QuiltFest is born! Hanging the quilts...

Here we go! It's time to create a quilt show.

Every day I will include the view from the main entrance, looking into the show, and down along the front wall.

The decorating company came in early in the morning and put up the poles and drapes according to a carefully drawn floor plan. Each quilt's ID number is plotted to go in in place with the others in its category.

It doesn't look like much until the quilts are all up

Lots of space available...but wait until you see what goes here!

The QuiltFest is hung in the mail exhibit hall of the Prime Osborn Convention Center, Jacksonville, FL. It has grown a bit over the last few years and now the entire room is used. This is the same space used by the big boat show, food conventions, and the Home & Patio show .
The back half of the hall is for the vendors, food court, and activities. All that will be moved in tomorrow.

Today a sea of cement flooring....on Thursday, this will be where we look for PIE!

In this next picture you see the quilts ready to go up. They are safe in their bags, waiting for a team of hangers with a sheet for the floor, a step ladder, and hooks & chains to suspend the quilts in front of the black drapes.
The white rods slip into the sleeve that must be on the back of each quilt. When the show asks for a 4" sleeve, it's because something needs to slide easily inside it...so the rod won't harm your quilt! A narrow sleeve is hard to use and the hangers worry about hurting your quilt. Or they may not have anything that will fit inside!

We also like nice BIG bags for the quilts...some are really hard to get the quilts in and out of as we have to do at least 4 times before it comes back to you!

Oh, look! It's Perky Old Men, making its (their?) quilt show debut! No ribbon for this one, but I am exceedingly pleased that it already has people talking and laughing...those are my best rewards!

POM has no border...it's floating there on the black drape!

I did not want to harass the busy workers by taking their pictures (myself included!). Everyone got down to business and had the quilts all up by 2:30...including a nice sandwich lunch break.
Then it was time to get the vendor booths marked with the names taped to the floor. When they arrive tomorrow it will be easy for them to find their spaces.
As I left, the signs for each quilt with its number and brief description were still being carefully pinned in place. If you have not be involved in a show, you would not believe the details to attend to!

I took a couple of the same from-the -entrance pictures as I left:

Lookin' good in the Large Quilts category! All the bags from this row are in that basket, ready to be stashed away and return when the show comes down.

Still not very exciting up front ...but just wait!

Several of us set our car's trip meters to see how many miles we will end up driving back and forth to the show. It takes me about half an hour to get there, if the traffic is OK.
Tomorrow morning I'll be taking my quilts down to inventory them in the Sale Room (and to give you a peak at that, plus the vendors set-up!). Then it's another trip in the evening for the Preview Party.
After having some "heavy hors d'oevres" (I had to look up that spelling!) it's a wonderful time to see the quilts (vendors are not open), take pictures, and generally schmooze with quilters from far and wide.
So join me tomorrow evening for the celebration of having the show up....but the work is never done!