Marsye,
You and your pictures have made me laugh so many times that I would never even say a cross word to you. EVER!!
I have a group of friends and every February we all go to a big condo together. Everyone that goes pays their share of the cost of the condo.
Everyone brings food to make dinner one night. If you cook someone else will help you and then others clean up! Always good food to be had.
We all bring our machines, our fabric, and whatever else we think we might want to have. I generally try to precut my quilt so that I'm ready to sew.
Once everyone is there, we set everything up and sew as late as we want. We're limited on the number of people who can go by the number of beds/bedrooms we have. If you want to go to bed.. go.. if you want to sew until midnight.. that's okay too.
Some time, when we need a break we all load up and go browse the LQS in the area. This year it turned into a mini shop-hop.. but we had a great time and came back with some great fabric finds. Some years we go out once, other years we have gone several times. If you want to go, great.. if you want to stay and sew.. that's fine too.
We have the best time.. We laugh, we eat, we help each other, we sew, we laugh some more, we confide, sometimes we even vent.. But at the end of the week we have a quilt made (at least I do) and we are pretty much ready to head back home for another year.
We've done this for perhaps 5 years.. I think the secret of a successful retreat is having our rooms to go to when we want, and having the work shared.. We're all good friends and love this special time.
I hope you'll go one one soon.. If you don't go until next February, perhaps I can get the gals to invite you too! I may not get my quilt done though, I'd be rolling on the floor laughing all the time!