Sew Many Places with Jim

Alright, here I am home from our Ireland tour, and I promised to write daily about all the wonderful things we were doing. Truth be told, the trip was an absolute HIT, and each day we were so busy with touring, shopping or quilting, by the time I got to my room at night in front of my computer, I was too exhausted to write.

So let me recap for a moment.  The real key factors that made this trip so great were the following-first, our bus driver Mark was a ten out of ten. Funny, charming, quick to help out everyone who had questions or needed something and just a real gem of a guy.

Second was Pat Sloan and her husband Greg. It’s one thing to travel with celebrities who offer great quilting class, but Pat and Greg, from the very beginning, were considerate, extremely helpful and offered their services to the group when it didn’t even involve the class.  And believe me, these are the kinds of people I will continue to bring on all my trips because there are no ego problems or attitude.  Thanks to both of them!

Third, and probably the most important to the success of this tour, were the people who joined us.  They came from all over the United States, Canada and two people from Korea.  (I love you Alice and Ross) Our group of ladies from Florida and Atlanta were so fun and funny, and everyone on the tour made a real effort to be on time, not complain and pitch in wherever some assistance was needed.  (A real travel agent’s dream group!)

The fourth factor to the success of our tour was the weather. We had sunny weather for most of our days and it only rained once, on the last day. Ireland with only one day of rain, how awesome was that!

And finally, last, but not least, was meeting the quilting lassies from Killarney and Dublin.  All were generous with their gifts, quilts for show and tell and smiles.  The Irish quilting ladies offered all of us a real glimpse of the genuine hearts that so many people have in Ireland.

Overall, this tour is something that ranks high on the charts as one of my favorites-EVER! 

I want to thank our entire group for their generosity, kind words and support.  I look forward to traveling with all of you again.

If any of you who traveled on this tour would like to make a comment, I would appreciate it if you would share some of your thoughts on this blog and mention some of the things that were the most memorable.

By the way, we had a limerick contest on the last day, and I am happy to report that some of them were clean!

God Bless you all and may the wind always be at your back!

Jim

And a very good day to ye all! Well, we started an exciting quilting adventure today with Pat Sloan and a large group of very special quilters in the Emerald Isle.  I arrived in Dublin a couple days ago, flying in from Italy after just escorting a group there.

When I arrived, I had the taxi take me to my deluxe hotel in the central part of town. Wow, what an active, bustling place Dublin is!

Grafton Street, a shopping meca in the city, boasts fantastic boutique shops with everything you can possibly imagine.  And yes, I found a fabric shop!  It’s called Hickey’s, which is located in the mall just down from my hotel.

I walked in the shop and saw all kinds of colorful patterns, some for upolstry and a lot of other fabric for quilts.

The owner of the shop wasn’t in, but I did manage to get the clerk to tell me more about the fabric.  It evidently comes from England, none of it from Ireland.  But that is fine, because at least our group from America wasn’t going to be buying something they can buy in the states.

Our group doesn’t actually arrive in Dublin for a few days, I had just flown in a couple days earlier to check things out.

Today I met them all at the airport.  For traveling all night on the plane, I have to honestly say, they were not cranky, whinny or anything negative.  Tired of course, but very, very happy to be here.

We got everything packed on the bus, and we were off to Killarney.  We stopped in a charming village called Adare for lunch and continued to drive through the most charming little villages you can only imagine.  The scenery was great as well as our marvelous bus driver, Mark.

We had Mark on last year’s Ireland trip with Joan Shay, and he is just as charming and funny as ever.  What a gem.

Tonight we all had dinner together at the hotel, introduced ourselves individually to the group and then I introduced Pat. 

She showed the group the wonderful project they would be making in class tomorrow night, as well as introducing the group to two Leisure Arts Publishing reps who are along with us.

I can’t spill the beans yet, but here’s a hint………………………..Pat Sloan author in Ireland with two publishing company reps, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm what do you think is going to happen?!  

That’s all I can say at the moment, I don’t want to give too much away.

Anyway, tomorrow we are going to go and drive the RING OF KERRY.  And the weather man says it’s going to be sunny and nice-60 degrees.

