I'm in charge of our summer quilt retreat for the guild, and I'm looking for "activities" to do to break up the weekend. The gals don't want classes...they want to be able to work on projects of their choice but like to do some fun activities to break up the day. For instance, last year we had a scavenger hunt, a quiltkito game, etc. Looking for different ideas this year with a western/cowboy theme. Any ideas would be appreciated

How about a fat quarter exchange, bundles of 3? first draw #s and gets 1 gets first choice, 2 gets second choice, OR can take #1's bundle. Each bundle of fabric can only be taken 3 times then it is retired. If someone's bundle gets stolen, they get next pick. This is lots of fun. At Christmas we call it Dirty Santa.

Another is to gift a strip of fabric to each member, 4 or 5 strips match each other. Have the blues working together, the pinks, yellows and so on. This encourages people to stretch and make new guild friends.

If you need more pm me. I usually get this job, too.

Bingo? Almost everyone loves that, with quilty prizes!

We usually have a Chinese fabric exchange where each person brings a yard of some to-die-for fabric packaged up so that it can't be seen from the outside.

After a meal we'll gather in a circle and put all the packages in the middle. Then each person draws a number and we take turns in order, starting with #1. First she has to tell something about herself like how did you get into quilting, what was your worst quilt experience, what's something no one present knows about you, etc. It doesn't have to be really specific, just some interesting information to help everyone know you better.

Then that person gets to choose a package, open it, and show off the fabric for everyone to ooh and ahh over. Then #2 can either open a new package or "steal" the first fabric, and so on from there. If a person has her fabric stolen she can choose a new package or steal from someone else. We do have a rule that a particular fabric can only be stolen three times before it's frozen, or else the game would go on all night with people stealing from each other over and over. When each person has had a turn, #1 gets one last chance to steal/trade a fabric that isn't frozen or keep the one she has in her hand. Sometimes a lot of stealing goes on and other times everyone seems happy with the packages they get to open. It's really a lot of fun.

We do this one at our charity quilt day but instead of bingo we use the letters of quilt for the rows.

Each January our guiild sponsors a two day retreat. We do not have classes, but during each day we offer 10-15 minute demonstrations of new or different quilt blocks or quilting techniques. One of our members is involved with a group that makes pillowcases for children recovering from Cancer and at the last retreat, everyone made two or more pillowcases, using vivid, wild, colorful fabrics from their stash. It was fun and rewarding. Belles

You said the retreat had a western/cowboy theme. I'm reminded of the two cowboy brothers on this year's Amazing Race. I especially remember when they had to throw a rope (lasso) over steer horns mounted on hay bails. They beat everybody else hands down.

Perhaps you could have people bring a fat quarter, half yard, yard,-- whatever -- group several together with ribbon, rubber band - whatever - set them on a table spaced apart and then people could take turns trying to 'lasso' a group to then use to make pillow cases or just as a prize. I've never been to a retreat so I really don't know what kind of games or activities are appropriate. And even though I was born and raised in Texas I'm having a really hard time thinking of western/cowboy activities. I'm trying to come up with something related to chili, or Tex-Mex food -- we all love to eat, don't we? But I can't seem to relate that to fabric or quilting. I'm feeling really brain dead right now!! Good Luck.

In addition to some of the ideas above, why not do a little teaching in the area of health and safety by teaching them some exercises to do to relieve stress created by the continual act of sewing. It's difficult to describe them here, but you could check with a physical therapist or your doctor's office to get handouts or,,,,you might be able to get a massage therapist to donate a free massage and give you some of these exercises...good marketing for the therapist. I was in a class with Larkin Van Horn where she stopped us on a regular basis to do some of these exercises and they really helped.

How about a quilting white elephant exchange. Let them know they can bring tools, blocks, fabric, quilt themed items, or even threads they don't want. Wrap them up and see who gets what!

I just returned from a quilt retreat. Each person brought a baby picture of themself and we hung them in the dining hall secretly. We had to guess and write down which baby picture went with who. The top best guessers won prizes. This made us really look at each other, was a lot of laughs and gave you a reason to get up once in a while to go look at them.