Leo’s Quilting Retreat Do’s & Don’ts

Summer is one of the best times to go to a quilt retreat. If you are like me and it is hot outside, you don't really care for outside activities. A quilt retreat is one of the best things to do as a quilter. It is inside, you complete some UFOs, create new projects, find out about new quilty tools, make new friends, bond with other quilters or in our case go to a nearby quilt shop for new fabrics. All of these things are reason to attend a retreat if possible. I will discuss how I prepare and attend a retreat.When preparing to pack for the retreat, clothing is just a basic necessity. Pack what is comfortable for you to sew in, but willing to be seen in public wearing. For me it is t-shirts and shorts along with my crocks since I like to sew in my socks. There is nothing more comfortable than having control of the foot pedal which I don't have when wearing shoes.

Then, I like to decide what snacks to take. I was packing for two so, I figured a case of water, snack cakes, popcorn and some candy. Make yourselves a check list to make sure that you load everything. I mention this because I forgot to pack the candy. Lol! What is a retreat without chocolate? Luckily, someone brought extra to share with everyone.

Next you will want to check on the machine you plan to take. Get it serviced before you go if you have not done that in a while. They will make sure your machine is sewing like a dream before you get there and oil it for you.

Now to figure out what projects I want to take to the retreat which I attended in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I think about how long it will take me to complete an already started project or UFO and calculate that into the amount of days I am attending the retreat. This year I decided to only take new projects. So, I packed fabric for each of the projects in hopes of not having to buy any fabric while there. The projects that I wanted to work on were 2 portraits and a quilt for our king size bed. I was to arrive on Wednesday, but not preparing to sew until Thursday and leaving on Sunday. I would try and complete 1 project per day if my determination allowed. So, I set everything up on Wednesday evening. From this point, I will take you on my day to day at the Tulsa Men's Midwest Quilt Retreat.

Day 1-Thursday:

On this morning, I ate breakfast and then headed to the sewing room. I started working on an Alan Jackson portrait for a friend. On the second layers I decide that I didn't like it and I haf no other pattern for this particular project. I had already put in about 2 ½ hours on this project. I was so disappointed. So, I took all of the fabric for that project, the already started portrait and sat it to the side to try and stay organized.

After coming back from lunch I decided to start cutting the pieces for the king sized animal print quilt. I really wish that I had cut all of the pieces at home before attending the retreat. If I had, I could have started sewing the pieces together. It is a pretty basic layout, but I needed 1 center square, 4 corner stones and 4 rectangles of each of the animal skin fabrics to complete 1 block. Once I started sewing them together, the blocks went pretty fast. Finished block size is 18” and I needed 35 of them to complete the quilt top.

Day 2-Friday:

I continued on the animal skin quilt top until we went to lunch. After lunch, we went to one of the local quilt stores and I started thinking about my third project which was a portrait of Louis Armstrong.

I decided to change my fabric idea for the portrait. I love grunge fabric and had only packed black and red grunge. All of the other fabrics I brought were tone on tone prints and blenders. I thought that I was better organized, but at that moment I decided that the entire piece should be done in grunge fabrics. So, I purchased yellow, turquoise and purple grunge fabrics. As soon as we got back to our sewing place I started on the portrait and sat the animal prints to the side.

Okay, I felt like I wasn't getting anything accomplished at the retreat. But I started on the portrait anyways. I was collaging the piece and it seemed like it was taking forever for the face to come together. We went to dinner and I came back and worked on it some more. This was taking forever. Would I get anything accomplished at this retreat? This is where I was by bedtime.

Day 3-Saturday:

After breakfast, I diligently went to work and tried to stay focused. This piece was still taking forever, but that night I was the last one to head to bed. I was proud of myself for getting the portrait finished. Finally, I had completed something at the retreat and Sunday after breakfast I would go back to the animal print quilt top.

Day 4-Sunday:

Well Sunday came and I went to breakfast. Now to finish that quilt top. I was almost 2/3 of the way finished with it. I could complete the other 1/3 before leaving at 12 noon. To my surprise, some had packed Saturday night before heading to bed, but the others had gotten up early and had packed up their sewing stations since they had early flights and way longer drives than me. So, I walked in and there were only three of us left sewing. What a bummer. Instead of sewing immediately, I started packing up everything that I knew I wouldn't be using. That took over half of an hour to do. Finally, I sat down and started sewing again. I didn't get the quilt top finished, but almost. At least at home I could get it finished without too much effort.

So I stopped about an hour after starting to sew and packed up the rest of my things. I had lost my momentum. So I headed home at 10am. I always learn something at every retreat and everyone has their own styles or preferred ideas of quilting. There is one who paper pieces. Another who works on a variety of things and is good at working on machines if anyone is in a jam. There was one guy who was piecing tiny pieces to complete about a 6 inch star block. One who does embroidery and another who is a newbie. As you can see, everyone has their thing in which they specialize.

But the do's that I have learned are to make list, pack using that list (so that you don't forget anything), service your machine before going to retreat and to have a solid game plan for you projects such as having a backup plan in case one of your projects doesn't work out. Also time management while working around others (please allow yourself time to visit and bond with the others). Some things can't be planned as far as the bonding, but you should have an idea of where you want to be on a project each day. When you get with other quilters, you want to show progress and completion on your projects.

As for my don'ts, don't overthink anything. Just make sure that you are having fun at your retreat.