Quilting On A Cruise, Lucky Me!

I have been asked multiple times how I liked teaching quilting on a cruise. In one word - AWESOME!  My two favorite parts of teaching is: 1.Sharing what I know and 2. getting to know other quilters.  Spending 7 days together was great.  There was a different class for each of the 3 days at sea.  There were optional shore excusrsions for the 3 port days.

The cruise left out of Galveston and it was an IQA fundraiser run by World of Quilt Travel.  My plan was to fly in the day of the cruise.  I know this is not recommended, but I had been away the week before for Quilt Market and I just did not want to spend one more night away from home.  But .... my travel experience is exactly why you should arrive in your departure city the day before a cruise.  I flew from Philly to Chicago.  And whoops! everything was fogged in at the Chicago airport.  I waited and watched the departure board to see when my flight would depart for Houston.  As it became later and  later, I became more and more  concerned that I was not going to be able to land in Houston and then make it to Galveston before the ship would leave.  I decided on a cut off time that would decide if I would continue to Houston or head back to Philadelphia.  I just did not want to disappoint my students.  Plus I had pre-paid kits for my classes in my suitcases.  (I do have oe extra in my Etsy shop.)

Ten minutes before the cutoff time, the flight was scheduled to depart.  I hit the ground in Houston running, literally running and used an UBER for the second time ever.  I arrived at The Liberty of the Seas 15 minutes before the ramps were to close.  I made it to my room and collapsed!  I had missed the teachers' meeting, but made it to the Welcome Students meeting where I found out that they were divvying up my classes!

There were 4 teachers, Helen Stubbings, Cherry Guidry, me and Sujata Shah:

This was one of my classrooms:

This was what the floor of each elevator looked like to remind you of the day:

Each night there was a different towel animal waiting for me after dinner:

I indulged myself and paid for an upgrade to a cabin with a balcony.  To sit on the balcony, with a latte,  after a day of being on my feet teaching was such a wonderful end to the day. I really love the water and I find it so calming. It was the perfect spot to think about my gratitude that I was  teaching in such an environment while missing Bailey and my hubby.  I loved sitting there at sunset, sunrise, in the dark as well as when we arrived in port.

 I did try to eat healthy.  Breakfast was pretty much the only meal where I was successful!

There were women on the cruise from all over the US, as well, as British  Columbia, New Zealand and my fellow teacher Helen Stubbings from Tasmania, Australia.  Some of the women shared gifts during the cruise:

and my new friend Sandra sent me gifts from her home in Northern California.

  Did you know they grew rice there?

The last night of the cruise, we had a farewell get togther along with a Show & Tell.  Most of us had packed our bags, but some of my students brought their WIPs and some even brought their finished tote bags!:

It really was a wonderful time. 

 I have such fond memories and look forward to seeing these women again.

Give Thanks

I just finished unpacking my car after teaching at MAQ and

prepping my classes to teach at Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA that start on Thursday.  I even get to stay at the Hershey Lodge overnight.  I hear they leave a piece of chocolate on your pillow! I have 2 requests for speaking engagements in my inbox.  One to visit Indiana and the other is a quilt guild in Virginia.

Who would think at 62 that this would be my best, most wonderful year ever, as a quilter.  I owe it all to everyone who reads my blog, subscriibes to my newsletter, follows me on IG and FB, comes to my classes, books me to come to theieer guild, hires me to teach and buys my quilty stuff.  You have given me this life.  Don't get me wrong, I've worked really hard to get here. but I love and appreciate every single minute.  THANK YOU!

I started riding my bicycle again, so I brought it with me to Emmitsburg, MD.  My morning ride was just beautiful and such a great way to  start the day. I saw lllamas and horses, ponies and an amazing sunrise.

Whenever I got a little nervous about getting lost, I would look up to find the "Golden Mary" on the Mt St Mary's University campus.

A cafeteria full of quilters with lots of friendly faces:

I taught 3 classes at MAQ - Fishalicious, Choose To Fuse and Mini Mosaic Quilts and had a great group of students.  Here are a bunch of the photos that I remembered to take.

