Living with husband, and glamorous assistant, Keith in Polegate, East Sussex, Jan retired from teaching mathematics and ICT on the senior management team in secondary school (11 to 16 year olds). She has crafted all her life and has been teaching various crafts on cruise ships since 2015.

At present she is coordinator and exhibitions organiser for the south east of England for The Quilters' Guild of the British Isles.

Working for Cruise & Maritime Voyages, Jan completed a four month world cruise in 2017 and again in 2018 as well as another all round South America in 2019 and one to the Amazon in 2020 where she was able to teach groups of ladies how to make quilts and other forms of textile art! On each occasion the ship was presented with a large quilted wall hanging to commemorate the voyage. On shorter cruises, Jan offers various other crafting opportunities, mostly associated with the destinations for the cruise. These include sewing activities, embroidery, jewellery making, collage and greetings card products. Each session produces a low cost make and take item as a memento of the cruise. Jan has delivered presentations about quilting on cruise ships and been to various quilts groups in the UK to speak about her travels and quilting on those ships. Charity quilts made on ships where Jan has taught quilting have raised a total of just under £6,000 for the RNLI in a three year period.

Quilting classes on cruises of six weeks or more where guests come to classes to learn techniques and produce their own pieces of textile art to take home as a memento of the cruise. A six week cruise would produce quilts with 8 blocks and would measure around 60" by 36" as an example. A four month world cruise could produce a spectacular larger work of 25 individual blocks measuring around 70" square.

The following can be completed in a single session of between 1 and 2 hours.

Sewing related:

Fancy Fandango needlecase
Swizzly Threadcatchers
Fabric clocks - can be a photo on fabric image of the ship with wording about the cruise being enjoyed
Fabric necklaces
Ollie Owl or /Hamish Haggis pincushions
Hoop Hoop Hooray Wall oganiser
Boutis sampler
Cross Stitch keyrings/thistle cards/
Hardanger Embroidery on cards or samplers
Advent Stars
Delightful Deco Gift baskets

Jewellery related:

Beaded snowflakes
Beaded Scarf Fasteners
Safety Pin bracelets/ S curve bracelets
Beaded lanyards to hold cruise cards.
Beaded Glasses' cords.
Beaded necklaces

Card related:

Tea Bag Folding greetings card
Fabric collage Postcards
Fabric collage book covers (A5 lined pages book included)
Danish Hearts basket
St Davied's Day daffodil
St. George's Day rose
St Patrick's Day Shamrock
Greetings card with cut out inserts
Corner book marks (paper folding)

I had worked for CMV for 5 years till they folded in 2020. I taught quilting on two world cruises, one round South America and one to the Amazon raising about £6,000 for the RNLI in the process with quilt raffles, along with 17 shorter ones to various destinations. I have also crafted on the maiden voyage of Ambassador's Ambience in 2022 and taught quilting on the Ambience 6 week cruise to Cuba and the Caribbean in 2023. In may 2023 I crafted on Spirit of Adventure for Saga on the Norwegian Trilogy cruise.

The following recent Cruise History has been recorded for this candidate.