This was the cruise my partner, Bean, had always wanted to do! So when Deb Luttrell, owner of Stitchin Heaven, contacted me to teach, I happily agreed.

We flew into Seattle on a glorious August day. Soon we were on board The Explorer of the Seas, sailing towards Vancouver Island.

The way a quilting cruise works is that the teaching is done whilst we are at sea and each student gets their own Bernina sewing machine to work on in class and at any other time – day or night. There were three teachers and three classrooms and each of us taught a quilt of our own design on the three days we were at sea. So each teaching day I taught a new group of students ‘Wilderness Storm’. It helped to have a voice box!

I then have free days to enjoy the ports of call. The first stop was Juneau, followed by Skagway and Victoria. We walked to quilt shops, drank in the famous Red Dog Saloon, took a train ride up to The White Pass and briefly into Canada and sailed up a narrow fjord to the Tracy Arm Glacier.

It was all fabulous! 83 enthusiastic students mostly from the USA, but also from Canada and Australia. Great table companions and superb food. But best of all was the organisation by Stitchin Heaven Travel. This company run 12 quilting cruises each year and do it really well!

Take a look at my next cruise ‘ Quilting on The Harmony’ 8-15 April 2017, cruising the Western Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And please do consider coming with me. You will have the most amazing holiday with a group of like minded addicts!