Sew Many Places with Jim

Hello everyone,

As we prepare for a New Year, I want to announce (with great delight) that eQuilter.com has come onboard with us as one of our new sponsors. Luana and Paul Rubin, owners of this landmark company, will be sponsoring and hosting up to five of our trips in the next year or so. Their son Mason is also getting involved by assisting with some of these trips as well – Welcome Mason!

The first trip they will be sponsoring is our River Cruise in France this summer with guest celebrity Libby Lehman.

I want to encourage all of you to take a look at the incredible fabrics eQuilter.com has to offer in their store, not to mention other quilt products, at considerable discounts. There is a reason why they have been voted the #1 Online Quilt Shop by the Business Choice Awards!

Their website is: www.eQuilter.com

Check out their BLIZZARD BLOWOUT SALE while it’s still in progress, it’s awesome!!

Welcome aboard Luana, Mason and Paul! Looking forward to a very exciting New Year!

This is probably the one question I hear the most, “What is the cheapest cruise out there?” No question in today’s economy, everyone is looking to pay the least amount of money for a cruise. But is price the only factor to take into consideration? The answer of course is NO.

There has to be value in a cruise vacation. I have to tell you for many, many years Carnival Cruise Lines have really promoted themselves as being the cheapest cruises in the market. And as they built their reputation on that fact, they became the most financially sound cruise line in the industry believe it or not. They own Holland America Lines, Princess Cruises, Seabourne Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, and many others. How did they get so successful you may ask? Their phylosophy for twenty years has been, let’s not charge much for a cruise, let’s just get people onboard the ship and then milk them for everything we can once they get onboard. And it worked! From the casino’s to the bars to the shore excursions, they pushed everything to get people to spend money onboard their ships.

But now, all these years later, they find themselves with a reputation of being a cheap, low scale product. Ashame really, because during the past three years Carnival has spent millions of dollars hiring the best chefs in the industry, updating and building five star vessels and providing everything possible onboard their ships to bring it up to a five-star hotel standard level. They really have.

But unfortunately for them, the old Carnival stigma still stands. People who are used to a finely tuned first class product won’t even consider Carnival as an option.

As a travel professional, I believe in finding my clients the best vacation that best suits their needs and standards and especially budget. There are different cruise lines for different people.

I mention all of this to you because I think especially in the economy we are in right now and will face in the new year, we need to be mindful of value in our choices, not just cheap. For my money, I think you can find value on a Carnival cruise. So don’t shy away from them, especially on their new ships. There is something to be said about a 7-day cruise for $595.00 on a brand new ship.

By the way, if you are interested in this cruise, it’s Jan 2010. Let me know and I’ll send you some information about it.

Just to let you know, I’ll be highlighting different cruise lines in my blog this next couple weeks, so be watching for some great specials, found only here on my blog!

My dad used to say, whenever you are feeling down in the dumps for any reason, go wash your car and fill up the car with a full tank of gas. The pychology behind it was brilliant. To me it meant full steam ahead-it was a fantastic pick-me-up and everything seemed abundant, clean, new & fresh.

The beginning of a new year has the same feel to me. It is a new opportunity to get rid of the old and start new things in my life.

As quilters, you may ask yourself, what kind of new things would I want to do and what kind of things should I get rid of. First, there is always the topic of fabric. Let’s face it, your “stash” is probably larger than some quilt shops even sell in their stores. Maybe it’s time to donate some of that fabric to those who might actually use it now or can’t afford to buy fabric. Maybe you have fabric that has been sitting on a shelf for over five years. And even though you may say to yourself “I know I am going to use this one day,” it could be that one day is today and you are donating this to someone or some organization that could really use it NOW.

A second way to bring in the New Year with some change is to stop procrastinating about completing those quilts you started and never got around to finishing. I’m sure some of you know what I am talking about. In the New Year, why not make that one of your resolutions? And when you finish quilting them, why not give them away to people you know will appreciate them?

