This is kind of a repeat subject, but I thought it might be fun for you to consider if you can’t go to Houston.  Develop and take your own personal quilting retreat with a certain amount of commitment while other quilting friends are off carousing in Houston.

Shortly after I bought Fritz (my Bernina Q20 sitdown longarm), I took a week and had my own private quilting retreat that inspired me, gave me time to practice quilting on my new machine, and to take some really fun online classes.  I don’t know about you, but I sometimes feel I should be doing something else when I’m spending time on these activities.  So setting aside a period of time and designating it as “a retreat” to myself and family gave me a lot of fun without that nagging thought that maybe I should be working on something else or cleaning or some such.  It actually felt like I was at a retreat and it helped me learn a lot and just have some fun.  The cost was limited to the purchase of the online classes and the supplies for them, and I bought them on sale and pulled most of the supplies from my own stash.  The cost of going Houston is quite a significant amount more unless you live there, and you can review the classes whenever you want to.

I approached this just as I would have preparing for any retreat:  I put together a stack of small quilt sandwiches, some of which I marked with grids and lines, and some had no marking for my practice.  I bought several online classes and made sure I had all the supplies for them, and I did do a little cleaning prep of my studio beforehand.  These are some classes I recommend from iquilt.

• Divide, Design, and Fill for Beautiful Quilting:  Lisa H. Calle
• Machine Quilting on the Grid:  Gina Perkes
• English Paper Piecing by Machine:  Karen K. Stone
• Step by Step Quilted Landscapes:  Kathy McNeil
• Three Embellished Fabric Bags:  Rami Kim

I also recommend these classes from Craftsy.

• The Perfect Finish:  How to Bind a Quilt:  Susan Cleveland
• The Machine Embroidery Inspired Quilt:  Susan Stewart
• Scrap Quilting:  Pepper Cory

In addition, if you are a member of The Quilt Show, (and if you aren’t, why not?)  it’s a nice time to review or see some of the shows and the little Bernina videos (most techniques applicable to other than Bernina machines).

• Select TQS shows, which I played while I was quilting (I have a small TV in Studio Fritz).  I think this moved my quilting forward.

The first thing I did was just play the classes through while I was practicing my quilting on Fritz.  Then I watched a couple of them with care and did some form of the projects.   I think it would be fun to have a friend join me for a similar private retreat sometime here in my studio.  Any volunteers?

Sew happy everyone!  I highly recommend you carry out your own personal quilting or sewing retreat and let me know how it goes for you and what classes you took.