Getting away for a few days to sit and sew with quilting friends is good for the soul. Your retreat experience will be greatly enhanced by a little pre-planning work on your part.
Instructor led retreat – Be sure to review emails from the retreat host/sponsor regarding any special instructions for the event. Do you need to bring a snack to share? Power strip? Challenge projects? Name tag? Can you bring your own chair? Extra folding table? Any travel iron restrictions? Some facilities cannot handle the load of the high wattage Oliso travel irons. Make sure you have all the required supplies in hand and have all pre-work done before you arrive at the retreat. Sometimes it helps to look on the instructor’s social media channels, website or even search on YouTube to see if the project has been taught previously.
Bring your own projects retreat – Be sure to review emails from the retreat host/sponsor regarding any special instructions for the event. Do you need to bring a snack to share? Power strip? Challenge projects? Name tag? Can you bring your own chair? Extra folding table? Any travel iron restrictions? Some facilities cannot handle the load of the high wattage Oliso travel irons.
- Take at least two projects – one easy and one stretch – plus some handwork or smaller projects (placemat, hot pad, zippered pouch) to work on. You can chat with your friends while you make the easy project and take advantage of other quilter’s experience with your stretch project. Small projects also provide some variety.
- Review your chosen project instructions carefully before purchasing/pulling fabric. Do you want to make the project as per the designer’s instructions or do you prefer a different construction method? No way am I going to do 500+ HSTs, two at a time and 144 FG using easy corner triangles! I spent time doing a little quilty math to convert the project to 8-at-a-time HSTs and no waste FG.
- Think about how you want to spend your time at the retreat. Are you okay spending your weekend making nothing but 144 FG and 128 pinwheel blocks? Not me. I prefer to sew blocks at a retreat, so I’ve spent the past two weeks (and Friday sew days) prepping the numerous sub-units required by one of my patterns. I would actually like to bring home a completed top for this particular project.
- Pre-cut and label everything needed for your projects. Pack in ziplock bags or use a design board.
- Which sewing machine are you bringing to the retreat? If you have more than one, leave your big one at home. Simple and small are good, especially if work space will be tight. Side note: Featherweights make great travel machines, but think things through to make sure a straight-stitch only machine will meet your needs at the retreat.
Other recommendations:
Take only the sewing & quilting supplies you really need for your projects. Less is more at a retreat. If you can’t make it work with what you have on hand, you can always borrow from another quilter – or buy the needed item from the onsite pop up shop or a nearby shop. It’s easy to mix up gadgets and tools, so LABEL EVERYTHING with your name. Leave sterling silver thimbles, expensive scissors and collectible vintage machine attachments at home.
If you regularly attend classes and sew with friend days, you probably already have a travel machine and tools that you leave packed. Add in precut projects, extra rulers and and any specialty notions that your projects require and you should be good to go. You can always Google “quilt retreat packing list” and use one of those as a guide.
What you see below is what I typically take to a Friday sew day. Hubs is away for the weekend, so I decided to take advantage of watching the big screen while I sew! 🙂
Come Stitch With Me 