Another opportunity in the New Year is for you to become active as a quilter. This means really getting out there in a pro-active quilting mode with your quilt guild, guilt shop, community, local school, church, and do something as a quilter that makes a contribution. Maybe you will offer to teach grade school children about quilting and one of the teachers will work with you to make a class quilt to give to someone special. Maybe you will announce in your church that you are willing to make a quilt with others who might be interested and auction it off at a church function for fund-raising. There are numerous opportunities to get involved, step up to the sewing machine and go for it!

If there is one thing I have learned working with quilters all these years is that you have hearts of gold, to a fault sometimes. This New Year brings the opportunity to take those special creative talents you have been blessed with and use them in a wonderful way.

Fill up your tank of gas, wash your car and go quilt! You’ll see some amazing things happen if you do! And by the way………………HAPPY NEW YEAR!

During the holiday, my nieces and nephew have been visiting my mom. These are my sister’s children, great kids no question about it. As I showed my 5th grade niece Sophie my Sew Many Places blog, she asked me why I only write in the blog and don’t post any photos. “Good question,” I said, “I have no idea how to do that.” She laughed hysterically and ran in the living room telling her two siblings how “challenged” I was with the computer and that I didn’t even know how to post photographs to my blog.

“Am I really challenged?” I asked myself. Then without missing a beat, I answered my own question, “It’s true.”

Mandy, our full time web designer and graphic artist in our office does all the “technical” things with the computer. I am the “visionary” in the bunch, so technical things aren’t really my bag.

But the “Sophie” incident really made me think, why aren’t I posting photographs about all the different places, things, and people I am talking about.

So beginning on Jan 1st, along with each of my blogs, I will be posting photographs to go along with what I am writing. I can’t do it right now because Mandy is at home for the weekend, and I have no clue how to do it yet.

Am I behind the times with the latest computer-internet-electronic devices, I guess so. When a grade schooler makes fun of you, it’s time to take a good look at what you are doing or not doing (in my case) and get updated.

Thanks Sophie, I love you kid! Your uncle is getting electronically updated in the New Year!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT-We are launching our Canadian office in Edmonton on January 1st, and I am very pleased to announce our managing director is Veronica Norris. Veronica comes to us with an extensive background in customer service, marketing/advertising and of course has an exciting background in crafts, from sewing to scrapbooking.

Besides quilting trips with Sew Many Places, Veronica will also be devoting her time to marketing many of the companies under the Travel Alliance, Inc. umbrella -Tuscany Cooking Tours, Tours in Bloom, Gal Pal Tours, Ag Trips, ScrapMap, Busy as a Bead, A Way to Crochet, On Holy Waters, Catholic Trips, Are We Hair Yet, A New Voyage and many others.

We are very pleased and extremely fortunate to have Veronica onboard as our Canadian representative, and look forward to some very exciting opportunities offered especially for our northern neighbors.

We will have a special link on our homepage for trips designed especially for Canadians, so be watching for that at the beginning of the year. Our Canadian telephone number and address will be posted as well.

WELCOME VERONICA, and especially all our Canadian friends! We are looking forward to a very exciting 2009!

Many years ago, when I first started Sew Many Places, I coined the phrase, “Travel with a quilter’s eye.” I mention this phrase on all my trips so that quilters will see scenery, colors, texture, dimensions all in a different way.

I bring this up today because as I look outside the window of my log cabin home in the woods, I see this incredible white landscape with hues of grey and brown. The snow is falling and I see a million dots of white covering the entire scene.

I can see all the makings of a quilt here in my own back yard. I see an unusual color pallet that normally I would have never considered. The horizontal white land with the verticle gray and brown trees. What might seem drab or chilling to most, I see quilting possibilities. Do you know what I mean?

So let me ask you this, as you travel around your neighborhood, what do you see? You don’t have to go to Africa, Ireland, China or Bali with me to see your world with a quilter’s eye.

