Our Show Opens!

 

After all the receiving, judging, hanging, labeling, decorating, printing, and lots more . . . we had an entry hall full of people waiting to see our our show when the doors opened, in spite of a wet, humid high 80s morning. And they were not disappointed.
We have 340 quilts plus a Hoffman Challenge exhibit. We have a silent auction, boutique, 20 vendors, hallway display of quilters' other activities, free lectures every hour, door prizes, even chairs placed about the exhibit hall to sit and rest your feet.
It was rewarding to see ribbons on four of my five entries (pictures in yesterday's post). I presented a lecture on Creativity, where I enjoyed showing more of my work and discussing what inspires me.

White glove duty is my favorite quilt show task, because it allows me to circulate and see friends and also answer questions asked. It is quite satisfying to help people understand techniques they see, as well as how the quilts are categorized. For instance, TA means Team Applique; THMS means Theme Small; ART means Art (easy one); then there's ME/S/WC/O, which means Machine Embroidery, Stitchery, Whole Cloth, Other (needs explaining). 

A day at the show leaves my feet and knees screaming, but after a meal and visit at Patio 44 with friends, I still was able to catch part of Back Door Coffee House at University Baptist Church to hear Oh Jeremiah (local singer) and Laura Dragon (author of Hurricane Boy). All in all a most enjoyable day! And there are two more, especially nice because of a cool front with 59 degrees and bright sunshine.
The cats are not pleased; in fact, I hear "Oh, rats . . . she's leaving us all day again!"

Tarbaby and Rah-Rah

Countdown to Show Time

Our Show Catalog

Our guild's show, Pine Belt Quilters 15th Biennial Fiber Art & Quilt Show, opens tomorrow in Hattiesburg, MS. Lake Terrace Convention Center's exhibit hall is filled with 340 judged quilts plus a Hoffman Challenge trunk show.
Linda Flanders prepares an 8-1/2" x 11" first-class show catalog which contains descriptions of all the entries plus sponsors, vendors, some guild history, and map of the show. My responsibilities have been helping to proof this catalog and to solicit sponsors and ads. My last task has been to prepare the winners pages, which can't be done until the judging is completed and all awards selected. Keeping tabs on all the numbers, quilt names, makers' names, and awards is a daunting task, but lots of checking and cross-checking gets it as accurate as possible. 

I have five entries in the show. Here they are.

High Rise, 2nd in Pieced-Small Category

Leaf Study: Crotons, 2nd in Art Category

Color Bars: Yellow, HM in Pieced-Small Category

Tribute to Tigger, HM in Zoo Challenge Category

Fish Out of Water

The show opens tomorrow and runs for three days.

Finishing Up Quilt Show Entries

The fun part was making these pieces; the boring part is sewing on labels and sleeves. But it has to be done to finish the job. I usually locate a slat the right size and mark it with the quilt's name so it is ready to hang. But these are going into our Pine Belt Quilters show in a couple of weeks, so no slats needed yet.

The piece I am donating to the silent auction is nearly ready, but I gave up finishing the binding until Rah-Rah was through with her bath.



I'll need to use lots of painter's tape to remove all the cat hair.

Finding My Way . . . and Showtime

Here it comes, ready or not! When I sew on one more label, I will have completed all my entries for the show. We are allowed only two per category, and I have entered eleven pieces in five categories. Whew! Glad to have everything finished. Well, almost everything--still need to turn in a piece for the silent auction. An interesting aspect of our show will be the Miss Hattie's Hat Challenge sponsored by the Hattiesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. Below is their logo (which I have permission to use), but I will wait until after the show to post a picture of my challenge piece.

I pulled out from a closet a mariner's compass project I had started about 12 (?) years ago and finished it this summer. I had designed an expanded compass for the center in a Judy Spahn class years ago and added 8" compasses all around on a black sugar-dot background. It was hand-pieced, with a hand-pieced border around the octagon shape, squared off with four large corner blocks and more 8" compasses. My husband kept saying it was too beautiful to stop before full bed quilt size, so I kept trying to elongate the design without liking the results, hence the reason it lived in the closet for so long. Finally I saw that I needed to follow my own creative instincts and finish it in the way I was visualizing it. All this thinking brought about its real name--no longer just "the Mariner's Compass Quilt," but "Finding My Way." It's 65" square.

Center block is approximately 20" across; round blocks are 8".

We wanted to grow to a bigger show, and, working with the Hattiesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau (http://www.visithattie.com/) and the Hattiesburg Convention Commission, we will display almost 500 quilts on October 10-11-12 at Lake Terrace Convention Center at the intersection of I-59 and U.S. Hwy. 49.

In addition to the 480 judged show entries, we will have a silent auction of wall quilts plus a special exhibit of 12 of Vicksburg master quilter Martha Skelton's quilts. The new book, Martha Skelton: Master Quilter of Vicksburg (by Mary Elizabeth Johnson and MQA, through University Press of Mississippi), will be available during the show through Main Street Books.