Friday 02 - Sunday 04 September 2022: Weekend Retreat (Oulton Hall)

Oulton Hall Weekend Craft Retreat - Friday 02 to Sunday 04 September 2022

Featuring Janet Clare, Sarah Payne, Nicholas Ball & Chris English!

Join us next September in the beautiful county of Yorkshire for a truly fabulous weekend of crafting, trunk shows, relaxing spa-time, socialising, wonderful food and FUN!

On this fabulous retreat, not only will you have a re-invigorating, luxury break (the hotel even features a Spa!) away with like-minded 'crafty souls', but you will also work with FOUR of our fantastic CraftyMonkies tutors: Sarah Payne, Janet Clare, Nicholas Ball and Chris English!

Oulton Hall Hotel in West Yorkshire, is located a few miles from the M62 and M1, is approx 25 minutes from Leeds and 8 miles from Wakefield, West Yorkshire. This Weekend Retreat ticket will see you welcomed by us with a drinks reception from 5.00pm on the evening of Friday 2nd September 2022 , have a 9.30am start on Saturday 3rd September and Sunday 4th September to work with each of the four CraftyMonkies tutors for a morning and afternoon session, a two-night stay in a luxurious room within Oulton Hall Hotel - did we also mention you'll also have use of the beautiful Oulton Hall Hotel SPA should you so desire?! - have a three-course dinner on the Saturday night, a cooked breakfast on both Saturday & Sunday morning (lighter options are also available, as are meals for those with special dietary requirements, if needed) and be entertained with a couple of Trunk Shows in between! Lunch & light refreshments (inc Oulton Hall's splendid Afternoon Tea!)  will be served on both days (again, all dietary requirements can be catered for) and you will walk away with some goodies too!

Oulton Hall Hotel fits within our CraftyMonkies Retreat ethos: luxury, quality, attentive service, beautiful views and a stunning environment in which to learn, focus, relax, make friends, enjoy terrific food, (including cake!), and learn new invaluable skills. Did we mention a Spa visit is included in the price? Yes there is, but please note that any treatments guests would like to enjoy are payable in addition to our core course fees and payment for such must be made direct to the hotel. Treatments would also have to be pre-booked directly with the hotel prior to you arriving on the course.

Here's what you will need for your CraftyMonkies Retreat weekend:-

• Your own fabric you would like to sew with (more details to follow but it will simply be from your own stash, no need to buy anything fancy!)

• Sewing machine in good working order – with manual, and standard sewing machine feet. If you are unfamiliar with your machine, please take a few minutes to practice stitching in a straight line. You will need no further skills than that!

• Sewing threads in neutral colours (cream, ecru, greys – bring what you have!) and coloured swing machine threads for embroidery stitches.

• Rotary Cutter (45mm rotary cutter is the best size) and mat (18” x 24 approx so a fat 1Ž4 fits on it easily) – please check that the cutting blade is sharp. I will have some spare bits of equipment, but it means you may have to share!

• Rulers – Easy Rule 2 (long ruler) and any square rulers you have hidden away will be useful.

• General sewing kit (pins, scissors, stitch ripper, etc).

• Optional items – craft iron and ironing mat (so you don’t have to queue!). There is an ironing station planned with domestic irons, so only bring small irons and don’t worry if you don’t have one – it’s not vital.

Below is an overview of what you'll enjoy with each of our wonderful tutors over the weekend - if any of you are new to the idea of investing in a Weekend Retreat, we can assure you that you'll have the most fabulous time! Rachel and all our tutors really are the most warm, engaging of souls and our total focus is on ensuring that you have an experience to remember - trying anything new is always a wee bit scary but don't be put off; jump in - you're going to love it!!!...

