Hi Everyone:
Our quilt group wants to have a retreat this fall. None of us have ever been to a retreat so we don't exactly know what to do to make the 3 days we'll have be fun, productive and something we'll want to repeat on a yearly basis. I've taken the lead on planning the event; finding the facility to house us (a great home on the beach close to shopping outlets, casino, good restaurants and beach combing) but for the "inside" activities which we'll do alot of I'd like some suggestions as well as any other don'ts and do's that you all maybe have experienced and would change or do again. Because several of our group are on limited incomes I thought we'd be doing group meals at the house. I was thinking of a turkey and all the trimmings then we'd have leftovers for snacking. One activity I thought we could work on would be the Socks For Soldiers project that we've been doing every year. Do retreats usually have a project EVERYONE does? We are NOT going to have a celebrity quilter but we have a couple members who are beautiful quilters and who have taught quilting classes so I thought we'd ask them to come up with some project. I also thought I'd get the potholder pattern from our Habitat for Humanity office to make up for the new Habitat homeowners which HForH gives out with each house. HELP! Any suggestions would be so welcome.

Thank you.

At our yearly retreat, we do not have a group project. We all just sew on our UFOs and finish up our own projects. We do play a few games. We borrow a QUILTO game from one of the guilds. It is like BINGO, but with quilting themes. We each take a $10 gift bag for the prizes in this game. We all win one that way. We play that on our last night. A new game we tried this time was a strip game. Sounds strange huh? ha Each person takes 12 2 1/2" strips. We use one die, (dice), and play with 3 strips each, per game. You roll the die and if you roll a 1, 2 or 3, you are safe. If you roll a 4, you put one strip in the pot, (a basket in the center of the table). If you roll a 5, you pass a strip to the person on your right, if you roll a 6, you pass a strip to the perosn on your left. ONLY THE PERSON ROLLING PASSES A STRIP. When you run out of your strips, you are out. The game continues until there are only 2 people left, and the winner gets all of the strips. You can play 4 games with 12 strips. We all took pastel strips this year as it was near Easter.
For food, we each bring a supper dish, and a goodie to share. We might go out to lunch, or out for one dinner. as long as where you stay has a refrigerator, you can take milk or eggs to use for breakfast.
We go back to the same place each year and just relax and sew. I'm sure you will have a great time :!:

Pats8e8: THANK you for the suggestions. I think we will definately use the strip game. I think everyone will like that. I also like the idea of everyone bringing a gift bag. I was going to buy some fat 1/4's as prizes but I like your idea better. I've been working on a Bingo game like the one you wrote about. We've borrowed this game from one of the other quilt groups in town but decided I'd make the game so we'd have it all the time or whenever we need it. Getting excited.

Can you tell me how you handle the costs for the rooms/house? Do you collect all the money when you make the reservations or do you just collect enough to cover the deposits and minimum reservation fee (usually one night's rent) then collect the balance when the entire bill must be paid? Thanks for your assistance.

I have been to several retreats and just love them! Just went to one the first weekend in April. Just this year our Guild had our first and we are planning another in the fall.

We always just carry our own work to do. It is a great time to just sit & sew. No cooking, no cleaning, no telephone, no television and no responsiblities. At some retreats the meals are provided but at our quild
retreat we just had it at a local church fellowship hall and everyone went home at night. We had volunteers bring soup and sandwiches each day. Of course everyone brought snacks so we had plenty of food.

Most of the retreats we just sewed and checked out what everyone else was working on. At one I went to we would take a break and they had
someone do a short demo--one day a purse organizer, one pillowcases and one a sewing caddy.

At each retreat we always carry 4 or 5 fat quaters for bingo prizes. One I went to you purchesed your cards with fat quaters(you could get up to five). I won 45 batik fat quaters.

What ever you do I know it will be great fun and you will get a lot of
sewing done.

Beverly

Great suggestions, Beverly. I'll probably use a few of them. Thanks so much. I like the idea of "buying" the Bingo cards with fat quarters. That would be great fun and something everyone would LOVE to win.

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Can you tell me how you handle the costs for the rooms/house? Do you collect all the money when you make the reservations or do you just collect enough to cover the deposits and minimum reservation fee (usually one night's rent) then collect the balance when the entire bill must be paid? Thanks for your assistance

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Hi again. We have one lady who takes care of the reservations. We each pay her the whole amount in advance. Out here she has to make the reservations by October for our March retreat. We stay from Thursday until Sunday. If we decide to take food along, as in frozen lasagna, etc., that cost is figured into the amount we each pay. Since it is all paid in advance, we have no trouble collecting or handling money once we are there.
Our small group is usually the same 8 ladies each year. We also buy our quilto cards with fat quarters and the fat quarters become the last prize. We have to fill the quilto card for that one.
Hope that helps.

These all sound liek so much fun!!!! I would love to go to a retreat!

