Mindful Maine Retreat 2025
Dates: July 18-20th, 2025
Location: Mindful Folk Farm, 290 Morse Rd, New Gloucester, ME 04260
Retreat Cost: $650 USD per student
Capture the magic of high summer during a weekend retreat at Mindful Folk Farm in pastoral midcoast Maine. Immerse yourself in nature with a handful of other passionate crafters ready to slow down and recapture the magic of a carefree childhood, filled with creativity and friendship. You’ll play with new materials and techniques under the guidance of natural dyer, herbalist, farmer and shepherd Hannah Welling, explore mending and solar dyeing with (Maggie Haaland), and lean into the peaceful rewards of slow crafting, watercolor painting and more with Slow Knitting author Hannah Thiessen Howard. Walk away renewed, energized and connected to the land and newly-discovered friends.
Your Itinerary
Arrive Friday afternoon and settle into your lodging or set up camp on Mindful Folk farm, then meet the group for an optional kick-off bonfire and welcoming ceremony, where you’ll receive your class kits and commemorative goodie bags, meet other attendees and get to know your instructors on a personal level.
The next morning, we’ll gather around coffee and tea, begin our day with a restful yoga flow, and then tour the project stations, allowing you to explore natural dyeing, mending, fiber crafts, bookmaking and watercolor painting throughout the day. We’ll break for a farm-fresh lunch and then spend the afternoon in free-flowing session, allowing you to revisit the crafts most intriguing and exciting to you from that morning.
Sunday, we’ll do it again, with a fully free day where you can be guided by your own interests and dive deeper into specific projects you’d like to finish or begin. For lunch, we’ll hop over to a favorite local market to pick up provisions for a picnic lunch at the site of America’s First Fiber Mill. If the weather permits, attendees will have the option to take a break for a dip in our secret swimming hole! Upon return to the farm, we’ll wrap up our projects and close out the evening with a celebration and the option of learning how to make a beautiful flower arrangement with flowers from here on the farm for you to take home with you!
Freedom to explore:
Unlike traditional retreat and event setups, Mindful Maine gives you the option to chase what’s most exciting to you. Spend time in each of the craft sessions offered, or focus entirely on a project that has captured your imagination. This retreat includes several areas of focus for you to explore:
Natural Dyeing
Hannah Welling has made a name for herself providing exquisite farm yarns dyed in an array of stunning natural color! Discover the secret world of plant pigment with a prepped selection of mordanted yarns and fabrics, ready for you to dip into cauldrons of color from foraged and collected botanicals. Each student will receive a set of mini skeins and fabric fat quarters to experiment with, and guidance from Hannah to achieve the best results.
Mending & Solar Printing
Guest instructor Maggie Haaland will once again be joining us this year! From simple stitches to stabilize and secure, to celebrating the art of patching and repairing with embellishments and decorative detail, you’ll be ready and filled with inspiration to take your mending to the next level! In addition, Maggie will also be offering the opportunity to try out solar printing techniques on both fabric and paper, utilizing materials gleaned from around the farm. This is a study on shape, form, light and negative/positive space. Students will be provided with all materials needed! (Please bring clothing or articles you might like to mend!)
Plein Air Watercolor
Before she was a fiber crafter and book author, Hannah Thiessen Howard was a painter, studying Fine Art throughout her most formative years. Students will receive a ready-to-go palette of watercolors made from natural dye sources, brushes and paper in their class kits. Hannah will guide students through watercolor painting techniques and tips, then you’ll be turned loose to capture the scenery of the farm and beyond.
Weaving
New this year! Using beautiful, small handmade wooden looms from our friend Stephen Willette that students will have the opportunity to purchase at the end of the weekend, we will explore the incredible art of weaving! The looms are exquisite, and travel sized, so they can be taken anywhere. Utilizing scraps of fiber, bits of nature, or your newly dyed yarn, you will come away with another highly addictive craft and some memorable keepsakes.
Needle & Fiber Crafts
No retreat would be complete without time spent with fiber, especially a retreat at a fiber farm! Students may bring their own projects to make progress on, or can try their hands at something new: spinning, knitting, crochet, and quilting, using materials available for purchase from Mindful Folk Farm. Crafting time is anytime our attendees need down time, throughout the retreat.
Journal/Book Making
New this year! Join Hannah Welling as she shares how to bind a simple, cloth covered book that you can use as a journal, notebook, sketchpad…whatever you desire! The possibilities are endless! All supplies will be provided, with the opportunity to purchase a kit at the end of the weekend.
Trip Details
Mindful Folk Farm is located in New Gloucester, Maine, approximately 35 minutes from Portland, ME and 45 minutes from Augusta, ME, where our closest airports are located. We will connect attendees in a small chat group prior to arrival, where you can coordinate car rentals if desired.
Lodging & Transportation
How you’d like to stay with us (or visit for the day) is up to you. The farm will have a grassy knoll prepared for on-site tent camping, or you can snuggle up at one of the nearby bed and breakfast or rental options. Lodging on-site (tent camping) is free to attendees; off-site lodging needs to be arranged separately. This year, we are able to provide transportation to and from the Portland, Maine airport! We can also provide an extensive list of accommodations to registrants as well.
Meals
Mindful Folk will provide the following meals to attendees:
Morning coffee and tea bar.
Friday night, bonfire-ready eats like hot dogs and s’mores for our evening celebration.
Saturday lunch on the farm, including homemade egg salad, fresh veggies and more.
Attendees have the option to bring their own food for snacks, or can pick up items at Pineland Farms, a nearby market with a great selection. On Sunday, we’ll also be visiting this same spot for our picnic lunches, which students will choose and purchase on their own.
For those staying in the area and looking for food recommendations, we can certainly provide those upon registration!
Attend the Mindful Maine Retreat
Reserve your spot today–spaces are extremely limited to keep the intimate setting of this retreat and allow attendees the most time with instructors and materials.
Dates: July 18th-20th, 2025
Location: Mindful Folk Farm, 290 Morse Rd, New Gloucester, ME 04260
Retreat Cost: $650 USD per student