Astounding

 Today an amazing thing happened.  The quilt exhibit I had been planning for a few weeks happened in our little church and it was an astounding success. There is nothing that could have been done better or different for the day to be any more perfect.  Well, it could have been cooler than 90 degrees, but we survived.

I thought I had about 70 quilts planned but we topped 105!  I thought we would put our 70 on both sides of each pew, two quilts per pew, but we had to put three in the pews to make room!
The color in the church was phenomenal, the looks of astonishment on the faces of the more than 250 people walking in was worth the effort.  You should have seen them!  Even the men stopped in their tracks when they walked in the door and saw the church transformed!

Nothing was for sale, nothing raffled off, no admission was charged.  This was an exhibit only. I was preoccupied to the point of worrying myself into a hole for weeks.  I knew, being very arthritic, I would be extremely tired and sore when it was over and that worried me.  How many days would it take to recover?  I worried about the weather.  Would it be hot and humid?  Yes, it would and did, but I brought along 'church fans,' those hand held fans on a stick you wave back and forth to cool off in church. Would the viewers be respectful of the quilts?  Would anyone come?  Would I have enough help?   Yes, yes and yes!

 I had this brainy idea a few weeks ago and talked to our pastor about whether he would allow it and when this particular weekend, the weekend of the parish festival, was chosen, I had to really put my nose to the grindstone finding quilters. I'm new to the town and the parish and I wanted local people and people from the parish, but I didn't know anyone. I leaned heavily on the people I did know. My friends and family.  My daughter took quilts off the kids' beds, as did my DIL Erin.  Friends Jan and Marilyn, SIL Joyce all gave quilts for the event.  But once word got out through the bulletin, people from the parish started to call.

As soon as my hands touched a quilt I put a name label on so I would know who to return the quilts to.  I didn't want any mix ups. From some I went around an collected quilts but many brought them to church or dropped them off at home.

Now that it's over, this four and a half hour event, I can't even remember some of the quilts I saw.  So many different tastes, talents, treasures!  We had one that was found by a realtor in an attic of an old house and was dated 1897!

 The astounding thing is, I am new to town and the parish and these women all trusted this stranger with their treasures. I am humbled and honored to have their trust and to have planned this wondrous event.