How about a Show? It's what I've been doing...

I've been MIA in the blogging world, but I've had a lot on my plate. Who hasn't right?  I'm not alone, but if you're still checking my blog, I'll have some great photo's to share in the next few days.

 

For the past few months I've been working on pulling our local guild quilt show together.  As show chair it involves tons and tons of details, the ability to say "I'll take care of that" or "I'm sorry that is just not possible" or "PLEASE STAND BACK and LET THE LADIES DO THEIR JOB!!" (crowd control) or "yes, I will change that immediately"  or one of my favorites "I'll make a note of that and perhaps in the next show that will be something we consider...."  (great way to listen, nod and keep going).  If you've ever chaired any event you know exactly what I'm sayin'.

 

Enough!!  On with the pictures which is the real reason you stopped to look....

 

Here's the table where the Raffle Quilt tickets were sold....Eilene's table covering got tons and tons of attention as well!!  Be careful what you drag to the show....

 

It's a pothold style quilt, each block was independently made, hand quilted, binding finished and then sewn together to make one large quilt.  We did very, very well in ticket sales......

 

Here's our Mini Quilt Silent Auction.  We had two one day auctions.  Luci divided what she received and put some out on Saturday and some out on Sunday.  This is the Sunday grouping. 

 

I soooooooo wanted to take this one home.  I stopped bidding at $300.....it is a mini and it was drop dead beautiful!!!  I told Jeff I was coming home with something and it was going to cost him. In my mind... I already had it framed and knew exactly where I was going to hang it.  Unfortunately for me my competition was bidding on the quilt for his wife.  Mother's Day present for her and she told him she wanted it.  Smart man......(darn it!!!)

 

Few closeups of other Mini's.....Check out Jane's house quilt in a later post, these fabrics were used from the leftovers....

 

Blue...of course I love it......

 

Hand quilted and lovely.....

 

Another show attraction is always the Demo's.  We had some really, really great ones!!  I was only able to sit for a short time during one of them.  I hope to share that at a later time too...

 

Most guilds are involved in many, many charities.  This was our display showing some of ours.  Derry put this display together and it was FABULOUS!!!!  We talk about them one or two at a time, but when you see them all together....WOW!!!!

 

Great quilt, love the red square made by  Sonja-Parkinson's Quilt.  Check out the link to her blog.  To the left is a Quilt of Valor quilt from someone in the guild.

 

Here's a shot of Books!! Yep, we collect books and magazines to sell during the show.  It is absolutely crazy!!  I am blown away at the proceeds we collect from this area of the show.

 

For the second time during our show we have invited a local school to bring in the food.  It is a fund raising event for the school's class trip.   Doing this also helps relieve some of the additional volunteering we would need to cover this portion of the show. 

 

Bags, Basket and Bowls....whew!!   You just can't imagine all of the attention this part of the show gets!!  It is CRAZY!!!!!!!!   This year I think we had about 76 different "things" to drop your little raffle ticket into a container.  We sell the raffle tickets 25 chances for $5, it is a great bargain if you win something!    Remember above when I said crowd control??? Here's where that comes into play.  When the gals start drawing the winning tickets people are so anxious to see if they won they crowd around the table almost making it impossible for the gals to keep moving.  I'm telling you it was just plain crazy.  But in a really fun way!!  Like most everything else tons and tons of work go into this part of the show.  This year we had three rookies step up and take charge, and I can't begin to tell you what a fantastic job they did!

 

 

Here's a blurry (sorry) closeup of a small area of the Bags, Baskets and Bowls....

 

There are many, many, many other areas and people that go into putting on a Quilt Show.  This was my second (and last) time to chair.  Time to pass the torch and let someone else run the show.  It really does come together, but looking back it was a lot of work.  The show this year was more difficult that the first time around.   But the good out weighed the bad by a zillion!  This guild if filled with a huge number of loving, caring, wonderful women whom I feel quite lucky to work with and know. 

 

Can't close without saying thanks to the family as well.  Jeff, (hubbie) Joey,  Danny, (sons) were all there to help load, drag in, and set up, returned (Danny brought extra help Matt) to help tear down and carry out.  AND they got to live with me the entire time it was coming together.  And there were days when I'm sure that was not an easy task.

 

Well, I'd say that's quite enough for today. 

 

As always, thanks for checking in on me,

hugs,

joanne

 

love to hear what you've got to say...............