A Midwinter Stitching Retreat

Last weekend I spent a few days away with Kath, Wendy and our friends Clare and Rosie on the Kapiti Coast at a holiday house Kath had organised for us. It had been over a year since we'd had our previous stitching retreat so it was well and truly time for us to get away together for a wee stitching break.

We headed off first thing Friday morning and made our way to Masterton where we spent a few hours browsing several quilt, craft and knitting shops and having lunch. Then it was onto Upper Hutt for the next stop to check out Thimbles and Threads, a one stop shop for everything craft related. I was in an absolute awe at all the gorgeous knitting wool - I spent a small fortune on wool there, couldn't help myself. More about my stash purchases later!

Then it was onto the holiday house at Paraparaumu. I've stayed at this house before, and its the perfect spot for a getaway, with the beach only a few minutes away. After a lovely sleep in Saturday morning it was time to get into the day's plan of stitching, chatting and hanging out together. We were joined by Margaret for the day - we'd met Margaret many years ago through a yahoo stitching group so it was truly wonderful to finally meet in person.

I had taken with me a couple of my current projects and made really good progress on all of them. Here's where I'm at with My Needle and Thread, the SAL I'm doing with Clare:


Christmas ABCS, my Sunday SAL with Kath and Clare:

I also started an ornament by Plum Street Sampler, which I managed to finish last night so I'll share a pic of it in my next post.

Now for the new stash! I found these Christmas fat quarters and how could I resist this cute pair of polka dot scissors, lol.

As I mentionned above, the variety of wool at Thimbles and Threads just blew me away, none of our shops here in Hawkes Bay have quite the same range so I decided to go crazy and get what I needed for a few up and coming projects. This is just a selection of what I got!

I don't know what to start first!!

So in all it was pretty fab weekend with my friends - just what I needed, a midwinter mini break, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. After a relaxing time away, it was good to get home late Sunday afternoon to DH and Hannah, they'd had a jolly good time themselves while I was away! Out for dinner twice, and out and about visiting family.

Its a miserable day here so we're enjoying having a chilled out day at home after spending the morning in town at the library and grabbing a bite to eat at one of the local bakeries. I've been a bit under the weather this week, just a head cold which has mostly gone now, so I might go and make a cuppa and then find a comfy chair to sit and knit for a bit.

See you soon :)