Monday Morning Star Count

Ugh,  guys, what have I done?
We decided to take a last minute trip to Kastro/Killini to visit our cousins who are beach camping.  It was so last minute that while I remembered to bring my epp travel sewing kit, I completely forgot to pack deodorant and hair gel...
Anyway, here it's Monday and I have no way to post a decent Star Count!  I'm trying blogger's 'post by email' feature for the first time, hope it works.  I'm writing on my phone from a hotel in the middle of (very pretty) farmland, without wifi, of course.  This one blog post is eating  up my entire data package, I'm sure. 

So, let's see if I can get pics in this post.. sorry, no inlinkz linky, I left the password to my account at home. If you want to share your progress this week,  please leave us a link in the comments and I swear,  I'll get off my lazy vacationing a** and put together a real post for next week.  Xoxo.

Greater than

Lately I've been feeling a little.. frustrated.  Plans I've made have fallen through, goals I've set don't seem like they'll ever happen-- just one set back after another.  I have been trying to stay positive and cheerful, ever optimistic, but the truth is, all the bumps in the road were taking their toll.
I needed a  pick me up, so I set my timer for 15 minutes, and I just pieced and pieced, cut and ironed, and finally that box of crumbs I was saving for "some day" started to take shape.
Another sewing session after the kids went to bed and I've got a start on something..

I have wanted a mini quilt for the wall of our apartment here in Athens for a looooong time, so I think that's where this piece is headed.  Something to remind me to keep my chin up, something to help me get my creative energy back and centered.  A piece to remind me I am greater than all the crap that's trying to pull me down. 

I feel better.
It needs to be bigger still, but not tonight.

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/26

basting, basting, basting-- that's what I've been focused on this week.  Eventually I'll have bigger progress to show, but for now I'm finding peace in the routine of my EPP..

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/25

Such good intentions!   I brought around 100 hexies to baste and stitch while we were on vacation,  but I only got 5 done, and none stitched.   No regrets thought, it was a tough trip with Jack and I sick, so we made the best of what we had and enjoyed ourselves any way we could. 

In the end, I didn't sew this week, did you?

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/24

Happy Summer!  I don't know if it's summer where you are, but I'm on vacation and totally feeling it~

We are in Paros at the Anezina Village Hotel (still scheming to pull together a quilt retreat here, how about June 2015,  anybody?) and the cicadas are chirping very loudly.  It's beautiful here, but I haven't found any time to sew.  Jack was sick last week and I caught whatever he had so as much as I'm enjoying being here, whenever we're not doing something as a family, all I want to do is sleep.  Hopefully it will run its course and I'll be back to myself soon.
Here are my updates from the last week..

I stitched part of one hex-diamond (worked on it while waiting at the salon), and cut a bunch of fabric for future hexies..

Have you guys been more productive?  Please link up below. 

This week marks the 1 year anniversary of the US/Canada release of Quilting on the Go and I want to give a HUGE Thank you to everyone who has bought, read, posted about, or shared my book.  I love hearing from you guys and seeing pictures of what you've made.   Many people have sent me pictures and emails lately but I haven't had time at the computer to respond.  Please know that I do appreciate what you've sent and I'm sorry life doesn't let me spend more time online right now.  I thought we'd do a little experiment this week though.. if you have read Quilting on the Go, could you please just let me know in the comments below?  I don't have access to how well the book is doing outside of the US, so if you comment I can kind of see how far it has reached.. there are translations in German, Dutch, Hungarian, Spanish and Estonian so far.. if you have one of those editions, let me know!

Ok, now let's see who else has been stitching this week...
(anyone is welcome to join the linky party at any time this week, don't be shy!  we want to see your EPP!)

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/23

We had another great NYC Mod Guild meeting over the weekend. Here are some of the group's epp stars.

I worked a bit on this quilt this week but didn't do any of my own projects.   I found out the Thessaloniki quilt guild is also doing a group epp project,  see Zaferia's post below.  What have you been working on?

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/22

I laid them all out and I've got 12 units done so far.  This is good.  I wanted 20 done before the summer, but I hadn't anticipated taking a break to finish the tiny  hexie stars, so... I'm calling this successful progress.  And technically summer doesn't start for another 3 weeks.  Maybe I'll actually make it to 20 by then?

 Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts, emails and comments from my last post.  Acceptance is coming, slowly.  This week I took the backing fabric scraps and fussy cut some birds for my next diamond.  There will be a medium turquoise between the yellow and white fabrics.

I like this project because I can focus a lot on fabric choice.  I don't know if I could make a quilt with just 2 or 3 fabrics in it.. I have before (wait, no, that had 4 fabrics in the top), but that quilt had different layers of meaning, making it served a different purpose.  Multi-fabric stash quilts are so satisfying for me these days.. some might say they're scrap quilts, but I know I cut a lot of these hexies from yardage, so it isn't quite a scrap quilt for me.  Do you follow my distinction?  Does that make sense to anybody else?

Anyway.. it's your turn.  Let's see what you all have to say about your progress, what small goals can we set before the first day of summer?