Scrub Stitchin 2025 - The Final Post

Chooky; Raewyn; Janice; Myself; Lou; Jenny; Sue 

When a retreat starts on the Wednesday just after lunch and continues on until the Sunday morning,

then you have to expect doing 1 single post about it is just not practical!  I'm hoping I've managed to split it up into sections that you've been able to enjoy - or perhaps skip over if it's "not your thing".  For myself, I enjoy every moment of it - from the time Christine arrives at our place to spend the night prior to us leaving on our road trip - right up until we return and I sadly have to wave goodbye to her.  It's such a joy to get to meet other bloggers - some I've been blogging with for many years (14 yrs) and others I've recently met.  This year I got to meet Lou from NZ and we may or may not be plotting a sew along for next year lol 

Working on a WIP from a couple years ago

I did work on other projects whilst there.......

Playing with colours for surprise gift.  I also started work on some crossstitch - that Temperature Tree that a few others are doing this year, only I plan to work on the trunk and a branch this year ready to begin the leaves next year!

Our group photo, which was very difficult to get anything decent given the sun was very bright and right in front of us where they were standing to take the photo ..... 32 of us this year

And the bloggers:

Front row left to right: Janice, Maureen, Christine, Sharm, Jo

2nd row: Lynda, Kate, Jenny, Lou,
3rd row:  Annette; Lianne, Sue

Back row: Betty, Chooky and Raewyn

Sunday morning we said our farewells with a stop in Dubbo for a bite of lunch before heading to Parkes for our overnight stop.

After the long drive along many country roads we made it back to Corowa where Christine was spending the night at our place before heading back to Melbourne

We managed to get an early morning walk in with Miss Lucy and friend Deb with Bella

Then a quick breakfast and cuppa before her last leg home to Melbourne!  Missing her already lol  We have soooo much fun when on our trip.  See you again soon Christine

Scrub Stitchin 2025 - Part 2 "The Coat"

 

Raewyn and I in front of one of the Quilts for Macqarie House

Months of planning go into making Scrub Stitchin what it is - and part of that is everyone having the fun of working out what projects to take to work on.  For one thing Raewyn came up with the idea of us each making a couple of blocks to take to Scrub Stitchin to put together to make a quilt for Macqarie House in Dubbo where families can stay while loved ones are in hospital.  

As it turned out we managed to get enough blocks made up to make 2 quilts .... These are the 2 blocks I made to take up but more were made while we were there.

For Christine and I, we had decided we would take the opportunity to work together to make the feltcoats for the Rabbits whilst up at SS.  The pattern comes from the Luna Lapin book which is also where the pattern for the Rabbit ( my Tilly) comes from.  As it turns out, we were very pleased we had waited to do it together as it took us 2 days to work on these VERY detailed little coats!!

Thanks to all the girls who were there cheering us on and helping to keep us going during the process - thankfully we were very happy with the outcomes but we both agree - there is not likely to be another coat made lol!

Scrub Stitchin 2025 - Sat Night "Winter Wonderland"

This years theme was Winter Wonderland and after much discussion over the past couple of months

Christine and I came up with the idea of Penguins on Parade - P1 and P2 to be exact ..... which got quite a few chuckles!

We had to make our way to the hall from Cabin 4 in our Rubber Gloved feet ..... no wonder penguins waddle lol 

The hall was decorated beautifully and there were some wonderful costumes - we all had such fun ... Here are but a few of them.....

And then after a lovely dinner it was time for the gifts ..... we all take a gift (bake it, fake it, make it) to share - numbers are pulled out and this is what I was lucky enough to bring home ..... the container is already in use with the secret project.  What a fun night!

Scrub Stitchin - Part 3 " Show and Tell"

It's always so inspirational and fun to be there for show and tell to see what others have been making - even though we often see the projects on each others blogs, seeing them in person is truly worth the effort of bringing things along!  So settle back with a cuppa ..... its time for show and tell and this year Tilly and Rosie made sure they were up and front so as not to miss a thing!

This is just a selection of some of the fabulous quilts and projects that were shown .......  First off  all of us who had finished last years project (from our show bags last year) lined up with our sewing rolls 

I think this was one of my favourites and I'm keen to do one of these in the future .....

The Travel Quilt I managed to finish before leaving for retreat

And that's where I'm going to leave you peeps for this post ........

Scrub Stitchin 2025 - Part 1

Christine & I at our Dubbo stopover

I can't begin to tell you what a Fun and Relaxing time I had right from the very time that Christine arrived from Melbourne to stay here overnight in Corowa.  We left early the next morning to begin Part 1 of our trek from Corowa to Dubbo ..... a slightly different trek from last year to add a bit of variety... 

Everything was packed into the car along with Tilly, Rosie and Hector who got to ride in the backseat

First stop was Cootamundra ( 3hrs)where the owner had organised to open the shop especially for us!

Then it was on to Young where we checked out the wool shop, dropped into another sewing place and picked up another Dilly Court book each from one of the opp shops to add to our collections. We parked across the road from this old Flour Mill which appears to be still be running

Burning off paddocks meant a bit of smoke just outside Grenfell ..... it was nice to go through the town as that was my Grandmothers maiden name.  I was surprised how big a town it is. 

And of course I needed to get a photo of the Towns Name in honour of my Grandmother who was such a support to us as a young married couple and who also taught me to crochet and budget.

passing through Grenfell 

We had quite the relaxing drive overall for our first day which would be our longest.

After a quick stop in Forbes we pulled into our motel in Dubbo which was right across from the Golf Club where we were able to take a short walk- lots of Kangaroos out since it was getting close to dusk.  It was a lovely relaxing walk at the end of the day.

Day 2 We left Dubbo, stopped in Gilgandra for a

coffee and checked out the few shops before heading to Coonabarabran where we visited both fabric shops.  

 By this time the trio had had enough of the car and ran amok in the patchwork shop before Tilly took some purchases up to the counter - lucky for them Deb was happy to have them visit! 

Tilly browsing the Tilda Fabrics for my upcoming Fusion Quilt I have planned

hmmm.... starting to play up a bit now

Ooooo These are pretty - do we want one of these??

Time to pay for our purchases...

And then the last little bit of driving before we drove into camp at Baradine! 

Time to get our stuff into the cabin and find where our places were in the hall with a lovely gift bag waiting for us.

Checking out our purchases along the way .... yep, just a couple lol and what is in the lovely gift bag behind Tilly?????  

The fabric, thread and needles cam as a kit which when Jo arrived we were given a class on how to make the Kawandi Project. Jo had one to show us which she had made into a project bag with the plastic covering and zip - I'm liking that idea so that's probably what I'll do with mine.

Jo explaining what all the bits of the kit are

And that's where I will leave you with Part 1 from the 2025 Road Trek and Scrub Stitchin ......