|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2ND BIENNIAL SHERWOOD PARK QUILT GUILD SHOW REPORT Cheryl Schewe’s Bright and Cheerful “Cheddar” Quilt Invited Attendees into the Successful 2nd Biennial Sherwood Park Quilt Show! Cheryl’s bright quilt waved invitingly in the sun inviting people into the Sherwood Park Pentecostal Church to take in the beautiful quilts. From set up to take down the SPQG quilt show was enthusiastically received by volunteers, attendees, and marketplace participants. High praise is due to the organizing committee for the incredible work managing the event. It’s hard to name every person involved in making the show such a success from the huge amount of preplanning and organizing done by the Quilt Show committee, led by Carol LaRose, to the hard-working volunteers whose help made the show run smoothly. Set-Up
Set up of the show
started at 4 PM at Paule Peloquin’s house where the quilts were loaded up
and transported to the Sherwood Park Pentecostal Church. The venue was
completely set up by 8:30 PM. The quick work was thanks in part to the
large amount of pre-planning: the committee had graphed a mock-up of the
site and collected the dimensions of each quilt contributed. They had a
plan for where each large quilt would be displayed, and had them laid out
and ready to hang. At least half a dozen willing and able-bodied men stood
by with ratchets and bolts waiting for the volunteers to make decisions
about placement of the smaller quilts. As a volunteer I can attest to the
good-humor of the male helpers: more than once we changed our minds about
colours and needed them to take down a display so we could swap out a
quilt or two. The new stands were easy to set up, dismantle, and transport thanks to their design, and I think I speak for us all when I give special thanks to Arne Schewe for all his hard work. Not only did the stands display the quilts to their best advantage due to their spare design, but they were also wheel-chair accessible! The disks are so close to the ground and take up such a small footprint that it was easy for people to walk right over them without hindrance. This was especially important to the seniors, some who were bussed in from as far away as Tofield. A Roomy Venue With Room to Expand The Sherwood Park Pentecostal Church was an excellent venue. Many positive comments were made about the feeling of size and openness of the room given by the high ceilings. Even during the very busy times, especially early afternoon on Friday, there were no complaints about crowding. The organizing committee already has ideas on how to show more quilts in this venue in case we decide to use it again.
High praise was given to the workmanship of our guild from all attendees including representatives from the Edmonton, Leduc and Red Deer guilds. In fact, one of the organizers of the Red Deer Quilt Show made a point of complementing our Show not only on the layout and venue, but also on the high quality of workmanship from our guild. She specifically mentioned the wide variety of the work including size and style. There was very little duplication of quilts which also impressed her. Perhaps the popular “House Block of the Month” display best demonstrated the strengths of the guild: they showed each of our methods of handling a similar challenge, but yet no two quilts looked alike. Another popular aspect of the show was the amount of work contributed by beginners. Sometimes quilters are the harshest critics of their own work, and think they aren’t good enough to participate in a show. I don’t know if beginners realize what a positive example and inspiration they give to other quilters when they show their work. I hope we see more of this trend at our next show: I challenge all beginners to plan to show your work!
Penny Barrett’s display was certainly a highlight of the show. She tirelessly talked to attendees about her quilts, and some of the techniques she used. She also set up a demo station, but she was so popular that I don’t think she had a spare moment to get any work done! Thanks from the whole guild Penny: you were an excellent ambassador not only for our group, but for quilting in general!
This year’s market was a huge temptation to all attendees and volunteers (if I qualify as a good example.) There were a few growing pains with the market, especially with set-up. It was not only our first time hosting a market, but also a first time for some of the participating businesses! However, most of the bugs were ironed out the first day, and the participants were very pleased with the turnout and the opportunity to advertise their stores. Apparently we quilters have a reputation for shop-hopping, and this was an excellent opportunity for out-of-town businesses to attract our patronage. They have all expressed interest in returning to our next show! The Royal Purple were so pleased about the turnout at the snack bar that they’ve already jotted down a few ideas for the next show! I think it would benefit the guild to consider bringing them back: most of their volunteers paid to come through the show! It also worked very well to have the snack area in with the market as many of us had time to spend more money as we enjoyed the coffee…
Take down was incredibly smooth, no doubt thanks to the continued excellent organization and the help from volunteers. It only took 20 minutes to collapse the stands, fold the quilts, and pile them by number. Everyone who arrived for pick up was pleased with the process and how much care was given to the safe-keeping of each item. Almost all the quilts were retrieved by 6:30 PM and the organizers went home to collapse.
The committee has taken the time to write out what they did well and generate ideas on how to improve for our next show. For instance, they probably won’t use straight pins again. (At least not without a larger stock of band-aids!) Lynne Reynar was hand-quilting during the show (you’ll have to ask her what), and this generated a large amount of interest from attendees. We could consider having members work on a few small projects or demos during different times of the show. They have other organizational ideas; such as signage and facilitating movement through payment lines during busy periods. If you have any suggestions please contact Carol LaRose.
Raffle: Helen from Sherwood Park Door Prizes: Joan from Red Deer and Delores from Edmonton Category: I don’t have a “hot scoop” for the category winners – that’s a guarded secret not to be announced until the November 10th meeting… I do have information about the organization of the winners: there is a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbon and small prize in each category, and a CQA (Canadian Quilter’s Association) ribbon for the “Best Of Show”. Winners will be asked to bring their winning quilt to the November meeting for pictures. (They won’t be told what prize or category they won so there will be surprises for us all!) The “Best of Show” picture and a small write-up will be submitted to the CQA for their next publication. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
