NWAMQG: Our First Modern Quilt Show

On April 13-14, 2018 the NWA MQG hosted the All Modern Quilts Show.

Our goal was to have a quilt show with all modern style quilts. For our first show we wanted to keep it simple and learn for the future. Everything came together nicely with so many people helping out as needed.

The show was a success as a fundraiser for our guild's future programs and the feedback was nothing but complimentary. We are planning the next show for April 17-18, 2020. Save the date.

Elements of our show:

142 quilts, pillows, totes on display. (representing 38 members)
Raffle Quilt
2 modern fabric vendors
Guild Store (members donated stash and quilt related items we sold)
NWA MQG 2018 QuiltCon Charity Quilt display
Memorial display
Past President and past Treasurer quilts display
Guild Challenges (over the past 5 years), items displayed together.
Viewers Choice voting, pick 3. 1st, 2nd, 3rd place awards were given.

Our new t-shirts are fantastic!

Some things that made the show easier and successful:

A venue with a lower rate. Less financial risk and stress of success.
Venue with plenty of tables and chairs to use as needed.
Another local guild had quilt racks and flags/yard signs to rent. Professional hanging with no upfront investments.
Facebook Event and having members share the link often.
Printed postcard flyers distributed to area shops and guilds.
Electronic quilt registration with Google forms. Great for organization, sharing, and making quilt labels.
Only NWA MQG members could exhibit. Nice representation of our guild and increased new memberships.
No time limit on when the quilt was finished. Being our first show with 6 months notice to members this was essential to have enough quilts.
Quilts larger than 40" x 40" had to have a hanging sleeve.
Experience. A hard working team of guild members and husbands with decades of experience in setting up, working, running, and taking down quilt shows with another local guild.
Mapping out the space before hand and placing painters tape marks on the floor.
Pre sorting out the smaller items we displayed them in a larger side room.
Labeling the back of each quilt with it's size, name, maker, and number.
Periodically tallying the viewers choice ballets. The end counting is faster this way.
Members received free admission. We had 52 of our 61 members present and availible at all times even if not volunteering at a work station.
Matching t-shirts in teal color made members easy to identify. Also we wore our handmade name tags.
2 hour volunteer work shifts, all seated jobs with chairs available.
Attendees were given a plastic food service glove to use to touch or see quilt backs.
Each quilt had a unique number on its front label and listed in the program.
Each quilt had a label printed from the registration form information. It included Quilt Number, Name, Maker, Quilter, size, description, modern characteristics, and challenge name if applicable.
Pre sold quilt raffle tickets at area guilds and events.

A few challenges we encountered:

Raffle license. Check with your state early and ensure you meet their requirements.
Weather. Heavy downpours Friday afternoon.

View when you first entered the gym.

A view down another row.

A view in the small quilts room.

The show was not professionally judged. We did however jury it to verify all quilts met at least one of the following characteristics of modern quilting as defined by the modern quilt guild:

bold colors and prints
high contrast and graphic areas of solid color
improvisational piecing
minimalism
expansive negative space
alternate grid work
"Modern traditionalism" or the updating of classic quilt design

We charged $5 for adults and kids under 18 were free. Attendees received this 2" complimentary sticker.

Raffle Quilt tickets were $1 or 6 for $5. Our quilt was reversible.

Reverse side. Catnip fabric donated by Gingiber.

Working on hanging the raffle quilt.

Quilts going up!

Sorting the labels in the small quilts room.

The setup crew on lunch break.

Admissions table.

Viewers Choice turn in.

Raffle quilt table.

Our Guild Store.

We were excited to meet some visitors from the Tulsa MQG!

In February 2018 our member Jeanie Schneider lost her battle with cancer. We arranged some of Jeanie's quilts for a memorial display.

President’s (and Treasurer’s) Quilts

Improv Log Cabins #1 – Therese Ramsey

Improv Log Cabins #2 – Hazel McFall

Therese and Hazel were founding members and leaders of our guild from 2013 - 2017.
The blocks for these quilts were made in 2017 by members of NWA MQG as a gift to Therese Ramsey in appreciation for her 4+ year tenure as Guild President. Therese, in turn, graciously shared some of the blocks with Hazel McFall for serving as her Treasurer for the same tenure.

A small committee of members organized the block design and made baggies of fabric and instructions. These were explained and distributed at our meeting, the month Therese was not present due to knee surgery. Members could add one piece of their own print fabric to the block. The whole project was done in secret from Therese. The blocks were collected over 5 months in secret at meeting check-ins. Months later we presented them to Therese and she was truly surprised!!

Note: Members were asked to make the improve log cabin block and use all extra fabric from the baggie to make any block design of their choice. Elizabeth Ray later arranged all these extra blocks into our raffle quilt top, Sonja Koch made a backing and did the quilting, with Dorothy Day finishing it with binding.

Challenges!

Our challenges are to help members grow and think as a quilter and meant for sharing and FUN FUN FUN!

The NWA MQG has frequent challenges. A quilt challenge is a theme or an idea that each member can then design a quilt or pillow around. At the monthly meeting when a challenge is due we have a big show and tell for the challenge items. It is always inspiring to create, try new things, and share these projects as a group. Many are displayed here at the show and will be indicated at the bottom of each quilt label. Here is a poster that summarized all our challenges since inception.

Flying Geese Challenge 2017
We had this challenge in parallel to the national MQG Flying Geese Challenge so members could enter it in QuiltCon if they wanted. Participants for this challenge were asked to modernize a traditional flying geese block (any variation is acceptable), and make it into a modern quilt using modern quilting elements.

Cotton & Steel Challenge 2015 (left side)
Cotton and Steel was a new modern fabric brand. The Cotton and Steel challenge came about when Therese and Hazel went to QuiltCon and were able to glean scraps from the C&S booth. Scraps were divided into small baggies, and we were to make what we could using the contents of the bag.

Greenery Challenge 2017 (middle and right sides)
The 2017 Pantone color of the year was Greenery. The NWA MQG piggybacked on a challenge some national bloggers (bryanhousequilts) hosted. The project was to contain Greenery or similar green. Other colors or neutrals were fine as long as Greenery was the feature color of the quilt.

Fox Hole Pillow Workshop 2017

Not a challenge but we hosted a Carl Hentsch lecture and workshop in October 2017. We had 20 members in the Fox Hole Pillow workshop from his book New York Beauties & Flying Geese. Many learned foundation paper piecing in the workshop. Carl was a great teacher with beautiful quilts we highly recommend inviting him to your guild.

Sample quilt label. Each quilt had a label including Quilt Number, Name, Maker, Quilter, size, description, modern characteristics, and challenge name if applicable.

Quilts made by the 3 winners of the lime, orange, grey wonky start block lotto in 2016. Debbie, Hazel, and Leeanna.

Marty, Hazel and Elizabeth with their SuperNova quilts from a local Jacquie Gering workshop.

Viewers' Choice Winning Quilts!

Kathy, Natalie, and Sonja.

First place, #55, Gravity by Natalie McCrory quilting by Sonja Koch.

Second place #4 Another Time Another Place by Natalie McCrory quilting by Sonja Koch.

Third Place #109 Smile by Kathy Garringer.

Vendor tables and Guild store.

Our 2 vendors were Owl and Drum and Gingiber. Both are friends of the guild and presented programs for us in 2017. Also they sell online so visit their stores wherever you are.