How often do you have a Quilt Show in your guild?
 

Our guild has had two wonderful quilt shows which have been two years apart. what are your thoughts on how often they should be held. Every two years or three years apart. The money raised helps support our guild in speakers and other activities, but the shows are a lot of work. We will be voting on this but I just would like to get some of your thoughts.

In my area, there are several quilt shows in surrounding cities and towns. They are all put on every two years. Yes, they are a lot of work, but so much fun to go to.

Can you give me pros and cons of two vs. three years please?

Our guild does one every two years. People know when to look to the information and we do a raffle quilt in conjunction with the show, Yes it is a lot of work but the up side is the money for good programs. Every three years makes it harder for your followers' to keep track. Another guild in a nearby town has theirs the year we do not so it works well for the area.

one guild, which is quite large, puts on a show every year. my other guild is every two years as the nearby communities also have shows. this allows the $$ to be spread evenly in the communities that don't have many residents.
i would not like a 3-year schedule.

Our guild which has 113 members, most over 60 years old, puts on a show every 3rd year....and it's a massive, exhausting undertaking for so many of us with physical limitations.

Jan in VA

Can your group produce enough quilts in two years to create a good show?
Would there be too many if it was a 3 yr spread?

ITA for those attending it is probably easier to keep track of an every 2 yr schedule.
And too, it might be easier to keep your Guild Members interested if it is alternate years.
With so far between for a 3 yr spread, it might be hard to get the motivation back up to make it happen

Maybe instead of thinking of how much work the show is ...
... perhaps consider what can be done to make the work easier and more manageable for those involved.

If the show's purpose is as a fundraiser ...
... then perhaps considerations should be given towards other ways of making the $$
...... or reducing the budgetary requirements.

I belong to 3 guilds - large, medium, and small (just like Goldilocks). Each one has a quilt show on a 2-year schedule. The smallest guild (around 30 members) had an annual show until a few years ago, when we voted to change to once every 2 years. It is still a lot of work, and like Tartan I would gladly change to a 5-year schedule. This year it stormed on the day of the show, and we had fewer than 50 paid admissions (but we still made money with the auctions and sales). We accept quilts from the community (no charge to display them) and we have not had problems coming up with enough quilts every 2 years. The arguments that were given in favor of keeping to the one-a-year schedule were that the people in the community would be used to coming every year and would forget about the show if it were held every two years, and that the show was our big money maker. The arguments in favor of a one-every-two-years schedule were that it was a lot of work, and we could (and did) find other ways to raise money (sales of excess donated fabric and sewing supplies, proceeds used to buy batting for comfort quilts).

We are a small group of 30 people, but less than half of that is active and involved in what we do. We have a small quilt show every year at our public library. The quilts hang for about a month. Our guild does a challenge of wall hangings and we have a peoples choice award. We have a "social" at the end. There is usually 35-30 quilts. We also enter area shows that are open to the public. We also have a county fair where most of the quilts entered are from out guild. We also enter area quilt shows. I think it is important to show your work once in awhile, regardless of your ability level, as it gives you a chance to show other people what you are happy with, and it pushes you to get better at techniques.