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!)

Blogger's Quilt Festival (and Quilt Retreat Invitation)

I was racking my brain (and sewing room) for something to enter in this fall's Bloggers' Quilt Festival.  My Lime String quilt isn't finished yet and I haven't had time to work on much else.  Then it occurred to me that I never did a real blog post on Travel Quilt #3, the one that is featured in my book.  So, here it is:

I started this quilt in July 2010, stitched the last diamonds by hand in February 2012, and had the entire thing finished in October 2012.  I took a few detail shots of my own, but then it went straight on to my publisher for photography for the book.  (And I wasn't supposed to blog about it til the book was released!) It ended up on the back cover, which I was really pleased about.  This is the third in my Travel Quilt series and the first time I actually wrote on the stars as I pieced them.  The full pattern and instructions, including step-by-step photography, is available in the book. 

Long arm quilted by the brilliant Shannon Couvillion in Georgia, this is a very personal quilt, a fabric scrap book of where I went and how I spent my  time. 
Of course this isn't the first time many of you are seeing this quilt.  I heavily blogged my progress as I carried my EPP sewing kit back and forth across the globe, completing a few stars at a time.  Here's a quick recap of my favorite in-progress photos:

Have you ever quilted on the beach?  Would you like to?
I'm organizing an English paper piecing retreat that will be held on the Greek island of Paros in June, 2014.  Come enjoy amazing food, perfect weather, relaxing atmosphere and good company as we stitch together in the middle of the Aegean.  Check out my "Greek Island Retreat" tab above, or just click here.  Registration is open through February 1st, but space is limited.  I'd love to have you join me and start a Travel Quilt of your own~

Posting from Paros~

I'm super happy the blog tour has been going so well.  Thank you so much for visiting my blog and all the others on the tour, and for talking about or buying my book!
I know it's crazy, but I'm not even at home to enjoy all this book tour madness this week, we're actually in Paros and this is how I'll be blogging for the next few days..

baby on my lap and everything.

I know I posted a picture of the ferry boat this morning,  but this is Paros:

 It is a small-ish island in the Aegean sea and it's really quite lovely.  We have been coming to the same resort (Anezina Village) for the past 3 years and not only does it have excellent food and beautiful beaches, but I always manage to get a lot of quilting done when I'm here.  A large part of the Travel Quilt was stitched here..

(We are lucky enough to be staying in the same bungalow again this year, which makes me very sentimental about the quilt and book and everything..)

Anyway, with the baby it has been harder to find sewing time this trip, but I'm determined.  He's gotta nap sometime, right?
Wishing you all lots of hand stitching time this summer~
Love from Paros,
Jess

Travel inspiration and Laura of Quokka Quilts

Last fall, Laura did this great blog hop where you took color inspiration from photographs and then made EPP projects from them. (you can see my post here)

I played around with a lot of photos to try to get colors I wanted to work with before cutting into my fabric (I think that's not what she intended, but it was fun anyway).. here is one from our trip to Paros last year:

  

 Greece has really great color inspiration, don't you think?  If only I had time to stitch all the quilts I'm inspired to make..

The blog tour continues over at Quokka Quilts today.  Hop over there to read more about how Laura travels with her EPP.