Welcome to Creative Crossroads, where creators share their stories and processes. Each episode features conversations with artists, designers, and makers about their work, inspiration, and creative journey.
Join us to explore how ideas come to life and learn from creators who are shaping their fields. Creative Crossroads: Where makers meet, and ideas grow.
We are thrilled to announce their first-ever 'Remix and Stitch Lab,' a five-day creativity retreat from September 3-7, 2025, at Sunset Retreat Center in Sunset, Texas. This picturesque location offers a perfect escape with luxurious accommodations, accommodating meals, and vast workspaces. Attendees will enjoy a variety of workshops led by inspiring artists, including mixed media sessions with Dory Patrick and improv comedy exercises from McKinney's Comedy Arena. Both Ellen and Catherine will also host their own creative sessions, with Ellen leading an improv quilting workshop and Catherine teaching block printing and mixed media artist trading cards. All-inclusive at $999, the retreat promises to be a enriching, laugh-filled experience for up to 25 participants. Register soon!
00:00 Welcome to Creative Crossroads
00:09 Announcing Remix and Stitch Lab Retreat
00:32 Details About Sunset Retreat Center
01:51 Accommodations and Amenities
04:07 Special Guest: Dory Patrick
05:14 Creative Mischief Workshop
07:09 Additional Workshops and Activities
08:32 Registration and Costs
09:47 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
Thanks for joining us at Creative Crossroads! Keep creating and we'll see you again soon!
Ellyn:
Hello. Welcome back to Creative Crossroads. I'm Ellen.
Catherine:
And I'm Catherine, and today we have a very exciting announcement. We want to invite you to join us for our very first mod Maker Creative Escape.
Ellyn:
That's right. Catherine and I are hosting Remix and Stitch Lab, a five day retreat for all kinds of creatives to gather and grow together. Are you ready to learn more?
Catherine:
We are so excited. So just the basic details to begin with. Remix and Stitch Lab is going to take place from September 3rd to September 7th, 2025 at Sunset Retreat Center in Sunset, Texas. It's just a little northwest of the DFW area.
Ellyn:
Let's tell them more about Sunset, Catherine.'cause we really love this place.
Catherine:
Okay, so I think this is just, we are so excited about this location for retreat first. We are in the country like you are going to be on a ranch and it is beautiful and there are trees and it's green and it's lush and it's gorgeous. I don't make guarantees about green in September in Texas, but it can be green and lush, but it's beautiful. And so you're out of the city, you're out of life, and it's just the retreat center is designed for retreating, which is the best, so we
Ellyn:
great, isn't it?
Catherine:
Gigantic workspace. You'll have two tables each to work on. The workspace is humongous. What else do should we tell them about it?
Ellyn:
Well, the meals are great. Um, when we've been there, meals have been terrific and I have dietary restrictions and they have accommodated me. And I didn't just have to eat a chicken breast and a pile of rice. They, they fixed me what everyone else had, but accommodating my restrictions. So if you have gluten issues, dairy issues, whatever, you know. They can accommodate that. There's a big room for meals separate from the workspace where we can all gather and get to know each other and visit, and the rooms are, are lovely. They're like hotel rooms. Um, each room has three or four beds and a bathroom, full bath for each room. It's just a, a perfect retreat center. Perfect place to get away.
Catherine:
Yeah, and like you said, the rooms do have three to five beds in them each. We are planning that, like hopefully you'll come with a friend and you can share a room with a friend, but if not, don't worry because you can make friends and that's a great way to make friends. Um, everybody has a twin sized bed. Um. And they're, they're comfy beds, so don't worry about that. And they also supply earplugs, so don't worry if you happen to make a little bit of noise when you sleep at night.
Ellyn:
Well, who does that? I don't know what you're talking about.
Catherine:
I don't know anyone who does that.
Ellyn:
Full disclosure, Catherine and I have room together on many retreats, so,
Catherine:
we have.
Ellyn:
so, and we'll be there to help you with whatever I. Whatever issues you come across, the, the folks who run this retreat center have been so pleasant and accommodating and wonderful and we're just, they're excited to have us there and we're excited to go.
Catherine:
Yeah, and I'm just really excited because it is a place that's designed for making and creating, and so there's design boards. There are. There's giant cutting tables, big ironing spaces. All the electrical is set up to like manage the load that we're gonna put on it. Um, it has great air conditioning and quilt shop on site, so even better.
Ellyn:
That's awesome too. That's awesome too. It's, and it's very reachable from both DFW and Love Field in Dallas. The two airports, it's, it's an hour to an hour and a half, but when it gets closer, we'll try to coordinate groups riding out together and. We'll figure all that out, but it's, it's very approachable and reachable.
Catherine:
It's, I mean, it's, it's a drive, but it's a pretty straightforward drive. So it's, it's, and it's a pretty drive for the
Ellyn:
It is pretty. Should we tell'em who's coming with us?
Catherine:
Uh, why don't you tell them?
