Quilting on the High Seas

Julia had been approached by Ronnie, who asked if she would be willing to lead a Patchworking Cruise around New Zealand late last year.  By the time the cruise left Melbourne she had 22 people signed up (including 3 men who seemed to absent themselves from the activities each day). 

 

To make sure people had enough to do Julia planned a program that would keep them busy on the days when they were at sea.  To overcome the need for sewing machines, her program was developed around hand stitching projects.  She started with some nice easy stuff and then moved on to more complicated work as the cruise progressed.  These projects included creating a cutting board folder which could double up as an ironing board if required; some traditional Japanese decorating called sashiko stitching; creating a 'roof tile' square - which is the basis for the log cabin patchwork pattern; some English paper piecing working, including the basic flower shape and with some additional pieces added in, creating small and medium sized containers which were padded and lined; using patchwork pieces that had stitching lines printed on (from Inklingo) using your computer; as well as some fabric folding with only one stitch required to tie off all the ends.    Michelle K was one of the passengers who signed up for the classes and hasn't quite finished all her projects as yet.

 

When the cruise stopped in Auckland they had a special trip to a fabric shop where a class had been planned for them to create an appliqued bag - for those who loved to use their sewing machines this was their opportunity to use a machine to do their quilting for the day.

 

Julia felt that her title 'Group Leader' needed to be changed to 'Activity Host' as it was more appropriate.  She didn't know any more about the rest of the tour and cruising than did the other passengers so was unable to respond to many of the 'other types' of questions posed to her.  Her patience was tested from time to time with requests for coffee or other issues. 

 

From the way the men were concentrating during this morning's meeting, I'd say that many of them were taking ideas back to share with their spouses.  Thanks Julia.  I really enjoyed the session today.   It has given me a few ideas for future projects. (Editor)