My mom has been making an annual pilgrimage to the [Marin Needle Arts Guild][] quilt show for years, and since 2001 my wife has been accompanying her. Last year I tagged along with them at the [2005 Marin quilt show][]. There were *hundreds* of quilts, many of them beautiful and inspirational, and we had a great time at the show. I couldn’t attend this year, but my mom and my wife encouraged our youngest daughter to attend her first quilt show. After spending two hours driving to San Rafael and $7 each for tickets, they walked into the exhibit hall and saw…
About twenty quilts.
Apparently this year the MNAG threw in the towel and let some [scammers](http://www.pcmexpo.com/) run a “quilt festival” at the same venue and weekend that the Marin quilt show has traditionally been held for the past 27 years. To be completely fair, there *were* some traveling exhibit quilts and vendors’ display quilts being shown. But there were only ~20 “personal” quilts on display this year, compared to hundreds in prior years. Basically, my mom, wife, and daughter ended up blowing four hours driving plus gasoline plus admission, with the expectation of seeing a fabulous quilt show; instead, all they got to see was a bunch of vendors hawking their wares. What a total let-down!
I’m posting this in the hope that some other unsuspecting folks won’t fall victim.
[2005 Marin Quilt Show]: http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/2005/09/04/marin-quilt-show/
[Marin Needle Arts Guild]: http://www.mnag.org/about.htm
Sorry to hear that the Marin Quilt Show didn’t work out.
There had been talk among local quilters that the show would not be held this year so it’s no surprise.
Suggestion for next year: Our own local Sacramento show held at the Scottish Rite Center (next door to SacState) is always a good show with over 300 quilts. Held 3rd weekend in October. Check out the website. There’s a slide show of the previous year, this year’s is still in the works.
River City Quilt Guild Website:
http://www.rivercityquilters.org
My favorite quilt show is African American Quilters of Baltimore. I doubt I will make it to the West Coast anytime soon and we will have to wait until October 2008 for the next AAQB show. Looking forward to Quilts by the Bay in Annapolis next month. Sometimes the smaller local shows are much nicer than the huge commercial ones.