Ellyn:
Well, we are very excited that we've invited and she's accepted. Dory Patrick Mixed Media artist to join us at the retreat. If you haven't heard our, our podcast episode where we interviewed Dory, you'll wanna go back and listen to that. She just brings sunshine wherever she goes. She is a bundle of joy and is going to lead some mixed media re mixed media. Um. She is going to lead some mixed media workshops for us and teach us some new tricks, and she is all about everyone doing their own thing and, and learning together. So we are so thrilled that Dory's going to be there with us.
Catherine:
Yeah, I think she's gonna bring some excellent energy. To the, to the retreat. And you know, our focus of this retreat is to really help you and to inspire us as well, to, to find our creative voice and to really have an opportunity for creative people to gather and to really just like develop our creativity skills more. And so that leads me to the next thing that we have is we have a creative mischief workshop. And if that doesn't sound fun to you.
Ellyn:
It sounds fun to me.
Catherine:
on. So one of the things as we talked about like creativity and how to encourage like creative thinking and just help us move out of our boxes. I've taken a lot of improv comedy classes at the comedy arena in McKinney, Texas, and so we've invited one of their teachers to come out and to do like a just a couple hour workshop with everybody at the retreat where we're gonna do some improv comedy type exercises to really help us start to shift our mindset and how we're thinking about. Being creative and responding to things in our environment. And one of the big principles of improv comedy is that you say yes and, and so you take something and you build on it. And so we wanna, we wanna set the tone of the retreat to be this yes. And idea of like, yeah, I'm gonna take that and we're gonna just build on it and do more. So we're gonna set the tone at the beginning of the retreat with that creative mischief
Ellyn:
I think that's so exciting and that's gonna give us an opportunity to like break the ice and loosen up and get to know each other in a, in a new environment. I think that'll be so much fun.
Catherine:
Yeah, and I can like, I think for me, when I started comedy, I was really. Intimidated by it. Like, what if I'm wrong? What if I do it? And I think the best part about improv is that you really don't do it wrong. It's just about responding to other people. And I will say that these classes are fun. Like I think you're gonna have a lot of fun. We're gonna giggle, we're gonna laugh, we're gonna look silly and ridiculous. But that's the best part of it, is that it really helps us to just embrace the fun and silly that comes in everyday life.
Ellyn:
I think it's awesome, and then we can carry that into the rest of the retreat and use what we, we've learned and what we've unleashed,
Catherine:
Yeah.
Ellyn:
in, in new ways. Uh, I'm gonna lead a couple of mornings, a, uh, quilting, improv. Workshop and we're gonna build improv flower gardens. So that's something new for me and for all of you. And I think it'll be great fun to implement what we've learned and then carry it over to the mixed media. And then what are you gonna teach Katherine?
Catherine:
Yeah, so I'm gonna teach, um, we're gonna do a workshop on block printing, and then we're also gonna do one on mixed media artist trading cards. And we're gonna have some fun with both of those. Um.
Ellyn:
So we have lots of different mediums, but it all ties together in exploring creativity, and we'll be able to cross over what we learn and carry it from one thing to the other. All of the workshops will be covered by your retreat fee, so we're not. You don't pay extra for the workshops when you pay, pay for the retreat, it covers everything. And you, you can attend everything. So that'll be really fun. Um, and, and just getting to know other creatives and exploring how we, how we learn differently, how we express ourselves differently and learning from each other will be great. Great fun. Lots of laughter.
Catherine:
I, I'm looking forward to the opportunity. I think one thing that I love about Retreat is the opportunity to be in community with other people, and I'm looking forward to that with this and to meeting all of you who come. It's gonna be really fun.
Ellyn:
So let's tell'em about registration. Um, we'll link you to the website where you can read all of this and review it.
Catherine:
Mm-hmm. And we, the cost for the retreat is gonna be$999. It is. We can break it into a four payments, um, that are due across four months to make that work within budgets a little bit better. One of the, like, this is an all inclusive retreat, so it includes the accommodations, it includes the meals, it includes the workshops,
Ellyn:
Your workspace,
Catherine:
your workspace, everything's included. There will be some supplies that are personal to each person. We want you to be able to, you know, have the paint colors you want and have the fabric you want, things like that. So those things, we will send out supply lists closer to the retreat so that you can, um, you get things to personalize for yourself. But our, our goal is that, that this retreat is going to be. Fun and delightful and just a way to laugh and have fun and get away from everyday life and really have some time to focus on you and your creative soul and just like feed it for a while. I.
Ellyn:
So if you have more questions, you can, you can email us at mod Maker zone@gmail.com. You can DM us on Instagram. We're at mod Maker zone on Instagram. You can. Reach out to Catherine or to me and we'll do our very best to answer your questions, but we want this to be easy for you. All you have to do is get yourself here to Texas and we'll take care of the rest. So I hope you'll hope you'll plan to be there.
Catherine:
I hope you will be too. You will wanna register quickly because attendance is capped at 25. Um, we wanna make sure that it's a, it's an environment where we can get to know each other. It's not too big, so we will cap it at that point, but we hope you'll join us. It's gonna be so much fun.
Ellyn:
It is gonna be fun. So I think that's it for today. We're so happy you tuned in and tell all your friends and hope to see you signing up soon.
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