This Carrefour retreat is a personal exploration designed to shift and expand how you design and make. Working entirely by hand, you will use needle, thread, and fabric to build imagery, texture, and depth through slow, deliberate stitching.
This is not your typical appliqué or quilting project. This is a new way of seeing.
You will integrate multiple forms of appliqué—including needle-turn, running stitch, and raw edge—alongside thread painting using improvisational embroidery and big-stitch quilting.
These approaches offer a versatile toolkit for creating layered, expressive surfaces using uncomplicated techniques.
You will learn to observe more closely, make design choices more intentionally, and allow your ideas to evolve more organically. As you move through the techniques, you’ll develop your own visual language while gaining greater confidence in your creative decisions.
By removing modern technology and working only with hand processes, you will reconnect with the fabric itself—its fibers, structures, and possibilities—returning to a more grounded, deeply engaged way of creating.
During the retreat, participants will discover:
- Multiple hand appliqué techniques, including needle-turn, running stitch, and raw edge
- Improvisational embroidery and big-stitch quilting as tools for drawing with thread
- A new way of seeing — building imagery through observation and intentional design choices
- How to develop your own visual language and trust your creative instincts
- The grounded, deeply engaged pace of working entirely by hand
- The many possibilities for applying these techniques to quilts and other textile projects.
