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Maine Quilts–before the show opens…
Have you ever wondered what a quilt show looks like before the quilts are hung? I always had, and two years ago when I first volunteered to help hang the quilts, I got an inkling. With permission from the powers that be at Maine Quilts, I took some photos during set-up this year for sharing on my blog. Here,
The quilts have arrived. Since quilts come in from the entire state, there are regional drop-off centers (most often quilt shops) where they are logged in as they arrive. Entrants must fill out their forms and place their quilts in a pillowcase or cloth bag, then deliver their babies to the drop-off point the Saturday before the show opens. A volunteer for each drop-off point then drives all the quilts to Augusta where the show is held at the Civic Center. If, like me, you have “fussy” quilts that need special handling, you may ask for special permission to hand-deliver your quilt on the Wednesday before the show, when the quilts are hung.
This photo is looking down the center aisle toward the main entrance. The juried quilts are on the left, the display section is on the right, and special exhibits are either in the first aisle or the last aisle or two (depending on how many special exhibits). Fortunately, the Civic Center is adding black drapes. The blue ones aren’t so bad but those faded burgundy..well…bleah! They suck the life out of some quilts…. Anyway, the juried quilts are hung first so they are up and done in time for judging on Thursday (the show previews on Thursday evening and opens for Friday, Saturday and Sunday).
Those wood slats are for hanging the quilts. My dream is that someday the Civic Center will have ALL black drapes, then we can spray paint the used-for-years slats so they disappear against the drapes. In the meantime, Paula was responsible for one of the best improvements in the hanging process this year, bagging hanging loops in pairs by quilt number–saved a TON of time and frustration. Nancy Z. is responsible for the other great improvement…for quilts hung one above the other, the lower quilt had loops that were adjustable with toggles (you know those push-clamp-gizzies on the drawcords of parkas?). This made leveling the quilts a breeze! Thanks Paula and Nancy!!!!
Here’s the aisle that I helped hang, which included the art quilts in the juried section and the special exhibits from the Art Quilts Maine chapter.
Here are some ladies hanging a large quilt in the Display section…as you can see it takes teamwork to get the quilts up and level. Someone several years ago designed a spreadsheet that is fantastic…each aisle has a layout of which quilts in order, their width, which size bar is needed, how many inches between the quilts and (another new and appreciated item) a 12 inch wooden ruler to measure the distance between quilts so you don’t reach the end of the row with too much or not enough room!
One of the best parts of hanging is getting a sneak peek at the quilts. I got to hang my own Naiads, and it was in great company.
To the right is Mathea Daunheimer’s Rooflines quilt (which hoooray for her! got juried into Tactile Architecture in Houston at the big International Quilt Festival), plus another of Mathea’s pieces and two tigers from Rana O’Connor. I’ll show you a close up of Rana’s two tigers in my next post, but wow! I’m thrilled to have met her a couple years ago; she lives down near Portland and I wish our paths crossed occasionally….for now, just occasional e-mail.
I’ll be back with a post in a couple of days. Thanks to the wonders of WordPress I can write my blogs BEFORE I head out the door, then they “publish” when I set the date. That means I’ll have goodies for you while I’m off teaching at the Images quilt show / Lowell (Mass.) Quilt Festival.
Cheers, Sarah
August 5th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I loved this, Sarah. I am wondering if I could share parts of it in an upcoming Quilter’s World e-newsletter. I would need a few of the photos, which I think I can just drag to my desktop from this message. I would want to share some of the copy as it is written and write my own commentary to go with it.
What do you think? There is no payment for this, but I could give your Web Site address so readers can visit your site, if you wish.
You can go to the Web site above and find archived newsletters so you can see the flavor of what I write about.
Let me know your thoughts. Sandra L. Hatch, editor, Quilter’s World.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I was so excited to see photos of the Augusta Civic Center. I used to live in Oakland, ME. My mom and dad still live there and I am going to visit them next month. I wish I could be there for the quilt show but that isn’t going to happen. I’ve told my mom to go to the show. I know she’s been before. I wish I lived closer to my parents. Wisconsin is too far away. I hope you have a great show but any quilt show is a great quilt show in my opinion.