Patchwork Corner 10th aniversary show

I had hoped to get these up sooner, but I spent yesterday recovering from the show and working on making a pattern. These are just a few pictures from the exhibition this weekend. As you can see there were a lot of quilts there and the hall was full. It wasn't long ago when Jenny was quite worried she wouldn't have enough quilts then at the last minute there was a rush. From 20 to over 80 in a little over a week. 

Thursday night we got into the hall and saw the stands for the first time. They all went up surprisingly quickly but then we could see how huge they really were. How would we fit all the quilts in? Well there wasn't time to worry so we started hanging and just worked at doing out best. After two rounds of synchronised frame dancing we did it. There were only 4 student/customer quilts that didn't get hung, and many thanks to my students who were very understanding about this. By the end of the night we knew we had done everything we could and now it was out of our hands.

Friday morning we found a queue of people waiting to come in. Surprising but wonderful. The whole day was busy with a steady stream of people in and out. I was pleased we could send them down to the shop for their cream teas as it stopped the hall getting too crowded.  I'm not sure how the shop coped though. It's a lot smaller than the hall.

As well as talking to the visitors I was demonstrating frame quilting. I love getting the chance to show people how frame quilting works as it still seems to be very misunderstood. It's also a nice home set up so I have no qualms about helping sell them. It's the Husqvarna Megaquilter and frame set up. It's a joy to load and I wish my frame was as easy. I've never been a fan of pins and I have to use a lot of them to load a quilt on my system.

Saturday was a little quieter. Frankly that was a relief. I was exhausted after the Friday despite Dougs stready supply of refreshments. I guess that the cream teas still went very well as the ones that made it up to us were a lot smaller on the Saturday :) Doug is famous for his cream teas and justly so. 

The Home workshop were with us for both days with a selection of their books. It was great to be talking to someone and not only be able to say, there's a book on that, but be able to show them it too. I hope some of them sold. They also brought their small person with them. They seem to be trying to lead her astray already and I am sure she would love to have a quilting frame, she seemed really interested in the idea of drawing with a sewing machine.

Saturday evening the team appeared to get the show down. Boy was it quick to pack away. It's amazing how much faster take down is than set up, even when you have exacly the same amount of stuff to move. I guess it helps having gravity working with you. I can't wait to find out who won the visitors choice. I know there were two very popular quilts, but there were also a lot of votes. It was fun to see people suddenly realise how hard it is to find the best quilt in the show. 

Now I have a customer quilt I need to get done and then I have to get back to some of my work. So enough talking and off to work I go.