your ideas welcome
 

I am in the planning stages of organizing a quilt show in the lake country of Minnesota. Any ideas of how to go about displaying quilts? There is a community center that could be used for the show, but don't know how to "hang" quilts without going to a large expense. Any ideas?

Chairs placed on top of tables with the quilts draped over each chair is a nice look. Can get probably 3 chairs per table.

Our guild built a bunch of stands using plywood for the base, 3" PVC for the uprights, and wooden 2x2's (or maybe smaller) for the cross pieces. The stands aren't that hard to make, but storing them between quilt shows is a problem. A nearby guild made similar stands, and we get to use theirs (and they use ours) so that doubles the number for each of us. I've seen others made more simply using PVC with buckets of rocks holding the PVC upright. (The rocks were in plastic bags, making removal easier.) I'm attaching a few pictures to give you an idea.

Very nice!!!

We have wooden uprights for ours. Dunster's look better.

We have one person in charge of each quilt section (large, med., small, art, antique, wearable, etc. One group of DHs set up the stands. Several people take in quilts, everyone helps with setting up and taking down. The organization well in advance helps a lot. The "desk" has a box of exam gloves for anyone who wants to examine quilts more closely. One person types all the "histories", but guild members are encouraged to email them to her, so she can cut and paste,

On take down, there is only one exit open, which is tightly controlled. All quilts are piled by the last name of the quilter during take down, so the "runners" get all the quilts delivered and carefully checked out within about half an hour.

If there are to be judging and viewers' choice, make sure the standards are very clear.

Advance organization makes all the difference in a happy, successful show.