New Zealand

Last month I had the wonderful experience of going on a cruise to New Zealand because I was teaching on the Needlework, Patchwork and Craft cruise. The cruise ship was huge, like a floating city and I wrote all about it in my last post.

I'll give a really brief look at the ports we stopped at along the way.
Our first stop was Auckland and it is called the City of Sails and after two days of sailing it was lovely to see land again.

We had such beautiful warm weather in New Zealand and we were lucky that the Lantern Festival was on to celebrate the last day of the Chinese New Year and everything was open to 10pm.

We also went to their wonderful Art Gallery and the Sky Tower where we could see the lovely views of Auckland.
Our next stop was Tauranga and we went on the Hobbiton Village tour on the advice of Wendy who reads my blog. Wendy was correct when she recommended the tour. We had such a lovely look at the countryside as our bus took us there. I know why The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings was filmed in beautiful New Zealand.
I took so many photos of Hobbiton, the place where many of the outside scenes were shot in the Hobbit movie.

There were nearly 50 Hobbit Holes (Hobbit Houses) and they were all different and so cute.

Our tour guide us told us many stories about the filming and all the trouble and extreme detail that Peter Jackson went to for the film to be just like the novel.
Thank you for the recommendation, Wendy.

I really loved Napier, which was our next Port and it is known as the Art Deco town and I love Art Deco. Once again we went on a tour that took us all over the town to see the famous Art Deco landmarks and buildings.
When the ship arrived at the port there were people dressed up in Art Deco fashions standing next to old cars of the era.

 Here is a photo of the famous Tobacco building which is actually Art Nouveau styling but I love that style as well. There were ideas for quilt designs everywhere I looked.

We only had an afternoon in Napier and I really wish that we could have been there longer.

We were lucky enough to have all day in Wellington, so we started with the Lord of the Rings tour. Our tour guide had been in the movie and so we had a very enjoyable morning listening to his tales about the filming.

A lot of the filming was done in a public walking area and so if you didn't have a guide you would not know exactly where you were. He took us to various locations and described the scene and then showed us a big photo of the actual scene with the actors.
You can get the feeling of the movie by being in the forest.

 

Afterwards we were taken to Weta studios where all the costumes, armour and swords  are made. We were shown a film about how Peter Jackson met with other collaborators on the film and how it all developed. We were treated to a very welcome coffee and cake as well.

In the afternoon we took the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens and they were one of the most beautiful I had been to. I couldn't believe all the flowers that were out and I realised how much Australia's 10 years of drought had taken it's toll on our flowers.

Hydrangeas

We came across a section called The Quilted Garden and there were flowers set out in quilting block patterns.

 

 

There was also a 6 pointed star and hexagons, I don't know what other ones there were. What a novel idea though.
There was also a huge hothouse with the most beautiful begonias.

We left the North Island and sailed down to Dunedin which is where a lot of Scottish people came to settle and Dunedin has a wonderful Scottish flavour.
We went and saw one of the most famous buildings in New Zealand, the Dunedin Railway Station.

Inside the station is just as beautiful, covered in Royal Doulton tiles, mosaic floors and stained glass windows. I took many photos; once again there was inspiration everywhere.
After lunch we visited the Cadbury chocolate factory and then went to a beautiful Chinese Garden where everywhere you turned was a photo composition. It was such a peaceful place.

As we boarded the ship that evening, a group of bagpipe players serenaded us.
The only bad weather we encountered was when our ship spent the day floating through, Dusky, Doubtful and Milford Sound. The weather turned cold, foggy and windy and all the animals and birds were hiding. It was still very impressive and beautiful.

Milford Sound

That was our last look at New Zealand and we spent two days sailing back to Australia for a day in Hobart, Tasmania. That was where we encountered the really rough 10 metres waves and I found out that I don't get sea-sick thank goodness.

