The FINISH line

 

I'm pretty excited this morning. Why? I did it!! I walked the entire length of Route 66. That's a total of 2,280.3 miles. So bear with me for a minute while I mark this momentous occasion. 

Here's my position on the Santa Monica Pier. I see a Cheesecake Factory nearby - perhaps I can have a piece of cheesecake as a reward?

The finish line at the Santa Monica Pier

Here's the view from the pier!! I love it - I can't go any further!!!

The view from the Santa Monica Pier

It took me a total of 323 days, which averages just slightly more than 7 miles every day. 

I finished 41 days ahead of my predicted pace

I added .8 of a mile each day over my pace. What happened is that the cross Canada walk requires a more aggressive pace than what I set for Route 66. To make sure I complete the cross Canada walk on time, I had to walk more each day! That's why I finished Route 66 with 41 days to spare!

Ahead of my pacer by 256.8 miles

And here's the final note - SUCCESS!!!

A sweet victory

And there it is - 100% completion. OK - I think I've documented EVERYTHING about the finish! The only thing left is to get the medal, which I ordered this morning! 

100% complete!!!!

So that's it for Route 66. I contemplated starting another one, but I've decided to wait. I still have my cross Canada challenge, which will go until the end of next year. I have another aggressive challenge that I'll talk about later, and there's the group challenge of walking from east to west in Canada. I think I have enough on my plate at the moment, although all steps count to all the walks. 

I"m going to wait to see if they have another challenge for 2021. They usually have a special - well, they did last year, and I'll sign up for another one at the same time. I'll wait and start on January 1. I'm going to miss looking at the Route 66 map each day, but I've got the others to keep me entertained!

Isn't that exciting???  

And now back to the mundane life of a quilter! I did get a lot done yesterday, but nothing that I can share with you! Sorry. But I'm thrilled with the outcome of what I did. I can't wait to share it after this coming weekend, and can you believe that I'm ahead in the homework preparation? That's a shocker!

I tried to unpack a few more things from the weekend bag of finished projects. Do you remember those red and white blocks that I worked on for THREE days? They are the blocks in the border of this Winter Wonderland quilt. 

Winter Wonderland

Now the blocks are sewn together, and all the embroidery is done! That means I can start to sew it together. I was not planning on finishing this quilt this year. It's on the UFO list, but I just might be able to do that! 

The rest of the embroidery blocks for Winter Wonderland

If I play my cards right, I might be able to finish off FIVE more UFOs before the end of the year. I'm going to push it. It'll be tight for two of them, but what a coup that would be!!!! That would leave 17 for next year, plus the additional 12 that I'm going to add. Oh boy - I'm on a roll, and I'm motivated!!!!

Here's the second little red/white mini quilt that I finished last week. The binding is made, but I need to find something for the backing. Those little half-square triangles are tiny! 

Red and white mini quilt

I did find a couple of things to buy when I was away. I was looking for this embroidery pattern, and it was on sale, so I scooped it up. I have one more embroidery design that I want to make as well. Both are on CDs, so I'm off to the library this afternoon to put them onto a USB. Yep - I could buy a CD drive for the house, but I could also use it as an excuse to walk to the library. I choose to walk!

Embroidery pattern

I bought a puzzle with a barn quilt on it! How cool is that? 

A barn quilt puzzle

For the moment, I've put it with the rest of my puzzles. My puzzles are stored on the top two shelves in this closet. My goal is to work on TWO of the puzzles this Christmas season, and then I'll be giving them away. I know there's a couple of ladies at Monday sewing who like puzzles, so they'll get first dibs on the puzzles.  And that closet used to be a HUGE mess, but it's all organized now. I  may not look perfectly organized, but it is!

The puzzle storage area

There's still stuff to unpack, but no time at the moment!!!!

More stuff to put away

It was back to sorting through the remainder of those blue fabrics. This is the reject box, which is getting fuller but still lots of room!

The blue scrap box 

This is the box that I'll be working with. Still lots of room in there!!!

The blues that I need for my project

And I still have to go through all this. It's boring, to say the least. So I do a bit each day! The bottom line is that progress is being made. I hope to do some sewing this afternoon. I need to get sewing the quilt together, so I MUST get through this pile by the end of the day tomorrow. 

The pile of blues to still go through

But it's going to be a busy day. I have to take my car to get the tires changed—a couple of calls, a Zoom session that I'm monitoring. I've no presentations today!! That's exciting. I had two more last night and loads of questions from the group. I love questions, and I LOVE how many are doing the little homework assignments that I give them. I love it even more, when they come back the following week and show me their homework and tell me how much they learned! That's the best part of the entire presentation. Kudos to those that are doing it because it's the BEST time and place to learn. 

I still have 14 presentations before I'm done for the year! I have to say that it's nice to have the agendas done, the samples gathered, and the rest should go relatively smoothly as the end of the year draws to a close. 

Then it's back to the drawing board to rejig the agendas, look at what's missing for samples, and get ready for a brand new year! There's never a dull moment or time to waste! 

Someone mentioned my energy the other day. Where does it come from?? I've always believed that the more you do, the more you can do! It all starts with a tiny step. Then tomorrow, you can do two tiny steps. And the day after, you can do four tiny steps. Here's a quote that I firmly believe in. 

So what has happened to me is that I've had that philosophy for MANY years. So my first tiny step years ago has resulted in MANY steps today! It's simple. It's like money! Save a quarter a day, and all of a sudden, you have a lot of money. Sadly, I was never good at saving money!

Don't forget the virtual retreat this coming weekend. The first day is Saturday and starts at 6 PM EST. Then on Sunday, it starts at 9 AM and goes until 8 PM. I'll be posting the links tomorrow so watch for that. 

And that's it for today. I've got to generate some more energy!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!