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I was appointed chairperson (I was the only person that didn't say no), of the guilds fall retreat for 2013. This year some of the things that we did were, the jelly roll race, timed 15 minute table runner (yes, several people completed a table runner in 15 minutes). We are looking for some fresh ideas for next year for activities, games, etc. Please share what you have done at other retreats, what worked well and didn't work well.
Thanks for your input

Might I suggest a change in your Title on this post to read "What do you do at Retreat?" and it would be nice if you had a name we can remember,trctrctchc is a little hard to pronounce for me..I don't go to retreats so I'm no help. Someone will stop by with some suggestions...A lot of retreats lately I notice are just a time to quilt your own projects...

if you want to pronounce add the vowels back in--- tractor chic. I work in the farm and outdoor power equipment industry for 10 years (i am 32, so most of my career) and when i started selling equipment, my dad started calling me tractor chic, and i took the vowels out and created a "handle" that i use when i sign in to anything. it is unique and i have never had a website tell me that it is taken.

Welcome Chic! Not sure if you want to introduce an ongoing activity, but I went to a retreat a couple of years ago and they had a neat tradition. You would bring an idea for a block. Those that choose to participate make the block. There is a drawing for all of the blocks. The winner must bring a completed project,using those blocks, to next years retreat. That person is then responsible to organize this activity for that retreat. They've done it for several years.

The girl at our retreat had taken the blocks that she won the year before and made them into a book. In turn, she had folded some origami flowers out of fabric and had us incorporate them into a block. Our own NICUnurse won those blocks. She took each of those blocks and sewed them into a tote bag and gave them to the participants.

I'm on my iPad right now and don't know how to add pictures, but I can post a pic of the bag for you tomorrow.

Since you have time and would be the first one to do this, you could make the rules. You could tell people what they needed to bring along in order to participate. That wouldn't put the cost of the supplies all on you.

I did have another thought...maybe you could do a small scale mystery quilt.

Good luck!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Will Quilt for Chocolate,

Trctrchc - Welcome to the boards. I have only been to two retreats, both of them from this board. The hit for our retreats every year has to be fat quarter bingo! You play regular bingo but the price for each card is a fat quarter. We have categories for each round - 30's, brights, batiks, civil war, etc. Of course it helps to have a great caller like our Chanlady.

I can't believe I forgot FQ Bingo!!! That was so much fun.

Trctrchc, welcome! I'm usually in charge of the games at my local quilt group. We always do fat quarter bingo, similar to what others have said but with a little twist. First the Bingo Board is QUILT instead of BINGO. On one space on each card there is a spool symbol. If they get that number then they can make a mad dash to the notion table and choose a notion. Everyone contributes items out of their sewing room to the notion table. It's a great way to clear out and pass on. If they don't want to bring notions they can pay $3 in advance and I go purchase little items (thread, scissors, needles) etc. I've also played Strip Poker. Everyone brounght in 8 2 1/2" strips to use for betting. We also have done Bunco.

I am running a craft retreat next year with my church group. I'm interested in all your ideas too
Do you all give gift bags/favors to each lady? What inexpensive suggestions do you have?

thanks

Welcome to the forum trctrchc! Pretty cool handle you have there!

I hosted the forum retreat in 2011 and one game we played was Strip Poker...

Everyone cuts a yard of fabric in to 2 1/2" strips across the 45... You determine what type fabric to play with..

We had so many at the retreat that we had tables of 8 or 10 (cant remember now which) and they each had their own deck of cards.

Appoint a dealer for each table. Each person antees up one strip... Then the dealer deals everyone a card... High card at that table wins the strips that were anteed.

Then the players antee up the 2nd strip... Dealer deals new cards and highest card wins those strips.

Continue on this way until all strips have been anteed up and won. Then your players at that table count how many strips they have won and the one with the highest number of strips, wins all of the strips at that particular table.

I think this game was a pretty good hit.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Quiltaholic,

I go to guild retreat twice a year. We don't do games or contests, but have a freebie table for stuff we want to give away (books, tools, fabrics, etc.), and one of the ladies gets us up from our machines every 3 hours and do stretches. We've also done demos of our favorite tools.

