My First Gallery Reception

I know I’ve only mentioned it a few times, lol, but I have a gallery show at my local library, the Metuchen Public Library. To officially kick off the show, we had my first art gallery reception today.

For all of my friends and family who couldn’t make it to my reception, due to distance, or just the fact that it was raining cats and dogs, here is a run down of the event for you. (And for my friends and family who came out despite the terrible weather, you are my favorites.)

I had been getting progressively more anxious about the reception for a few weeks. I don’t usually like being in a room of strangers, and just the thought of being in a room full of people who I have to make small talk with makes me a little crazy. I forgot to figure in that these people would all WANT to talk about quilting. Usually, I start talking to someone about my work, and despite my passionate arm waving, their eyes get glassy and I lose them. Not yesterday.

First off, I wasn’t sure how many people to expect. Anywhere between 3 and 50 seemed reasonable. So, I prepared snacks for about 200. What can I say? I was raised amongst Italian immigrants, where the only thing worse than having your roots showing was running out of food.

Four loaves of stuffed bread, three platters of fruit, and four packages of cookies seemed like a good start, and I knew my husband would be there to run out for me, in case we ran low. Surprise! We didn’t, and I had to make strawberry jam this morning. James is pleased to have pepperoni bread to share with his lunchtime buddies tomorrow. Jeremy has graciously offered to take the cookies to work.

I think we had between 20 – 30 visitors. My good friends from my quilt guild were there early, which really helped to calm me down. They helped me get everything set up, along with volunteers from the library.

I was able to show off the raffle quilt I participated in with my guild. Want to buys some tickets? We are raffling it off at our show in May, but I have a pile of tickets for sale. Opportunity tickets are $1 each, or $5 for 6.

I didn’t take many photos, (just two) but I did snap one of my husband and sons. My husband is always so supportive of my quilting. I was very pleased to have him see my work hanging in the gallery. He’s seen it all before, but usually just me dragging it around and making him praise me. My kids are probably discussing computer programming or unusual sporting statistics.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed talking to people about my work. Having everyone come out to see it is definitely feeding my ego. There was also a lot of interest in my upcoming class. The library signed me up to teach a quilting class, and I opted to teach English Paper Piecing. I think taking machines out of the equation will make it a good entry point for everyone. If you are local, or visiting, come hang out with me. You can check out the details here.

My favorite surprise of the day was learning that there are actually several other quilters in town. I’m excited and thinking about how to work a monthly meet up into my schedule.

So, there you have it. I survived my opening reception, and I even enjoyed it. There are more photos floating around, plenty that include me. I’ll see if I can round some up and share them. I had makeup on and everything!