Feathers

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.

Pats8e8

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 :!:

Feathers

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.

BDor

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

Feathers

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.

Pats8e8

Quote:

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

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.

Kyiav10

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

Kyia

tlrnhi

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

collettakay

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

peaceandjoy

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.