It is a labour of love for Mrs Rowe, convener of the Mornington Presbyterian Church's second and, she insists, last antique vintage and embroidered linen fair to be held on Saturday.
There will be more than 2000 items for sale, with prices ranging from 20c to about $90.
Among the more unusual items are a duchesse set embroidered by the late husband of a congregation member, an embroidered egg warmer, a linen and crochet cloth to line a sandwich tray and several pieces of the rare craft of tatting.
More than 150 supper cloths will be on offer, no two the same, along with many embroidered pillow cases, and five pieces of Irish linen double damask.
Garments include embroidered flourbag aprons which are thought to be about 80 years old, vintage silk lingerie, 1960s night-gowns, hats and gloves.
The church's previous linen fair, held in 2005, raised nearly $10,000 for the new community centre in Maryhill Tce.
On that occasion, bargain hunters snapped up almost 16 suitcases of linen, leaving only a "very small" half-suitcase full.
After that Mrs Rowe said "never again", but nobody took her seriously and beautiful items of linen started trickling in. For a while, she had the idea that a rich North Island dealer might take everything off her hands, but as more and more material arrived she thought " why should a North Islander benefit from all of the generosity of our folk?"
Most of the linen was given because the giver wanted to know it would be valued and hopefully used again - "a treasured piece finding a treasured new home".
So, with her team Frances Barkman, Ruth Hay and the late Huia McDonald and unofficial team member, daughter Lee Rowe, organising for the new fair began.
Mrs Rowe said she knew little about linen before she began the work, but the late Mrs McDonald who was a highly regarded embroiderer and whose presence is still keenly missed by the team, taught her much. Now she can talk with confidence about such items as chicken scratch (embroidery done on gingham and sometimes called Amish embroidery).
One of the treasures of the fair is a cutwork and embroidery piece, a technique with a high degree of difficulty and requiring excellent eyesight, completed by Mrs McDonald shortly before she died last year.
The women find it hard to estimate how many hours they have devoted to the fair preparation. Often pieces had to be restored and Mesdames Barkman and Hay have done much of that work, sewing and crocheting as required.
Whipping up 80 decorated and unique lavender bags because "somebody from Methven gave Huia some lavender" has been another task for team members.
Mrs Barkman has also found time to produce other items for the fair including three puff-quilted cot covers, each with 96 hand sewn puffed squares.
While Mrs Rowe is no craftswoman herself, she has great admiration for women who spent hours and hours making exquisite items, often in poor light.
Some pieces would take a year to complete.
Those items which could not be restored "even after our best efforts"are relegated to the "rummage table", Mrs Rowe said but daughter Lee said her mother's idea of rummage was as good as some second-hand shops' "top stuff".