OUR QUILT SHOW IS OVER.....

Our two local guilds just finished our joint quilt show yesterday.  In some ways it seemed like a long week, and in others, I can't believe it is over!
Things began last Wednesday, with all the quilt stands and poles, along with tons of other gear had to be transported to our local curling club.  We spent the remainder of the day, getting all the stands in place, making sure that the correct height pole was in each location, and that the bars for hanging quilts were ready in place.  We also hung backdrops according to the plan, and several steamers were there to help with wrinkles.  Supplies were delivered for our lunch room crew, and boutique as well.
Thursday morning, we were waiting for the doors to be unlocked at 8am.  The serious work of hanging the quilts began.  DH and I helped the hanging crews for a while, then began finding the 80 or so quilts that needed to be photographed.  We held 4 photo sessions during May, and were able to get almost 200 entries photographed with professional lighting - much easier that at the show venue.  We continued to help with hanging quilts, but our part was finally finished by 3:30, so we headed to home so I could edit the final pictures, compile the file, so that we could begin burning CD's that would be sold at the show all three days.  The rest of the crew continued to hang signs, add labels, set up small vignettes in various areas around the show, and tons of other small jobs that needed to be done.  Our kitchen crew were making sandwich fillings so they'd be ready to serve.  The boutique ladies spent lots of time making the shop area inviting, and finding ways to display the piles of books and magazines that arrived to be sold as well.
Friday morning DH and I arrived by 9am.  We set up the CD sales table, with a tablecloth, sign and our rack full of CDs.  I also provided 2 copies of the CD to the curling club manager, and he set them to run as a slide show on 2 overhead monitors in different areas of the venue.  It was remarkable to see the change that had happened overnight.  We had various volunteers selling CDs throughout the show - it was a good "sit down" job for those who wanted to help, but couldn't stand for long periods.
For the next 3 days, I was a "white glove" person, patrolling the quilt display areas, talking to our guests, answering questions, giving directions to our various show areas, all while being surrounded by wonderful quilts!  I ended up organizing the "white glove" teams at every change-over as well, and even sold lunch tickets for a shift.
Once the final draws were made on Sunday afternoon, and the final 2 quilting awards were announced, the show was declared over for this year.  All the helpers for "take-down" met in the lunch room four our final instructions.  Amazingly, it only took 1 1/4 hours to take the whole show down!  The quilts were carefully folded and returned to their bags or pillowcases, being organized on tables alphabetically by last name of quilter.  Poles and stands were taken apart, and stacked near the loading door, and various tables, chairs, accessories, plants and too many things to mention, were packed and loaded into cars.  Finally, at 5:30 the doors were opened so that quilters could pick up their quilts.  Everyone had been given a receipt when they handed their quilts in, so they were very careful returning the quilts.  DH helped to fold and stack the rented tables, and we finally arrived home by 6:30.
This morning we were back at the venue at 9am.  A parade of trucks, trailers, vans and cars arrived with volunteers to load all the gear and transport it to the storage lockers.  My guild had rented a larger locker, as we had outgrown our former one.  Everything was divided up and returned to its storage home.  The old locker was cleaned out, and it was a great time to sort the remaining contents.  Some went home with our guild president for further sorting, and a whole lot went for garbage or recycling.
We managed to sell 170 photo CDs, and I'll be selling a few more over the next week or so.
I'm anxious to hear how we did financially, but our treasurer is taking a few days off, as are we all!