Plans for a Vintage Linen Exhibition.

People often tell me I should mount an exhibition of my linen collection, and my response has been "I'd love to, but I don't know where to start!". This weekend in Eltham, two ladies put on a display of quilts and cross stitch in a local community hall. I heard about it on a community radio announcement on Saturday morning, while Ken and I were driving to the shopping centre. I pricked up my ears as soon as I heard the words quilting and cross stitch display, and when they gave the address, I couldn't wait to get back home and go there! It was only about a mile from our place.
There was a $3 entry fee, and the girl at the front desk invited me to buy raffle tickets for $1, and as I had a $5 bill in my purse, I bought two. Signs around the entrance stated the proceeds from the show were being donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association. On the front desk were brochures about the Association, and a sheet of paper with information about the exhibition. The two women (Jenny and Rosalee) who put it together, did it to raise funds because their mother died of the disease.
Their exhibition was well worth the $3 entry fee. There were about 20 quilts, all of which had been made by Rosalee for friends and relations. Interspersed with the quilts were about the same number of framed cross stitched pictures, which had been stitched by Jenny. Jenny told me later it had taken months to round up all their work from the people it had been given to, but once they knew why they were being asked to part temporarily with their gifts, they didn't hesitate to hand over!
Now you've read the explanation, you will understand what I am about to propose. This little local exhibition attracted a large number of people on both Saturday and Sunday. I didn't ask how much money was taken, but I suspect it would have been more than enough to pay for the hire of the hall for the weekend, insurance, cartage of display frames etc. and plenty left over for the Motor Neurone Association. I spoke to Jenny at length, telling her about my collection and how I'd often thought about displaying it. She was very encouraging, and gave me lots of hints on how to go about it. One aspect I had not thought of was doing a show to raise funds for a charity. She said as well as benefitting the charity, councils tended to be in favour of renting their halls at a more reasonable rate, and advertising was often free.
So! All my blogging friends around Melbourne who have been urging me to do something about an exhibition - here is our chance! Some of you have offered to help out if I got around to doing something, so if you are reading this and still wish to be involved, I would love to have all hands on deck. I'm not going to name people here - that is unnecessary - you will know who you are, and if you have changed your mind since then, that is perfectly okay. But if you are interested, just post a comment here, or email me direct - whatever suits you.