We have a soft spot for Hobart because we had our honeymoon there 35 years ago. We didn't remember anything except for the Cat and Fiddle Shopping Centre that had really increased in size. Hobart has a famous Salamanca Market on Sundays and it wasn't Sunday but they staged a mini market for us as we got off the ship. I bought a couple of scarves but I could have bought more, it's funny how a husband can make you a bit more restrained!
As we were walking back to the ship that afternoon we came across the Town Hall just as a tour was being conducted by the deputy Mayor.
Inside was a beautiful ballroom that is very popular for weddings.

 

 Suddenly our two weeks of cruising was over, we felt very relaxed and a bit sad that our wonderful holiday was at an end. It was a great way to travel, no wonder some people we met had been on 35 cruises.

We arrived back in Sydney at 5.30 in the morning and I was hoping to get some beautiful sunrise photos with the bridge and Opera House but it was too cloudy. I got some nice shots with the harbour all lit up though.

I had got a few sunset and sunrise photos on the cruise though.

Napier Sunrise

Auckland Sunrise

That was a very brief look at our New Zealand cruise and our wonderful holiday.

Another Needlework cruise is planned for April 2015. This time it is Freemantle to Singapore and once again goes for 14 nights. I am not teaching on this one but it looks like a lovely cruise with many great classes. Click on this link to find out about it.

Bye for now,
Linda

The Cruise Ship

I have been back from the cruise for over a week and it has taken me a while to get all my photos organised. I took over 1,100 photos and I wanted to label them all while it was still fresh in my memory. I also had to sort them out to show my family because they wouldn't have wanted to sit through that many photos. The photos that they were really interested in were the ones of the actual ship and so this post is about the ship and I'll save the photos of New Zealand for another post.

We sailed on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship called The Voyager of the Seas. It was huge and very opulent and we were treated to such luxury.

When the taxi arrived at Circular Quay in Sydney I thought that we had parked next to a building, I was completely shocked to find that it was the ship. I'll show some photos to help show how big it was.

Voyager of the Seas by the Sydney Harbour Bridge



Cruise Ship at Circular Quay

Here is another photo of the ship in Tauranga, you can see how little the people look; look how close the ship gets to the side of the port. Sometimes the ship went in front-ways and sometimes it reversed in but Captain Charles had a round of applause for his excellent parking.

Cruise ship at Tauranga

My husband came with me on the cruise and we were upgraded to a cabin with a port hole.

Our Cabin

It wasn't very big but quite roomy enough for us. Here is the other side of the room.

Of course we had a little en-suite but I forgot to take a photo of that.
Our steward cleaned our room twice a day and every other night when we came back to our room we would find a little animal that he had made out of towels for us. We were delighted. There was also the Cruise Compass letting us know the weather, the port, the dinner dress code and the activities for the next day

The ship was enormous and here is a photo of the main street on deck 5, this was where the duty free shops and bars and cafes were. There were often musicians playing as we walked through as well. As we wandered through we would often see people we knew and would catch up with what they had been doing. There were about seven ladies I knew from Waverley Patchworkers doing the cruise as well as the other tutors.

Main Street

 

View from above

The windows you can see above the Pig and Whistle hotel in the photo above are promenade cabins, so those people had an interior view rather than an ocean view. I spoke to some people who were in one of those rooms and they said that there was no sound noise that got through to their rooms.

Entrance to the Casino

There was a casino and a gym and spa and pools and rock climbing and mini golf but I didn't do any of those activities. I did use the hairdresser a couple of times though and it was fantastic not to have to bother doing it myself.

Johnny Rockets hamburger bar

Basketball court

Overlooking the pool area

Every night we had dinner in the Carmen dining room on deck 3 and we were treated to a 3 course a la carte menu, we always had the same drink and food waiter and they would make their recommendations to help us order. We still miss Eric our waiter.

Carmen dining room

There were three levels of dining and ours was the bottom one and twice during the cruise all the waiters walked through the room waving their serviettes and sang a song for us.

Waiters song

After dinner we would go to the La Scala theatre and watch a show, sometimes a singer, comedian, or orchestra. What a life!

