I’ve been busy but I still go to as many retreats as I can afford. Temecula is where my expensive retreats are at and I go there about 4 times a year. 3 of the times are with various quilting groups (one of which is my own quilt guild) and the 4th is with the SoCal Stitchers Facebook group.

I say they’re expensive because they’re in the hundreds $ range but it’s all subjective. For the three quilt ones, I go with my friends and if we’re lucky we get the three person suite at ~$450 per person. The double is $526 and the single is $726. These are Thursday through Sunday with 3 meals per day included from dinner on Thursday through brunch on Sunday. I tend to go as a single to the cross stitch retreat so that’s the most expensive one.

I help host and coordinate the one with my quilt guild and while fun is also the most work for me. We just started our retreats here in 2022 and were lucky to have gained a spot when openings were available due to groups cancelling for Covid reasons. Prior to this time we couldn’t get in as it was a popular and fully booked retreat center. This was one silver lining that came about due to covid. We’re slowly working our way up from one sewing room to two and we hope we can get it this year.

The other two quilting groups are with a local guild in SoCal and a private group of friends who just want to get away and quilt with each other.

My cross stitch group does two other retreats during the year. I’ve been to both but my favorite is one held in Big Bear, CA. I guess that’s really the most expensive at $825 and it only covers lodging, the stitching room, and breakfast. It’s at a bed and breakfast and is really sweet to stay in. We still have to get ourselves lunch and dinner. But I enjoy the surroundings and being in nature. The other is held in Yucaipa, CA in the Apple Valley where you can pick apples, have fresh apple pie and cider all year long. It’s the most inexpensive of them all but it’s usually in July and I like to travel at that time of the year.

My mini group have mini retreats where we go to a local quilt shop from Friday- Sunday. We have been doing these mini retreats since 2021 and last year started doing similar retreats with our guild. With the increase cost of everything and less members it’s been challenging to keep our programs and workshops. So one of the things we’ve had to do was reduce the number of workshops. But we still want to offer our members something so they keep renewing. As such we do mini retreats in the months we don’t have a workshop. The price of these retreats are $50 for the three days. We pay the quilt shop to rent the retreat room and any extra money goes to the guild to cover general expenses.

Because of these things I have a retreat almost every month. And I slowly make progress on my projects.

I really enjoy them and I hope you get to attend a retreat near you too.

M