Since I'm not a gadget person, I always enjoy seeing the latest gadgets that my students bring.  This was an 18mm rotary cutter that slipped over the finger.  It cut like a charm.  We all started searching for it on our phones without any luck.  So it's either super new or has been discontinued.  Have you seen it? 

Here's an undersea backgound using fish fabric.  Fun!

" Choose To Fuse" is a fusible machine applique class featuring 7 different ways to applique using fusible web, including a fusible binding and a Snippet style nest.

And on Sunday, was my Mini Mosaic class.  I am continually amazed at how much people LOVE this class.  We're all crazy using tweezers to place 3/8" squares of fabric, and loving it.  Three of my students actually finished the mosaic in class!

If you would like to received my newsletter with lots of fun quilty stuff that also shares my upcoming teaching venues, CLICK HERE.

If you'd like to purchase a Mini Mosiac Quilt Kit,

CLICK  HERE.

Who's idea was this?

Heading to our lake house in the Pocono Mountains to escape the DNC in Phildaelsphia via Burkholders Fabrics in Lancaster County turned out to be not such a good idea. We thought we could consolidate 2 trips to save time.

I have been asked if I had kits for two of my patterns, Fishalicious and Beachalicious.

Since I bought all the fabrics for Fishalicious from one quilt shop - Burkholders- I decided to make kits for this pattern first. Unfortunately, it really didn't save us any time on the road. It seemed like we were driving forever, but the scenery made it worth it. We just had to stop at this produce stand.

It was run by a young Amish couple whose produce was grown from their garden right behind it. This is the beginning of the season to buy cantaloupe, heirloom cherry tomatoes and corn. They really were yummy delicious.

The farms and houses near Burkholders are just magnificent and large with lots of stone. Here's a few photos I snapped.

 

 

The sky was my favorite shade of blue.

I found lots of the fabrics I used for Fishalicious, but for some of them I had to find substitutes. Here's the stack.

 

I will make the kits when I get back to my studio. I'm making up just a few kits to test the waters so to speak. I'll put them in my Etsy shop when they are ready. If you are interested, let me know.

I bought a bunch of their batiks at $5.99, a really great price and I just could not resist this fabric. It was just too cute.

 

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So Excited! It's Here!!!!

I am so excited.  My newest Curvalicious pattern is now done, printed and available for purchase!

 It's called "Fishalicious" and I am so thrilled with it.

I had so much fun designing it.  It brought back memories of my one son's childhood. When he was 11, we were on vacation in Key West, staying at a Hilton. He decided he wanted to take a scuba diving lesson that was offered at the hotel.None of us knew how to scuba, but he wanted to do it.  He took the lessons and then went out on a boat with his instructor and my husband as a chaperone.  He had a blast.  So for his Bar Mitzvah gift from us, he asked for a very unusual gift. He wanted to become a certified scuba diver. He found a school outside of  Atlanta and he was determined.  We put him on an airplane at 13 years old and he returned a week later with his certification.  

What a special kid! 

I used Curvalcious to create all of the  waves, the  ocean floor and the plant life on the left side. The pattern includes a 2 page full size newsprint layout.  

 with lots of colorful figures included in the directions.

The top edge is Curvalicious wavy and there are lots of quilting details for the appliques.

I know a bunch of you have added your own touches to Beachalicious and I think this pattern is perfect for the same treatment.  You can change the colors of the fish, add different fish, leave out fish and if you're a crab lover, there's plenty of room for that too.  

Or you could even add your own scuba diver!

I love seeing your creativity and how you alter my patterns!

So will you add this to your list of Curvalicious quilts to make?

Or will this motivate you to finally purchase a Curvalicious tool?

Either way, know that your success is important to me and I will offer as much support as I can, with more patterns, tutorials and videos in the works on the Curvalicious website;

www.Curvalicious.net

and to purchase any of my patterns or the Curvalicious tool, visit my Etsy shop.

If you want to be among the first to be notified of new patterns, tutorials and videos, sign up for the Curvalicious newsletter using the sign up box located on the right side bar of this blog.

HINT: a new video is in production that will change how you do borders

So, this one is for you Roger!