Hi Everyone
With the current climate, international travel and in some circumstances, domestic travel is difficult and wont return to normal for a long time. Which is why a digital stitching retreat is an awesome way of connecting with people from across the country and internationally.
Meeting new people from the comfort of your own home
Pending your personality type, meeting new people can be exciting and fun, nerve-wrecking, curious and cautious or somewhere in-between. Thankfully with the help of technology (and some tech-savvy friends for support if needed), you can join chat groups via social media applications such as Zoom. Where you can choose to have your camera off and microphone on, both feature on or off or any other combination that works for you.
The aim is for you to be able to interact with the other people in a group, whilst stitching on a project and talk (or not, that’s totally up to you!) about whatever you want.
Personal note: I’m an introvert through and through with socially awkward tendencies – especially when I’m in a room with other people I don’t know at all or very well. Being at home and participating in these retreats was really good because I could talk as much or as little as I wanted and silences are okay. Because everyone is busy stitching on their pieces and no one is worried about superficial things and you can keep your hands busy with cross stitch!
Timing is up to you
Participating in international digital retreats can mean that your time zone may be out of balance with the timing for the event. This is where you can make it your own and participate in events and stitching sessions that work for you.
Personal note: Recently I participated in a digital stitching retreat hosted by The Black Needle Society – check out the links at the end of this post for more information – and the timing of the events were based upon Central Time in America. I’m in the Australian Eastern Time zone and that meant I would need to be up at about middnight or 1am through to about midday to 1pm or a little later to immerse myself in the retreat experience.
For my lifestyle, this was not practical, so I made it work for me by participating in the events that I could and it was an amazing experience!
The events and stitching challenges
This is what makes the stitching retreats unique and different. Some stitching retreats are based upon themes such as a television series or a movie franchise. Others may be based upon Halloween, Christmas or specific designer. Each of these retreats will have challenges based upon these themes and the organisers may have prizes connected to those challenges.
For example, one retreat may have a schedule of challenges for specific days and times throughout the retreat, that participants can take part in. The challenges will be specific to the theme of the retreat and there may be a prompt for you to work on a specific project in your collection. This can be a new start or an existing work in progress. Some challenges may have a time limit for you to complete the challenge and the set parameters may put you into the running to win a prize.
Personal note: Recently I participated in The Black Needle Society’s Retreat in a Box called “Autumn in Stars Hollow” that’s based upon the television show “Gilmore Girls”. There was a schedule for when the challenges were going to take place and each challenge was based upon a specific episode from the series. Additionally, each episode took place during the season of Autumn and Gilmore Girls is set in a fictional township of Stars Hollow.
For each challenge, we had an hour to put in as many stiches as we could on a project that related to the theme for a specific episode. For example, the first episode of the Gilmore Girls (aka the trailer) had the theme of laundry day. Therefore, the prompt for our cross stitch project, had to have clothes in it. We were required to take a photo of our piece before the challenge started with the name of the name of the project we were working on and a password we were provided 10 minutes before the challenge started.
At the end of the hour, we counted up the number of stitches we had done during that hour. We had to note down what that number was on the same piece of paper that had the password and name of the project and post the pictures to the social media platforms nominated by the organisers. We earnt points or a number of entries for a lucky dip that was drawn by the organisers of the retreat, and the lucky dip was drawn in the town hall meetings that started 15 minutes after each challenge ended.
Final note
I really enjoyed my first international digital stitching retreat that was hosted by The Black Needle Society. I’m a huge fan of the television series Gilmore Girls and I had heard about this retreat in a box through a flosstube channel called The Steel City Stitchers who are representatives of The Black Needle Society boxes.
In a future post I’ll share with you the pictures of the items in the stitching retreat box. If you can’t wait for that post, check out my flosstube episode #9 on Youtube, where I’m also known as The X Stitching Runner!
Each stitching retreat is different and unique and it’s important that you find one that fits your needs and interests. Below are some links and resources to help get you started and hopefully you’ll find one that works for you!
Links and resources to other stitching retreats:
- Stitching for wellbeing by Fiona Doubleday – a virtual stitching retreat based in USA
- The Black Needle Society – a stitching retreat in a box based upon different themes
- Linen & Threads – this is an Australian based stitching retreat. The link will take you to the page for an even that has already happened. But it will give you an idea of what’s involved with a physical stitching retreat.
The XStitching Runner 