Anyone else disappointed in Quilt Extravaganza in Oaks, PA
 

My quilting group (not an official guild) just came back from the Quilt Extravaganza in Oak, PA. We have been going to this show for several years. We were so disappointed. The quilts were beautiful, but where were all the vendors? We usually look forward to seeing the same vendors year after year, but so many of them were not there this year. I don't go to buy shoes or jewelry - I go to see the new patterns and fabrics and machines, etc.

As a group of good friends we had a great weekend, visiting our usual shops in the Lancaster area. I sure spent enough money at the shops, but paying $14.00 each to get into the show seemed like a waste. We may not go back next year. Just disappointed.

My friends and I were also disappointed. We said the same things you are saying......less vendors than last year and lots of jewelry, scarves, shoes and hand lotion stands. I don't go to show to buy those kinds of things!!! It wasn't worth our 2 hour drive and the $14 to get in. I bought 3 things.......a pattern, a stencil and a growth chart panel. I usually find a lot more things there!! Hershey, PA is still my favorite show.

I usually go every year, glad I didn't go this year. My friends who go with me all had other plans.

Check with the organizers. Maybe they raised the booth fees so high that vendors worried they wouldn't be able to recoup their costs and decided to skip that particular show. Feedback from you and your friends might be helpful.

We had a lot less vendors at the San Diego Quilt Show too. it was held the weekend after Labor Day. Once I was asking a vendor at the Road to CA why she never came to San Diego - they are 8 months apart and separated by 100 miles. She said it was because she didn't travel after Labor Day. They have school aged children. She only came to The Road show was due to the size. (That show is crowded from the time it opens tip it shuts down.)

I noticed the same thing at the show this organizer puts on in No. Jersey as well last year. Obviously something to do with the organizer. Maybe they just don't have the incentives that some of the other quilt show organizers do any longer. I don't remember this being the case several years previously at the show in No. Jersey (sorry - don't remember the name of the show).

I said exactly the same thing. The first show I ever attended was Lancaster, and since then I've been to Baltimore, Hunt Valley, MD and Oaks and none could hold a candle to Lancaster. The big sewing machine brands were there represented by local dealers, as were Marathon and Superior threads, but I was really disappointed. Will skip next year.

I am part of the committee putting on a Quilt Show....Oct. 3-4, 9-6, Wichita Falls, TX....www.wichitafallsquiltguild.org....(in case you live nearby!!!) and it has been extremely difficult getting vendors this year. Our show is not large and not small, and we did get enough vendors to fill up our available spaces, but it wasn't easy. Perhaps the folks in charge of the shows you are talking about had the same problem? I would guess that we contacted hundreds of vendors, and we started asking over a year before our show. Many had quit going to shows that are our size, many had decided it was too much trouble to pack up and go places, some were just not in business anymore, and some just said no. (In case you are curious, we will have 16 vendors....listed on our website and we have over 100 quilts....like I said, not large show, not small show.)

I know that getting vendors just isn't as easy as it used to be....

Dina

Many vendors I have seen at past quilt shows were at or reaching retirement age. I think many have just gotten to the point they can't do it anymore or have given it up. The names we have come to know, if they don't have someone taking over for them then we won't see them as vendors. I haven't seen many young vendors at the quilt shows lately. The brand name companies have employees that do the shows as their job. I know the first time I went to Paducah was the best. Each year the show gets a little more not quiet like it use to be as compared to that first one.

I've been to shows with nothing but vendors. no quilts on display at all. or they are hung at ceiling height!