How many of you have attended, or will attend, quilting retreats? Where were they held? What was your cost and what did that include? Did you go to learn a specific project/technique, or was it simply time away from everyday responsibilities to sit and sew? What do you bring with you? And, finally, what did you wish you brought with you?

I have attended probably a dozen or so. Some were local, some not. Cost varied from very reasonable to pricey. Usually a teacher with a specific project or you could do UFOs. A few were just time away. I take all the usual stuff. I wish I had a chair to take with me.

Great questions. I will be watching this as I am planning a quilt retreat this summer. I thought of camera, CDs for music of choice, lamp for individual lighting needs. And
we will not be having any formal lesson, just your own stuff. And this will cost each of us $186 for Fri. afternoon till Sunday noon includes food. Ours will be held about 25 miles from home. There will be 8 of us. I'm wondering if a few games would be appropriate. Hot tub is available and I was hoping to find a masseur for a wonderful neck rub. Anxious to hear of others opinions. Mostly what would you wish you had brought.

the one thing I would like to mention is the music...at our guild retreats we have one who sings along with her CD player...we have had complaints but she turns a deaf ear so we just tune it out. Make sure everyone agrees on music...

We have an annual retreat at a hotel about one hour from our town. It is costing me about $279 to share a room with a roommate including wonderful gourmet meals from Friday night through Sunday brunch. We have a class or sit and sew on your own stuff. I love to go and can't wait until April!

I have attended 1 retreat last year and am going again in April. We go to TN (and we're from NC) and stay a week with a quilt shop right next door. It costs about $287 for the week. We have a meeting before we go to discuss meals then we wait until we get there to do the shopping (usually costs about $20/prsn...and we have 6-8 people). On Wednesday we go out to lunch and shopping in Pigeon Forge to other quilt shops. It's so much fun!! We take UFO projects and usually the quilt shop will show us a little project to do.

It's nice to be able to not worry about anything for a week. Just sew till you drop....LOL

Good point about the music choice.

I go on a retreat yearly...Friday through Sunday including all meals it is $100.00...very reasonable...we do our projects...it is only 1/2 hour from home, so if you have to leave and come back, not too far away.
Other retreats we do are "day retreats"...renting a local community center room for the day...usually about $10.00 for the day once we divide the cost amongst all of us. We bring our own food...usually a pot luck for lunch, and then we order out for dinner. Just did one of these yesterday...always so much fun.

We will be doing a 3 day one in April....we are calling it a "sleep in your own bed retreat"...we will sew all day at the center, and then go home, sleep and come back next day...all our stuff set up and ready to sew....hours will be Friday 5-10, Saturday 8am-9pm and Sunday 8am-5pm will cost us about $25.00 each.