Why attend a Quilting Retreat?

I love the retreats I've been on, but maybe its because I dont go with strangers,only the gals from our PQ club, and I dont hear ,whens dinner ready? or were's me shirt for a whole long weekend! lol

I've been on a variety of quilt retreats but none of them involved sewing in my hotel room with a stranger.

I have been at one where we sewed in a large conference type room all together. That was actually more fun than I thought. Lots of show and tell, lots of sharing, opinions expressed, ideas abounding.

No phones ringing, no dishes to do, no laundry to flip, no family to entertain or feed or converse with. Just uninterrupted time to sew with people who love it too.

I have always attended with at least one person I know - though at ones where classes are offered I wasn't always in class with said friend.

marcella

Companionship, learn from others, no household distractions, no cooking (big plus), make new friends, generally a good time. Gen

I go for the already mentioned reasons: get away from the cooking and cleaning, get time to sew, meet new people, and spend time with some I already know. I am a stay a home mom so I also go to get away from my kids. I love them to death but it is nice to get away once in a while too.

Charlotte

I don't get much sewing done at home. I sew on the kitchen table, so every few hours it's clean everything off, cook a meal, eat, clean up the kitchen, get everything out again, sew a little more.

The only retreats I've been on have been with one or more friends, so I'm not sharing a room with a stranger, though I did share a table with one pretty often. When it was time to eat, we just left everything set up and went to eat. My favorite has classes with professional teachers- It is Zepora's Educational Quilting Seminar in Ripley, West Virginia Sunday thru Friday a week in October -more than a retreat, but there are options to bring your own project and the instructor is there to help with the tricky parts. Right now is the time to sign up for this coming fall. NAYY

Jane in NE Ohio

Our retreat is pretty much the same as Kathy in NH's is. I went for the first time last summer & we had so much fun, I can't imagine not going every year. The only things we had to lug were our sewing machines, tools & projects. The organizers of the Guild Retreat hauled all the other accoutrements up for us. We sit in groups of 2 to 4 mostly, but during the

4 days there, you really do get to meet & visit with many of the other members & at upcoming meetings, you can genuinely share a few words with the members you met, rather than just nodding & smiling!

Pauline Northern California

I run a retreat for the guild I belong to. I have never been to one with the exception of the one for the guild.

There are upwards of 50 ladies. We set up ironing stations, cutting stations and we sit in groups of 8. We set up our stuff on Thursday night and sew and laugh right through the entire weekend. We get up to get great meals, go for walks, take some pictures, see show 'n tell. We get to know fellow guild members that we don't get a chance to know at guild meetings. It is a bonding thing.

Kathy > I've never been on a quilting retreat, but from what I've read here it

I've not been to one, yet, but the ones I hear about certainly don't involve sitting and sewing with one stranger, but multiple strangers, or hopefully you go with the odd person you know, or you go again and people will no longer be strangers.

For me, I rarely sit down for long periods at the sewing machine, usually because I don't have the time, but I wouldn't even if I did, so I like to go spend a day with other people all doing the same thing, I'm hoping to be at a quilting day in two weeks time.

I also scrapbook, but I have almost stopped doing that at home, I work so much better at "crops" that time at home feels wasted, so my time at home is generally planning for crops.

Anne

Grab a buddy -- and attend one. You really have to "live it" to understand how wonderful the experience is. The most important part is setting aside a few days... where you focus on YOU. You get up when YOU want. You eat what YOU want (without shopping, cooking, cleaning up, or even cutting someone else's meat!). And you get to spend your days doing whatever YOU want. Work on your machine, work by hand, read a book, take a walk, browse a quilt shop, take a nap, soak in the tub. ABSOLUTELY YOUR OWN TIME TO DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.

Now how often do most mommies (or non - mommy adult women) get to do that! For me, it really is an opportunity to help find ME again. Not Mrs. anybody... or mommy anybody... just me.

Kate in MI

Quilting retreats are the greatest! I've never been on one with strangers ( but I did go to a cross stitch retreat once with an online group that I had just joined where I didn't know a soul and they are now some of my dearest friends- Hi, Coleen!) My quilt guild has a yearly retreat at a local campgrounds and it is something we all look forward to all year. It does take some work to get ready to go- we do a "mystery quilt" each year so you have to do the prep work if you choose to participate in that or if you don't, you need to decide what to take along to work on and you do need to schlep your machine and all your other stuff along with you- but, if you forget something, chances are someone there will be able to provide! But the main thing is UNINTERRUPTED TIME TO QUILT! No cooking, laundry, crying babies, crying husbands, phones, nothing to distract you from what you really want to do from the time you get up in the morning until the time you go to bed (very late) at night! It's wonderful. We just had our retreat in February and I'm ready to go back! I highly recommend it.

To no longer live vicariously through Jennifer Chiavarini's books!

To learn something new, to show someone else a new technique, to have time uninterrupted (except for laughter and eating) to create, to start the weekend as nodding acquanitances but in two days be calling these same people your new-found q-b's [quilting buddies], to focus on that UFO that has been hiding in the back of the closet, to make you appreciate how blessed we are to be able to treat ourselves like this once in a great while.

G> I've never been on a quilting retreat, but from what I've read here it

Mostly because of what it lacks: husband, children, housework, need to cook dinner, need to do laundry. Pure relaxation, fun and time to spend doing what I want to do.

The answers were very informative. It seems a quilting retreat is very much like a small Sci-Fi convention or SCA event, but geared to quilters. They have the same sort of activities (including sewing), but sometimes with slightly different names. A quilt show seems to offer everything that a retreat offers except the long time spent sewing, and without the need to lug around my sewing machine and project gear. A quilt show has the added advantage of vendors whose wares usually include things I can't buy locally. I think I will stick to going to nearby shows for the time being. Day tripping to a quilt show alone is one thing, but going to a retreat alone would be another. Debra in VA See my quilts at

I think I like the idea of a quilt retreat in a facility like the huge house in Jennifer Chiaverini's books. Like a retreat house. The local sewing guild went up to Virginia City (the little mining town always mentioned in the TV show Bonanza) to sew for a weekend. They slept in the hotel rooms and sewed in the ballroom with it's beautiful mountain views. The ladies got some sewing done and had lots of fellowship away from the "bustling" city of Reno.

I didn't know Jennifer Chiaverini had a new book coming out! Went to her website at

and it says the publication date is April 2007. And you can read chapter one online. I had no idea that quilting retreats existed until I read the first book in her series. Then in the last book when they were hiring new instructors, I wanted to apply!!