La Scala Theatre

 So we didn't lose track of time, every day the sign on the floor of the lifts would change so we would know what day of the week it was.

What day is it today?

The ship was so beautiful with no expense spared in all the decorations, there was food available 24 hours a day, as well as a cup-cake shop, pizza and ice cream bar and a huge buffet up on deck 11 where you could sit and watch the ocean.

There were discos and leaving the port parties, dance lessons, scrap booking and bingo and all sorts of activities. I didn't participate in them because on the sailing days I was teaching my crazy patchwork classes and I didn't want to stay up late partying when I had a class the next day.

There were about 3,500 people on the cruise and over 1,500 staff.
There were about 320 women doing the needlework lessons and about 50 husbands came along to enjoy the cruise as well.
On the first sailing day the Needlework organisers Simon, Maureen and Clare gave us all a bag, beaded lanyard and an embroidered name tag.

The classes went well but were very busy and I forgot to take any photos. We had classes on the fifth floor of the dining room and were treated to wonderful views of the ocean all day.
Finally on the last day of teaching I remembered to take a photo of my Journal cover class, it was late and some had already left so it is not a photo of the entire class.

Journal Cover class

At the farewell event, Susan came up to me and showed me that she had finished hers.

Susan and her journal cover

At the Needlecraft farewell event we were honoured that Captain Charles came and spoke to us and said how he enjoyed having us on the ship and our work was just as important as the craftsmen who made the ship. He made a few fans that day. There were 3 sewing machines given out as prizes by Pfaff, so there were some very happy women.

Well that's a snapshot of my first cruise. What I haven't told you is that between New Zealand and Hobart, as we crossed the Tasman Sea we had very rough weather, 10 metre (30 foot waves) and the ship was really rocking side to side. Many people suffered from sea sickness including a couple of the teachers.
The good news for me was that I didn't suffer at all, in fact I loved watching the big waves. The only sickness I was in danger of was from overeating all the wonderful food.

I will tell you all about our New Zealand adventures in the next post.
Bye for now,
Linda

Susan is Craft

The new series of Susan is Craft is beginning tomorrow, Tuesday 4th March, 2014. The show is on the Community TV Channel 31 at 4pm and is repeated on Thursday at 11.30am.

If you miss the episodes or find it too hard to find the channel, you watch the episodes on Catch up TV on your computer. Just click onto Susan is Craft to go to the website.

I filmed a couple of episodes before I went away in February, I wrote about it here. I don't know what date my shows will be on and I don't know who the other guests will be. Susan is really trying hard to promote craft and in particular quilting and it would be really good if she can get some good ratings. Fingers crossed that the show gets sold to cable TV in America.

Susan and I

By the way, I am back from the cruise, had a wonderful time and I will write a blog post about it soon.

Bye for now,
Linda

Ship Ahoy!

After months of planning I am finally leaving on the cruise to New Zealand. I will be gone for two weeks and will be teaching crazy patchwork for five of those days.

I will write all about the cruise when I get home at the end of February.

Meanwhile I just remembered that I did a block about New Zealand in my quilt Naturally Crazy, before I even knew about the cruise.

New Zealand from Naturally Crazy

Bye for now,
Linda

Susan is Craft Filming

I was invited to film another episode for the TV show Susan is Craft. The show is on Channel 31, one of the free to air digital, community TV channels here in Australia. This month they are filming series 6, the last show that I did was series 2.

I was going to do my show on Crazy Quilting the same as last time but this time I was going to demonstrate the way I do foundation piecing for the base and then talk about the various ways I sew the motifs. The foundation piecing section took so long that they decided to do my show over two episodes.

Here is a photo of myself and the host Susan Francis.

Susan and Linda

The air- conditioning wasn't working in the studio and it was so hot under the lights with the stress of three large cameras filming your every move and stutter! I think it was about 40degrees Celsius (Over 100F) outside, so it was very hot.
When I was demonstrating the hand stitching my fingers were slipping on the needle I was so hot and perspiring.

