The New Year is Coming Fast

And there are so many things I want to do!

Blog More..
Clean More..
Listen to my kids better..
And some awesome sew alongs..

Well there's mine

 A really awesome quilt along to the oh so pretty quilt above.

Then there is this EEP challenge going on over at Quiet Play

Or how about this skill-builder from Pile O'Fabric

I was seeing this quilt in Black, White and Red on a background of Turquoise blue, what do you think?
So I don't think I can do all of them, and obviously I have to do mine, so can you help me out, should I do the EPP or the Skill's quilt?  Any suggestions would be great.
Hugs Mara

Fun Fact

I was watching a documentary yesterday and the women said that Pizza originated in Greece! What?  Wow!  I love Pizza, I could eat it 5 nights a week and have leftovers on 2, just kidding,  but it is one of my favorite things to cook and eat.
As an American I always thought that pizza originated in Italy and this is true if your are talking about a tomato based pizza with cheese on top (Italian invention date 1889, fairly recent as far as dates go), I mean Europe didn't even have the tomato until the 1600's.
But if you are talking about the dough baked with toppings on top then that is Greek in origin and from Platos' writings as long ago as 500 BC, dough baked with oil, herbs and cheese on top. Even the name is Greek in origin- Pizza (Italian pronunciation: pittsa) from the Latin verb pìnsere, to press and from the-Greek- pēktos, πηκτός, meaning "solid" or "clotted", (pita).

There you go a little fun fact for you, Merry Christmas.

In case you don't have your own Pizza Dough recipe, here's mine:

3/4 bag of flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. sugar
1 package of yeast
Mix those 4 ingredients then add:
2 cups of milk warmed to (100-110F)

Mix it all together, add flour until not sticky, make it into a round ball, put it into a bowl and cover with a towel and leave it in a warm spot for 2 hours.
Tada great pizza dough, now the hard part what kind of toppings are you going to put on it?

Anchors Aweigh Quilt A Long

Have you seen this awesome quilt pattern?

It's so pretty but masculine too!

From Tula Pink for her new fabric collection Salt Water for Free Spirit Fabrics.

This quilt is done in the mostly Aqua color part of her collection, but she also has seaweed and coral colors, you can check them out here.

The quilt pattern is FREE and you can download it directly from Tula Pinks blog, here.

I thought it would be really fun to have a Quilt A Long and share the process of making this quilt.

I don't need such a big quilt for myself (it's finished size is 90" x 96") so I thought I would make 2 smaller quilts, I have already downsized the pattern to fit my kids beds (or they could make great lap quilts).  I will share with you 2 rows on the first Saturday of the month starting February 2013, we should finish the quilts by the end of June, just in time to Anchor Aweigh and go sailing somewhere.

Since my blog is supposed to be about Traveling Thru Greece, I thought it would be a fun idea to visit each island group during our QAL, here's the schedule:
February 2 - THE IONIAN ISLANDS (row 1 and 2)
March 2 - THE CYCLADES (row 3 and 4)
April 6 - CRETE (row 5 and 6)
May 4 - THE DODECANESE (row 7 and 8)
June 1 - THE NORTHEAST AEGEAN ISLANDS (binding and quilting)
Show off your quilts on June 30th, I will be setting up a Flikr group for this QAL.
Grab a the button on the side and join us for a tour of the Greek Islands.

Get Ready to Sail Away on the Anchor Aweigh Quilt A Long.

For Your Eyes Only

Bond, James Bond that is.
Did you know that they filmed several scenes in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only, here in Greece.  The awesome chase scene through olive groves was filmed on Corfu, and trust me when I say that this area has not changed at all, just take all of the people picking olives out of it and rent yourself an old Citroen and you will feel like your in the film. This next part I stole from Wikipedia because I like how they said it.


