Preparations, Supporters and a Winner!

I'm going to post a whole heap more photos of the retreat tomorrow, but in the mean time I thought I would show you a few photos of Jenn and I preparing the gift bags for the participants, and while I'm at it thank our supporters. We really appreciate their ongoing support as they enable us to share a little more love on the weekend by way of a gorgeous gift bag. We couldn't do it without them.

Each year we hand make a (gorgeous :)) gift for each of the participants, and for this year's gift we owe a big BIG thank you to The Fabric Store. They donated over 30m of fabric so we could make these super pretty linen project bags. We were lucky enough to be allowed to steal the design from the lovely Melissa of Tiny Happy and we love how they turned out. My only sadness is that we didn't quite make enough, so none of us ended up with one. Won't make that mistake again! I've also just realised that I didn't get a proper photo of them.....

A big big thank you to Jenn (who you see in my half-renovated kitchen which was the staging area for the packing) and also to the patient Martine who had to sit in sawdust, and listen to a grinder all day, while we sewed. You two are champs!

We also need to send a big thank you to Skein Yarn for our gorgeous mini-skeins in a jewel box of stunning colours, Sunspun for the super-pretty tapestry needles and Loving Earth for sending boxes and boxes of my favourite raw chocolate - the Creamy Mylk. Yum! We also had Mamashanti (who is a good friend of our yoga teacher Gemma) send us a box of delicious smelling Chai samples, and the generous Ink and Spindle again sent us a super stack of their delicious fabric. I'm using my sample for a pocket on a tote. 
 

On the Saturday night we were lucky enough to get to give away goodness from our friends at Frankie (who gave us a super pretty gift bag with memberships and other goodness), Woolarium who gave us some gorgeous Shibui for a pretty tank, one of the new gorgeous project bags from the ever-lovely Karen at Fringe Supply Co, a full set of gorgeous Assemblage patterns from Kirsten, even more patterns including some of my favourites (like Ruby and Lisa) from Tessuti as well as a mid-week retreat at newish crafting studio Create at Warburton. Just like Christmas. But better.
 

Finally I also wanted to give a shoutout to Purl Soho who supplied us with their ace Overnighter Bags in hardcopy for the workshop and also to Ellie from Extra Curricular who gave me a gorgeous stack of her mag to give away for the fun of it. Being able to give presents is the best.

Finally I need to announce that the winner of our giveaway was Mackenzie Sasser from the US. Hope you love your gift! and thanks everyone for entering. Reading your comments was so fun. 

See you tomorrow with more photos. 

Fel x

The Craft Sessions 2015 - Pure Magic!

What an amazing weekend. So much joy, so much generosity, so much laughter. Truly impossible to put into words. Looking back over the photos I still can't believe it's come and gone. I'm still on a total high. 

The weather was divine, the location at the Yarra Valley Estate was just stunning (as always), the food was gorgeous and the classes..... the classes and the teachers this year truly smashed it out of the park. Jules' darning, Ophelie's sock, Anna O'B's smocking, Anna's patchwork, Belinda's dyeing, Melissa's embroidery and Georgies' stitch patterns - produced stunning work and confident, happy crafters. And that was just the first afternoon. 

As for the community - I really feel like we hit our stride this year. Some people were new, some back a second or third time but regardless everyone seemed to know what to expect. And weren't just coming for the classes. They were coming for the connection. That made my heart sing!

As always, it is easiest to explain with pictures. I'm going to share more over the next few weeks so today I just have a mix from the Friday and the Saturday morning mainly. All photos in today's post were taken by Claire Fisher (with a couple of exceptions taken by me). The lovely Claire is pictured at the top of the post with the yellow cardy on. She helps me run TCS and is one of my closest friends - I'm very grateful for both of those things. She also takes gorgeous photos!

The happiest of days! 

Felicia x

Registration with Martine and Jenn.

Knitting with Jules.

Dyeing class with Belinda.

Patchwork with Anna.

Natural Dyeing with Belinda

Kid's Clothes with Me.

Embroidery with Melissa

Spinning 101 with Kate and Judy.

Hat Design with Georgie.

