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| The 'Group" |
The 2nd Australian Quilting Cruise on the 'Voyager of the Seas' was a great success. 34 wonderful ladies attended. Workshops were given by Amanda Daly and myself aided by our wonderful helper, Laraine. The cruise was 14 days and visited Noumea, Fiji and the north island of New Zealand.
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| 'Voyager of the Seas' |
The 'Voyager of the Seas' provided us with a wonderful conference room where we were able to set up the machines for the entire cruise. The first night on board seen Laraine and I setting up the room with the help of three wonderful crew from the ship connecting the 240 volts we needed for the machines. Lorelle, our group coordinator, brought three US irons, which were 110 volt and this made things easier. Irons are always a concern on ships because of fire. We had to get ones with auto switch off.
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| A section or the workroom |
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| Some of the group with partners and friends in Auckland. |
Ladies, partners and friends, came from all over. We even had a lady from Concrete, Washington State in the US. She found us on the Internet last March and decided the cruise was a good way to combine her passion for quilting with a visit to Australia and New Zealand. We had a lady from Perth and one from
Kununurra plus ladies from most other states.
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| Ann-Maree finishing a UFO |
Four workshops plus a mystery workshop were given on the cruise. However, it was not necessary to do all the workshops. Some just done one, some done them all. Three ladies did their own projects. This was OK.
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Jean's in progress
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| Getting there |
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| Da Daa...Finished |
Our oldest quilter, Jean, was 84. She had a wonderful time. Her Pinwheel Folly Quilt was the hand embroidered version and Jean had her embroidered blocks completed prior to the cruise. Several others also had their blocks ready, or nearly ready, for the cruise.
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| Amanda demonstrating a reverse applique butterfly |
Amanda did a postcard workshop combining raw edge applique and reverse applique techniques. She encouraged the ladies to post one at least home to a friend. I have had feed back that they did indeed arrive home safety.
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| 'In the Round' NZ version |
Amanda's second workshop was a 2 day one and was titled 'In the Round' Amanda did three versions of this: an Australian version, a Pacific Island version and a New Zealand version. This kept the ladies busy.
In New Zealand we visited some patchwork shops. A lot of damage was done to the budget at these shops. Every shop has something different and something different to home.
The mystery workshop was a clutch bag made with two fat quarters. The complete kit was given to everyone and they could opt to do it on the day or take it home. Most did it on the day and it was a fun workshop enjoyed by all.
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| some of the clutch bags finished |
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| Bali Treasures block double size |
The final workshop was 'Bali Treasures'. I did have kits for this but encouraged the ladies to bring their own fabrics as this looks totally different with different fabrics. The results were amazing with the different colourways.
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| From this.... |
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| to this. |
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| And from this.... |
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| To this. |
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| Another version |
We had a visit from the captain. He was very interested it what the group were doing. I gave the ladies a pre cruise challenge titled 'Land of the Long White Cloud'. We had ten quilts for this and had the fellow cruise goers vote on them. The captain took part in the vote also. Over 100 passengers voted on these quilts.
Laraine spent a lot of extra time in the conference room to help out where necessary. She is a tireless lady with a wonderful knowledge of quilting. Always able to help where required and a great 'reverse sewer'. If any one followed the motto
'Keep Calm and Carry On' it is her.
We were on the ship on Australia Day and there were flags in the amazing 'street' of the ship. A barbque was held up on the pool deck. Some of our ladies dressed for the day.
Of course a big part of a quilting retreat is chatting to each other and this
Retreat at Sea was no exception.
One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the amount of ladies that visited the workroom during the cruise who said if they had only had know about our group that they would have booked in. We are going to give it another go next year. The date has been set as the 27th February for a 10 day South Pacific Cruise. If you are interested contact me or Lorelle. Our emails are on the right of the blog.
Until next time happy quilting
Dorothy
