Alaska Cruise Part One

Hello Everyone,

 

I'm back and trying to return to normal life which includes cooking, cleaning, laundry......tons of laundry!  In a nutshell, the quilting cruise to Alaska surpassed all of my expectations.  My circle of quilting friends has grown and includes quilters from around the globe.

 

I'm organizing 427 photos just from my iPad.  I haven't downloaded anything yet from Mr. Joe's camera and the phone.  I could bore you to death with pictures of Alaska for the next month.....but I won't.  I'm going to begin with pictures from my first session, Country Sampler, aka Patchwork Math.

 



 

I had a wonderful group of 27 quilters for my first session.  In order to have everyone be able to see my examples and hear my techniques, I broke the group down into small groups of six to gather around my table.

 



We took up a large part of the dining room.  I had quilters spread out over two different areas. 

Not too shabby to sit and sew and have the Pacific Ocean right outside.

The group did a great job on their blocks!

Some bought kits, and some provided their own fabrics.

Same block, different fabric placement.

Everyone used their block layout sheets to organize their components.

While we were in Ketchikan, five of us were in the same shop together.  Look what followed all of us home...cute little nightshirts complete with a moose.  We bought them to wear to my retreat this Fall, but decided we needed to break them in during the cruise.  We called ourselves the Quilting Plaidettes.  We felt compelled to break into a few bars of North to Alaska.

 

Here's part of my group on the last day of the cruise.  Not everyone showed up for the picture, but I had a good showing of the girls and their work.

I want to thank Terry Caselton who spent countless hours pulling this cruise together and inviting me to teach.  I want to thank all of the quilters who signed up and cruised with me.  I also want to thank my sister Gail who circulated during the entire two sessions to answer questions and help me teach.

Alaska is an amazing place to visit.  I feel that we just had a little sampler platter of the towns along the coast.  We have so much more to explore inland.  My next post will contain pictures of Session Two.  After that, I will post a few select pictures of the Alaskan landscape.  Someone said, once you travel to Alaska, you are forever changed.  I've changed.

Soon,
Lynn