#NGAQB Mr. March: Andrew Youngman

March was Andrew Youngman's month in the #NGAQB. Andrew is a quilter living in upstate New York and working in the healthcare industry. It's been great getting to know Andrew through this bee as well as over Instagram, where he posts under the handle @TESTOSTERSEWN (he currently does not have a blog.)

Here's Andrew's intro:

I’m the other Andrew, or Mr. March. In a brief introduction about me, I would tell you that I sent to art school and concentrated in photography. I now work in healthcare, specifically as an aide in Intensive Care and Cardiac Services.  

Quilting was introduced to me by my mother a couple of years ago when I asked her to teach me, knowing she wanted to get back into it. I made one small table runner and one lap quilt then put my machine away, only to pick it up again 6 months or so ago.  

Thanks to social media, specifically Instagram, I started noticing more and more male crafters and quilters, and started to follow them and begin a conversation about an all-male quilt bee. And here we are.

I chose the Inverted Star block (available on craftsy.com) because I haven’t yet worked with half-square triangles and wanted the challenge. And I asked for the color inspiration to come from a photograph I took on my last trip with my husband to Key West. We’ve been there twice in the last year and love it. Asking for your help to commemorate this new favorite place of mine seemed appropriate.  

Thanks you all for the stunning blocks that I’ve already either received or seen online. They work you each produce is amazing and I’m glad to be a growing amateur in such an elite group of fun and talented craftsman! 

Here is the beautiful photograph that Andrew provided for inspiration:

Based on the muted blue, grey, and black tones of the picture -- along with a touch of light green -- here are the fabrics I pulled for Andrew's blocks:

With the fabrics selected, the blocks were fairly straightforward to assemble. Lots of HSTs, but that's OK. I went with a completely scrappy layout rather than a more coordinated one, and I'm very happy with how the stars turned out.

Can't wait to see Andrew's blocks all come together!