Some of Anna Farago's collaborative work for an upcoming exhibition. It came to hand quilting class as an example and inspiration.

Socks with Ophelie.

Evening Drinks.

Introductions at dinner on Friday night.

Ophelie introducing herself and showing us her magical wedding shawl.

A giveaway to share the love!

So the retreat starts today - in a few wee hours in fact, and we couldn't be more excited. Each year brings new joy for us and we can not wait to meet everyone!!

We know that not all of you can join us this weekend, and we also know that many of you live across many seas. So we thought we would grab a few of the gorgeous presents that our supporters have sent us over the last few weeks, and squirrel them away as a giveaway for you. The giveaway includes all the good things you see in the photo above, plus some other special goodies that I wasn't organised enough to take photos of yet. How is that for slack? You'll love them though! Promise. We are calling it the Share The "Craft Sessions" Love giveaway.

To enter the draw just leave a comment on this post,  on the corresponding instagram post (which I'll post when I wake up!), or the Facebook post. Or all three. You can comment on each one once - meaning you can enter three times each. International friends are welcome to join in as we are happy to post anywhere. I'll close the comments at 9pm Melbourne time on Sunday the 13th - and announce the winner on Tuesday. Don't forget to include your email address when you make your blog comment (it is hidden!) so we can find you.

We will be sharing photos all weekend on instagram (hashtag #thecraftsessions2015) and will be back in this space early next week with some photos. 

Wish you could all be here with us! Another year perhaps....

Felicia x

Intention

This time of year, I think about intention a lot. In the busy last few weeks of throwing this thing together, I spend a lot of time thinking about the people who are coming; where they come from, why they come, what we can do to make this thing as special as we can. My gorgeous women and I spend a fair bit of time together, doing the bits and pieces that need to get done, to make it happen. And there is real intention in that. There is quite a lot of hand making that goes into putting this together. We hand sew the programs, we hand make your gifts, we forage for the flowers. We do most of it ourselves. We could outsource it but we choose not to, because the beautiful thing about it is that we get to do it together. The five of us, sitting around, chattering, making and sorting out the detail. It's like my community sits in the intention around the intentional bringing together of our larger community. And to me this makes it really special.

A big part of the joy of putting this together for me, is the fact that we get to sit together making. And that I can feel everyone else remotely making, whether you are pinging me on instagram about your preparations (which I love!), or watching from afar, I can feel the excitement around the fact that we are coming together to share. I treasure those nights with my girlfriends in the leadup to the event. 

I also spend a fair bit of time thinking about mistakes and imperfection. And how intention is way more important than those two gems. In the leadup to the retreat I miss the odd email, the odd seam on a gift is a little wonky, this blog post is a day late, and there is a typo in the program (don't tell Anna!!). Because there is a temptation to get stuck thinking about that stuff. About the fact that what we are making isn't perfect.

But then I come back again to intention. We could style the shit out of this event. We could spend time making it perfect down to every minute detail - but then the event would have never got off the ground. Our focus would have been in the wrong place and we would have been stressed, and anxious, and got stuck.  The joy would be lost. Instead I remind myself that the intention of this event is to "bring together people who craft for joy and foster a love of hand making". That is all. Not to create the most perfectly styled event ever seen. Perfection would destroy the spirit of the event. A spirit where we celebrate community and learning, rather than doing things perfectly. 

Anyway - coherant post this is possibly not, but I wanted to share where my head is. Outside of worrying about whether I can find all the power boards for the sewing machines that is. They are in the shed somewhere....

See you Friday either in person or online. And if you are only able to join us online then we have an ace giveaway to make up for it. Details will be in Friday's post. 

Felicia  xx

12 Days to go

So we are totally full!! And we are totally busy preparing. Last night - when I normally write the blog post - was filled with wine and making. Making for the retreat, running through the details. So I have no words for you as I am a little tired and have a head full of busy.

I do, however, have some pictures from last year. There are so many of them that I never get to share them all. As I know you guys like to see them, then today seemed like the perfect day for it. 

See you Friday xx

Saying goodbye at the end of 2014's retreat.