Build a Quilt Show -- Meet the people who make it happen

It takes a small army to put together a quilt show. In addition to men who are able to move heavy loads, figure out the archaic wooden system, and make the hanging system stand upright without falling on folks, there must be people to do a multitude of other things. 

Prepping boards to hang quilts include screwing cup hooks into 2x4s, sorting, labeling and putting clips on quilt bindings. Hanging quilts, keeping track of sudden changes, numbering them, creating a database, building, printing and folding a program. 

Hire judges. Arrange meeting time, lunch, and hostess gifts. Prepare rubrics, devise rules, math the scores, determine winners, pin ribbons/prizes.

Prepare for challenge blocks (which must be organized, introduced, collected, hung, tickets made, etc.) 

Sell raffle tickets for the opportunity quilt (which must be sewn and quilted; plus tickets created, passed out, sold, collected, etc.) 

Collect money at the door. 

Vendors are a whole entity of itself. Someone has create letters, forms and flyers, to send to prospective vendors. Collect, file and organize vendor information. Assign vendor areas. Check that everyone has a space, has paid for the space, and is not taking someone else's space. Collect door prizes. 

Collect door prizes, make sure everyone gets a ticket, pull numbers, announce winners, make calls to winners. Pass out prizes. Advertise vendors. 

Media people must inform the tourism commission, radio, television, newspapers. Facebook. Make and put out flyers. Build and put out signs. Get the word out by any means necessary.

Greet guests. Encourage people to "Do Not Touch the Quilts." Answer questions. Direct. 

Portapotty must be ordered, the truck must be met at delivery, a check must be available. Arrangements for pickup made.

A cake sale requires cakes and other sweets. So bake cakes, deliver, have salespersons who can cut, serve, and wrap cake. Someone who can collect money.

A treasurer must keep all monies separate, have change available, collect funds, make deposits, pay bills. 

Take down the show: remove and return quilts, break down and store quilt hanging system, collect stray items and return them, gather all the office supplies and cake items. Clean and restore room to original order. 

And there you are. People upon people who must work tirelessly for a week putting up and taking down a show so that the rest of us can enjoy the beauty of quilts.

Build a Quilt Show Series:

Getting Started, or A Bad Monday

The People Who Make It Happen

 Build a Hanging System

Procure Your Judges

The House of Horror

Do you remember that our middle son's family is living with us because their house got sick with mold and essentially died? Remember that they had to leave and abandon everything? 

Our house is under reconstruction, yep, mold. We had a water leak, the water seeped into a wall, the wall soaked up the water, mold stuck it's dirty hands in our house. 



Eventually we discovered the water and began the search for the source. But that was after the wall had sponged up all it could take. The gaping holes in my bathroom, closet and foyer match the concrete floor. Water seep under the floor in the corner between the toilet and tub. How does that happen? Anyway that spot was super-icky. 

In a flash the kids were gone, piled into their SUV like sardines and working to find a place for the night. Poor little Marley was in tears until all of her dolls were safely in the car. Ella, of Elf on the Shelf fame, had to stay since no one could touch her, but she found Marley later that night, so no doll succumbed to the mold. 

Anyway we called in the pros and they have been quite helpful. Thus far they've dried out the walls, torn out the sheetrock that was molded, and made several calls to the insurance and environmental guy who is to tell us how sick our house really is. Right now, there are huge dryers (humidifiers) that are keeping the house warm and toasty in this cold wet weather we're getting.

Richard and I have relocated to our camper and are pretty comfortable. Adam, Jen and Marley have borrowed Will's family camper and made themselves at home. It's bigger than the two bedrooms in our house where they've lived for a year now. There's a slide-out for the living area and two in the "bunk house" which Marley claimed for her dolls. So I think they are going to be okay as well.

Richard and I don't need as much space. That is, until workers begin installing sheet rock. That dust may put me out of the house entirely. Right now clothes are draped over chairs and benches. I was forced to take everything out of the closet, so today I went through every piece and made smart choices. 

Some sentimental things have even found their way into the donation box: graduation gowns, a suit our boys wore for weddings when they were small, pieces I really liked. 

I'm trying to figure out how to contain the dust and grime that are always present during construction. At least, how to keep some of it off clothing, books, and surfaces. 

I'm also trying to put a positive spin on this minor disaster. It's just a few rooms and I get to redesign our very small master bath and closet. Richard has been very helpful in that regard. 

He assures me it won't take very long since he can hire Adam's guys, and our boys will pitch in as well. "We help each other in this family," he reminds me. Ah yes, family. We have family to lean on, and that is enough.

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. 

Oh my poor studio!

Just stuff!  Boxed and stored right in front of my worktable.

Have you been wondering why I've not been posting much in the way of sewing and quilting?  It's been rough, actually, because I've been living with the new renovations and have not had a studio to retreat to.  Oh, the pain.

More stuff!  This time in front of the desk.

