As of this writing, I have attended 20 QuiltGuy quilt retreats. There have been a total of 22 retreats since they started. I’ve missed two of them.
QuiltGuy originally started as an email discussion list of male quilters on Yahoo Groups (now defunct). At some point, someone on the email list mentioned that a number of the quilters on the lived in New England, and wondered if any of the list members would be interested in meeting up in person.
Two of the list members, Bob Silverman and Jim Helms, owned a quilt store in Woodstock, New York, and offered the group access to their workshop space upstairs above the store. The first QuiltGuy Quilt Retreat was in August 2008.
Our first several retreats were in Bob and Jim’s workshop space in Woodstock. There was one retreat (that I didn’t attend) in Teaneck, NJ. Then, we moved the retreats to a bed and breakfast in New Lebanon, NY.
Now we meet twice a year in March and September at the Fullerton Inn in Chester, VT. We usually have 20 participants and we spend 3-4 days hanging out and doing a ton of sewing. Paul Leger, a great Canadian quilter, now organizes the twice-a-year QuiltGuy retreats.
Here’s a video of me shot at one of the retreats discussing how I got into quilting.
If you’re interested in seeing some photos of the retreats, I have LOTS of photos. You can check out QuiltGuy quilt retreat photo albums here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
