Sewing Retreat 2026 ~ (Part One)

Greetings lovely friends & readers

I have been away to my yearly Sewing Retreat & had a most wonderful time.  You can read my post about last years Retreat * Here *.

 Beautiful King Protea flowers - a bunch gifted to me by Leeanne's friend Barbara, who grows them ~ just stunning 💗

Prim Olde Santa by Kerry Daly of Primitive Country Treasures

My focus project for this years Retreat was to make myself a Prim Olde Santa.  He is a pattern from an older Homespun Magazine (Vol 9.7) & although I have made several over the years for customer orders, I had never made myself one.  Here he is finished & hanging on my wall.  Our dull grey Waikato days do not show up the deep rich red that he is.  

As I didn't wish to be painting at Retreat there was lots of prep work done beforehand - boot painting, legs of rag-doll & also striped candy canes were all painted at home.  

Some closer pics of the details in him.

I made Raggedy Anne removable as she is lovely to have out all year round when Santa is put away.  

I'm looking at my pic & realising I've forgotten to blush her cheeks.

The 2nd project I worked on just a little was this table runner - a pattern called French Street by Georgina Jane Designs & this one has been 10 years a VeRy long time in the making.  Still lots of embroidery to do to it & then a patchwork border.  I shall keep plugging away at this project.

(A Little Bit of Magic fantasy chatelaine by tis the season)

I worked a full day on this kitset, a thrifted purchase very similar to * this * velvet journal cover I made last year.   I got most of it made but still lots of beading left to do which is labour intensive. 

I was pleased with the work I got done at Retreat - more than I had anticipated which is always a bonus.

At last years Retreat, Janice decided to get everyone there to gift her a tiny scrap of fabric from whatever they were working on.  For me it was my Ruth's quilt & you can see my scrap where the blue arrow is.

  She then sewed all the scraps into a panel which she stitched to the back of her denim jacket.  I thought it was stunning & she said she gets stopped a lot when she's wearing it & asked about it.  I just loved this whole concept. 

Mon spent the first day working on a handbag made from marine vinyl & then sewing the green paisley lining into it.  I forgot to get a finished pic.  The next day she made these sneakers above right, she imports the soles & then makes all the rest. I was blown away by her work.  Mon creates under the label UNiquely hands crafted.

The lady behind me was working on a gorgeous Stained Glass Window quilt & I watched her create the dragonfly above left.  

The chairs do not push out easily on the carpet & I noticed one lady had a remedy - she said her husband had made these tennis ball castor feet for her chair.  How wonderful!

The food at Retreat is always amazing.   One afternoon tea we were served Purple Cakes - Ube Cake made from purple Yams (!!) Delicious 💜

I was restrained in my fabric purchases this year only buying the fat quarters top left which were $2 pack.

  The stunning Kaffe Fassett fabric top right was won in the lucky draw we always have. 

Alongside the de-stash table there is always a Free table where other crafters leave things they no longer want.  Leeanne actually spotted this hexagon quilt top which was Free & told me it was my colours. I snapped it up very quickly.  It has a couple of stains on it that I feel confident I can remove. (again not showing up true to colour in my pic)

I always allow myself a couple of hours in Taupo en-route to browse the many Op-shops there.  The above purchases came home with me this trip.  

Miss Pip frets whenever I go away & often doesn't eat, then is clingy on my return. I was worried more as the Painters were already stressful for her.  She seems to have settled down a bit now especially as I have let her sleep on the clean laundry, something I never normally do. 

Thank you dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

I shall be back soon with Part two as this is plenty long enough,

Wishing you a wonderful rest-of-the-week & I shall catch up on all your blogs again,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,