Easter Break

Just popping in to wish you a super Easter break.

I'll be back next week with the class list for this year's retreat - It's crazy good I promise! Seventeen - that's right - seventeen new workshops!! We are also repeating three workshops from last year due to their popularity. So twenty workshops in total to choose from for your main workshop sessions.

And then we have our optional short workshops that we hold during your free time on Saturday afternoon.  We have created three totally new sessions that I just love. I will be going to all three! Skill building (and joy!) with people that really know their stuff. 

Yep - I'm pretty excited. 

Also next week - the much requested alterations post for the Simple Sewing 101 mini series. I've taken loads of photos for the post and just need to get down to editing them properly to show you some of my favourite tricks. In the meantime keep posting what you are making with the hashtag #simplesewing101. I'm loving seeing them pop up. So inspiring!

Felicia x

The Craft Sessions 2015 - The Details

Hello lovely people! 

So some of you have started pinging me about what is happening with this year's retreat - and I know I'm a week or two late - so apologies! March was annoyingly taken up by sickness so I am a little behind on the schedule. Anyhoo that's detail.

I wanted to share some dates and details with you today so that it is clear how this is all going to roll out. The website will be updated by with all the key information by our official launch date next week on April 7th. In the meantime….

Key Dates

1. Class list will be posted April 7th - via a blog post and by email to our mailing list.
    It is by far our best yet. We are totally chuffed with it and know you will love it! 

2. Registration will open April 21st at 9am. 

3. The retreat will run from Friday September 11th 2pm to Sunday September 13th 5pm. 

Registration details

We are changing how you register this year to make registering your preference for diet, workshops etc part of the registration process. Registration will involve two steps;

1. A direct deposit of your registration fee and
2. Submission of our online form with all your details and class preferences.

Changing this process enables us to quickly tell you which classes you have got into - in the past this took time as we waited for preference forms to trickle in. It will be a very simple process - promise!

Class preferences

Classes are assigned in the fairest way we can think of - on a first come basis, based on when you register. We think it is really important to keep the class sizes small so we don't crowd our classes! 

We release the class list two weeks early giving you a couple of weeks to think about what you would like to do before we start registration. There are twenty different workshops over the three days (as well as three bonus workshops on the Saturday afternoon). There is so much choice this year that we know you will find many things that interest you. At registration you will be asked for your top three preferences for each timeslot. The sooner you register the more likely you are to get your first preferences.

In the past classes such as knitting, embroidery, some sewing classes and our weaving classes have been very popular and sell out quickly, but we are never sure of what will be popular until we see your forms coming in….. To be honest, it's a bit of a thrill for us to see what you are interested in. Who knew last year how many of you would want to do leggings?? 

Cost

The cost of the event this year will be $869. The cost of the retreat is inclusive and covers;

• Welcome drink on our first night.
• Two and a half days of delicious meals - starting with an organic afternoon tea on Friday and ending with an afternoon tea on Sunday. 
• All classes - 2 full days of workshops in small groups. 
• Yoga - each morning and restorative yoga on Sat afternoon
• Two nights twin-share accommodation at the YVCC. 
• An afternoon of "optional workshops" and/or time for crafting, relaxing, walking etc. 
• Gift bag filled with goodies from our wonderful sponsors.
• Open fires, good conversation and community. A chance to slow down and feel the joy craft and community can bring.

The small increase on last year's price is simply based on an increase in our venue costs. 

Payment Plans

Details of our payment plan will be available next week when we release the class list. It will be a super simple process - as it was last year.  

I think that is it for today. The big class list reveal is only a week away. I can't wait! 

Felicia x

Stash Less - I got a gold star!

The series where we talk about having a thoughtful stash.

Stash Less began as a challenge to myself last year - to regain consciousness over my stash over the course of a year. And because I made it up, then I got to make up the rules. And so I'm giving myself a gold star this week - the highest achievement possible of the challenge! "What did I do to achieve it?" I hear you ask? I finally cut the Nani Iro! Not just any Iro but the Iro.

Those of you who have been around since The Craft Sessions began will remember the image below. It was our homepage image on the day we launched in June of 2013. And the blue Nani Iro is still on our homepage as part of the new stack. But my history (and attachment) with this piece of fabric goes back much further than that. I looked up my Etsy purchasing history and can see that I purchased it way back in Janurary of 2011. In a strange way it is not as bad as I thought. So I've held on to it for four years. Loving it way to much to cut into it. Waiting for the perfect pattern. Too special to do anything but sit there. I just think it is beautiful. 