I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, even though this is only the first day of the trip, I can tell you, we’ll be coming back to Ireland next year.  It’s a real joy to be sure.

Today I am sitting at the Rome airport as we wait to fly back home to the United States.  What a great time this quilting trip turned out to be.  We ended our trip with two exciting days in Rome. It started when we first arrived and our guide Francesco came onboard our bus to give us a wonderful panoramic overview of the city.

We stopped at the major sights all over the city, including St. Mary Major Basilica, which has some of the best Cosmoti tile floors in all of Italy.  These floors are great samples of quilt patterns that, of course, originated here and not back home one hundred years ago.  These patterns are hundreds of years old.

We had time to shop and explore the city on our own in the evening.

The second day in Rome started with a four hour tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica.  Again, Francesco provided an excellent guide experience for our group.

The afternoon was free to explore again on our own.  With the extraordinary food in out door cafe’s all over the city to monuments and churches dating back to 2ad, one can only experience it to know of it’s unbelievable effect it has on the people who see them.

I had a great opportunity also to confirm the hotel we will be staying in next year when McCalls Quilting Magazine hosts this Tuscany trip.  Everything about that tour is going to be deluxe, including the five-star hotel in rome, the Westin Excelsior Hotel on the famous Via Veneto.  There are only 40 seats available on that tour and we are already half sold out.

So be sure to check out our website and confirm your space as soon as possible.  It will sell out very fast, even before they have a chance to advertise it in their magazine.

So Gratzie to all those who participated on this tour!

Today we went to the bustling city of Florence and had a fantastic day.  Most of the group went to see one of the oldest quilts in the world, which is being restored in a very private restoration facility in the heart of the city. 

After pulling a lot of strings to get this arranged, we were able to see firsthand and up close the restoration being done to this quilt-coverlet, dating back to the 14th century. It was a very special moment for all our quilters.

The rest of our day was filled with sightseeing, shopping, eating in outdoor cafe’s and basically enjoying the 70 degree sunny weather.

We ended our day with a spectacular view of Florence high above the city from the Piazza Michelangelo.

Tomorrow we are off to Rome with a lot of exciting things planned for our day.  Until then, bon appetito!

Jim

Hi everyone, blogging from the little town of Lucca, in the heart  of the Tucany Valley in Italy.  We just finished an incredible cooking class with a very charming Italian grandma, followed by a wine demonstration at a local Tuscan winery.  Lunch was included, and the seven different wines we all had an opportunity to sample were really great. 

As you can imagine, with sunny 69 degree weather, clear blue skies, rolling green Tuscan hills and snow capped mountains in the distance, we are all savoring this day.

We arrived a couple days ago, and are staying in the charming resort town of Montecatini Terme.  The hotel is modern and nice, only six months old.

Our first full day here, we toured the historic town of Siena. Our local guide was passionate about telling us of her wonderful city, and the entire group loved the day. Again, we had sunny beautiful weather.

Tomorrow we are off to the renaissance city of Florence, which will include sightseeing, great food, wonderful shopping and a chance to visit the oldest quilt in the world, which is under restoration.

I will let you know more later in the trip.  Until then, gratzie and ciao!

Jim

Hi quilters!

We are midway through our McCalls 2007 Caribbean cruise, and what a great time it has been so far. The weather, ports of call, quilt classes and group are all terrific!

We have Linda Fielder, Pat Sloan, Cindy Edgerton, Beth Hayes, Patricia Camp who are providing some incredible classes and instruction to our group.

The ship is beautiful, lots of really great things for the husbands to do while their wives sew. 

The weather has been in the 80′s, clear, no rain and the waters calm.  So far, it’s been the perfect cruise.

Last night, before Pat Sloan gave her very informative and entertaining quilt presentation, I announced our McCalls Tuscany Italy trip for next year.  There are only 40 seats available on this tour and we already booked 12 people last night!  If any of you want a chance to go on this trip, please call our office very soon, because it is going to sell out for sure-right away like our China trip does! 

Ask for Colleen!  877-887-1188

I will keep you posted about the rest of our Caribbean Quilting Adventure in a couple days!

