Recently, I spent 15 days teaching on Royal Caribbean's ship LIBERTY OF THE SEAS. With about 4000 passengers and 1360 crew, it's one of the smaller ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet. It's still plenty big and we found our balcony stateroom had lots of storage space once you found all the spots that open, like the mirrors in the bathroom and by the desk.
The first 10 days was the Heritage Quilting Cruise, run by Stitchin Heaven. They do about 16 quilt cruises a year and really know how to do it right.
My husband and I flew to Newark NJ the day before. Travel was easy and uneventful. The next morning we met up with the other 4 staff members for transportation to the pier at Cape Liberty. Embarkation on the ship was smooth and fast.
First stop was the Conference Center on deck 2. A big empty space that we will transform into the classrooms in less than 4 hours:
We set up about 50 tables, more than 80 chairs, unboxed 80 Bernina sewing machines, put extension cords under each table, plugged in the machines, then took a quick break so the electricians could run power throughout the entire two big classrooms. Then we turned on all the machines, test sewed them, placed a name on each machine from the seating charts that had been carefully arranged in advance. Then we could place each student's big tote bag, full of SWAG and a t-shirt, kits if they ordered them, lots of good stuff.
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| An idea of the classroom set-up, one of two rooms |
Finished just in time! 5 pm and it's time to meet 80 students in the dining room for dinner. At 7 pm students come to the conference center for the "Welcome Meeting", to find their space, admire their goodies and get the basic instructions for the 10 day cruise. Sewing begins at 9 am the next morning after instruction on the Bernina 475 machine each student has for the entire cruise. The room is open 24/7 from then on and many students sewed a lot!
On day 2 I was in one of the classrooms to teach my pattern On the Lily Pond. Tiffany Hayes, the other teacher was in the adjoining classroom with her class. Class goes from 9-4, with a lunch break on all Sea Days, day 2, 5, and 9 on this cruise. On day 5, the two teachers switch rooms, students stay at their assigned places and we teach our class to the other half of the group. It works great.
For more information on my project see these links:
Those who made On the Lily Pond did very well. Here are some of the blocks made, some from the Kit that was an optional purchase and some from the students own fabrics--all pre-cut at home as space is at a premium on ship:
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| Student fabrics |
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| What "not to do" |
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Great plan by this student--she brought embroidered blocks to use with her Lily Pond blocks for a great Christmas quilt and she got the top assembled onboard!
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| Kit blocks |
I love having a friend onboard! Sandy Forrester pre-cut her fabrics at home and made excellent progress onboard:
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| Student fabrics |
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| Fabulous BRIGHT student fabrics |
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| Student fabrics |
On Port days my husband and I did excursions.
BOSTON:
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| Quincy Market |
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With Sandy as we waited for the bus back to the ship
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PORTLAND, MAINE, our only rainy day:
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| My hubby and I at a lighthouse |
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| Great house even in the rain, taken from the bus |
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| Lobster roll smothered in Lobster Bisque--separate would have been better |
SNYDEY NOVA SCOTIA:
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| The Big Fiddle |
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| Sandy and I at the Big Fiddle at the pier |
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| Highland Village where we learned about the Scottish settlers who came over in the late 1700's. Gaelic is still spoken here and there are two public schools that are "Gaelic Immersion" schools to keep the history alive |
HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA:
We did a Hop On/Hop Off bus tour to see as much of the city as possible. It's a good way to get a sense of a city and we could explore any of the places longer if we liked. It was a beautiful day.
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| Hubby on the boardwalk, a 2.5 mile path at the water |
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| The waterfront features lots of shopping, dining and very expensive residential areas |
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| I was taken with the chairs on the waterfront, bolted in place, that invited you to sit and gaze at the harbor and surrounding areas |
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| Old crazy quilt seen at a local gift shop, not for sale |
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| Another quilt there, NFS, a utilitarian crazy quilt |
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| Great unique stitches, unusual on most crazy quilts |
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| January 4, 1911 Aunt Fannie |
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| My third lobster roll on this trip |
ST. JOHN, BAY OF FUNDY, NEW BRUNSWICK:
We did a Hop On/Hop Off bus tour to see as much of the city as possible. This is one of the rare places in the world where at high tide, two rivers merge and change direction. Very interesting to my engineer husband and we were there at high tide.
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| Overlooking the rivers as they danced around each other |
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The second "LOVE LOCKS" place we saw
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Each night one of the staff stays in the classroom until 10 pm to assist students if needed. Each teacher takes a turn and can give demos or a trunk show. I decided to entertain the crowd with some of my stories when the demos for 10 students I expected to do turned into at least 35:
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| A leftover from My Lifetime Quilt |
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| With Staffer Dawn |
I love to cruise and here are a few more photos of the ship:
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| One of the pools |
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| The Statue of Liberty from our ship on embarkation day |
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| Tile work in a ladies washroom |
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| Putt Putt |
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| I'm ahead 2-1, we played 3 games over the cruise, he wants a re-match |
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| Sunset from my balcony |
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| Healthy dessert: a cheese and fruit plate |
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| Dress Your Best night means Lobster tail is on the menu |
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| We clean up good and don't do this very often |
More ship photos:
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| My usual breakfast |
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| The Arcade |
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| My grandkids would love this |
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| What I did not do |
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| It's someone's job to change all the "day" signs in ALL the elevators each night |
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| Joe our stateroom attendant, was very talented with the towels |
Best of all are the PEOPLE. Some of the students know me from The Quilt Show and feel like old friends as soon as we meet:
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| Three Sisters: Joan, Jean and Jan. It's so much fun to travel with friends, especially if you are sisters who don’t live near each other . |
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Jan Aji and I. She loves the Block of the Month quilts from The Quilt Show. Her camera shows her Color My World, an important quilt in her life. She was on the cruise with her sisters Jean and Joan--brother Bill was not included. I was so happy to meet her, a dedicated fan of The Quilt Show.
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And then you make NEW friends. Our tablemates were 5 other couples. The women were all students and the men came along. We so enjoyed getting to know them all over 10 nights of dining together. Big Tip: in a large group like this, each night change your seat so you get to know who everyone is:
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| Our head waiter Charlene and her assistant Abdul were top notch! |
The Staff of Stitchin Heaven work very hard to be sure everyone has a great time. They do a super job! And we always get a group photo in our bright t-shirts:
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Most everyone
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Those who were on a Galley Tour or at a Cupcake class or some other fun activity when the group photo was taken
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All too soon the 10 days were up. We stayed onboard for the 5 day cruise to Bermuda. More about that next week!
I hope you'll come with me on the next cruise in the future! It is so much fun.
Let's quilt.
Barbara
