Well I just got back from mine & just recovered! How long is your retreat? Remember when you were a little girl & you had sleep overs? Well a retreat is just like this but for us 'grown' women! We take food & snacks, lots of them. We take "drag & brag" which is our show & tell of projects we have done. I take my camera, a tv tray that is big enough to hold my June Taylor pressing board w/my cutting mat on the other side, my iron, my light, my sewing machine, scissors, rulers (more than what you need!), masking tape, rotary cutter, pencils for marking projects, we take prizes for bingo, my own quilt & pillow to sleep with, & my retreat goes from Mon-Sun but I only go Wed-Sun so I usually take 3 projects to work on. Something simple since there will be a lot of talking & having fun. I also take my chair that I sit in so it will be comfortable to sew, any & all gadgets you can't do without while you sew....& caffene, caffene, caffene! We have ladies that stay up until 3-4 a.m. sewing but I can't do it anymore! I made it until 11:30 & call it quits. I tried attaching a photo to show you the actual quilting area but it's not in the right format. I have attached a picture of a friend, Sandy, showing her quilt & you can see all the quilts that have already been finished. We call them "Tahhhh Dahhhh's" & we get a drum roll as we go up the cat walk to display them! You are going to have so much fun. Let me know more when you get back! If I think of anything else I will post it. I will try to post a pic to show you what the sewing area looks like! It really looks like a bomb went off with all the supplies everyone brings! It also helps if you have your projects cut out & ready to sew too. You feel like you've gotten so much more done if you get there & start sewing right after set up.