NNC Craft Retreat 2015 & NNC 9th Mini Anniversary celebration (Part 4 of 4)

We had just concluded the first ever NNC Craft Retreat held from the 16th to the 17th of October 2015.

Seen here are my cousin-in-laws Zawiyah and Zuraidah at the start of the Retreat with their respective Project kits.

See earlier blog post in 3 parts for more photos.

The Retreat was held in conjunction with NNC’s 9^th Anniversary celebration. It was one of the activities planned under NNC throughout the year.

However, since the 8^th anniversary celebration was also done this year in April instead of the month of October last year, which was the actual month NNC was formed, we did not have time to organize a big one to commemorate this 9^th milestone.

But everyone agreed that we wanted to still celebrate it even in a small way. So, it being a small celebration, there was no exchange of Anniversary Gifts like in previous years. We didn’t have time to get members to prepare one. 

We also couldn’t have the door gifts like we would every year, because we didn’t want to trouble the members to contribute twice in a year to the door gifts.

But food we must have, and Show & Tell, and Lucky Draws!

So Margaret and Paul took up the tasks to organise the Mini Meet, as we call it.

We agreed that the participants of the Retreat who are not NNC members will be our guests at the Mini Meet to appreciate their support for the Retreat.

Initially there supposed to be many who could make it to the Meet, but eventually, as the date grew near, one by one the number of members able to make it dwindled due to prior engagements and conflict of schedule. 

I think having the Meet on a Saturday afternoon instead of a Saturday morning like we always do also had an impact on the number of members who could join us. 

Traffic would be bad on Saturday lunch hour. Some just didn't want to go through the terrible Saturday jams going onto the highways.

Understandable. I go through the traffic jams daily! LOL!

Some prefer to take afternoon naps on Saturdays! LOL! But mostly, members had family commitments which they could not get away with to join the Retreat.

Eventually, other than the NNC members who were Retreat participants, only Mel and Zarina could join us, and of course, our Honorary member, Jackie.

We started the Mini Meet with Show & Tell where each member gets a chance to show off their current projects or projects in progress.

I think the Show & Tell this time around is more organised as each and every member was given time to speak individually while others listened instead of the usual oohs and aahs that we would all do at the same time when everyone starts laying out their works, ending up with no one actually listening to what is being said because it starts getting too noisy as everyone tries to speak at the same time! LOL!

I just love all the works showcased by Sally. She has been very hardworking and productive!

She has a new product in her origami line, but I forgot what it is called. Hydrangea flowers, I think.

Next was Margaret who brought all her lovely cross stitch pieces to show us. She has never shown these pieces to us before, so we were in awe of all the pieces shown. I just love her Mailarts. I use to make them too many moons ago!

Next, Radha showed us all her lovely cross stitch pieces. I just love her needle roll! I have not seen one of those in a long time! Radha even told us the history behind the reasons for the existence of the Needle Roll!  

Radha, our Biscornu Queen, of course, also brought along her many biscornu to show us!

Zarina showcased her lovely puff baby quilt which she is doing for a customer. I love the motifs of the fabric, and the orange made the quilt stand out!

Initially I think Suseela was shy to show off her lovely work, but when she saw how proud we were at showing off our work, she decided to show off her lovely bag and sewing machine cover which she made herself, complete with a cross stitch piece sewn onto them! 

She also showed us her lovely Bionic bag! I am so going to do the bionic bag! LOL!

I just brought my uncompleted Apple Core Quilt to show off. I have not done much crafting since focussing on the Retreat took all the spare time I had.

I also brought along a document bag which I never got around to completing because I wasn’t sure how to attach the handle to the bag. 

I hope to get to Kelvin one of these days to get Kelvin to show me how to do it.

I brought along my Little Missy because some members have not seen them, or have they? OK, maybe they have, but, like I said, I didn’t have much craft products to show this time around.

After the Show and Tell was over, we moved over to the next table showcasing all the completed projects done over the 2 –Day Retreat (see previous postings).

Finally, before we proceeded to the next agenda, which was eating and chatting, we had a short Lucky Draw for all those who attended.

I prepared 2 prizes – one for the participants of the Retreat and another one for NNC members.

Paul was one of the lucky recipient, while Oyah, my cousin-in-law, bagged the other one of a thread organiser complete with threads.

Congrats, Paul and Oyah! Now you won’t have an excuse of not having threads to sew your projects! LOL! ;)

Finally it was time to eat and chat. Like Idah mentioned in one of her FB postings, we love to eat as much as we love to sew! LOL!

There was food enough to cater to at least 20 people! 

Mel made Salmon Cheese Tarts and Chocolate Strawberry pies! Yum! Zarina brought fruits.

We catered the rest from Paul’s friend of who made vegetarian pot pies, curry puffs and rice bubble fudge.

But the highlight of the celebration was the awesome Anniversary cake made by none other than our very own chef Paul!

The cake was so adorable, and it’s PINK!

The cake was so appropriately themed! It had cute little sewing machine with a length of fabrics underneath the needle with the words “NNC 9^th Anniversary celebration” written on it!

The little buttons scattered all over the cake were all so cute!

I didn’t feel like cutting into it, but eat the cake we must! LOL! 

After that, everyone just sat down and chatted away until it was time to close down the classroom.

It was a simple Mini Meet with only 10 of us, but we enjoyed the Mini meet just the same. 

The usual loads of food was there. So were the happy chats and oohs and aahhs over each work showcased. 

Although it would have been even more fun with more members joining us, but I guess this time, the timing was just not right with so many members already having prior engagements, despite making plans to have the Meet was made and announced at the board much earlier.

I thank everyone who took time to join us for the Mini Meet, including the participants of the Retreat.

Hopefully the 10^th Anniversary will be celebrated at a bigger scale with as many members as possible able to join us!