Putting on a quilt show!

The Show opens this morning and it has been a busy week getting ready for it! Tuesday and Wednesday were spent judging the over 200 quilts entered in the judged show with several dozen people assisting judge Anita Shackelford. On Wednesday as we stayed cool at the judging location the quilt racks and other show
"stuff" were transported from the Guild's storage area to the location of the Show at Century II in downtown Wichita. Moving enough racks to display over 900 quilts is a major undertaking and involved trucks, a forklift and a team of men from an excavating company that one of the Show Committee members works for.  On Wednesday the racks were laid out according to the Show floorplan in preparation for the quilts arriving on Thursday.

On Thursday the quilts were delivered from drop-off points all over town to Century II.

The Processing Committee was waiting to check them in.

Our local Dillon's store is nice enough to let us borrow shopping carts to move the quilts around Century II. Whoever thought of this deserves a medal!  Century II is a huge space and this saves time and energy.

And the quilts start to go up.  Vendors are also starting to set up so the loading dock doors are open and there is no air conditioning.  With temperatures in the 90's it it steamy hot inside Century II.  In the afternoon once the loading dock doors are shut the air conditioning comes on and that big space starts to cool down.

Here is the show floor a few hours later.  All the work is done by Prairie Quilt Guild members and any family members and friends they can finagle into helping.

Here are our Show Co-Chairs (they are sisters) Jackie Clark and Tamara Gonzales.  They have a HUGE job!
They also get to zoom around the show in cute little scooters.

Here is the Red and Green exhibit exhibit from the American Quilt Study Group going up.

Kendra and her mother Phyllis are decorating the stage area used for demos and the mini quilt auction.

Here it is a few hours later.

Guild members donate mini quilts for an auction, the proceeds of which fund Grants for school programs teaching quilting.

This is Olivia, chair of the Grant Committee in the booth displaying some quilts from schools receiving grants in the last 2 years.

At the top of this post is our Opportunity Quilt with me the quilter, Deb Johnson the quilt designer and Peter the quilt husband.  It won Best of Show in the judged show!

On with the Show!