"For the Meteora shoots, a Greek bishop was paid to allow filming in the monasteries, but the uninformed Eastern Orthodox monks were mostly critical of production rolling in their installations. After a trial in the Greek Supreme Court, it was decided that the monks  only property were the interiors – the exteriors and surrounding landscapes were from the local government. In protest, the monks remained shut inside the monasteries during the shooting, and tried to sabotage production as much as possible, hanging their washing out of their windows and covering the principal monastery with plastic bunting and flags to spoil the shots, and placing oil drums to prevent the film crew from landing helicopters. The production team solved the problem with back lighting, matte paintings, and building both a similar scenographic monastery on a nearby unoccupied rock, and a monastery set in Pinewood.
Roger Moore said he had a great fear of heights, and to do the climbing in Greece, he resorted to moderate drinking to calm his nerves."    

The particular Monastery that they filmed at is called Agias Triados (Saint Trinity) and it happens to be the one that is just above our house and you can get there by walking a footpath that takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 45, depending on how athletic you are and then you have to climb the stairs to take you to the top of the rock and the monastery, another 15 minutes.

Saint Trinity, Meteora, Greece

A fantastic and wonderful view greats you at the top, you have the valley below and the Pindos mountain range across.

Vote For Me!

Okay total Self Promotion and only 1 day left.
On my Meteora Greece, Roka post I showed you an English Paper Piece that I made and now they are voting on the best one, it might not be the best one but it is fun.

And I plan on making more, 2 more to be exact in the next upcoming blog hop "In Your Words"

But right now they are voting on the Travellin' Pic Stitch over at Quokka Quilts, I am of course in the Europe division.  You can also check out the ones done in Australasia and Americas.  SO GET ON OVER THERE AND VOTE FOR #17.

Thanks Mara

Agiou Nikolaou Anapafsa Monastery, Meteora

Today is Saint Nikolaos Feast Day, so it makes only sense that I would talk about one of our Monasteries here called Agiou Nikolaou Anapafsa, it is the first open monastery that you will come upon if you are driving from Kastraki and up the road to visit the monasteries.  If you are walking or are approaching from the opposite direction then it will be your last one.  I normally hike from Kalampaka and by the time I get to Agiou Nikolaou I am to tired to walk inside so I have actually never been in there and have also borrowed the images used in this post from different sources.  You can find some fascinating information here and here and of course good old Wikipedia has more information about Meteora.

source

source

This is one of my photos, do you see it, down there

oh there it is, this photo was taken from the road under the Rossanou Monastery.

I would like to say that if you have been here before and it has been before this summer of 2012 then you will be happily surprised at the new and improved road, for the most part the road has been widened and now you really do not need to fear that you will be run over by a bus or pushed off a cliff.

Meteora Greece, Roka

I live in one of the most beautiful places in the World, or at least that's what I think.

Would you like to know where I live?

Between these 2 big rocks and a little tiny rock in the middle called Roka.

Where do I live?
In Kalampaka, Greece, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as Meteora, surrounded by these wonderful rocks and several monasteries
When I heard about the Travelling PicStitch Bloghop, I got very excited what better place to come visit than Greece and wouldn't it be fun to make something that looks like home.  I used the Palette Builder from Play Crafts.

Of course when I first read about it I thought that the idea was to make something look like a place.  When I started seeing all of the other blogs during the blog hop I was like oops, but I already had my idea and once I get an idea it's hard to change it.
So I made my own little EPP's in a design that I thought looked like the above pictures.

There's the Roka Rock between the 2 big rocks

 I thought I would make this into a pillow but my sewing machine is out for a little while until I can find another converter, I blew my last one up using a crock pot.  This is another reason why I did this EPP (English Paper Piecing) project because my sewing machine was not in working order and I also spent several hours in the hospital and this is an awesome way to while away the hours keeping busy.  I cut my paper pieces and my fabric before I left and I got the first part of the project done in the Hospital (sewing the paper to the fabric), while Nik my son slept.

I finished it at home, this is my first attempt at EPP and I love it.
You can find more examples of Travellin" Pic Stitch here.