bstock

Never been to one!! I will keep all of this mind if I ever go to one. Thanks for the advice!!!

patsynel

I have never been to a retreat but it sounds like something I would enjoy. Not sure if they have them in this area.

kjdavis4

Your post was very funny. For a few years I attended a rather large retreat with my best friend. Most of the time we had great "neighbors" but a few times we weren't so lucky. This was before cell phone usage was prevalent, so we dodged that bullet. Because of the layouts of the room, we were assigned tables. Each of us had a table, my neighbor had MY table and hers as well. The entire weekend I spent "reclaiming" my space. LOL. Another year, I sat across from a woman who never stopped talking. She would interrupt conversations and even asked me if I was married as she was looking for a wife for her son. I assured her I was. She then went on to explain that her son was a shepherd. This retreat was held in a very large metropolitan area. I really didn't know what to think about looking like I would be good shepherd wife material. On arriving home, I immediately got a new hair style and changed my make-up!! It takes all kinds. That retreat eventually quit being held and I now attend two retreats a year which are very small and the same good friends attend. It's such a great time to sew, laugh, catch up on life, drink wine, eat good food and chocolate. It's in a couple of weeks and I can't wait to see everyone. I'm so lucky to be able to do this.

labeelady

Never been to a retreat yet, but will be going to a focus day on Saturday. We're making several projects, everyone will be working on the same thing at the same time.

Good idea about not using cell phones. Those things have a bad habit of going off when you least expect it.
Thanks also for telling about the unfamiliar machines. I plan on bringing my FW and need to get it out and make sure it works before I get there!

MadQuilter

I've never been to a retreat but I can tell you that I don't suffer in silence. Once the patience has been used up, I tend to speak my mind. lol

GreatStarter

Thank you for making me laugh. Sorry you are having such a rough time. Love the rules another quilter posted such as if you are chillie, put on a sweater...etc. Hope you have a better day.

Kat

SewExtremeSeams

I read your post because it was authored by you. You know, when E F Hutton speaks everyone listens

I just turned down a retreat: Reason being I didn't want to lug my sleeping stuff AND my quilting stuff.
The time it takes to load at home, unload at retreat, load after retreat and unload at home... I could have had a V-8 or gotten a whole lot of sewing done. Do I sound older and getting practical in my old age. Yup! And I ain't changin'!

maryb44662

You know, it is the same way in church, movie or a meeting of some sort, there is always someone (most of the time a child crying) rattleing paper, talking or whatever. Most of the time there is no where to move to so you have to grin and bear the NOISE. The most noise usually happens right at the interesting part of the program. We as people just don't think sometimes on how we bother other listeners.

Jan in VA

Your funny story reminded me of the time I attended a seminar, actually, rather than a retreat, that lasted several days. My tablemate was a darling French gal I am sorry I didn't keep in contact with. But my roommate....oh heavens! After the second night I was utterly convinced she was a man in drag!!

And she was opinionated, critical, outspoken, snobbish, know-it-all, and was finally reprimanded by the retreat leader for some comments she made. Everybody tried to avoid her, but I was stuck with her at least 6-8 hours a day/night.

I tried to alleviate the problem by staying up at night sewing until I felt sure she was already asleep, and rising in the morning, throwing on yesterday's clothes, and stumbling to the sewing room as early as I could before she woke up. When she came down, I went up to dress, avoiding her again.

It was the best time and the worse time ever at retreat!!

Jan in VA

GailG

I once attended a workshop sponsored by a new fabric shop. The instructor was one I had already had a class with and it was great. But this time ...the shop owner wasn't present, the instructor was on the phone disiplining and giving instructions to her home-alone brood of children. One of the students came with a new machine (foreign made and foreign to her) that she didn't even know how to thread. Had to experiment with the presser feet because she didn't know which was which. So when the instructor was not on the phone (and sometimes she did both) she was helping the clueless student. It was an heirloom class and we were supposed to be making a sample book with all of the different techniques. Needless to say, my samples were incomplete. The next day I tried to do as many as I could remember from her sketchy directions. Never again! Oh, and did I say "NEVER AGAIN"?

Bella, I know you were thinking about just packing up and heading towards home. I know I would have.