Here is a photo of the set and the cameras.

Susan is Craft set

From the look of the photo I must have been getting ready to demonstrate the stitching on the motifs.

Control room

There are three cameras now, when I filmed the series two episode there were only two.

Look at the detail on those cameras; it makes my digital SLR look like child's play.



Camera close-up

In the third section of the show I was saying how I use all different methods to make the motifs on my quilts.



Stem Stitch

Needle turn applique

Satin Stitch

I also showed fusible applique and outline stitching on motifs.

The filming went well and I had no trouble filling in the time.

When I had finished they asked me if I would film another segment; they wanted me to interview the host Susan. I found this much more difficult because I am used to talking about myself and my work.

I wish that I had more time to prepare questions and go through it with Susan before we started to film. I had an ear-piece in my ear so I was listening to the producer prompting me as well as listening to Susan's answers! Who knows what it ended up like, they might not even use it.

They said that the series would be shown in March and they would let me know the dates. So I'll let everyone else know when it's on. They think that the show has been sold to Cable TV in America as well.

If you miss a show there is a chance to watch it on the computer on Catch up TV.

Susan also runs a shop in Moonee Ponds, Victoria  and has a online shop called Craftgate and she is doing very well with sales and is running classes, including beginner classes.

Susan is working very hard to have a successful business and I wish her all the success in the world.

Bye for now,
Linda

Preparing for the Cruise

The cruise is fast approaching, this time next week we will be leaving. It has taken me three solid weeks to get the kits together. I can relax a bit now that it is done but it still hasn't hit me that I am actually going. My husband is coming as well even though I will be teaching. I only teach for five of the fourteen days and the rest of the time I am free.

Here are some photos of the preparations.

Threads

The photo above is only a fraction of the thread that I had to get, because I had to supply thread for 60 kits.

Here is the lace that I dyed for the Block Holder kits

Lace

Dyeing silk ribbon

I dyed metres of silk ribbon for the block holder and then I had to rinse and iron it all.

Ironed silk ribbon

After I had printed out the patterns I had to be quite methodical in sorting out the pages.

Journal Cover patterns

It was a relief when it was finally done; I just hope that I haven't forgotten anything. We can't run to a patchwork shop for supplies on a cruise ship!

Block Holder pattern

The cruise starts in Sydney and we are cruising to New Zealand, stopping in Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington and Dunedin as well as cruising though Dusky, Doubtful and Milford Sound, lastly we have a day in Hobart and then back to Sydney.

Some days we have a half day in a port and other times we have a full day. Are there any places that I really must see while we are there?

My husband and I haven't been away for this long since 1980, I suppose the house and rest of the family will survive!

The cruise sounds very luxurious and it seems like it's a travelling mini city and there are various shows every night to entertain us after dinner.

Will we love it?
Will we get seasick?
Will my students' revolt?

Only time will tell. We leave on the 13th Feb and come home on the 27th Feb. There goes February!
I'll report back after the cruise and tell you all about it.

Bye for now,
Linda

More Wedding Photos

My daughter Alison got married just before Christmas and the professional photos have arrived. Some people wanted to see a photo of me at the wedding so I just thought I would post a couple more wedding photos.

Here is my family, my very supportive husband and four beautiful children.

Family Photo

You can see that I wore a white dress with black lace and a black satin jacket.

I will post a couple more photos of Alison so you can see the beautiful dress that she wore. She's always been an old fashioned girl and wanted to be a traditional bride. She didn't wear a pair of jeans until she was 12 years old; it was only pretty dresses for her.



Alison

 

Alison

I won't bore you with anymore photos but it was a beautiful wedding and we are very proud of her. There are some more photos in the post I wrote on 8th January.

It has been a couple of busy years for me with both daughters getting married and after the cruise later this month I am looking forward to life slowing down a little and I have plans to start a new quilt at last!

Bye for now,
Linda