Rockin’ Rollin’ & Cruisin!!

The difference between sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida in August, and Balitmore, Maryland in November?? WEATHER!!

Here is a pic of Pat and myself...along with a random stranger guy in the background! :cD We were just leaving Haiti --

We had waves, baby! And swells that had us rockin’ and rollin’! Our sea legs got well conditioned rather quickly, and some of us applied the help of either the sea-sick patch, or dramamine. It didn’t matter! We were here to SEW, and sew we did!

It made for some interesting rotary cutting, but I think we are all candidates for the Extreme Quilting Games now!

((You do start to worry a bit when the crew is tying down all the potted plants and other items in the ship! LOL!))

This pic was taken at night, with a flash – so the color isn’t great, and the tilt has been added by tilting the picture, but THIS is what we felt like!

The day we left Haiti, we had to leave a couple hours early due to a storm that was coming off of Bermuda. The Captain did a great job of explaining the whys and wherefores – but it still had some of us nervous. I learned that I do NOT need dramamine..it just puts me in a 24 hour benedryl type coma/fog! I’m better to just ride it out!

What was funny was watching everyone walking around like they were drunk sailors….the ship would pitch this way..and everyone would stumble to the left down the hall…and then it would rock the other way..and pretty soon everyone is going catty corner to the right…I think our core muscles got quite the workout just keeping us UPRIGHT! Being one who doesn’t get sea-sick….it was fun! And I sleep like a baby when the ship is moving, even big babies like me love the feeling of being rocked to sleep!

Oops, I've skipped several days, so let's back up a bit!

We left Baltimore around 4pm, and at 5 pm on Deck 6 in the Spotlight lounge ((Some of us got confused and thought it was Deck 5 at 6pm, but that could be to the abundance of fruity umbrella drinks too..LOL!)) we met for our intro, and everyone was handed their booklet and schedule during the meet and greet.

We introduced ourselves to each other, mingled a bit, and found out who was going to be in GROUP A and who was in GROUP B. And then in typical woman-fashion, we did some switching around because of course we want people who traveled together to BE together.

After dinner, One group got their introductory class with a make it and take it on the machines, the other group had the night off to explore! There were GREAT shows on the ship, and DH and I took advantage of that every night.

The next morning, the second group got to start their day at sea with their make it and take it to learn the machines, and after lunch…we were off and running on the cruise project! We had two and a half days journey until we reached our first port of call, San Juan, Puerto Rico! That’s a good CHUNK of sewing time!

We had 26 machines brought on board, thanks to Sue & Scott of Citrus Sew & Vac!

Doesn’t it look like we are having a great time?!

Repeat this scenario twice, because we had Two groups of 26!

Pat Sloan’s class was up on the top level in the Crowne Lounge working on their applique project…they had Lots of light from the full window and a gorgeous view of the sea…comfy chairs for hand stitching too!

Doesn’t this look like bliss?! Would you like to see what we were working on? I know the August cruisers have been keeping this under their hats a while longer, but we are ready to show what our project was! You can all feel free to blog and share now!

This is Mai Tai’s in Paradise! It’s a scrappy mix of EVERYTHING and we had so much fun working with 3 packs of unrelated charm squares from 3 different lines that were not intended to go together. Everyone was instructed to bring fabrics and strips as well, for swapping and sharing and adding to the mix! And because of this, we had 50+ quilts that all look DIFFERENT! Some came with color plans in mind on how they wanted to work their quilt….some quilts evolved as they worked on them…and some went for broke and used EVERYTHING! It was wonderful to see the variety that was coming out of these quilters…

		November Cruise class 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Do you see that SEVERAL tops were completed by the end of the cruise? All that remains are borders! Even on non-class days in port, the sewing room was open for Sit n Stitch EVERY evening from 8pm-10pm. You could sit at a machine, or do hand work...that is if you WEREN'T in the theater catching a great show with singing and dancing, or funny comedy acts-- You had the option to set the quilt straight, or put it on point….we LOVE options that send quilters into trying their own thing…didn’t these turn out great?!

Pat took this pic of our Captain Gus next to the quilt! ((Yeah, Pat, I had to steal it! LOL!)) Oh, save me from swooning now! I can’t resist a man in uniform, and one with an accent?! WOWEE!! I miss his “words of the day” every morning—and how he said “So for now --- Buh-Bye!” with that adorable Swedish lilt at the end of every announcement. Carry on, Captain Gus!

If you like this quilt and want to make it, never fear….It’s in the works for a future Quiltmaker magazine issue…either as my Addicted to Scraps column, or the full quilt. If they choose ONE block for the column, I’ll publish the whole thing on the blog in conjunction with that…so just hang tight a bit and we’ll get it out there for you.

As we approached warmer water, the sea took on an amazing deep blue hue…I took a moment on an afternoon walk around the top deck to just admire how our wake stretched out into the horizon…aren’t those clouds lovely?

And we still had so many days of adventure to go!

Be sure to click HERE for Pat's blog to get HER run down on things...you just might catch a glimpse of me doing the Electric Slide on the deck for the sail off party!