Success!

The show is over and all that is left to do is the final report, pack away pvc pipes and hooks, and pay the bills. It was a resounding success and all we heard were compliments. The only thing that could have been improved was the parking situation. Apparently a lot of students leave their cars on campus when they leave for Spring Break and those cars took up places that we could have used. Maybe next time we will offer valet parking, I think there are many people who would take advantage of that. Not me, I'm too cheap. And I can still walk without problems.

So here is the gym pre-setup. Very nice place, room for lots of quilts and vendors.

The truck from Reber-Friel showed up at 12:45PM, a few minutes early. I was overjoyed to see them and could feel the anxiety drain out of me. I could even eat my lunch.

The company is located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania which is near Philadelphia. It's nearly a 2 hour drive, so obviously they are willing to travel.

Unloading the equipment from the truck. The drapes were already threaded onto all the pipes. They came in and I pointed them in the right direction. Three hours later the system was entirely up and off they went.


Quilts began arriving at 3PM and my setup teams began hanging them. Every quilt had already been assigned a position and runners delivered them to their proper cubby.

You can see the tape on the blue floor mat. We did this because in previous years people caught their feet in the gaps on the mat. There is a tape designed specifically for taping these mats. It sticks very well, is quite sturdy, and comes up easily when you need to take it up.

Here is another view down the aisle. This looks sooooo professional.

The vendors were located around the outside wall of the gym.

Plenty of space for viewing the quilts.

This was serendipity. Because I could use 10 foot wide hanging walls, instead of only 8 with the previous system, there was a lot more room to hang the 285 quilts in the show. The original plan was to have a demonstration area along the outside wall, taking up 2 vendor slots. I was able to give them space on the quilt floor, more than what they had, and free up 2 more vendor slots. If I had figured that out sooner, we could have done more with this space than just demos. Next time, Make It and Take It classes!

Joan and Barb are thrilled with their space.

Attendance was better than ever before. Early reports on the receipts are extremely good. Everybody was just ecstatic about how wonderful the show looked. And it did look good. Having a professional pole and drape system makes a huge difference; takes the whole show out of the local-type show and puts it into a much higher category.

I sold some t-shirts, bamboo socks, and a 4"x4" mounted quilt in the Quiltique, the members' sale table. And oh joy! one of my quilts that was on display was purchased. The quilt is committed to the QSDS show in Columbus, Ohio at the Riffe Gallery, so she can't have it until late summer, but being in a show just enhances its value.

It was a strenuous weekend and I'm glad it's over. But it was a tremendous ego-booster for me. I got compliments all around on both the hanging of the show and my quilts that were featured. It was the perfect reward for all the hard work that went into the show. Not only my own hard work, but all the other committee chairs. In particular, the Publicity Committee did a spectacular job on publicizing the show. It doesn't matter how good the show looks or how many vendors are there if no one comes to the show. Publicity is the foundation that the rest of the show depends on. So thanks to one and all.