Kyia

Can I go too? Pick me up on the way?? :)

I"m going to a Mystery Quilt Weekend in Lancaster, PA in November. Here is the the link. You should come too!

http://www.threadmakers.com/getawaydates.html

Hmmm, it's six-ish hours from here... But I could swing by to visit DD in Philadelphia on the way there or on the way home...

I go to a retreat each spring, in March. It's the highlight of my year, lol. Usually I'm (trying) to make everyone happy as the wife/mom/secretary. But at reatreat, I've only got myself to worry about.

We do a game similar to the strip one described above, but do it with FQ's. Usually, the winner donates them to a group that does quilts for abused children/women.

I highly recommend them for anyone who can go. My dream retreat is at Thunder Bay in Canada.

Hi...how many are going to the retreat?

For our retreats we are told to bring a fat quarter, a star block (or whatever block the coordinator decides on, including colors or fabrics, like batiks, jewel tones, brights etc) and some fabric squares...again size determined ahead of time..

Depending on how many are at the retreat, a certain number of the fat quarters are used a prizes for games and the remainder are used in a drawing and the winner gets all the fat quarters.

The blocks are also used as a prize...but depending on the number of people in the retreat, they are divided up into 12 or 20 or whatever and again used in a drawing. The same with the fabric squares.

All names are in one 'hat' and once drawn they are discarded so that no one person wins more than one 'prize'

I know you can do a search online for quilt games, quilting games, quilt retreat games or whatever and find lots of sites with lots of ideas.

warm quilt hugs, sue

Gee, there are so many possibilites!

I just thought of the Quilts of Valor or any of the other charities that would benefit from your retreat also. Each person could bring patriotic fabrics for making some squares to donate or make them before coming to the retreat. Take the idea and go from there....

But most of all just have fun fun fun.

wqh, sue

Thank you, SUE (Wraez) I have noted your suggestions and we'll see what we come up with. Right now we think 6 ladies FOR SURE are going but we could have as many as 12 or 14. It'll be fun and I can't wait.

We just had our second retreat the end of April. Booked again for October "09" and April "10". The first retreat we didn't plan a lot of
activities. We pay and extra $15.00 and the hotess use that for a really
nice gift for each person. 1st time we got the neatest rollup accessory
bags and this time everyone received two each of the 13" square artbin
boxes with handles. (on sale at Joanns).

lst time I gave each person a 1/2 yard of zebra print fabric. Everyone
was to make 3 blocks using on black and white fabric they had and the
zebra print. The second retreat we pull a name out of the hat and that
person won all the blocks.

2nd retreat host gave everyone a piece of red and white fabric and we
were to use white fabric from home and make 24 5" half square triangle
block. Again drew name and they won all the squares.

We played strip poker used 2 1/2 strip as amte. Played till someone won them all.

Everyone one brought a quilt related item and these placed in basket.
The basket was huge everyone brought great items. Books, patterns,
quilt hoop, pins, jewerly, etc.... one name drawn wins all.

Then we all brought FQ's and we dived them up in sets of ten and drew names during the retreat.

We had lots of fun.

Next time we are planning to make the huge mat and ruler tote bag.
Everyone will get a supply list in advance. Will make them at retreat.

I forgot earlier, we each also make a block or two that will be used for a charity quilt. The retreat I go to is organized by LQS, so they determine the block and provide the fabric. What it usually is, is leftovers from their block of the month club. They then take the completed blocks, assemble and quilt them, and donate them.

One year we did fabrics that were pinks and coordinates; that one was put together for a raffle to raise money for breast cancer. This year was a patriotic theme; I don't remember what charity will benefit this year. As there are about 60 of us at the retreat, they have enough blocks for a few quilts.

The other thing that they do each year is have a massage therapist come in. For those who want one, she does either a 10 minute chair massage, or a full 30-minute massage. I don't have them on a regular basis (too costly), but I do at the retreat as it is my one complete splurge for the year.

Robin

Thank you for so many great ideas. I'll be taking all the suggestions to our quilt meeting next week and get a consences on what everyone would like to do. THis is going to be so fun. Thanks again for all your ideas.

Hi Robin/PeaceAndJoy: Again, I need to thank all you creative, experienced quilters for all the ideas and suggestions for fun things to do at retreat. We'll have a small group of 6 to 12 people so it'll be a nice bunch to start with and we can always add more folks in following years. I really like what you guys have done for charity quilts. This is probably similar to what our group will want to do. Thanks for your suggestions. I'll present all the suggestions to our group next week at our monthly meeting and see what everyone would be interested in doing.

Bump...just want to keep this request alive for a little while longer incase there are some new ideas I'd love to hear about. Thank you all.

Feathers, I just seen this in my newsletter from Stitchin Heaven, and thought it might be fun for your quilt retreat! :D

Finally, It's here ... Quilt-opoly!
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That looks like it would be a fun addition, it's $34.95 on that site but $29.95 on this site OOPS..... it's a wholesale site, that's why the cheaper price http://www.checkerdist.com/ax_commer...60584&search=1

I have never ordered from either site but might check into how much it would cost to get it shipped to Canada.