Missouri Star Quilt Retreat, Quilt Retreats, tierneytravels

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part V: The Retreat Center Experience

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Time to continue my series of posts on my trip to Quilt Town, USA to attend a Missouri Star Quilt Company (also known as “MSQC”) quilt retreat with my long time quilting friends.

If you are just joining us, here are the previous four posts in the series:

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part I: What I Worked On

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part II: Quilt Town, USA 

MSQC Retreat Part III: Inside the Shops

MSQC Quilt Retreat Part IV: Greatest Fabric Scrap Sale of All Time 

Now to share with you what it was like to attend the retreat at MSQC and stay at the retreat center.

The retreat center, known as the Sewing Center is in the middle of downtown Hamilton, MO and is an old building converted to the retreat center and accommodations. I have photos below but if you want to see the official photos/info here is the link from the MSQC website – Sewing Center.

Here is the retreat sewing area:

Our group of 6 sat by the front windows. Here are photos of our assigned sewing area for our group when we arrived, and then when we got settled in!

We rented BabyLock Sewing machines from MSQC for the retreat since we were all flying in from various places across the country (Denver, CO; Seattle, WA; New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Sacramento, CA) and did not want to deal with lugging our sewing machines to the retreat via airplane.

The retreat center sewing area has a large kitchen and a snack table area. The photos below include the snack table at the beginning of the retreat. I should have taken a photo a couple days in as it was packed with all the snacks quilters brought and put out to share.

Our meals were served at the kitchen and they were nothing to write home about, but they were okay. They did have some great desserts a couple of dinners. But here is an example of one of the meals:

You could also go out to eat at various restaurants around town. We went out a couple times to eat, and several of my quilting friends discovered an amazing Mexican restaurant in town.

We also discovered a brewery in town, Levi Garrison & Sons Brewery and several of my quilting friends and I had a nice pint while chatting with the wonderful bartender who told us stories from her life and town history.

The brewery did not serve food, so we picked up food at a local eatery and brought it in to have with our pint.

In addition to a couple meals out and a visit to the local brewery, we also had a delicious ice cream treat at the local sweet shop one day!

It was like 17 or 19 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but it is never too cold out for ice cream! (We did eat it inside the sweet shop before re-bundling up to go back to the retreat center).

The sleeping accommodations at the retreat were upstairs. The twin beds had very comfortable mattresses. The main challenge was you had to like going up and down stairs – lots of stairs. (The retreat center did have a stair lift in the back in case you were “differently abled” and needed assistance to get upstairs).

I thought it was funny they had a chair on the landing of the first flight of stairs, in case you needed a break.

They also had a seating area at the top of the stairs when you finished your second flight of stairs to get to your room:

The bathrooms were lined up dorm style – they had plenty and they had decent showers (but no soap, you had to bring your own soap):

Here is an example of one of the rooms, it is the room I stayed in:

Here are a couple more photos of the upstairs sleeping accommodations areas:

One evening we were treated to a glorious sunset outside our window of the retreat center:

Everyone was out taking photos and of course it was cooler than my photos show.

During the retreat, we would periodically head over to the Main Shop and put stuff in our boxes to be shipped home. As I mentioned in previous posts in this series, they provide free shipping (of unlimited boxes) of whatever you purchase and any projects you worked on during the retreat, to retreat attendees.

I’ll close this post with a picture of me, taken by my friend Kathy, as I am leaving the retreat to take the shuttle back to Kansas City, Missouri to fly home:

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

19 thoughts on “MSQC Quilt Retreat Part V: The Retreat Center Experience”

  2. I am so glad you had fun. I have never been to a retreat before, but is on my bucket list. Next time in KC area let me know and we can meet even at the airport. How much did you get made while in Hamilton?

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  3. I am again amazed at the depth of this retreat’s offerings! Not the least of which is that free shipping of all projects, stuff, stuff & stuff you bought/acquired/made/traded etcetcetc…while there. I’m sure there’s a benefit to them as well, but as a consumer/attendee that’s a perk worth its weight (I’m thinking postage…) in gold.
    Enjoy the ensuing weeks when all that loot comes pouring in and you get to open it all up. FunFunFun!

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  4. Your picture of the sunset could be a quilt itself. Looks like you had the loveliest of times. You’ll have to keep us posted on the projects that emerge from your bags of scrap material. It must have been like Christmas when your boxes from the retreat arrived.

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  5. I smiled at your “differently abled” comment. So many buzz words. One of my friends who’s used a wheelchair since she was a young teen refers to the rest of us as TAB–Temporarily Able Bodied. Gotta agree with her as I age!!!

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    1. Oh you are so smart! I am going to do that from now on, I’ve learned my lesson. Little not so funny story – recently I stayed over a friend’s house and the bar of soap they had in the shower had a hair on it from the previous guest – EW! I was so wishing I had my travel soap them also!

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  8. Pingback: MSQC Quilt Retreat Part VI: Missouri Quilt Museum – tierneycreates

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