I also got the bottom and sides on my Memory Round Robin quilt.  I still need to make a braid so I can finish the top.

My 15 Minutes to Stitch Report is below.  It dropped this past week, but it is ok.  I think I will still make my goals.

I am linking up today with:

Monday Making
Freemotion by the River
BOMs Away
Moving it Forward
UFO Busting

15 Minutes to Stitch...slow week

I did get my 15 minutes to stitch in last week, but this week is moving slow.  I knew I would only have a couple nights to accomplish much anyway but then I lost 4 1/2 hours last night unexpectedly.  For someone who works full time, that is a lot of time to lose in an evening.

Last week I almost missed a day, but I thought ahead and took some hand work to the salon.  I did hand applique' while my hair was processing.  Fifteen minutes can be easily found with a little bit of pre-planning.  This weekend I'll be hiking.  I plan to take that same hand work for the evenings.

I have two more NYB blocks completed, more of Jasmine, and a good start on my "memory round robin".  Out of the two blocks shown below, I really favor the top one.  The colors make it very striking in person.

I have the blocks on the sides and top row all sized by width.  I just need to calculate the height to fit the middle.  I would have had them attached, another NYB ring done, and another Jasmine piece if I could have stayed home last night. 

I will be fitting all the blocks so the large octogon block in in the center.

I am linking up with:

Freemotion by the River
BOMs away
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Moving it Forward

Fears are real!

Jasmine has some hair and an ear ring now.

One more New York Beauty block is on the design wall.

Do you ever feel like others don't understand your fears?  I do, and yet, sometimes I think other people's fears are ridiculous.  I guess that makes me no better than those that think my fears are crazy.  I used to work with a lady who was afraid of cotton balls.  People would sometimes put them in her desk drawer to get her going.  I would never do that because I respect others fears even if I think them to be silly.  I was very close to another lady who was terrified of cats.  I had never heard of that one either, but when we would go visit homes I always protected her from the vicious cats.  We served together in our church and made home visits to cheer people up.

WELL, I had to do my best to get through a couple of fears on the next 10 miles of our journey to Arizona.  These first 32 miles have been mostly in open range where cattlemen have their herds of cows out on the desert.  On our second hike there were two huge bulls right on the path that chose not to move.  I made my husband go way around, further than he wanted, to calm my fears of getting run over by a charging bull.  They stared us down the entire time.  It is just a vulnerable feeling to be out in the middle of no where without vehicles or structures or even a rock to climb on or fence to climb over for safety.  I am a pretty fast runner for my age, but remember, I had just walked several miles already.  I don't know if I could twist and spin like the rodeo cowboys do in an emergency.  My grandpa always said, "You don't have to be fast.  You just have to be faster than the other guys you are with." (ha ha).  I certainly wouldn't want my husband to get charged either.

The first 32 miles have been easily accessible from dirt roads.  We drive two vehicles, drop one at the end destination, and then drive back to our starting spot so we don't have to back track on our walk.  This has been a challenge because I have had to learn how to 4-wheel drive in snow up canyons that scared me.  I am literally terrified of slick canyon roads with steep drop offs.  I don't mind running off the road if it is flat, but those cliffs paralyze me if the road is snowy.  

I am proud to say that I survived both breath catching incidents unscathed.  I also want to add that I feel so protected with my husband there.  He is my strength!

Here are some photos of our journey for the "snow" section.  It is lucky we had to drive both vehicles to the end before circling the other back because they made tire tracks for us to walk in.

I am learning little things to help me along my path.  I have bad feet and have to walk in shoes with good arch support or use inserts.  I knew we would be in snow so I packed my snow boots in case I wanted to change out of my tennis shoes.  That was a great idea, although I didn't use them.  What I realized though was that it does no good to pack dry boots if you don't bring an extra pair of dry socks.  Luckily my feet stayed warm, but next time I will be packing dry socks.

Look how deep the snow was by my foot.

I added two more sections to our journey quilt.  The black and white color changes represent different days of walking.  We walked together (purple) for 5 miles and then hubby walked an additional mile while I brought the vehicle further.  That is why one square is half yellow and half purple.  I walked 5 miles (5 logs) and he walked one more (6th log).

Here is the entire row thus far.  We are planning our next adventure this coming weekend and hope to knock off 14 miles a day in two days on a rugged, rocky, mountain trail in snow or mud depending on the weather.  Hubby says that will be the end of walking for awhile as we will begin biking.

This is my late TO DO TUESDAY report:

Yes, I pretty much accomplished all my list last week.

I did make a list this week, but have not posted until now.  That explains why some are crossed off already.

• 6 Jasmine sections (2 left to do)
• 6 NYB rings (4 left to do)
• 1 dog block
• Journey to Arizona sections for Dec 23rd, Jan 5th, Jan 12, and Jan 20th
• 2 Feathered Goose Corners
• Applique' dog block bones and noses

• Sew half of my memory quilt together
• Prep some hand work for next week's walk (I can do it in the evenings.)

I am linking up today with:

Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

Finished or Not Friday

Moving it Forward Monday

Wednesday Wait Loss

Friday Foto Fun

Show off Saturday