Our Australian Quilt Cruise was a great success. With my great organiser, Lorelle and wonderful helper, Laraine we enjoyed the company of 34 wonderful ladies on our cruise of the South Pacific. The ladies (and some husbands) came from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. We visited Noumea, Vila, Lifou and The Isle of Pines. 
On the cruising days we conducted three workshops, These being a watercolour wall hanging with tropical fish, a landscape quilt that I designed for the cruise and a quilt as you go table runner designed by Sharon Pederson. I would like to thank Sharon for allowing me to share this table runner with the ladies.
We cruised on the beautiful Royal Caribbean 'Rhapsody of the Seas' This ship had a large conference room with was able to cater for all our sewing machines. 
We cruised on the beautiful Royal Caribbean 'Rhapsody of the Seas' This ship had a large conference room with was able to cater for all our sewing machines. A pre cruise challenge titled 'Tropical Delight' was well received with voting for this challenge judged by the many other cruisers that visited us during the time spent onboard. We had two equal first place and two equal second winners. 
On port days several of the ladies went on optional tours, both in the sea and on land. 
Others stayed behind and with the tireless help of Laraine worked on their projects. In Noumea we had an overnight stay due to Cyclone Jasmine (we did not have any rough seas thanks to the Captain of the ship keeping us away from Jasmine). On the first day fabric shops were located and mapped. The next morning I took several of the ladies on a fabric shopping spree. We actualy contributed to the local economy.
In all it was a great cruise. I met many wonderful fellow quilters and have many fond memories. We will be running another cruise next year and after consulting the cruise company we have secured a booking on the new ship to the Australian cruising scene the 'Voyager of the Seas'. This cruise of 14 nights duration will sail to Noumea, Fiji and New Zealand commencing on the 13th January 2013 departing from Sydney and retruning to Sydney. I am hoping to organise visits to a quilt shop in Auckland and Wellington that are not far from where the ship docks.
I will keep you posted on this cruise.
Happu quilting
Dorothy
Carol's 'Boy Layout'
Bridget's 'Sketch Layout'
Edrom Lodge Ladies
The quilting cruise was run by Stitchin' Heaven from Texas. There were 48 ladies attending the classes (including five from Australia) with three instructors. They divided the group into two. I was previliged to meet Toni Whitney whose work I have admired and have I completed some of her designs. She is a wonderful lady and a great teacher.
The two ports of call in Alaska, Juno and Skaway, both had beautiful quilt shops. It was very hard to resist buying heaps of fabric. I did manage to restrict myself and buy only a small amount. In Alaska Kaye and I did a rafting tour down one of the rivers. This was not white water rafting but gentley gliding down the river. We saw fantastic countryside and lots of eagles. We did manage to see three black bears on our trip.
I took my sewing machine all the way to Alaska as a learning experience to carrying a machine on aircraft. The machine travelled well. I carried it as hand luggage and had no problems with Australian, Cadanian or US customs. The machine travelled in the overhead locker with out any problem.
After the cruise we bused our way back to Vancouver for a couple of days before returning home. We sayed in a BnB which was in a central position to the main part of Vancouver. We walked to English Bay and met a local quilter sitting in the park by the bay hand quilting. She said that she often came there to quilt.
Now that we are home I am concentrating on organising a UFO Quilting Retreat at 
I also have two great design walls from Brindabell Quilting Systems that Iwill be taking on the cruise. These great walls come in three different sizes and fold up into a carry bag for easy transporting.