My hope for Stash Less was that I would start to use my stash. I would stop the purchasing that had me avoiding cutting my favourite fabrics and I would use it. Because I had to. Because in order to make pretty things, I had no other option. No avoidance mechanisms at my disposal….

This week I achieved it - so GOLD star for me!

"OK….but Stash Less has been going for six months already and you hadn't touched it. There must have been a final driver that got you there?" I hear you say. Well you would be right…. I did need a push.

Last week I was asked to do interview about Stash_Less for an ace publication. It was lovely they thought of me, and I was feeling pretty chuffed about it, until they sent a second email which stated that they needed to have someone take a photo of me. OK….. so just a little confronting - I've been pretty happy running around in a headless fashion for the last two years - so I was feeling pretty awkward. Knowing I was going to do the interview however, got me to thinking about Stash_Less, and how it was starting to change me and my habits. I sat and went through my original thought process. I thought about what I was trying to achieve, what I had achieved, and I realised there was one thing I hadn't done yet. I'd skirted around the edges using less precious Iro here and there. But not the big guns. The blue Iro was my white whale. …..Alright, maybe that is taking it a little too far. But it is big none the less.

I decided to make an effort. Y'know you have some big event, you make a frock - right? Well this was that for me. I was going to be talking about this project I created - I should try to achieve all it's aims right? I would make something to wear for the photo! As we have been talking Simple Sewing a lot lately, so I decided I should go with what I love, and I love a woven Hemlock. The woven Hemlock fits my everyday wardrobe like a glove, and who wouldn't want to wear the blue Iro everyday. The simple shape of the pattern was made for beautiful fabric. 

Lucky for me the actual photo taking was a dream due to the skill, generosity and kindness of Emma Byrnes from Heartland Projects. We had such a great day, full of ideas and joy, and she had me totally comfortable. I'll show you some of her photos as soon as they get published. Emma's photos are totally stunning and some photos even have heads. You can find her gorgeous instagram feed here. 

Your stories always make me happy so to celebrate with me, tell me what is the thing/s that you are avoiding using. Or if you used it, how did you get there. 

Felicia x

Hamstrung by choice

Quilts are doing my head in a little. I've developed a big love since getting over my issues. And the ongoing pinning I'm doing on pinterest has me dreaming of oh-so-many ideas and plans and designs. 

And then there is reality. Reality means that I only get to make a few quilts in my life. I'm not a quilter by trade which means I'm really only making them for me and my peeps. The reason I'm making them is because I want to use the quilts, and so I know that at the absolute most I can probably make three bed quilts for me (without feeling excessive). More than three will just take up cupboard space. So if that is my limit then the question becomes which three????? Such a big big question.

Now I can hear Claire and Anna talking to me in my head as I write this telling me I am making this into a much bigger thing than it needs to be. And that I could make something and maybe not like it and then give it away. But that is not how my brain naturally thinks. I really want to love what I make and I really want to plan them well. So while I accept what they are saying, I still feel like I should be putting the time into the planning which quilt stage, rather than making things I'm unsure about only to find after all that effort they aren't what I want to live with, year in, year out. 

So what do I want to make?

Well I'm making the dirty linen/denim quilt you can see in the top photo and I am chuffed to bits with how that is going. And then….

I would love to do a lone star (here are two examples). Just for the challenge and because they are traditional and beautiful. I may be able to get away with doing one of these for my daughter as she loves this design. It would scratch the itch and wouldn't be counted as part of the three. Win win methinks.

I would totally love to do a two colour traditional design with a lot of negative space. Something like this or this or this or this. But what? And what colours - blue and white because blue is my first love or should I branch out? Feels like a risky time to be going off piste.

I also have it in my head that I want to make this star into a much bigger design. One with maybe 16 stars on a linen denim background. How pretty would that be? So so pretty. But would I love it in years to come - again there is that pesky and creativity-stifling question about longevity.

I also have a naturally dyed number that involves the most beautiful indigo and madder dyed fabrics. And then and then….so many ideas.

Then there are my kids. They all need single bed quilts, and are being very patient with their waiting, but I know theirs need to go on the list alongside the ones I want to make for me. Which means that mine will have to sit on the back burner for longer than I might hope - so why am I wasting all this brainspace daydreaming about quilt ideas??