It’s endless what you can see when you start looking. The brickwork in a building or design of a sidewalk can ignite an idea for a quilt. The colors of your landscape in your area at home, the tile floor design of your local school, the color combinations in a window display at a store, even your automobile can inspire you with color, texture and dimension. So the next time you walk into a place, whether it’s the grocery store, your doctor’s office or just driving on the main street, take a closer look. See what you discover. You’ll find yourself looking at life with more intensity. With more purpose. As quilters, we never stop our creative flow. Travel with a Quilter’s Eye and let me know what you find, I’d love to hear from you!

Hi everyone, ok this has nothing to do with quilting, but I just love what I have discovered. I wanted to bring something fun to a Holiday party over the weekend and tried something completely out of the ordinary…..I made chocolate covered strawberries. It was so easy and such a big hit, that I wanted to pass this along to you.

Here it is: Melt white chocolate in one pan, melt milk chocolate in another. You can get this chocolate in the baking section at your supermarket. Take clean, dry strawberries and dip one half in the white chocolate and one half in the milk chocolate. Place on a cooking sheet and put in fridge. You’re done.

I took the strawberries off the cooking sheet and placed them on a Christmas plate and brought to the party. They were a huge hit and so easy to do. Try it and let me know what happens.

Beginning January 1, 2009, Sew Many Places is putting into place, a special rewards program to those of you who have traveled with us in the past. We will have three membership status levels: Gold Members, Platinum Members, and Diamond Member levels. The levels are based on how many trips you have taken with us and how much those trips have cost.

Depending on what level you are, you will receive discounts off of future trips, complimentary gifts, special amenities during your tour/cruise, and have an opportunity to learn more about our trips before they are announced to the general public. These are just a couple things we are providing to all of you who have shown their loyalty to our company.

Also beginning in 2009, we are offering the services of our travel agency to any of you who would like us to plan ANY kind of individual vacation package for you. Whether it is a family cruise, an all inclusive package in Mexico or the Caribbean, a trip to Europe or anywhere around the world, our travel agency can make these plans for you,your family and your friends. Plus, and here’s the real exciting part, we will give you a future travel credit, based on half of the commission we make from these vacation packages you give us, as a way to show you our appreciation. This will apply to cruise bookings, all inclusive packages, vacation packages, etc. It does not include airline or hotel reservations. So if we make a $400 commission on a vacation package you bring to us, you receive $200 in travel credit with Sew Many Places. And this can apply to referal bookings as well.

A formal announcement will be made in just a week or so about this program, so be sure you are reading my blog for all the details.

Anyway, hope your holiday shopping is near it’s end and you are gearing up for the big family get together.

Have a great week!
Jim

Jambo! It is without any hesitation that I convey to all of you my feelings about our Sew Many Places quilting Expedition in Africa………..it was hands down, one of the best trips I have ever escorted for quilters! And believe me, I have taken quilters all over the world.

From the moment we started planning this expedition, I knew it was going to be completely unusual and unique. I had been to Africa a couple times in the past, but never taken quilters to such an extraordinary place.

Without going into a lot of details, let me highlight some of the things we did:

We stayed in first class lodges, hotels and deluxe tented camps.
We visited spinners and weavers in a remote area of Kenya.
We visited a fascinating village and learned firsthand about the way these tribespeople function on a daily basis.
We went on safari game drives, two a day, and saw (close up) lions, giraffe, elephants, wart hogs, hiena, and dozens of other animals in their natural habitat.
We ate wonderful food and enjoyed the company of extraordinary people.
We took a hot air balloon safari one morning and had breakfast in the bush as a herd of elephant crossed in the distance.
We participated in a wonderful lecture and quilt class with Kaye England.

I can not explain how unbelievable the experience was, because this would limit it. Only those of us who went on the trip know what I am talking about.

We limited the participation to only twenty people, and this in itself was a big part of the success. It was intimate, personal and everyone was coddled and well looked after.

Next year, in December, we will be going back. Again, we will limit the number of people who join us. For a copy of our day to day itinerary and pricing, email me direct and I will send you all the information.

I want to thank those of you who joined us on this Expedition in Africa, and hope you have a chance to add your comments to this blog. I think it will give those who read it an opportunity to see the trip through different eyes.

Jim