Quilt show disaster
 

I went to a small local quilt show/sale yesterday. The quilts were displayed on racks. . metal poles with flat rectangular metal bases. They had black fabric hanging from the cross bars between the quilts on either side and quilts were hung from skirt hangers. I don't know whose design they were. There were two rows with about 5 sections in each row, a center aisle, so let's say 20 "cubbies." Lots of vendors and other displays around the perimeter. Well, someone opened the main double door at the entrance, a gust of wind came in, took out the first "cubby" which started a domino effect and the entire quilt show went crashing down!!!There were some nice quilts too!! One person fell and hit her head but appeared to be fine when I saw her later. They dismantled everything and rolled out round tables and laid most of the quilts on them, but of course, we couldn't seen them nearly as well. I really felt sorry for everyone who put in so much work!!

So sad, I always had that nightmare when I helped to put on shows.

Gosh... How sad. Glad you are okay though and didn't get hurt in the mix.

hugs

Caroline

Oh no. How sad for the quilters. I hope the woman who fell was not badly hurt.

I can attest to how fragile some of those set ups can be. When Gus and I hung the junior show for our guild show this past summer, we had a rack topple over onto him. Fortunately that was during the hanging - so we could fix it and avoid that happening to someone else.

Cheers, K

Oh that is sad. I've seen some very bad set ups but I've never seen that happen.

That happened at our outdoor quilt show last April. The wind came gusting in the afternoon and we had to take down some of the quilts.

That is so awful!! I can only imagine how they must have felt! But, sounds like the show went on. Maybe next year's will be better.

You said it...disaster!! All of that work...

Learn and live - if nothing got torn or overly dirty - and no one got seriously hurt - - - -

majorly inconvenient -

Same thing happened at the Lancaster Quilt Show several years back. The quilts that fell like dominoes were the best-of-the-best, the ones that got all the prizes. This happened early in the day and when we returned later to see these quilts, they were still on the floor. As I recall the disaster was caused by a child in a stroller. I personally believe strollers and cargo carts should be banned particularly at a heavily attended show. Just me, but I have tripped over same too often.

That is really too sad. I know some guilds are small and funds are tight and lets face it, many of the racks eta all are just so expensive. Too bad we can't come up with an idea to display without ALL those middlemen.

We use the same set up of the base with poles but we put a second cross pole across the middle of each stand. It's very sturdy. Trying to save time or money by not having the second pole is a bad decision. If the bases aren't heavy then weight must be added using sandbags. We make our own sandbags so they would be pretty.

This is just awful. A true quilt show nightmare coming alive. All that work.....

Dina

One of our local guilds has really great racks. They "rent" them out to other groups that want to put on a show.

Wow...that is terrible, and I am glad the one who got hurt is ok.

One guild made new quilt show frames this year, of our own innovative design, and this was our greatest fear! We only had space to put up half of a frame (one side, which would hang six quilts), on a member's deck as a test, so when quilt show time came, we were all holding our breaths! All went well. :) Whew!