Mother’s Day Quilt Show big success

NORTH ALBANY, OREGON… On Mother's Day weekend, Santiam Scrappers Quilt Guild held "Another Bloomin' Quilt Show" at Tom's Garden Center in North Albany.

The following report written for the guild June newsletter. When it is published, copies are available on the guild Web site.

Thanks to the hard work of a lot of people, and Tom’s Garden Center, our first Mother’s Day Quilt Show was an unqualified success.

A large crew of guild members and relatives descended on Tom’s Garden Center late Friday afternoon and again late Sunday afternoon. Sixty-two quilts and 19 small auction quilts later, the garden center was a beautiful mix of flowers, greenery and quilts of all shapes and sizes.

It took us a little while to figure out the best way to hang the quilts in this unique setting. We had to be sure that the garden center merchandise was still visible to the customers and the quilts were at a height they could be viewed.

A special thanks to Jean McDaniel, Gail March’s sister Gywn Collister, Sally Latimer and Bud Pulliam, (Arline Pulliam’s husband) for being brave enough to tackle climbing the ladders.

And what went up had to come down. Not surprisingly, it was much faster to take the quilts down than to put them up. Another big thanks for the help from Sharon Reece’s husband Larry and her son-in-law Mark Remily along with Bud Pulliam and Gail March’s sister Gwyn Collister for once again climbing the ladder to take down quilts,

Other guild members were present a good part of the weekend and helped with set up and take down and many also acted as hostesses through out the weekend. This assistance came from: Rusty Sylvester; Becky Weisberg; Gail March; JoAnn Pope; Arline Pulliam; Majorie Mitchell; Marina Rosario; JoAnn Dutton; Annie Swett; Sharon Reece; Leola Erwin; and Carol Webber.

Those acting as hostesses were able to visit with many show viewers. Several quilters asked for information about the guild and one lady came back on Sunday to show us a handkerchief quilt after telling us about the quilt earlier.

After much discussion on Saturday night and Sunday morning, it was decided to change the small quilt auction to a sale. Many of the people interested in the small quilts wanted to buy them for Mother’s Day Gifts and some mentioned the cost of gas if they had to come back to bid again.

There were a few quilts with one bid, and those bidders were called and told of the change and that the quilts were theirs. So the outcome was that we took in $400 from the sale of those small quilts!

Tom’s Garden Center was a beautiful place to hold a quilt show and lots of people saw our quilts and talked with us.

Tom and Annette Krupicka, owners of Tom’s Garden Center, were wonderful to work with and have suggested we make it an annual event.