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| Me and my quilts have had a very long day.... |
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| Not even this much light on my quilt and the side was crumpled into the corner..... |
My mom and I toured the entire quilt show together and then I noticed this quilt of mine in a sort of the middle to the back quilting bay. Across from that bay, but over on the side so a little harder to get full view, was one of the quilts I had brought for my friend. Okay, not too bad considering I'm not part of the guild and was 'late' getting my quilts there. Both quilts were fairly well lit and you could see every bit of each quilt.
A couple quilting bays later {one filled with Christmas quilts} I noticed that they had lined a narrow hallway area behind the main quilting area with quilts. Mom and I wandered down through there and noticed that other than one more quilting bay {filled with antique quilts} that was all the rest of the quilts in the show--a dead end! My friends second quilt was directly beside that last quilting bay and then farther on down this narrow hallway was a couple other non-showy quilts and then finally two more of my quilts--very bad lighting and no room to see anything. Turn the corner one at a time {or shove someone into a quilt} and the hallway narrowed down even further into an isosceles triangle.
Guess where the other three quilts were? Jammed into that little corner with the Fire Quilt right up at the narrow point. You can see more of the quilt in the previous picture here on my blog than you could see of it at the quilt show! Crazy huh? The light was behind all these quilts because they were directed toward the main part of the quilt show so it was very shadowy and dark. This made it completely impossible to read the bottom {almost 5" tall} letters on my quilt. The lettering on the baskets were also indecipherable and because of the fact that the quilt was crammed into a corner, we couldn't get far enough back to 'see' the quilt as a whole. Or a half? If I stood all the way against the wall across from my quilt, I could reach out my hands and touch the quilt. Wow. Just wow.
Okay. Thinking back, They said I was 'late' for the drop off. Combing local papers, I found a July 13, 2015 notice to the public, never mind an email. 'The guild is accepting entries for the show. Entries must be dropped off at the Pateros Central Building between 7 and 8 a.m. Saturday.
Check. I got there in plenty of time. Hmm... Apparently they had two empty slots for quilts in the middle/back part of the quilt show for some reason. Right? Otherwise how did they find room for two of my late arriving quilts. Oh. Maybe they actually moved a couple quilts? Rearranged some? Again. I don't expect preferential treatment, I'm just glad to see my quilts hung with other community members quilts {and guild politics can probably be brutal}. But why those two and not my fire quilt? Really?
Honestly I felt kind of shunned. It was the only 'Pateros' quilt. It was the only 'Fire' Quilt. It was the only one of its kind and it felt really in tune with the entire memorial theme of the weekend. First anniversary of the fire! Thank you everyone who helped last year! Yay! We survived! Everywhere you turned there was something about the whole fire anniversary and the guild didn't think my quilt was relevant enough to put it out where we could actually see it? My two nieces toured the quilt show and couldn't find more than my one {well lit} quilt until they came back later with my daughter, who showed them the rest of the quilts hiding in the back. How many other people didn't realize there were quilts back there? My oldest daughter told me she couldn't take my pictures, there simply wasn't room and the lighting was horrible. It just seemed pointless.
It was crazy. It was terribly disappointing and I just wanted to cry. When I picked up my quilts late in the afternoon, two different women from the guild very nicely told me to bring it back next year and they would hang it up front where more people could see it. I was just scratching my head. Why tell me that when I was saying NOTHING. I made no complaints, agreed that I was late, never made a single frowny face or asked why they HID my quilt. Seriously, I think if they had really wanted to, they could have/would have/should have? hung it where they put my other quilt {the only one of mine that you could clearly see}. I certainly wouldn't have minded. There was obviously room in that spot for largish quilt. But that's where they chose to put the fun looking floral quilt.
So.... this elephant in the room suggests that this was on purpose because, why? Honestly, I wonder if this quilt was one little veto away from being left in the bag it arrived in! Wow. This is a non juried, no awards quilt show, no guidelines whatsoever for entry. The guild, however, is very traditional and I think maybe I pushed one too many boundaries? Were they uncomfortable with the quilt? Obviously. Were they embarrassed by it being in their conventional 'safe' quilt show? I don't know. I did have one very nice guild woman inform me that a visitor from a larger town requested that I be told 'they would love to have that particular quilt displayed in their show'. And now I think--why not? That particular show makes sure that every single quilt is given respect and is well hung, plus well lit. Is that too much to ask?
It was a very disappointing day. I've always heard that you can't expect to take quilts {outside of the norm} to a traditional quilt show and feel happy about the experience. Today I learned the truth of that even though they've always treated me fairly before. There's been times that I didn't receive any feedback on my quilts--that's okay. In fact {to get a glimpse of how shaken I was}, I even asked my mom to tell me the truth of the matter. Is my quilt really that pathetic? Am I kidding myself? I personally think my craftsmanship is excellent, the story isn't offensive, crude or vulgar, the quilt has pleasing colors and more importantly, it is relevant topic right here,right now. Am I blind? You know I can't believe any of you because you're my very best cheering squad.*wink
And you know what they say, whomever 'they' are.... Pride goeth before a fall......
**So yeah, go ahead and weigh in on this, but please try not to bash the guild too much. They truly are nice people and I live in a very small community.