At the AL retreats there have been small group lessons on Swedish weaving, hand quilting & piecing, and other techniques. Maybe some of your retreaters would be willing to do some demos/lessons.

Strip Poker! So funny!!!!

Very nice of you to do this for your guild - it's a thankless job.
One annual retreat I did involved everyone bringing a gift valued at no more than $5 - preferably wrapped or in a brown bag - and everyone's name was drawn once in the weekend.
We also took time to do a showntell - basically by canvasing the room what they were working on.
I always took lots of spare fabric from my stash, that I didn't mind swapping. So you might have a fabric swap.
You can't overplan too far ahead. Don't forget yourself - and find a buddy to share the load so you can quilt for yourself.

At our first AL retreat, we did a name tag contest. Since most of us only knew each other thru this MB and not in person, we thought it would be a good way to get to know the others . Of course, BlueSnail won!

Welcome to the board, Pat!

What is a name tag contest?

We just had a mini retreat at our shop & had some good ideas for games.
DH suggested "Iron Quilter" - give everyone some random fabric strips or FQs or whatever & a time limit (maybe 4 hours) & see what can be made. Like Iron Chef.
I made up some Quilter Taboo Game cards. Play with Taboo rules - only with quilt terms & block names. That one was really fun.
I also made up a word search puzzle with quilting terms - very large print. There are several free word search puzzle making sites online.
I gave coupons for whoever brought the most projects to work on, the most scissors, spools or bobbins, & finished the most projects. I was going to check the little trash cans by each machine & see who trimmed the most or had the most thread snips, but ran out of time. You could also have everyone remove their throat plate & see who has the most gunk in their machine. "Junk in their trunk"

KBlue, we each made a fabric name tag with our board name and real name to wear during the retreat, then voted on the best one. Mine was Louisiana - black w/purple & gold fleur de lis, Lois' was a blue snail.

If you let everyone know beforehand, each person could bring an extra FQ and piece of batting, then surprise them with a pattern at retreat to make a potato bag, tissue holder, pin cushion, etc.

BigSister and I hold a quilting retreat in October. This coming year will be our 20th annual QuiltAway. One of activities we always hold is the Fabric Game. Each participant who wants to participate brings 1 yard of a holiday quilt shop quality cotton with metallic accent in a brown paper bag. These get thrown into the middle of our circle of chairs. We select someone to start, possibly the closest birthday to our function. That person takes a bag from the floor, opens it and places it on her lap. The next person has the choice of another bag on the floor or the fabric No. 1 girl choose. If she takes the No. 1 girls she places it on her shoulder. Then No. 1 goes again. She cannot take the fabric that was taken from her, so she would take one off the floor. It keeps going around the circle. If someone happens to take No 1's fabric again, she can then go to the fabric that was taken from her by No. 2 and sit on it, it is hers. If at any time someone chooses fabric off someones shoulder she sits on it and gets to keep it. The game sometimes gets physical, I saw someone pulled off their chair when they didn't want to give up their fabric. The only thing to remember is that if someone takes someone's fabric she gets the next turn. The game is over when the last person takes the last bag on the floor. It is always a fun time, some people try to convince others that her fabric is quite ugly or try to hide it or fold it to a really small piece so others will forget about it.

I got no ideas but I like what I've read. They all sound like fun.

We did the right-left game at the last Magnolia retreat. Everyone brings a quilting related item and it goes in a brown bag that was stapled shut and put in a pile.
Everyone picks a bag and the moderator reads a story with lots of right & lefts in it. Every time one of those comes you pass the bag in that direction. It was a riot as sometimes there are three of them in a row and suddenly you end up with two items or no items. When the game is over, you keep the mangled brown bag you have.
Hope we play that again next time again... Chris

Hi trctrchc! Welcome to the board.

Don't worry, I have one of those names you can't pronounce, but it is my personalized license plate & I use it everywhere... Chris

Welcome trctrchc!! Love your name, mine is an acronym too (mother of twins quilter), removing most of the vowels.
so many great ideas even for monthly guild meetings to keep interest.