Group members met Jan, Kath and I at the garden centre at three o'clock in the afternoon Thursday, in temperatures reaching thirty degrees outside and several degrees higher inside.  With no air-conditioning, working under the plastic roof was pretty hot and exhausting, but this didn't faze the army of members, along with a sprinkling of husbands and partners getting stuck in to the task in hand.  Very soon there were tables with mountains of wall hangings on one, quilts on another and smaller items like boxes and bags on yet another.  Margaret and Dee took control of the sales table area and Jenny put up the stand to display the two charity quilts, while Irene organised and hung the exhibits on loan from her previous Scottish Quilting Guild Group, Thistle Quilters.  Simultaneously, two of Jan's friends who had run a catering business in the past, came and set up the refreshment area and soon had refreshing cups of tea ready for us all.  Garden centre staff, notably David and "Minuto" (Manuel) were on hand to bring whatever tools, ladders etc were requested, and along with other men present began moving the garden furniture tables into position ready for ladies to begin displaying under Kath and Jan's instructions.  Another group of ladies worked with me identifying individual items and quilts and attached corresponding labels.  As fast as we were labelling, other hands whisked away the pieces and hung them on the side panels and hanging walls.   By half past six the area was very much transformed into a riot of colour and Peter, the garden Centre owner gave us permission to use whatever plants and shrubs and pots we wanted to use to enhance display areas. 

Pretty soon many members had run out of things to display or hang and wearily made their way home to recover!  Out came the tall ladders and David and "Minuto" (Manuel) began to hang the large quilts under Jan and Kath's supervision, suddenly with these quilts hanging the whole area took on a unified look.  Isabel arrived with stock from her shop to set up her sales area, and while this was going on Jenny and I walked around checking  that the correct labels were attached  and noted any that had been overlooked for printing later that evening.  By eight o'clock we were almost ready, and after a last cup of tea, decided we could do no more until the morning of the show, congratulated Jan and Kath on their organising, and gave ourselves a pat on the back for all the hard work during the run up to and including setting up, hoping our visitors would enjoy what they came to see, we left our precious quilts and headed for home.

I must finish by saying a huge thank you to Peter for allowing us to use Garden La Palma as our venue, and judging by his bemused look as he and his wife walked around at the end of the day looking at our display, I don't think he imagined anything like what he saw before him.  Peter had pulled out all the stops promoting the garden centre open weekend, and arranged extra advertising in local newspapers and  was interviewed in a  fifteen minute slot on Radio Punto, talking about the Vinuela Sew&Sews exhibition, the garden centre event, and the charity we are raising funds for, Anne-Axarquia.

I think our exhibition last week can be deemed a success if the emails I have been receiving from far and wide are anything to go by, and I have to thank everyone who has commented either by mail or verbally to group members when they have been out and about this past week.  It makes all the hard work put in by everyone worthwhile.  We have added comments made in the visitors book, for anyone who may be interested to read them.  In the usual Tuesday meeting following the exhibition we had a lively debate with comments and suggestions from group members to improve certain areas for the next exhibition planned for two years time, with a Christmas bazaar suggested for November 2011. 

We are pleased to have raised just over 1200 Euros for our chosen charity Anne-Axarquia, and thank all those who bought items at the show and purchased raffle tickets.  All the prizes have been handed to the delighted winners.  The charity were delighted to hear how much we'd raised on their behalf and we will be visiting them in the next couple of weeks to present the society with their cheque.

Although we have been together as a group for almost four years now, we have been unable to persuade any Spanish ladies to join us, but we were very pleased to see so many Spanish visitors to the show which we found very encouraging.   Isabel of Mar del Plata in Torre del Mar, a haberdashery shop selling many patchwork accessories and fabrics, had a stand at the exhibition which appears to have drawn Spanish Quilters to the show. 

We also had a visit from Ana of Vacoser (a sewing machine shop in Malaga also selling many accessories and patchwork fabrics) where we frequently buy materials from, along with the Andalucian Representative of the Spanish Patchwork Association, who was so impressed with her visit on Friday evening, that she went home and advertised the show on her blog, and returned the following day to take more photographs!  This too brought in more Spanish visitors.  Indeed Ana has made a mention of our show on her blog  www.sinperderpuntada.blogspot.com and Victoria showed photos and also mentioned us on her blog www.elpatchworkdemicasa.blogspot.com

We met a couple of ladies from other groups in Andalucia, who plan to visit us in the near future.  Karl Boyd, who was in the area on holiday, introduced himself to us as a former machine knitting designer.  He had the most amazing knitted jewellery samples, which looked so unbelievably like real gems, glinting in the sunshine. 

Once again we thank Peter at Garden La Palma for allowing us to use his premises, and we look forward to collaborating with him for future events.

For now, we can relax and get back to our regular meetings and workshops, the first which is another group of ladies making padded etui boxes led by Elle, followed by a workshop taught by Ann Stamp especially for beginners in patchwork the following week.