Sew Many Places with Jim

I am really very happy to announce our second JIM WEST QUILTPOSIUM PROGRAM for this year………..it is a journey to the Amish Country in Indiana! Our program will take place August 6,7,8,9, 2009 (Thursday-Sunday) My dear friend and legendary quilter, Kaye England, will be joining us on this very special program.

We will be staying at the charming Essenhaus Inn,located in the heart of Amish Country, in the town of Middlebury, Indiana. Our program will include an opportunity to enjoy their second annual quilt show, exhibiting beautiful hand-stitched and machine-stitched quilts in addition to unique, one of a kind vintage quilts.

We will also include a visit to the sensational Quilted Gardens, which feature a rainbow of over 80,000 annuals planted in artful combinations to form a colorful patchwork. These flowers are planted in 16 gigantic gardens with 32 unique designs, all bursting with color, each with its own special story, all placed along the nationally-recognized Heritage Trail Route.

They are a colorful patchwork,inspired by quilt designs and powered by imagination. If you enjoy gardening and quilting, this will be a dream come true event for you! You’ll be on photography overload!

Also included with this Quiltposium program is breakfast and dinner daily, and an opportunity to enjoy shopping in the local quilt shops to purchase fabric and all kinds of goodies. We will even visit the fascinating area of Shipshewana, where we will start at the Menno-Hof Visitors Center to learn more about the Amish culture. There will be an opporutnity for you to enjoy buggy rides, furniture making, cheese making, or just trips down country lanes,depending on what you wanted to do with your time.

Famous for some of the best shopping in Amish country, Shipshewana has over 90 delightful shops with a wide variety of stores filled with quilts, antiques, crafts, tools, and much more!

I will be your host during this special Quiltposium Program, and besides making sure you are having a wonderful time, I will also be hosting a special Show and Tell and talking to you about one of my favorite subjects -”Traveling with a Quilter’s Eye.” I have some surprises up my sleeve, and you’ll just have to wait and see what those are during our time together.

Ladies, this really is the perfect girls getaway to relax and have fun, so bring your friends, your daughters, and even your grand daughters (wouldn’t that be fun, the kids are still out of school!) for a very special time together.

The total cost of this entire 4-day Quiltposium is only $498.00 per person, based on double occupancy. We are limiting the number of participants to 30 people only, and your deposit of $100.00 will secure your space. Call our office toll free at 877.887.1188 or email Jaci at Jaci@SewManyPlaces.com

What a great way to go on a relaxing vacation in one of the most unique charming areas in the United States. I hope you can join us!

The name QUILTPOSIUM is a registered trademarked name by Travel Alliance, Inc.

ok quilters, here it is hot off the press……………NEW YORK CITY November 5, 6, 7, 8, 2009 (Thursday-Sunday)

Our package includes accommodations at the Milford Plaza Hotel, located in the theater district near Times Square, two dinners, the use of a hop on-hop off bus pass for two days where you can go all over Manhattan and get on and off the bus, a broadway show where I am hoping we get to meet some of the cast members and go back stage for a tour (especially hoping to look at the costumes), a visit to the Folk Art Museum, a very special lunch at the world famous Tavern on the Green Restaurant, located in Central Park, lots of great fabric shopping-we’ve contacted fabric stores who told us about some special discounts they are offering our group-and one of them was featured on the hit show Project Runway, and some fun surprises I can’t mention to you (otherwise they wouldn’t be surprises), and I will be your special host the entire time. All this, not to mention everything else New York City has to offer with museums, the Statue of Liberty, fantastic shopping on 5th Avenue, Radio City Music Hall tour and so much more! You will be on sensory overload. And did I mention how incredible Times Square is?

The entire cost of this NEW YORK CITY Quiltposium is only $672.00 per person!!! This price is based on double occupancy. Single rates are available, and we will do our best to try to find you a roommate if you are looking for one. We are only taking the first 30 people who sign up with their $100 deposit.

And just so you know, this Quiltposium is offered to not only quilters, but non-quilters as well, so ladies you can bring a best friend, a daughter or yes, even your husbands.

So there it is, the annoucement for our November Jim West Quiltposium Program. If you are interested, please email Jaci in our office at Jaci@SewManyPlaces.com and let us know how many spaces you are reserving. You can talk to Jaci on the phone on Monday with your credit card number. Phone: 877.887.1188Be watching, very soon you’ll see what we have planned for this summer, and it’s going to be a great one too!

The name QUILTPOSIUM is a registered trademarked name with Travel Alliance, Inc.

I am so proud of the trips we have put together for my Quiltposium Program, and I think you are going to be very excited about them as well.

The two destinations I have chosen for this year are New York City and the Amish Country in northern Indiana. In Indiana we will visit over 16 beautiful gardens designed in the patterns of quilts and quilt blocks, attend a quilt show, shop for fabric in local quilt shops, and some other fun surprises. In New York City, we will visit some terrific museums, attend a Broadway show, enjoy a tour of the city, shop in fabric shops and some really great surprises I can not tell you about in this message.

