A Quilting Retreat

For most of the thirteen years I lived in Durham, I was a member of Durham Quilters. We used to go on weekend/week-long retreats at Kielder Water in Northumberland (you can a post about this here). Some of us went each year to the Festival of Quilts and we had occasional trips out, for example to Beamish Open Air Museum (you can see a post about that here). Now I live at the opposite end of the country to Durham, I had been missing my quilting friends. Suddenly an opportunity arose to join them in their quilting retreat at the beautiful retreat house called Shepherd’s Dene in Northumberland. This is how it is described on their website:

Shepherds Dene serves the Dioceses of Durham and Newcastle as diocesan retreat house.

It provides a space to think, a chance to grow and to walk more closely with God. Guests of all denominations and faiths, and those of no faith, are welcome.

The house is an Edwardian country house, built in the Arts and Crafts style, and set in 26 acres of grounds. The estate was given to the Church of England in 1945 to be used as a  retreat house and is within easy of reach of Newcastle, Durham and Carlisle.

It is a most attractive building:

Inside and out, there are many interesting architectural details.

The house is set in beautiful gardens. This is the view from the terrace:

There are secluded outdoor spaces to sit, like this one:

This area with simple wooden benches is dominated by a sculpture carved in wood by by Richard Caink in 2010.

There is a large walled garden and many mature trees surround the house:

In the grounds, there is a grass labyrinth which you can walk in a contemplative way. You can see the pattern in this photo:

We were fortunate enough to have two full days of sunny weather. We could sit and chat, sewing together in a friendly atmosphere that harks back to ‘sewing bees’ of earlier times. On Sunday, late morning, we had a ‘show and tell’ session and could see all the wonderful projects everyone had been working on.

My project? I am working on a large bed-quilt, made using blue and aqua fabrics that once belonged to a friend who was part of Durham Quilters and who died of cancer during the pandemic. I pieced the blocks together and layered up the quilt last week so that I could spend the time at Shepherd’s Dene hand-quilting.

What a privilege to sit and sew and to catch up with quilting friends!

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