Happenings and door hangers

Last week Richard's aunt passed away. She and his mom were quite close, so we offered to take her to the services in Ville Platte, about 45 minutes' drive. The burial was in Prairie Rhonde, a place rather than a town, per se. I sat in the back seat, taking pictures because it's almost impossible to hear a conversation happening in the front seat. (That's a big-truck problem.) Anyway, I discovered both a grain mill and a wonderful old red barn. 

The grain mill is in town, but this barn is in the middle of nothingness. Well, rice field and pasture land. Prairie Rhonde is French for round prairie. Generally when we think of South Louisiana, we think of swamps and cypress trees and low-lying areas. But there was once a huge swath of prairie land that separated the coast from the pine forests of North Louisiana. 

Today there are very few acres of prairie left because so much of the land is currently used for agricultural purposes, especially rice. However, the Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society is a non-profit with the goal of restoring small plots of land to the prairie habitat. 

 In other news, I have managed to wrangle a few more wooden pieces from my husband. He told me to get off of Pinterest. Hahaha! That's happening, right? Here are a few door hangers that I made for my craft booth. 

And just like that, the week was over!

Six Lessons from Our Guild Quilt Show

If your guild puts on a quilt show, you may have all the knowledge you need to continue doing what works for you. But if you are like me, every event teaches you a little something. Although I've worked on Beta Convention and putting together huge events, the quilt show had its own issues.

So what did I learn? Here are a few of the big ideas.

1.  Pre-show planning: finding and comparing venues; determining a hanging system, rental costs, who and how it will be set up; scheduling both people and events; marketing; assigning people to work; etc.

2. Guild quilts alone? Our guild has 60 members, but many of them either no longer quilt or are too bashful to enter quilts in a competition. We set a goal of 30 quilts, which see may seem easy enough. Instead we were forced to have members enter two or three quilts in the show. I had four in the show but brought seven "just in case we needed them." 

A show of fewer than 30 quilts would be a disappointment to patrons, who may not return for the next show. Plan ahead for what to do should there not be enough quilts for your show. Set a deadline for entries so you will know in advance how many quilts you have. Then move to your Plan B if necessary.

3. It takes many people: to clean, to hang quilts, to take down quilts, to sell tickets, to sell raffle tickets, to work the craft booth, to organize and get everyone working. How will you get these people? Do you have a "right-hand" who can handle those jobs you can't get to? Can you plan activities around work schedules? Are there jobs for those who can't handle the heavy lifting but are still willing to help? (Two ladies helped by hand-sewing sleeves on quilts.)

4. Porta potties, water, and other services require time: determining how many you'll need, where to put them and getting permission from the owner, payment, drop off and pick up, supplies, and so on.

5. Additional events that go along with the show: in our case the town held a city-wide garage sale, the museum held a special art show, and the guild also had a craft fair. Those events were meant to draw more people into the town than the quilt show alone could. 

6. Will the show include quilt-related activities, such as trunk shows, demonstrations, Quilt of Valor etc.? Although we planned for two separate trunk shows and three demonstrations, things did not go as planned. Although six people had promised to bring quilts and to speak for five minutes, only three members participated. 

What will you do if an activity doesn't go as planned? How will you fill the time? Is there a way to make adjustments so that people who paid an entry fee will feel that they got their money's worth? Can you afford to lower entry fees? Can you find someone to step in at the last moment? To make up for the lost time, I brought in quilts for sale in my booth, which meant extra work for me and presenting without having time to prepare. 

There are other considerations that arise, of course. Certainly it's not possible to plan and prevent all problems, but thinking ahead and having many people who are able to step in and help when the problems do arrive can prevent some big issues. It's true that the best plan is to start early and plan ahead. 

Try to think about what could go wrong and how best to deal with those possibilities. While many people say that it's a negative way to look at your event, the reality is that it's actually a positive way to run your event.  Don't mix up looking at your event and running it. Those are separate ideas. 

Looking at your event means having hopes and dreams for activities--what you want other people to see. 
Running your event means careful planning, contingency plans, and people you can count on--what you don't want patrons to see. 

Thinking of them in separate terms means you and your patrons will be better able to enjoy both. What would you add to these big ideas? What problems about your own show would you like to share or discuss? Can you explain in a different way how looking at the event and running it are separate? Please add your thoughts in the comments. 

Death by Quilt ~~ setup finished

Maybe it's impossible, but it seems that the 31 quilts we hung today took most of us out. Oddly, I didn't hang even one quilt. I started out giving orders--I'm so good at that--and getting people busy pricing  items to be for sale in our booth. 

Not MY booth...the guild's booth. There are lots and lots and lots of things. Some made by guild members, others donated by people who just wanted to help, and some that are vintage (patterns, magazines, books) all needing pricing.   

Then the quilt hanging system arrived, so there were lots of things to unload and get set up. Quilts had to be numbered and hung. Quilts needed sleeves. (Several of those were mine.) And someone had to clean up the ends of the poles so the place would look a bit more pulled together. I did that because by then the ladder-climbers were exhausted and I really felt sorry for them. I won't say I overcame my fear of ladders, but I got through the chore unscathed.

Demonstrations needed setting up. Tables covered. Chairs hauled and set up. (We still need chairs, but I told people to get on it. Adults who don't listen annoy me.) 

Porta potties were delivered and had to be placed. I had decided that earlier in the week, got permission to use a parking lot, and met the guy today to give him directions. I tell you, I rock at telling people what to do. 

There weren't enough quilts from other guild members, so a few of us who make several quilts a year were asked to bring extras. I agreed to take seven, if we didn't need them all, I could bring them back home. We used four. The other three and a few more that I'll take over there tomorrow will be the ones I'll present in my part of the trunk show. I've decide to focus on my being a modern quilter since I am more innovative than the other quilters in this guild. 

The four quilts shown here are the ones in the show and were judged along with the others tonight. Some of the other quilts are stunning. I hope to get a change to take pictures at some point during the day tomorrow. That is, after setting up the booth, after the trunk show, and while someone else is around to man my booth. My poor darling husband has agreed to help me through most of the day. So I'll get to tell him what to do, I am pretty good at it. :)