Exciting announcement! I'm heading back to Alaska aboard the Celebrity Infinity next summer and I'd LOVE for you to join me. If you want to see what we got up to last time, check this post or have a look at my flickr photo album here
On September 11, 2016 we'll once again depart from beautiful Vancouver and head north up the Inside Passage for ports of call in Icy Straight Point, Juneau and Ketchikan, plus spend a morning floating in front of the massive Hubbard glacier (above) that is a sight to behold. In the down time while the ship is sailing and after our shore excursions, we'll sew to our little heart's content in our dedicated conference room. There will be specific teaching times and also free-sewing time; participants can sew as much or as little as they desire. This time we'll spend the week working on one bigger project, my delightful Cutting Garden Quilt pattern!
We had such a fun week last June and I am so looking forward to doing it all again; the fabulous door prizes, goody bags, shore excursions, quilt shop welcomes at every port, amazing food, drink, dancing and soaking in the therapy pool. I think almost every member of our group saw whales. I even caught a glimpse of a grey whale and an Orca mama and baby. You could follow my, Katie and Joan's lead and go ziplining, or head out on a whale-watching boat, go for a hike or choose a kayak tour. Perhaps you'd like to dine out at an authentic salmon fry? There are a ton of fun things to do in the ports!
Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau
This cruise is surprisingly affordable for an all-inclusive 7 nights. If you'd like to know more about the amazing Canadian Resident deals on offer from Celebrity right now (free beverage package and gratuities!!), or to add your name to the list for updates, please leave your email address in the comments and I'll put you in touch with our agent, Lynn.
ziplining off a 30' tower in the ocean, back to terra firma near Ketchikan.
The beautiful Port of Vancouver, the beginning and ending of your Alaskan quilting adventure!
Ready for some "I went on a cruise to Alaska and all I took were these glacier photos" pictures? I promise they won't all be ice. A few of us went ziplining, too! I didn't have occasion to use my big camera too much on the ship, but I tried to take higher quality photos than iphone shots when we were in ports. I'm going to share some with you in this post from our 7 night cruise from Vancouver to Alaska aboard the Celebrity Infinity.
Pulling away from Canada Place
We make the yellow crayons in Vancouver ; )
We left at a low tide, under sunny skies on Saturday, June 7th. We're just about to sail under the Lions Gate Bridge.
The next morning we were all set up and sewing by 9:00. Design wall batting supplied by Pellon. We had an entire day at sea to work on our Improv Under the Influence quilts using gorgeous Oakshott colourshott shot cottons!
On the afternoon of day 3, we reached our first port of call, Icy Straight Point at Hoonah, AK. The ship anchored offshore and we took a short 10 minute ride to the wharf in lifeboats.
The Cannery has been converted to museum displays and shops. It was there that the lovely couple that run HiBearNation Quilt Shop met us with generous goodie bags and welcoming smiles.
The old and the new. Our Celebrity Infinity anchored off Ice Straight Point
Lots of fishing boats in this small town marina...this one was drydocked for storage/repair.
Looking across the harbour from town to the native cemetery
Mama Bear, Papa Bear and Baby Bear benches in Hoonah
We departed in the early evening for the long cruise north to the Hubbard Glacier. The seas were rough and I was awaken about 2:00 a.m. thinking I'd likely roll out of bed! The naturalist on board told us the ocean was 5000' deep out there, so big rollers were to be expected until we cruised back over the continental shelf into Yakutat Bay, then further up into Disenchantment Bay. Captain Michael was able to get the ship within a mile of the glacier's terminus - apparently a first for this cruising season. Lucky! Captains have to be very cautious as icebergs that have calved off the end of the glacier can be the size of 10-storey buildings and can shoot up from under the water at unpredictable angles after falling off the glacier's terminus.
Although the weather was overcast and raining, the glacier was super impressive. It is truly difficult to capture it's massiveness in photos, though. You can get some idea from this shot (remember, we are a mile from the ice!).
I moved around the ship as it slowly rotated in the bay, allowing guests on all sides of the ship to see the glacier. I spent some time up on the open-air top deck, in the Constellation lounge where the naturalist was speaking over the sound system sharing glaciological and historical facts and on the balcony of some friends. The glacial ice takes about 400 years to travel to the terminus from the zone of accumulation 122 km inland from the sea (so says Wikipedia).
I was really hoping to see that enormous chunk fall into the sea way down there, but no luck!
This "bergy bit" was floating beside the ship in the silt-laden sea. The colours would have been much prettier if the sun was out, but the striations in the ice are pretty awesome!
Here's another massive iceberg beside the ship - if only we could see how big it is below the water, where the other 90% of it is hidden. Glacial ice is actually very dirty; the ice scours and grinds the bedrock below the glacier as it moves downslope, assimilating the rock into the ice flow and carving a valley under the glacier as it goes.
Isn't it beautiful? It's a force of nature that is truly awesome. As our ship sat in the bay, we could hear the booming, cracking and groans of the ice breaking up.
Stay tuned for part 2, in which we visit the Mendenhall Glacier and go ziplining outside of Ketchikan!
Ahoy! We're home from our epic week aboard the Celebrity Infinity! Myself and 18 quilty friends spent a wonderful week exploring the Alaskan ports of Icy Straight Point (Hoonah), Juneau and Ketchikan, plus a trip into the Hubbard Glacier which was spectacular. We were so very well taken care of by the wonderful staff aboard the ship (shout out to the electricians who kept our irons hot and our machines running!). In addition to plenty of sewing time, we ate so well, drank lots of delicious wine and coffee, danced, were entertained in the theatre and a few of us even played the slots and went ziplining (more in the next post!).
This embroidery hoop was my surprise for all of the Stitch at Sea Alaska participants. I drew up the design and had my pal Berene tidy it up in Illustrator so that I could print it directly onto white Essex linen through my inkjet (I cut the linen to 8 1/2" x 11" pieces and ironed them onto freezer paper. If you set your printer to 'cardstock' it will grab the thickness of the linen + freezer paper and feed it through!).
conference room Beta - our studio for the week (design walls/batting supplied by Pellon!)
I taught two workshops on the cruise for a total of 9 hours of instruction, but we had many more hours of free sewing (one night at sea several intrepid quilters stitched until midnight!). First we played with the luscious Oakshott colourshotts which I had kitted into four Alaskan-themed colourways for my Improv Under the Influence technique class. Students had their choice of Midnight Sun, Northern Lights, Glacier or Fireweed. You can see the results here (sadly, too windy for an outdoor photo, so we took over the Grand Staircase inside the ship).
Most people stuck with the "Chess on the Steps" layout, but as you can see, a few took my encouragement to try alternate layouts for their improv borders.
The second workshop was much more precise: the mini Lonestar Circle. We were all feeling the effects of a week at sea, being well fed and toured around. People chose their Cotton & Steel FQ sets I'd curated, cut their strips and started piecing, but we didn't get far enough for photos, really. On our final day, the sun was shining through the Inside Passage and most of us chose to pack up our supplies and head up to the top deck to enjoy some stitching in the sunshine while keeping an eye out for whales. Many of us were rewarded with Orca sightings! I saw a baby jump fully out of the ocean (I thought it was a porpoise), but then the mama's massive dorsal fin appeared, followed by her tail. I was super excited to have my first "Orca in the wild" sighting!
More photos and stories coming....but first a word from our sponsors:
Over the previous few months I contacted several folks in the industry and was able to put together some fabulous goody bags for everyone, in addition to collecting enough incredible door prizes that each quilter went home with a bonus as well. Special thanks to all of these generous sponsors!