However, the renovation part has died.  My three-quarter husband (so called because he tends to complete only three-fourths of a job) seems to have run out of steam. Right on time.  We have about a fourth of the job left to live with.  Oh, I'll mount an offensive, but first, I have to wait.  I'm not sure what I'm waiting for, but 36 years of marriage has taught me that I can't move him again for a while.

The old fixtures removed from the house and dumped into the studio.

I can, however, mount a defensive approach--meaning I can defend my own space.  I've been to the studio and gathered evidence. These photos prove all. There's is no disputing the fact that my space is under attack, and I intend to defend it strategically: using guilt and exactly enough whine, I will get this "junk" out of the studio!  Most of it belongs in the kitchen, but I don't care if he throws it in the trash, so long as he gets it out of the studio.  He won't.  Throw it in the trash, I mean--he'll haul it in, clean it up and put it away.  

Our mattresses from the spare bedroom, used for several
 nights when we couldn't sleep in the house, but now
stored in the studio because we can't get into the
bedroom to put them away.

Ah, life with a husband.  The love card is a no-go....we have been married 36 years.  There's no doubt in my mind that he loves me, but there's also the reality that saying "You'd do it if you loved me" will not work.  He won't be bullied, nagged, or loved into something.  Nope, the only thing that works is proof and whining.  Oh well, whine it shall be.  I aim to get this done, and soon.

Boxes of filled jars meant to hold the gate so the puppies have a place to hang out.

The church pew from the living room stored in the studio
 and used to stack even more stuff.

Suggestions?  How do you handle a husband?  Rephrase that: how do you handle YOUR husband?  

Mosaic Tile Runner~~part 2

Okay, so it's time for part 2 of how I did my mosaic tile runner.  I promised.  Time to deliver!  In case you missed it, part 1 is here.

Really this whole part is quite easy.  After cutting or breaking all the pieces, I hauled them inside and plopped everything as close to my area as possible.  I really intended to sit down on the job and work around myself.  That was a no-go: my legs and feet were just in the way.  I can't kneel, so that left me with squatting and bending.  Whew!  Was I sore!  Toward the end I couldn't squat or bend for more than a few seconds, so having everything very close really made the difference.

I had three sheets of 1 inch by 1 inch tiles.  I cut two sheets into strips one tile wide to make a border and began on one short edge by laying down the strips from corner to corner.  Then I added another strip on each side almost touching the first strips I laid down.  

From there it was really very simple: fill in the center with the rest of the tiles.  Like fitting the pieces of a puzzle, I just put down pieces of tile trying to keep the spacing at about 1/4 inch.  When I couldn't get the pieces to fit tight enough, I just found another tile in a slightly larger size.  

If things got too tight, I picked a slightly smaller size.  It helped to use the extra one inch tiles for big open spaces when I just couldn't find something to work.  Notice in the lower left corner that I have a very small rectangular piece and a one inch square next to each other.  

Originally the one inch squares were meant to add contrasting color and dots of texture, but they worked well for filling in, also.

 In the photo above I've finished putting in the tiles.  The cement glue had to cure overnight before we could add the grout.  Since we did everything on a Sunday afternoon, I wasn't home for the grout party.  I probably couldn't have bent over anyway.  

And the finished product with grout and sealer.  We got a spray sealer that could be applied right after the grout was put in.  The only thing that is left is the mopping.  

Yep, lots of mopping to get all the sand and dust off the floor, but it feels so good and the entire living area looks huge now.  I love it! And I especially love my own little mosaic rug!

If you're interested in making your own little mosaic, know that you absolutely can!  Just think carefully about how much bending and kneeling you can do before you decide how large an area you want to tile in pieces as small as 1 X 1 and no larger than 3 X 4.

Shreveport Boardwalk

Richard and I spent a couple of nights in Shreveport so that I could attend a workshop.  Of course, everyone said--and I quote-- "You HAVE to go to the Boardwalk!"  Although we aren't much into malls and shopping, we decided that we needed to at least check it out.

It's big.  No, it's really, really big.  We spent a couple of hours there and didn't get to very many stores. 

One store we did enter was Bass Pro Shop.  Richard doesn't ask to do things he enjoys very often, so when there's a chance, I try to accommodate.  I also try to be patient and kind.  It's oh-so-hard sometimes, but I do try.

To that end I walked around looking at the trophies.  Then sat with the fish.  (Those pictures are worse than my usual bad.)  Rode up and down the elevator. Facebooked with my sisters.  I even asked for help finding something one of my sisters mentioned--they didn't have it. Finally Richard was done looking at boats he couldn't afford, guns he didn't need, and hunting gear he already has, and he was ready to go.

Back outside we walked over to the river and enjoyed the views. The Red River is very wide here and the bridges are beautiful old metal structures.  

We then popped into a kitchen shop and I picked up a few items that have needed replacing for a while: ice cream scoop, bag closures, and a one-piece, high-temp rubber scraper. 

Dinner at Cheesecake Bistro was absolutely delicious.  Then back to the hotel for phone calls to check on the grands and the puppies and some rest.