
Workshops
Sew & Sew Retreats are purposeful getaways that are aimed at
rescuing you from your everyday routine and whisking you off to an
exceptional location to bask in the happiness you find in creating with textiles.
All levels of experience will enjoy the workshops, from beginners to advanced!

Laura Wasilowski
Nature is an endless source of inspiration – especially on the lush islands of Hawaii!
Workshop - Creating an Hawaiian Landscape in Silk

Relax in the calm of a Hawaiian breeze and discover the joy of working with silk fabrics and hand embroidery. You will create an improvised landscape design with a kit of luscious pre-fused silk fabric scraps for the sky and ground and vibrant hand embroidery threads for embellishment. We’ll take time to shop for a colorful Hawaiian fabric to surround the design, cover the essentials of working with silk fabrics, and learn decorative stitches to enhance your beautiful art quilt.
Note - No Sewing machines will be needed.

Laura Wasilowski is a textile artist creating free-form hand embroideries and improvised art quilts. Working with her hand-dyed fabrics and threads, her pictorial artwork is narrative in nature and whimsical in style expressing her joy and love of making art.
Laura’s art is collected and exhibited internationally and has appeared in multiple publications since her career began in 1992. She is also the author of five books on creating textile art and an online instructor with Creative Spark.
Living in Elgin, Illinois, she tends her garden, cares for her family, and creates small ceramic sculptures when not stitching her colorful fabrics.


Hawaiian Quilting with Poakalani & Co.

We will learn Hawaiian quilting and feel the spirit of Aloha that is found throughout the islands of Hawaii.
For over thirty years Cissy Serrao and Rae Correa have been teaching the traditional art of Hawaiian Quilting by continuing the classes that was founded by their parents John and Althea Poakalani Serrao in 1972. They live by their family’s mission statement, "To preserve, protect and appreciate the cultural legacy of Hawaii’s quilting tradition and to teach it to anyone who wants to learn."
Both sisters are sought after not only for their teaching skills but their knowledge in the history and tradition of this unique art, and they are also recognized for their expertise in all things “Hawaiian Quilting.” By having this opportunity to be part of their class, you’re not only going to learn the techniques of Hawaiian quilting, but you’ll be enveloped in what makes Hawaii unique by experiencing Hawaii’s values system of hospitality and aloha.


Sew & Sew Retreats brings together people with a similar interest and then offers the opportunity to spend memorable moments creating, learning, exploring, relaxing and laughing with like-minded people. I hope you will join us!

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