It has been one year since I became President of PTQG and what a year! I have learned so much about how the Guild operates. Thank you to our bookkeeper, Lori Dick, and our treasurer Mary Hodgkin.
And our Quilt Show, WOW! I asked Barbara Duffy, quilt show coordinator, when I should come up to the Quilt Show; her answer: “Since you are our new president, you need to come on Tuesday at 7 am at the Civic Center.” I couldn’t imagine why that early. Well, let me say when I stepped into the Civic Center at 7 am I couldn’t believe what was going on: volunteers everywhere logging in the quilts to be hung and judged. Believe me, your quilts are in good hands. The quilts are checked in and then passed onto the ladies in the auditorium, again checking to make sure the quilts go in the row to be hung, and then there are people unloading the truck that has equipment to be used during the show. Unbelievable, volunteers everywhere and each knowing what they will be doing for the day. Wednesday started the same way with the setup of quilters walk, the office, the volunteer check-in table, tote bags to be filled for the classes, the merchandise tables, raffle quilt, admissions. And then the vendors start coming in to set up and be ready by 5 pm for opening night.
And it is all accomplished…ready for opening night and our first day of the quilt show!
Then comes the takedown after the show closes at 4… again everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing, from getting the covers your quilts come in and placing them under the corresponding quilts, the return of the equipment from the office and other areas of the civic center, to the waiting U-haul truck. I watched the people waiting for their quilts wondering what is taking so long; well, in that auditorium our volunteers are climbing ladders to take down the quilts and they don’t just fold them and place them in the nearest bag, they again match up the numbers. The ladies at the table ask for your receipt, check it off the list, and yet again match the numbers so that your correct quilt goes home with you.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your hours of volunteering to make this show shine!
T Terri Douglass, presidentpinetreequilters@mainequilts.org