De Vere Hotel Oxford

Set in a beautiful location just outside Oxford, I spent the past weekend at the Sewcial Retreat organised by Purple Stitches. It was completely fabulous! I got to spend time with quilty friends, as well as meeting lots of inspiring new people and they were all sewing gorgeous projects! I really enjoy seeing works in progress and there were recommendations for various sewing patterns, so more projects have been added to my 'to sew' list.

Trudi Wood and I were teaching at the retreat. I taught my new English Paper Pieced pattern - the Cube Row Quilt, which will be available to buy soon. I had really nice feedback from the group and I'm looking forward to seeing people create it!

teaching english paper piecing class

There was a fabulous trunk show by Trudi, with so many of her gorgeous quilts, interesting stories and tales of lessons learnt!  




There were also a few quilts for Siblings Together - lovely Nicky Eglinton is organising a quilt drive, you can find more information on her blog.


Here's a fun selfie of some of the retreat goers taken by Samantha with her selfie stick!

Sewcial Retreat 2018

There was a generous goodie bag full of awesome. Thanks to Purple Stitches, Aurifil, Sewing Patterns by Mrs H, Anbo Textiles LtdEQS, The Crafty Nomad, Love Patchwork & Quilting, Quilt Now and Sew Now

quilt retreat goodie bag

I got to meet lovely Helen Steele who creates gorgeous hand screen printed panels. I love her designs and the amazing colour combinations. I've actually already cut some of these up because they are going in my current project!

Helen Steele hand screen printed panels of fabric

And with a Purple Stitches pop up shop how could I not indulge?! Especially when I saw that Kona Panel, it is just gorgeous. I also got a couple of Carolyn Friedlander prints - Check It in Graphite, Euclid and Letter in Black, Architextures. This seam ripper has been on my wish list for a while now because I think the thread removers on the end could be very useful!

Kona color panel Carolyn Friedlander Euclid and Architextures fabric

Thank you to Viv for organising and running such a wonderful retreat! I left feeling totally relaxed and completely full of ideas, I am so motivated right now. Spending time with so many lovely quilting people has refreshed me and I wish we could do it every weekend!

Do check out the Purple Stitches shop for beautiful fabric, useful notions and more and watch out for the next retreat!