Sarah Payne - Saturday 03 September 2022

Hand-Sewing - Stitched Dragonfly

Sarah was one of our original teachers here at CraftyMonkies teaching not only online, but also at the previous retreat held at Oulton Hall! When it comes to learning essential techniques (particularly if you are a beginner) she knows how to hold your hand and teach you lots of tips & tricks along the way. Sarah will be teaching on Saturday and so she has put together a lovely hand-sewing class to give you a break from your sewing machine. As a regular retreat attendee, Sarah is always keen to have a bit of hand sewing to keep her hands occupied before dinner on the Saturday night! Sarah will supply you with one of her own stunning Stitched Dragonfly designs and teach you how to stitch it to create a fabulous panel ready to use in one of your quilts, or as a cushion panel. You will learn an easy way to transfer her design onto your fabric, and then Sarah will guide you through a number of different stitches and embellishment possibilities. Don’t worry if you sometimes struggle to thread a needle – Sarah will have already done that for you too!

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Janet Clare - Saturday 03 September 2022

Appliqué and Free Motion Masterclass. 

Janet has a wonderful way of teaching, encouraging you to let your creativity flow and not be too precious along the way. She is well known for her Appliqué and Free Motion, so why not teach it in person! She has decided to teach appliqué and free motion in your masterclass covering all of her techniques, but also resulting in you making a picture to frame. You can hangthe finished piece on your wall when you get home and always remember the time you spent the weekend away with a wonderful selection of people in a fabulous location!

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​Nicholas Ball - Sunday 04 September 2022

Freehand Curves and Wedges 

Nicholas is one of our most popular teaches, well known throughout the world and his improv classes always sell out within a few days. He is so patient and passionate and now you can experience this for yourself in person!

In this fun and freeing class Nicholas will help you to explore how to create movement and shape using freehand curves and wedges. These simple yet effective techniques are a great addition to your improv tool box, especially the curves, which can be coupled with so many other improv piecing methods. Nicholas will be sharing all his top tips for sewing curved edges without pins or glue basting, giving you great results, quickly and easily! Once you've sewn a few curves, you'll look at some of the many ways they can be used in your improv compositions. The wedge technique will allow you to create dramatic shapes using straight piecing, which can then be pieced together or appliqued onto your project. This is a technique-based class, so you'll be getting lots of practice, which you can then build upon to create truly unique quilts. You'll be exploring the techniques step by step, so even if you've never sewn in an improvised way before, you'll soon be embracing a more liberated way of sewing with confidence!

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Chris English - Sunday 04 September 2022

Improv Strip Piecing 

Anyone who's worked with Chris via our online classes knows he likes to focus on recycling and sustainability. He offers a really laid back approach to teaching; instantly making you feel relaxed and welcome if you have never encountered improv sewing, with lots of laughter along the way! He's so genuinely excited when he helps others create things they never thought they could, this really will be an experience to remember. All he asks is that you bring a shirt and scraps to recycle and he will teach an improv strip piecing crumb block porthole cushion - using the front of the shirt as the cushion fastening with maybe some quilting as well.  That way there’s a finished project for everyone!

Ticketing

For this Oulton Hall Weekend Craft Retreat we are offering two ticket options:-

Single Occupancy

For the all-inclusive price (any Spa treatments are not included) of £595.00, you are guaranteed your own en-suite room within Oulton Hall Hotel.

Shared Occupancy

For the all-inclusive price (any Spa treatments are not included) of £475.00, you are guaranteed a SHARED en-suite room within Oulton Hall Hotel. If you decide on this option, once you have booked your place we will contact you via email to see whether you would like to share with a friend or family member who is also attending the Weekend Retreat or are happy to be placed with one of your fellow attendees who is not previously known to you.

IMPORTANT: Due to the nature of advance bookings & payments needed to secure the tutors, hotel, food and facilities we operate a strict Non-Refund Policy; you are however free to assign another person to take your place on the Retreat, should you be unable to attend for any unforeseen reason. All we ask in that instance is that you give us due advance notice of such an arrangement, should it be necessary.

Paying via Instalments

For those of you wishing to pay in full, simply click on one of the purchase options below to begin.

For those of you interested in paying via THREE monthly instalments, we're not able to do this automatically via the website but it can be arranged wholly securely via PayPal. Please email us via hello@craftymonkies.com if you would like to pay via three monthly instalments.

All being well, we've covered any questions/queries you might have about this exciting Oulton Hall Weekend Craft Retreat but if there is anything else you'd like to know, please don't hesitate to contact us via email: hello@craftymonkies.com