Warning!  I’m having a bit of a pity party right now, so if you would rather surround yourself with positive vibes, please do not continue reading beyond this point.

I guess my question is this… What is wrong with this quilt?  Or is it me?  Because one of us (the quilt or me) must have cooties.

Here are some close-ups.

       

      

  It says “Health, Wealth, & Happiness.”

This is the raffle quilt I made for one of my quilt guilds.  I made it all on my own, with no help, mainly because I was in between eye surgeries and was concerned about time and having to have another eye surgery that would prevent me from quilting the motifs I’d had planned for this quilt.  I figured that would be what sold the quilt, because my piecing and applique leaves something to be desired.  In any case, I finished it ahead of schedule, for which I am thankful.  We never know what the future will hold, and I certainly did not know if, or when, my eye would crap out again and I’d need another surgery.

Our guild normally reveals the new raffle quilt for the year at our January meetings.  However, our meeting date this year was on New Year’s Day.  Our guild president wanted us to have a meeting on another day, so you know that means not many people will show up for the special meeting day.  And, as it turned out, we had less than half our normal amount of members show up for it.   In the past, we have had an annual guild quilt show.  Well, this year we will not be having one.  We have also counted on being able to hang our raffle quilts at one of the big quilt shows in the area each May.  But, that show has moved to another city, so we will not have that opportunity as well.  Since I knew publicity for this quilt would be an issue due to the January meeting, no guild show, and no big quilt show, I asked our guild president if we could reveal this quilt at the December meeting, to which she agreed.  She did not want it hung at our February meeting, saying we didn’t have room.  And, then she asked me what I’ve done to get the quilt sold up to this point at the meeting in March.  Wha???  I thought it was the responsibility of the ticket sales people to sell tickets.   Plus, I didn’t have any tickets or even know where the tickets were.  She told me that it was my responsibility and I needed to get it hung at the local quilt shop (thinking… “Are you kidding me?  What happened to ticket sales people being responsible for getting some exposure for the raffle quilt?”)  As a disclaimer, before I ever started on the quilt, I was told that once I finished it, my job would be done and I could turn it over to the folks in charge of ticket sales.

After the meeting, it was explained to me that since new committee members do not take over until May, the time before that is kind of a gray area of who is responsible.  So, I took it to the quilt store where I had purchased nearly all of the fabric to make this quilt.  Well… all of the fabric on the front of the quilt is from this quilt shop.   I didn’t have any tickets to give the quilt shop to sell, nor did I know of anyone being at their Shop Hop to sit with the quilt and sell tickets.   So, we are now up to our April meeting, where I am told by the guild president that I needed to contact the quilt shop and ask them if they were going to hang the quilt, and if they weren’t then I needed to get the quilt – she said the quilt store owners have said before that they would do things and then did not.  Mind you, one of the new ticket sales people was at this meeting.  I glanced at her, and she said we’d talk later.   The guild president told her that she was not responsible for finding people to sit with the quilt, and so she gave me 100 of the tickets to take to the quilt shop.

Shop Hop (going on right now and this weekend) would be a great time for this quilt to get some exposure and to sell some tickets.  As it turns out, the quilt shop owner did not hang the quilt.  It was still in the bag that I had delivered it in, so I picked it up and took it home.  The clerk explained that it was so big, and they didn’t have anywhere to hang it.  Well, as I looked around, I saw tons of large quilts hanging, so I don’t buy that excuse.  Frankly, I am surprised that they passed on this advertising to sell some of their Asian fabric and their books to make the quilt blocks.  No… actually, I think I’m stunned.

So, which is it?  Is it me that has cooties?  Or, is it this quilt?  Do folks just not like Asian quilts and/or style?  I chose this style so that it would stand out and be different from the other raffle quilts.   Maybe it’s dated.  Is my quilting ability not what I hoped it would be?

I think there are lessons to be learned from any experience.  Certainly, for this experience, I have learned that I will not be making another raffle quilt.  This has given me nothing but heart ache.  In the past, our guild has had a lot of trouble getting people to do stuff.  The gal who made last year’s raffle quilt made the one for the year before; she only did last year’s because nobody else would step up to the plate.  Funny, though, people helped her get those quilts sold.  That is why I have to wonder if it is just me that is the problem, and not necessarily the quilt.  Could it be both?  So… I have learned that people I thought would look out for others, in fact, do not.  This has been a very disappointing experience for me, but I know in time I will understand the lessons it has taught me and will continue to teach me.