The Jim West Quiltposium Program was created as another opportunity to provide trips to quilters without being away for a long time or costing an exhorbinant amount of money. Plus, it gives us an opportunity to travel closer to home!

Tomorrow all the detailed inforrmation will be announced for each Quiltposium Program. We will begin signing people on these tours on Monday. Please note, we are only going to allow 30 participants in each program.

THESE WILL BE POPULAR FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS-
These Quiltposiums are all located in the United States or Canada, so you don’t have far to go to join us!
They are all very affordable, and in this economy, you are going to appreciate this more than ever!
Everything we do is first-class and these Quiltposiums will have the Sew Many Places seal of approval on them!
You never have to worry about anything, everything is taken care of for you!
It is a carefree mini vacation for 4 days (Thursday -Sunday)!
You will have the opporutnity to travel with likeminded quilters and travel with a quilters eye!

Plus, everyone who joins us on any of my Quiltposium Programs will receive a discount on any of our other Sew Many Places cruises and tours!

Be watching in my blog tomorrow for all the details about our two Quiltposium destinations for this year, and a glimpse into what we are planning for next year.

I hope you can join us!

Have a great quilting day my friends!

JIM WEST

The name QUILTPOSIUM is a registered trademarked name by Travel Alliance, Inc.

We have been wanting to do something very special for those of you who participate on our tours, and from time to time now, we are going to be announcing some extraordinary things to show our appreciation for joining us. This is something I am calling “You’re Sew Appreciated.”

Our first “You’re Sew Appreciated” surprise is that we are now offering FREE AIRFARE round trip to England on our FESTIVAL OF QUILTS tour this summer. We have worked with many airlines over the past 14 years, and in a very special promotion, we are able to pass along to you this complimentary airfare. Sew Many Places is actually paying toward the cost of this airfare so that you can go to England with no airfare charges!

So any of you who have been looking at this trip, and thought it wasn’t affordable, can now consider going because we are covering your airfare!

Please take a look at our FESTIVAL OF QUILTS itinerary, and sign up today!

You are SEW appreciated!

A dear friend of mine, Kaye England, is one of the fabric designers for Wilmington Prints new collection, so I checked out their website yesterday to look at what they had. All I can say is wow, what a collection! If any of you are looking for some really exciting designs for your quilts, I would really like to recommend you check out what they have to offer in this new collection.

www.WilmingtonPrints.com

It’s worth your time and something tells me you will be just as impressed as I am!

Happy shopping and quilting!

I am always excited when something really special comes along that I can pass onto all of you, and this is one of those trips. It’s actually a cruise in the Mediterranean this coming fall. As one of our participating sponsors, eQuilter.com will be presenting this special cruise with Sew Many Places, visiting some of the most celebrated places in Europe – ROME, GENOA, NICE, BARCELONA, PALMA DE MALLORCA, and SARDINIA!

Luana Rubin, owner of eQuilter.com, will be our special guest onboard this cruise. The theme for this voyage is all about inspiration and creativity.

We’ll gather design and color inspiration at each port of call – sharing our ideas and images when we get back on the ship – and over the course of the week, we will gather
design elements, art motifs, perhaps textiles/beads/found objects to be incorporated into a small to medium sized art quilt that will be made the last day of the cruise when we sail back to Rome.

There will be plenty of opportunities to gather inspriation from the incredible places we will visit. The ideas and colors you can gather on a cruise like this can be your design inspiration for years to come.

Luana will talk about how she discovers a design idea, and makes it into a fabric collection, a quilt, a wearable art piece, etc. She will tailor the cruise to the interests of our group!

It has always been the challenge on quilt cruises to balance the participants’ desire
to see the sights and tour each city – with the desire to get some quilting done at the same time.

As part of the quilting enrichment portion of the cruise, Luana will be offering a walking tour in each port of call, and concentrate on design, color and art. You will see the city through a quilter’s eye, and take photographs with Luana (you’ll need to bring a digital camera) and then hear her ideas about what to do with the things you have seen during the day.

Our evening classes will consist of everything from slide show presentations to discussing textiles and embellishments we have collected, in addition to a special Q & A session with Luana and myself about our businesses and how they operate.

Besides all of these exciting quilting encounters, the cruise itself is magnificent. Royal Caribbean’s mega ship, the Navigator of the Seas, (my favorite ship afloat) will be our home during this 8-day cruise. Now, here’s the most exciting part, the cost for accommodations, port charges, taxes, all meals, entertainment, special quilting gifts, and all the quilting events is only $1498 per person! That price is insane, can you believe it for 8-days?!

If you wanted to join us before the cruise begins, we are offering a three-day Rome package, including your round-trip airfare, transfers, first class hotel accommodations, some meals, sightseeing tour and myself and luana as your escorts for only $1783 additional.

We are limiting the space to 30 participants, and don’t forget ladies, you can bring your hubby’s or friends along with you!

Sign ups are now open, so I hope you can join us. Don’t forget, we have a monthly payment plan and you get a full refund right up until final payment plan, no questions asked.

We can also assist in helping you find a roommate. So call our office today and be inspired this fall on a Mediterranean Cruise!

I’ve been listening to you and reading all your emails, and finally, I can announce that we are launching our Quiltposium program this summer!

