The Cruise



After spending three days at the Houston International Quilt Festival, we boarded buses and headed to Port Galveston!

Our ship was Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas.  After a fairly seamless check in progress, we were on board!

I chose the far bed, so I could be closer to the balcony.  Which was great as my cabin mate Kathy preferred to be closer to the bathroom!

What's a cruise without the cabin steward dressing up the cabin with a little towel art!












Our first two days were at sea.  As this was a quilting cruise, you know we spent time fondling fabric and thread.  A special Thanks to the Bobbin Boys at Citrus Sew and Vac who provided the Janome 8900 machines and expert help in keeping us sewing!

My first class was with Kim Diehl.  I have always wanted to do wool applique.  This little cutie was the perfect project!  I got everything done except for the outer border while on the cruise!

Next class was with Pam Holland.  Pam is a fantastic fiber artist, combining applique with shading with pigment pens.  I added some thread painting when I quilted this to add some interest.

Next day was class with Bonnie Hunter!  The seas were pretty rough this day, but we all took it in stride.  Any mistakes were blamed on the ship!  As I had just taken a class with Bonnie, I used my leftover strips from my version of "My Blue Heaven" to make my Texas Tumbleweed.

I didn't want another large quilt in my queue to be quilted.  Our local quilt guild is making lap quilts for one of our local nursing homes, so I decided to make it that size.  The binding just needs to be stitched down, and it is ready to bring warmth and cheer to a resident!

Next class was with Catherine Redford.  She provided us with a kit that included a preprinted panel that shows our Caribbean cruise.  She had it printed up through Spoonflower.  Also in the kit were some yummy hand dyed perle cotton.  We learned several hand embroidery stitches.  She encouraged to add little souvenirs from the cruise.  I added enamel pins with flags of Texas, Mexico, Honduras, and Belize.  One of my dinner table mates gave us each a worry doll.  I added some cool buttons I found back home.  Very fun!

In the evening we had open sewing time.  And we also had the opportunity for some small "make and take" projects.  This one was a small pouch to help us be more comfortable with free motion quilting.  The ever fabulous Dana Lynch taught this class.

This project was taught by Carol Moellers.  She showed us how to weave fabric to make a new background fabric.  I did free motion raw edge applique around the hibiscus flowers, then added the yellow stamens, and some gold beading in the centers.  I added the black borders, then stapled it to a 16x20" canvas.  Not all projects need batting and binding!





This blog is getting too long.  Stay tuned for the non quilt happenings!