When you finally get through the list of ideas, then you have to consider all the time  it would take to hand quilt them. Knitting takes up much of my couch time and so to ask myself to give that up for another passion….well the needles might get a little jealous. It almost feels like cheating with on my one true love - with some smokin' hot babe. Just because she is hot. But I've been with my love for many years… y'know surely that means I could have a free pass? It is all a little unsettling.

Now I realise that this stream of consciousness, that I am allowing to flow straight from my brain into my fingers, is not the most well thought out or the most consciously considered. And I know that Anna and Claire are right and that I am making this into something bigger than it needs to be. But do you ever get stuck on this stuff? The "if I make this then I can't make that so what on earth do I choose" dilemma?? I'd love to hear yours. Or do you feel freedom in the idea of boundless options?

Fel x

PS. This post really validates the message in My Making List 2015 about the freedom that can come with restricted choice….

I Made This - Carolanne Graham

I Made This is a weekly blog series that features makers from around the world and aims to talk about the things we are proud of; of the objects we make that have meaning to us and the journey we take to make them.

So many of you will remember the I Was Totally Wrong About Patchwork series. I've come a long way since then - I've come as far as making my own patchwork queen size quilt after years of whole cloth work. And part of why I've come as far as I've come is because of someone I met on instagram - Carolanne Graham.

Some work from Carolanne's instagram feed. 

I first found her through the feed of Lindsay Stead (who is one of the feature quilters in the patchwork post). Lindsay and Carolanne both work at the amazing Workroom in Canada. Anyway down the instagram wormhole I went and it happily lead me to Carolanne's insta feed. The work in her feed seems to have such intention and the space to become what it wants to become. I've never met her but her work really inspired me. I obsessively made my star as a direct result of seeing the star Lindsay made while taking Carolanne's star class. By obsessively, I mean the kind of making where you feed your kids toast for dinner just so you can keep making the thing. And then give them a Sparkle Story rather than reading them books. Anyway….a long intro to say that because I don't get to meet her in person, and because I don't get to go to one of her classes, I asked her to share something about her making here. And I love what she wrote. Thanks Carolanne. x

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I Made This - Carolanne Graham

I initially described my whole cloth star as “accidentally wonderful” like so many creative endeavors. I never intended to make it as a sample, but I’ve been bringing it to classes for years and I’m delighted to know that this quilt has inspired many dyeing and whole cloth projects. It also makes a guest appearance every year under a tiny Christmas tree on my sewing table.

The cloth was dyed in the summer of 2009 in the workroom’s first natural dyeing class. I tried to stay very busy back then. Having recently finished graduate school I was dreading stagnation and questioning the copious changes I had recently made in my life.

I arrived for class late and unprepared (again). It was indigo week and I had no plan for my shibori. The week before, our instructor Julie Sinden showed us a star that she had made in art school so I told her I wanted a star too – like I had planned it all along. My classmates were tactfully impressed. But I was so disappointed that I hadn’t put thought into my piece. There were no grades to assign yet, when I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted – I had no idea what to do. I had wanted to work with natural dyes for years and when I finally had the chance, I didn’t really show up.  

In the winter of 2011, I had bought my first home since the dye class and homeownership left me feeling perpetually nervous and preoccupied; like I was constantly moving, but never in the right place. I returned home from teaching an intro to handwork class, sat down to work on a project and I realized that I had left my rotary cutter and my scissors at the shop. I tried to salvage the evening by reorganizing my fabric and that’s when I found my star.    

Photo by Karyn Valino.

The decision to make a whole cloth was easy because it was the only sort of sewing I was going to do that night. My star became the sort of project that you start on autopilot; when you need to sew something to get out of your own head.  I marked and basted it quickly and after a few rounds of stitching, this underwhelming, flat piece of pale blue vibrated with life. Though it started in the midst of creative struggle, I added the best part of it when I was too tired to question my instinct.

I made this; out of two circumstances when I was exhausted from trying so hard.  I no longer reproach myself for the shibori pattern. You make for many reasons in your life. There are times when you can’t contain your brilliance and others when it’s been nearly depleted. Taking inspiration doesn’t mean the work isn’t your own. Sometimes what you add is your love and commitment and I promise you – that’s more than enough.