We have three Quiltposiums lined up for this year, and ten lined up for next year.

The “Jim West Quiltposium Program” consists of a long weekend of quilting fun in various destinations in the United States and Canada.

I will personally be escorting and hosting each Quiltposium weekend, and it will consist of quilting, shopping, sightseeing and a lot of fun!. It’s a perfect long weekend getaway, right in your own back yard!!

These Thursday through Sunday Quiltposiums will give you the opportunity to go on a mini vacation, and the cost will be so affordable. Our goal is to keep each one under $600.00!

If any of you would like to receive our “Jim West Quiltposium Program” schedule for 2009, before it is announced on April 15th, please let us know and I’ll send it out to you.

We are limiting the number of people who join us to only 40 participants per Quiltposium, so if you decide you would like to participate on any of the ones that look good to you, be sure to place your $50 deposit to secure your space.

Finally, I am very happy to announce, a donation will be made for $25.00 to the charity of your choice when you sign up and join us on any of these Quiltposiums. Simply tell us what your favorite charity is, and the donation will be made in your name.

I hope you can join us!

Please note: The name Quiltposium and Jim West Quiltposium Program are copyrighted names and registered and can be used without written permission.

As the owner of several niche travel companies, occasionally I see an opportunity for two of the companies to cross over. Our garden tours company, Tours In Bloom, will begin combining some quilting and garden tours starting this fall. We will be bringing our travelers to visit flora and fauna in exotic areas of the world, and incorporating quilting ideas, photography, design, color and what you can do as quilters to incorporate the natural beauty you see in plants and flowers into your work.

The idea came to me when I was in Costa Rica a couple years ago, and having just visited the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia, during or quilt expedition a couple weeks ago, I was reminded of how attractive this combination works.

MORNING DEW

Stay tuned, we will be announcing these tours within the month! Right now, we are considering Ireland, Hawaii, Victoria B.C., Costa Rica, the Amazon, the Galapagos Islands,

TRUMPET FLOWERS

These trees are pretty amazing!

EXOTIC FLOWER AUSTRALIA (almost looks like a bird!)

Through the flowers we will see, there will be opportunities for applique ideas!

CACTUS FLOWER

The photography opportunities will be mind-boggling, and it will help us concentrate on the small details of our quilt projects.

A COLOR PALLET FOR A QUILT

If you would like to visit any special gardens, please let me know, we may just add it onto our list of destinations!

We are currently working on final preparations for our 1st annual Sew Many Places Tokyo Quilt Festival this coming January, 2010. This is the granddaddy of all shows in Asia, and because we have had so many people ask us about offering this trip, we are now putting all the pieces together to make this an extraodinary expedition and offering it next year.

If any of you would like information about this tour, please, please send me your name and contact information as soon as possible. Jim@SewManyPlaces.com

We are only taking 40 people, and I know this will sell out immediately after it is announced publicly. Those of you who contact me, will receive the information first, before it is released to everyone else.

Thought you might want a little teasing this afternoon!

Since I’ve been home this past week, I’ve had an opportunity to look over all our quilt trips for this year and next year, and I was reminded again of how incredible our FESTIVAL OF QUILTS tour in England this summer is going to be!

I will be personally escorting this quilting expedition to one of my favorite areas in England.

Our journey starts in Philadelphia on August 15th, where we will fly non-stop to London, England. Our time in London will consist of a panoramic tour of the city (I’m sure we’ll stop for chocolates at Herrods!), a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see their extraordinary textile exhibits from linens and lace to fashion and ceramics. We will see beautiful gardens, and marvel at all the sights that make London such a special city. ou’ll even have some time to visit the famous West End and take in a show or music event.

We will see the famous Stonehenge, drive to the charming seaside town of Bath and visit the American Museum that houses Navajo weavings, quilts and coverlets, drive through my favorite are in England-the Cotswolds and stay in the town where William Shakespeare lived and wrote, Stratford Upon Avon.

Eventually, we will make our way to the wonderful city of Birmingham where we will enjoy a two-day pass to the Festival of Quilts Expo, with over 170 vendors 30 galleries and over 1000 quilts! Truly, one of the best quilting events Europe has to offer, and you’ll have a two day pass to this exciting event.

Everything about our tour is first-class, from our hotels to our guides. You will be pampered and I will personally make sure you have the time of your life.

We are only taking 20 people on this expedition and we have 12 spaces left for any of you who might be interested in joining us.

The cost of this 9-day tour, including round trip airfare, most meals, all sightseeing, admission into all exhibits and museums, first class hotel accommodations and much more, is only $2598.00 per person, based on double occupancy.

If you are a single traveler, not to worry, we do our best to match you up with another single traveler, or you have the opportunity to pay a little more for this expedition and have your own room.

Please contact Jaci in our office at Jaci@SewManyPlaces.com or call on our toll free line at 877.887.1188

I hope you can join us, it is truly going to be a wonderful opportunity to see this incredible part of England, all the while traveling with likeminded quilters. By the way, husbands are invited, and they will feel very comfortable and enjoy this expedition as much as you do!