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. :) 

Two new pillows finished

Only two and a half weeks to go till the craft fair at our guild quilt show. I've slowed down the sewing and amped up the preparations for the booth. Today Richard and I pulled out the Easy-up top and tried to figure out where and how things would fit in the available space. 

There's good news and bad news. What I envisioned in my head will fit in the booth. Good! It's going to take much more work, (Bad) unless I can con Rich into doing some of it for me (not so bad). 

Everything needs to be cleaned. The dust and dirt that gets on anything sitting in Richard's shed is unbelievable. So it's not just dusting but washing and scrubbing. Maybe even a bit of dealing with spiders--not my favorite chore. 

The blue pillow is one that I will use as a display and take orders only since the address is personalized. I do want to make one more in a more modern colorway using my parents' old address. That is what I wanted to begin with but couldn't work on at the time, so I made this one with our address.

The neutral pillow is one I made a couple of weeks ago but didn't get to photograph and write about. I think there are two more that I haven't photographed. Maybe I'll get to those later in the week, although it's already Wednesday.

How is it that when I was working, days and weeks seemed to drag along but now they seem to fly along at a warp-speed? I don't seem to be able to keep up with my own plans. 

And that's been most of my week. Sewing, cleaning, and preparing for my first craft show in a very long time. If all goes well, a friend and I are thinking of having a booth at another local show and friends have encouraged me to consider shows in their towns. I'm not making any committments, though, until I see how this one works. 

I did not enjoy the show we did in Natchitoches a few years ago. It was so very cold, which definitely added to my misery. Then there were the dismal sales and not knowing what or how to manage anything. Hopefully, planning will help and the weather will cooperate. We'll see.

Link It Up

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)

My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Katie Mae Quilts (TGIFF)

Pin It Weekly #212

I've been pinning a little lately. Most of that would be ideas for craft booths, signage, and items. My guild is having its biennial show in five weeks, and I've decided to have a booth. Hopefully I'll be able to sell some of my smaller quilts, pillow covers, and other small items. 

All of the items I have for the booth are quilted, from small purses to medium quilts, so there are those ideas. 

But~ because I've borrowed Stacey's Silhouette machine to make those signs, I've started pinning ideas and tutorials. 

My only problem or question now is whether I can learn how to use the machine in time to rework and make some of the ideas that I really like. I have decided that this is going to be a fun thing for me.

I'll enjoy the process and the time. If things go well and I have some sales, wonderful. If not, I'll be okay, plus I'll have some Christmas gifts ready for wrapping.

Win-win, don't you think?

Pin It Wedne....oops! #18

I'm sorry about not pinning yesterday.  Life got in the way.  That would be a good thing though, since we got end-of-course test results and our students did very well.  I'm so proud of them and decided to treat them to an impromptu party today.  That meant going to the grocery store for party foods for almost 50 kiddos.  I also made a peach cobbler and took a bit of time to disaggregate some of the scores so that I could answer student questions today.  They did especially well on the writing portion of the test.  YAY!

So, back to pinning for Wednesday's non-post.  I have a new board, called "craft, fairs" that has pins of great ideas for craft fair displays.  Many of the bloggers I follow attend craft fairs to sell the items they produce, so I thought they might appreciate this board. 

You know how I love bags and totes!  Most of us do, so I thought I'd add a few new ones I've found recently.  You can see the "bagged, totes" board here.

And finally, some new pins of modern quilts.  Many of these come from the Robert Kaufman site which I discovered while reading a new blog on the Quilters' Festival Linky Party on Geta's Quilting Studio.  (My post is here.)  The first quilt is one I found on Pinterest, but it originates from the same Geta.  How cool?  Very.

Last bit....I'm wondering how this post idea is working.  Please participate in the survey on the right (below the Followers list) to let  me know whether you enjoy these Pinterest oriented posts.  It's just one click!  I really want to know your thoughts about this idea.