Thimble Pleasures Quilt Guild Show

Worked a booth at the Thimble Pleasures Quilting Guild's bi-annual quilt show.

This is an invitation-only guild full of talented quilters. I'd heard that they were a pretty traditional group and was expecting to see a lot of well executed but old fashioned style quilts. That is so not what I found. There was a fantastic range of quilting styles and technical difficulty. The thing that most suprised me, though, was the "bling factor." There were a bunch of pieces, big and small, that made use of beading and, my personal fav', hot fix crystals.

Way cool.

As soon as I get a moment, I'll post some pics of the show. Which leads me to another thought - I give BIG credit to this particular guild for two things that I appreciated most about the show:

1. They not only had hostesses (aka white glove ladies) out on the floor of the show, but they had the gloves on a table at the entrance so anyone could take a pair and touch the quilts for themselves. Great idea.

2. They allowed pictures! Kudos to them! I love being able to catalogue a show I've been to and remember not only the best pieces on display, but the overall feel of the show itself. Lots of other guild shows will hunt you down and practically draw-and-quarter people with cameras. Shame.

From a vendor perspective, it was a great venue. The guild members were very supportive and stopped at the booth often. Lots of them bought, which i appreciated immensely. Also liked the hospitality area - lots of goodies and a nice quiet place to take a breather.

Heard they had around 800 attendees on Saturday and, by my estimation, at least 300 on Sunday. Great turnout, no doubt due to their excellent marketing.

Events like this are always an exhausting pain in the ass for vendors, but usually are worth it. We made a lot of contacts and let a lot of people know about the shop I work at. Might have sold a couple machines too, which would make me happy.

Other random observations about the show... men and kids got in free, so there were a lot of them, which was very cool and definately added something to the crowd... they did a scavenger hunt for kids - they had to find stuff on the quilts in the show... great documentation on the quilts... totally not boring (yay!)... just the right amount and mix of vendors... fun charity events... I bought, like $20 worth of rafle tickets and didn't win the show quilt or one of the damn goody baskets (sigh)...high-class... all of the show workers were extremely friendly and non-snobby.

Gotta say, this whole 'sewing for a living' thing is... interesting. It's been a tough transition out of the corporate world. There are benefits and pitfalls to depending on your passion to make a living... particularly when I'm not really working at my true passion, but sort of a division of it.

This bliss-as-vocation topic is best explored in another entry.