"Sometimes life stinks, but one must find the roses and help get through it!"
Disheartened - Explanation!
I think I've calmed down enough to explain what happened when Sylvia & I were dropping off our quilts for judging/showing at this year's quilt show. First off I will say that I know nothing about quilt show organization, rules etc but do know that it could have been handled differently starting back in January. The actual quilt show was AWESOME and if it wasn't for the heavy "storm cloud" of feelings over us, we would have enjoyed the show even more. It even passed through us to totally "withdraw" our items period, but reason did prevail.
OK here goes! Around the end of March I received a phone call from the Quilt Competition convenor who had been trying to contact my sister (lives in Ontario). Well she & hubby had been back and forth to Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, and then back to Winnipeg for about a 4 week period dealing with health conditions and surgery sooner than suggested. So I asked if I could assist and get a message to Sylvia for her. Basically I was told that all competition quilts will be hung but room was in short supply for show quilts and it was possible Sylvia's three quilts would not all be hung and needed her to number them 1, 2, and 3 and for sure one would be hung. OK I passed that on and Sylvia even withdrew one show quilt, they only needed to be picked up from the quilter and the binding stitched in place. Remember she was not home to do this in the past month and I'm sure she's not the only one finishing a quilt that month before the show. So the Easter long weekend I drove Sylvia home to go get the quilts and we worked on those two and came right back to the city as Len was just released from having back surgery and she did not want to be away from him long. That week was quilt drop off and then the Show.
We arrived to drop off our quilts and while Sylvia was in line I dropped off my Boutique items. I turned around and heard Sylvia's anxious voice - very unusual for her so I promptly went over to ask what gives. She tells me that none of her Show quilts would be shown just the one Competition quilt. I promptly asked for an explanation of why they phoned and said one thing and then turned around and did the opposite. Needless to say the answers were wishy washy about too many large quilts this year, not enough frames, many competition quilts (no number restriction/person) which all were to be hung so it was decided some Show quilts were not going to be hung. You guessed it I lost my cool - I did NOT yell as was reported to an Executive member (if I had the Hotel Security would surely have been there right away) - but definitely was very frustrated and disappointed and ready to cry! When I realized I was not getting any satisfaction, I did mention I'd be blogging about this - see my blog is my FAMILY - my sounding board - my release. WELL one of the Committee members said I was not to "bad mouth this show as I could shut it down" her words not mine (as if I have that kind of clout). THAT got me totally annoyed - I have always tried to remain fair within my blog even when I am annoyed - so that got my goat and I said they should have thought of that before this happened!!! Very immature of me yes and I wish I had just kept quiet! But like my boss says: "at least you know where you stand with her and how she feels"!
Afterwards an Executive Member, my girlfriend, did call me to explain how the decision was reached. See when they realized the space was limited they withdrew names of those who had Competition quilts from the Show quilts group and apparently hung ONE quilt of the remaining names in the Show category. I guess it's fair, but after all was said and done, it was not acceptable to Sylvia or myself period. I'm not sure what will happen in future shows but I should hope this problem does not arise again as I've heard that many others were unhappy and dissapointed with this outcome - not just us. Just totally too bad!
I even suggested that maybe in future the Committee not put out the "hue and cry" like they did in January and February begging for quilts to be entered as the numbers were down for this show. By the way Sylvia's registration was sent in in October. Yeah well March poured in so many quilts it was now "overloaded". Also suggested they should have maybe gone back and hang those according to when their registration was received - mine then would not have been hung as I was in the last group to register! But like my niece and one of my girlfriends said - no matter which way they solved the delimma there would have been hurt feelings and dissappointment - they did what they thought was fair! I hope so!
OK enough of this - it's been eating at me for a couple of weeks and I have to let it go! Like I said it's been a rough few months for me and I don't like these feelings/emotions or lack thereof!!!
2 comments:
Ahh, no wonder you and Sylvia were disappointed. I can only imagine busting my chops to get a show quilt or competition quilt ready only to be told "sorry we're full". In my humble opinion, that was poorly handled. Everyone who wants to put quilts in should submit information about the quilt(s) months ahead of time and first come first served should prevail. They should also have a waiting list. Well after hearing all that, I am glad that I did not bother making anything for the show (only the challenge quilt) because with working full time, family etc, I just don't have enough time to really get into a quilt. I wish I had your stamina my dear but I don't. After work and supper, I often fall asleep in front of the TV for 30 minutes or an hour and then I go to bed at midnight.
Thank you Linda. It was not just us, but many were disappointed I've heard. Hopefully this will have been documented and not happen again in the future.
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