Gratzie and ciao!

Jim

I just got off the telephone with this couple who had to cancel off of one of our trips………and because they didn’t take the travel insurance as we had recommended, they are going to loose everything they paid on the trip.

I don’t understand how people can pay thousands of dollars for a tour and not take the travel insurance when it’s offered to them.  You never know what is going to happen in life, so please, please, please take the insurance.  It’s a great protection investment on your vacation.

We can’t do any more than keep recommending it on our receipts and telling people about it when they make their deposit.

Believe me, the one time you DON’T take the insurance, that’s the time you will need it!  When I wrote my first book, “The Essential Little Cruise Book,” I wrote an entire chapter about the necessity of travel insurance.  In fact, Sir Edmund Hillary, who is a friend of mine and gave me his endorsement on the cover of my book, told me he thought it was one of the most important sections for people to read!

Just wanted to remind everyone about this since I now have two unhappy travelers who are kicking themselves for not getting it to begin with, and if you can believe it, they are actually rude and obnoxious with me because they didn’t act responsibly! But maybe that’s their nature to begin with.

Some people just don’t get it, and I suppose they will never get it, and so they will reap what they sew as my grandma used to say.

Jim

I have just returned from a wonderful Italy trip!  I was there with a small group of friends and some of my agents, to experience the Italy tours we have designed for quilters.

It was fantastic!!!!

Next month Charlotte Angotti is taking our first group of quilters to Tuscany, and it is going to be a trip of a lifetime for sure. If you happen to be one of the lucky ones who signed up before it sold out, then you are in store for one heck of a great time.

If you are not, you might consider coming with us next year with McCalls Quilting Magazine in May, 2008.  We haven’t made a formal announcement about this trip yet, but if you want a flyer when it is completed, I’ll send one out to you before it’s printed in their magazine.

McCalls trips ALWAYS sell out within a month after being announced, and because we are really limited with the space on their trip (just one bus of 45 people), it will sell out within the week, I’m sure of it.

Some of the highlights include:  A visit to a working Tuscany winery, cooking class with a real Italian grandma, sightseeing in extraordinary places throughout Tuscany, first-class hotels, great tour guides, visits to famous basilica’s including St. Peter’s in Rome, a visit to a museum in Florence to see the oldest quilt in the world, cosmotti floor designs that have inspired quilts for hundreds of years, and so on and so on.

I’ll be posting photographs and a short video on our website when we return this March with Charlotte’s group, so be sure you are watching for that. 

In the meantime, contact me at Jim@SewManyPlaces.com if you want a flyer when everything is finalized with the McCalls Tuscany trip for next year.

Until then, Gratzie and Ciao!

Jim

Hi everyone.  Wow, what a week it has been. We are currently on the island of Santa Dominca, arriving just a couple hours ago.

So far, we’ve had an extraordinary time.  The teachers on this cruise are really great.  They’ve had lectures in the evening, followed by sit and stitch.

Chocolate covered strawberries made their way to each quilters cabin yesterday, compliments of Sew Many Places, and I know that everyone really enjoyed them.  Who doesn’t love chocolate, right?

I can honestly say, this is the first cruise that I have done where the quilters are completing really big quilt projects before they get home.  And that is not only contributed to the quilters abilities, but the wonderful instruction.

We’ve been enjoying some fantastic food, from caviar to roast turkey and everything in between.

The sewing rooms on this ship are the best I’ve been in on any cruise.  Kudos to Costa for providing them for us.  Very large, lots of natural light, no electrical problems at all and everyone seems really, really happy.

So far, so good.

I’ll keep you posted when I get home and recap the entire event.  Does anyone want to go to Paris with us in May?

Jim

I’m really excited because we are launching our first quilting cruise with the American Quilter’s Society.  We are going to the Caribbean with a ship load of great teachers, lot’s of quilters and more fun than you can imagine.

We have another cruise that’s not filled yet going to Canada and New England this coming Fall.  What a blast that is going to be.  Call our office or visit our website for more details.

There are about 20 spaces left!!

I’ll keep you posted each day of our cruise so you have an idea how much fun we really are having.

thanks,

Jim