Today we started setting up NYQuilts! – Looms for months and then BANG it’s here and then even quicker – it’s over. Our week goes like this:
Wednesday: Get racks out of storage, bring them to Sage and set the racks out on the floor where they’ll be during the show. Start bringing other things onto site as well including office stuff. Head up to the registrar’s house and pack quilts for delivery to show on
Thursday: Quilts arrive at show. A bevy of volunteers take them off the rental truck and into the gym, finds where they go and then starts to put them up. They have about an hour and a half head start before the judges arrive. The quilts go up pretty quickly although it’s a lot of work. Our racks make it easier than banging wood racks together, but if you haven’t used them before it’s not obvious how it works.
Thursday evening: judges and any instructors who have arrived, and committee folks who want to go out to dinner somewhere in Troy. quiet night because we’re usually pooped
Friday: more judging, this time with the friday night preview looming. Invitationals get hung – these are antiques and special groups of quilts that are in the show. We also have an annual special display of “Featured NY Quilter” – a resident NY quilter who has a body of work. We want not only to display the quilts but to have the quilter come to NYQuilts! for the weekend to meet show goers.
Vendors arrive and set up. Many set up details to attend to.
Judging done – run around putting ribbons on the quilts (after everyone else has left. Grab a quick dinner (usually we bring in Boston Market) and get changed for the opening. Preview is 7-9 pm for registrants and quilt registrants. Special awards are announced.
Collapse quietly. Oh no – wait – usually the board has a small private celebration.
Saturday 9 AM – doors open. Class(es), Lecture at 1, featured quilter at 3. Hopefully no crisis along the way. Show closes at 5. Dinner and then show and tell with ice cream social following at 7:30.
Sunday – 9-5 show. Take down looms large. Much to do in a very short time. Whereas set up takes several days, take down happens within about an hour and a half. Keeping things controlled is a priority – to make sure that quilts go home with people they’re supposed to and others are ready to ship back. Thankfully, people coming to retrieve their quilts are good about helping take down.
when the last quilts are packed and everything we brought is back in the cars, we’re off to bring quilts back to registrar for pick up by UPS. normally we leave some vendors still packing up.
SO many things happen during the weekend – so many problems big and small to resolve. Many people make this show possible and understand what it takes. Some show goers just enjoy the quilts and don’t have any idea. That’s OK, but it’s good to know the labor involved as well. today for instance, 9 people moved 180 bases and 400+ pieces of conduit from storage, moved it out of the truck and into the gym and set most of it up on the gym floors. Didn’t take a long time but it was very physical work. All of that has to go back into storage on Sunday night. The people who did the work today will be very tired on Sunday.
There are many jobs which need doing. I’ve come to especially value people who take on jobs and do them reliably without prompting, without worry, who keep me occasionally informed about where they are. Priceless.
One of my main jobs at the quilt show is to listen to folks who have questions and complaints. I listen and I explain. I find that many times these people have no understanding of what’s involved or why things happen a particular way. I do my best to help them understand. Often I ask them to volunteer in the future. :-)
