Quilt retreat at sea

To answer the question about whether or not we actually quilted on this cruise - yes we did. Days 1 & 2 were "at sea" and we sewed from 8:30-4:00 those days. And Days 9 & 10 were also "at sea" so we sewed those days too. For each of the days in port, our sewing room was open from 8:00-10:00 PM for optional sewing. 

Our first project was this Judy Niemeyer paper-pieced wall hanging called Waterwheel.  We chose a colorway before the cruise and our kit was waiting for us upon arrival.  Carol Bonetti from Sew-ciety quilt shop in Colorado was our very fun instructor.  I've done some paper piecing before but was a bit afraid of Judy Niemeyer's patterns because they always look so complicated. But after Carol guidance I'm not afraid of tackling a more difficult pattern in the future.

Our second project was a surprise. We chose the kit from a wide selection and dove in with guidance from one of the other gals helping with instruction. It's called Diamond Wedding Ring and is my first real project with curved seams. We all shared the Creative Grids template sets to do the cutting. Some of the gals only got as far as cutting on this one, but it's easy to put together so they can work on it at home.     

Our hostess and travel agent was Michelle Jackson and she did a wonderful job organizing everything. Check out her web site for future cruises available. I would definitely do this again. 

http://quiltretreatatsea.com/ 

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that we were provided high-end Janome machines to use for the retreat. And we could purchase them at the end. Several people did purchase them, and I would have been tempted except I just bought a new machine 2 years ago.