Simply KT Retreat
Making cushions at a craft retreat.
I have just spent the last two days at the Simply KT Retreat, which is a crafting retreat in Uralla, NSW, Australia to raise money for Ronald McDonald House in Tamworth.
The retreat has been run by a family friend every year, except 2020 due to COVID. This was the first time I was invited so I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I started sewing as an 8 month pregnant soon to be single mother watching Gilmore Girls, I decided I wanted to be Lorelai Gilmore. Which of course meant learning to sew so I could make my daughters clothes. I tried a maternity pillow which didn't quite work, then a cute little dress and finally a cute little sloth cushion which came out so great I knew I needed to make more.
So before we headed to the retreat Friday afternoon, I went to my local craft store and spent way too much money on some gorgeous fabrics. I packed my sewing machine, fabric, scissors and a few other bits and pieces, ready to get stuck in.
The retreat started Friday morning and we showed up that afternoon. We were set up in a local hall with groups of six tables put together for social distancing, really it just gave us more room to spread out and make a mess. I brought my sewing machine and my mum brought her knitting, but there were people making cards, scrapbooking, quilting and more.
Once we got there we got set up and spent the next four hours crafting and chatting we didn’t go home till about 11 pm, others had been there since 7 am and were still going when we left.
It was a great opportunity to get some constructive criticism as well as discuss setting up and promoting a craft business. We talked about social media and the pros and cons of Tiktok. Despite all of the chatting, I finished the night with a completed cushion, which I got a lot of compliments on.
The second day we got there at 11 am and it was an action-packed day. We brought my daughter and I chases her around while checking out all the other projects and learning a few tricks of the quilting trade. Once the little one went to the grandad's for babysitting, we got stuck into making some more cushions. Until we got distracted by smoke coming out of someone else’s sewing machine. Which was taken outside straight away in case it caught fire.
Not long after another family friend came over to show us his free stitched quilted shamrock, just as I was finishing up the cording on the second pillow. His quilt looked amazing and he was impressed by my cording. Which was a bit of a feather in my metaphorical cap.
After doing more sewing in one day than I've ever done in my life, I decided to take a little break and update my socials.
Updated Facebook (www.facebook.com/rosielousplace/), Updated Instagram (www.instagram.com/rosielousplace/), Set Up Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com.au/rosielousplace/_created/).
Then we went out, organised dinner and got back into crafting.
After a while, we started making mistakes, my mum had frogged her knitting 7 or 8 times and I had made my cording too short, so we decided it was time to go home.
While the party carried on late into the night and started up again this morning, we decided to stay home today as we have a long drive home.
Its almost a week later and I have now finally finished the last pillow I'd started during the retreat which is all ready to photograph and put on our website!
We had a great time with a lot of great people and learned a lot. It was such a great experience and I'm already excited for next year!
If you want to keep up with what I'm sewing or you want to buy one of the above cushions, please visit our website and socials:
Website - www.rosielousplace.com
Facebook - www.facebook.com/rosielousplace/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/rosielousplace/
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com.au/rosielousplace/_created/
About the Creator
Keep reading
More stories from writers in Humans and other communities.
Red Shelves
Death is a black hole. Think about it. A black hole is the corpse of a star, something once warm and bright, now come to the end of its life cycle. But some will argue that the cycle of life does not end with death. That death is merely another path we must walk once our bodies expire and our souls ascend. In that moment, when the fuel in the star’s chemical tank hits empty and the shiny matte coat explodes into supernova, the mass left behind – the corpse – becomes a black hole. We understand that, around such a vast cadaver, dimensions work a little differently in death to the way we’re used to in life. For example, light cannot escape the pull of a black hole when it hits the point of no return. That’s where it gets its colour. Space itself is contorted by a black hole. That’s where it gets its funny shape. Even time. Time slows right down the closer you get to it. The closer you get to a black hole. The closer you get to death.
By Matthew Curtis5 days ago in Humans
Do You Know You're Wrong
The trickiest part of a relationship is navigating all the moral questions. As if emotions don’t muck up the waters enough, you have to figure out the dos and don’ts when you’re in a relationship. What’s bad and what’s good is always one landmine away from ending up in a confrontation with your partner.
By Jason Ray Morton a day ago in Humans
$#*£ Resilience
I was going to relax this evening. Tune out, hunker down, look after myself. I need it. I am exhausted. Thoroughly used up. And it's only Wednesday. Not even half way through the week. A week that in the UK, is Mental Health Awareness week. I don't know who decides these things, who gets to co-opt a day, a week, a month, and declare it a thing about a thing. But I do know a lot about mental health. I know a lot about mental health AND I know a lot about working for the UK's National Health Service. And so it was with interest that I clicked play on the below video, earlier today. By the time I finished, I was in tears.
By Hannah Moore4 days ago in Psyche
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.