Scrub Stitching 2025

It's hard to believe that this time last week I was busy sewing away at Scrub Stitching; and spending my time chatting to and enjoying the company of 31 other like minded ladies.

I arrived home late on Thursday night and spent yesterday washing and sorting. Mostly I put my 'sewing' suitcase aside and I thought that today as I unpack it, I would make sure I had photos etc, and write this blogpost at the same time.

But, before I get any further, I'd just like to say I had a FABULOUS time in Australia!!! 

Kiwikid Sue and I were at Baradine for retreat for four nights and spent 4 nights getting there and 4 nights leaving there. Sue is all up to date with her posts but I, of course, am not😔.

I didn't take many photos of the surroundings this time. I guess, as a fourth time attendee, some of the sights are now not quite as novel - I'm one of those old hands!

Scrub Stitching is at Camp Cypress in the Baradine Showgrounds in rural NSW. There are cabins, the large (work) room, kitchen and different amenities and all the sorts of buildings you find in a showground. For example we had the opportunity to book a massage - which was held in the wool sorting building, I understand! (The massage was wonderful!!)

 We didn't spend as much time outside this time as there had been recent rain meaning an abundance of veracious mossies!

The view from the ironing board - not bad —

You'll see in the top photo that we all received goodie bags - a treat we always look forward to.

And here are the contents.

Sharmayne made the lip balm, Brenda made the coconut ice and Jo made the grippy pads. We always look forward to the cup and this year's one was a real beauty.

We weren't allowed to open our paper bag (kit) until Jo arrived.....We each received a charm pack, a FQ, thread and needles. 

A bit puzzling until Jo explained and showed us the bag she had made Kawandi style.

And then she did a demo —

(Kawandi is an African-Indian method of 'quiltmaking' that involves stitching down layers of fabric; working from the outside towards the centre. All the fabric has turned under edges, differing to the Japanese Boro which tends to have the raw edges exposed. And there's obviously more to it than that too!)

By the end of the weekend Kate had completed hers, and was contemplating what to turn it into. I was pleased to see her version as I had been given the same charm pack.

In this photo she has nearly finished —

Anyway, what did I get up to? I took numerous projects and worked a little on them all except for one which didn't even make it out of my suitcase.

In retrospect I feel like I didn't achieve that much but I made sure I took pre-cut projects this year to help me get ahead.

First up, I pulled out my Bears Paw quilt. This has been on my to-do list for such a long time (I was shocked just now to see that I was working on it back in 2016!!!).

All that has needed doing has been the outer border...sounds easy huh? 

Making a start. Sewing the 1 inch squares on —

— and forming a paw —

— forming a strip —

— I made 21 out of the 33 needed for one  side!!!

Even though a lot of the sewing of these blocks is done in long strips and cross-cut to form small units, I decided I could only work on these for a limited period of time so switched projects.

Next up was a project that deserves a full post on its own.

And then I worked on a jellyroll quilt; again pre-cut and prepped —

I seemed to spend a reasonable sized chunk of time on it but still only made a couple of blocks.

One block doesn't look very impressive —

Nor do two!

But I know that as I make more blocks that it will make more sense (see photo of pattern)!! Each block is 22" so I only need 9 for a lap sized quilt.

A big thank you to Chooky for lending me her spare machine for the weekend.

There will be more sharing soon 😊

'til next time,

happy stitches,

Raewyn