quiltingshorttimer

for those of you in guilds that host shows, do you have outside speakers? do you have boutique booths with member created items? do you have tables for scrap bags for sale? what about magazines for sale? do you charge members admission fee or waive if working? exhibiting? lastly, are these 2 days, 1 day, 3 day in lenght?

thanks!

Onebyone

Whatever the guild votes to do is what we do. It changes as each show we learn things to do and not do, what is profitable and what is a loss, what is popular and what doesn't draw attention. Mostly it depends on the committee and who wants to deal with it.

RedGarnet222

I don't belong to a guild, but, that being said, I go to the show most of the time and have been friends with ladies that have been in the local guild. They have trunk shows by outside well know speakers, small hour long classes you can pay to attend. Separately there is a members "country store" that they sell the members handmade items and used quilting items. Such as patterns, fabric, quilt kits,used sewing machines, and magazines. Plus other miscellaneous items like scissors and hoops or threads and buttons. It is set up like one of the regular booths, except it is for the members. The last hour of the quilt show the whole booth sells at fifty percent off. Which keeps the storage of unsold items down to a minimum.

There is also a huge area of tables where the guild members have donated items to sell tickets for each item on the tables. They draw the name out of large jars that you put your tickets into. (one jar is by each item) This is the last thing they do at the end of the quilt show. There is anything from stuffed animals, a basket with a table runner kit, to a set of machine embroidered blocks or some hand dyed batiks. A really fun and I am sure profitable part of their show. The tickets sell for 3 for five dollars. There is also a guild feature quilt made to buy tickets for too. The proceeds go to the local women's shelter.

The guild does charge a yearly fee to belong. This offsets the room rental in a building they meet at bi monthly and some speakers to come give classes to the members. There are holiday parties and contests between them to make things lively.


The show here used to be three days but has gone down to only two now. And it is held only every two years. You see the guild in carson city( a neighboring city to reno) holds one every other year, so it works out fine and the cost is cut to the guild.

GEMRM

Our guild recently had a show, after a 5 year gap. Two days.
Raffle quilt with tickets for sale by members prior to show as well as at the show. Winning ticket drawn at end of show.
Tombola - small items made by guild members like wallhangings, placemats etc and tickets sold like a penny sale - (paid $5 for a bunch of tickets with the same number, drop your tickets into whichever item drew your fancy , at the end of the show, draw for who won which item).
Boutique of items made by members for sale to attendees - no magazines, patterns, fabric etc out of respect to vendors in the vendors mall. Percentage of sales was taken by guild.
Some vendors set up around edges of show.
Members charged admission unless working that day/time.
It was my first experience with helping with a show, as I had joined since the previous show.

Added:
The intent of the show was to showcase what our guild does. There was an area showcasing the charity work we do.
The financial goal was to not lose money. Raffle quilt proceeds went to charity work (I think I'm remembering correctly).
There was a lunch counter as well.

dunster

Every guild is different, and every guild's show has its own character, which sometimes varies year to year. I've belonged to 5 guilds (not all at once). All but one had quilt shows, but they were all very different and all interesting.

toverly

Our show in Pensacola is every two years. It's for Friday and Saturday at our fairgrounds hall. There is a boutique where each member is asked to contribute two items. The small items sell well. Also someone can sell on commission if they have larger quilts they would like to sell. We don't bring in a speaker, but we do bring in an outside judge. There is sometimes a "bed turning" where a few of our great quilters will talk about there quilts. The speaker talks about each quilt and two members turn the quilts up that are piled up on a real bed. The last show there were 2 1/2 inch strip in a kiddie pool and there was a fill your bag with scraps price. I'm not sure that went over very well. We also have made up sets of blocks. So someone industrious can purchase coordinating block and make their own quilt. All the blocks are the same pattern. The best advice I can give it go to shows in your area and see what you would like to do.

Batik 54

I have been belonged to a Guild for 10 years and joined because I won the raffle quilt at the quilt show. We have a show every 2 years. The money we raise from the show funds our programs for the next two years. We make a raffle quilt and sell chances about 4 months before the show and including the show. We draw at the end of the show. The raffle quilt makes the most money. We have vendors which we charge the vendor for their space which covers the rent of the high school. This show we had 300 quilts and our show is judged ( 110 quilts), put you can display a quilt without it being judged. When we went to a certified judge some of our members feelings were hurt by comments and decided that they did not want their quilts judged. So the only quilts which receive ribbons are the judged quilts, but they all hang together. On the card that describes the quilt it states if it is judged or non judged. We have a bed turning, raffle baskets, bake sale (new last quilt show did great, but this quilt show it's sales were down, too many cupcakes and not enough pie), gifted quilter where you can buy small quilted items like table runner, pot pads, etc. We have a "trash and treasurers" the vendors do not feel it conflicts because it is mostly scrap fabric, old magazines and occasionally some thread or gently used rulers. Items we usually have on our free table on an off quilt show year. The year of the quilt show there is no free table at meetings the donations go to the show. We have a local restaurant do a food stand so our workers don't have to leave and people who visit can be a BBQ for lunch. We have the judging and setup on Friday and the show on Saturday and Sunday. We usually raise enough money we can bring in some real good speakers. We live in a rather small town, have about 400 paid admissions to the show which does not include out members (110) because we do not pay. Our guild has members from about a 30 mile radius.