My daughter gives me a 5 day retreat in Prescott Az. every year..at a very large cabin..the last week of Oct..10 quilting friends and I go there..we eat..talk..laugh..and quilt..some sleep..only rules are..NO politics or religions talk!! We've been doing it for about 7 yrs. lots of fun!!!

I am getting ready to go to retreat in 10 days. This will be my 3rd time. We go to the Shepherd's Staff.

It is set up dorm style with a dinning hall and a place to sew. It is all on level ground and alll in one building. There is a dining hall and they will fix your meals for you buffet style and the "camp" provides snacks.
You know how we quilters like to eat.

It is normally from Friday at 6pm to Sunday at 6 pm. The cost is $115. This year some of us are going on Thursday. We will bring microwave foods, snacks, and fruit to get by until the regular meal served on Friday evening.It will only cost us $15.00 more for the extra day & night.

That will give us an extra day of sewing, sleeping, R&R, reading, getting acquainted, visiting, going for walks or whatever you want to do.

Thursday night we will have a mystery project if you caare to participate.

We have tons of fun and some get alot of projects finished.
I have signed up to go again in the fall.

I forgot to tell you we play "strip poker". lol

We each bring 3 fat quarters. I don't remember exzctly how the roll of the dice goes but as we play someone gets the fat quarters until it finally ends with someon winning them all. That person has to make something out of the fat quarters completing finished by next yr.
They have lots of rules to follwo to make it a harder challenge.
In a year they bring back what they have designed out of their fq and show it off!
It is fun to see how the quilter has put it all together.

The one my Guild sponsors here in NH runs from Tues, around 10 am with lunch and dinner, Wed - 3 meals, Thursday breakfast and lunch. Costs around $425 these days - way more than when we started 10 or so years ago. It's held at a ski resort off-season; 3 or 4 people share a suite, everyone has their own room, there's a kitchen, dining room, living room. Very comfortable and lovely - huge sewing room well lit with lots of outlets. I went for many years, no more, too expensive now.

Sew and eat :-). Beyond that, it depends on the purpose/planners of the retreat.

I've attended retreats at two different YMCA camp facilities - we stayed in the cabins and sewed in the main lodge/activity center for the facility. I've attended one in a hotel - we rented out a conference room. Another was at an old High School that has been renovated into a conference center - the classrooms were turned into dorm rooms (like 6 to a room?) and the gym was the sewing area.

One of the retreats I attended was a fund-raising activity for a group that supports St. Jude's Childrens' Hospital. They solicited donations from several quilting/sewing organizations (batting, fabric, thread, patterns, gift cards to stores, etc.), grouped the donated items, and held a Chinese auction. Tickets cost $1 each.

Another one I've attended is held at a YMCA camp facility. They usually have an auction (the last few have been silent, but a quilter who was an auctioneer attended in the past and ran the auction). They ask participants to bring item(s) for the auction and all money raised goes to support the facility. Funds have been used to support camp projects in general (like a recent redo of the dining hall) and quilt camp projects in specific (updated/extra lights and power for all of our machines).

Every camp/retreat I've attended has had some sort of show 'n' tell. One does it after dinner on Friday night. Another had an impromptu show 'n' tell in the hotel lobby outside our sewing room. It's always fun to ooh and aah over others' work. We show off what we've worked on during the retreat and/or something we brought from home (maybe a finish of a past retreat project).

Most of the retreats offer one or more projects or classes. At the retreats I've attended, these are always optional. The organizers send us a supplies list of any projects as well as any prep work instructions (cutting, basic piecing instructions to get a jump start, etc). Sometimes a mystery project is offered (d9p, fabric post card, sewing caddy, etc. - something small)

Most also offer some type of game or activity. We've played fabric bingo (at one, we made our boards, at another, the boards were ready for us). Sometimes everyone is asked to piece a specific block (either a block layout and/or a certain color scheme) and for each block you bring, you get a chance in the drawing to win them.

It seems like lately all of the retreats bring in a local person to do massages (extra cost if you want to do so).

Your idea of hosting retreats sounds good in theory, but probably would not be practical. As the hostess you would have too much to take care of behind the scenes in making sure everything was taken care of. Like someone suggested, why don't you attend some first? Then maybe you could start hosting.

Oh Jane,
you got to go on one, even if you ask a couple people over
yourself, and spend the weekend quilting.
This weekend my DSIL, an Cousin, got together, Friday night
and I stayed over till Sat. night. We just sewed, talked, ate
and had a ball, and I did get some major sewing done.
I brought a breakfast casserole, and a Taco Bake, so all we
had to do is heat it up, and eat.
Keep on sewing.

Well, if you are in PA, there are plenty of quilting friends,
that would love to meet with you....what part of the
state?

I have never been to one either! It sure sounds like you have a good time. Maybe it's time I gather up my Q-friends and make one happen!!

ME TOO!

I have no quilting friends where I live but I have met a great bunch here on the board.We have a sub group under Oregon-Washington and have rented a house on the coast for the first weekend in June for a retreat.Very informal and it cost $70.00 for 3 nights.I think there are 10-15 going and we have not all met each other except thru this board.Be adventuresome and put a shout out to Penn. quilters on the main page.Look up our group and see how easy it is to get going. Cindy