 This is Dennis McMahon and welcome to Positively Vermont. And we are recording our first show of 2023. We are pleased to have as our guest, Marty Delnevo, the chair of the forthcoming Vermont Quilt Festival to tell us all about the wonderful world of quilting and how Vermont fits in this world and some very exciting events coming up in the near future and later on at the show. Welcome, Marty. Thank you, Dennis, for having me. Tell us first a little bit about yourself or a lot about yourself. Well, I've been, as far as quilting goes, I've been quilting for over 30 years. And after having a successful career with IBM for 39 years, when I retired in 2016, I thought I had always been a volunteer with Vermont Quilt Festival for years. I'd entered some quilts and I thought, well, maybe now it's my time to give back to the organization. So I joined as the contest chair at the end of 2016. So I was the contest chair for two years, 2017 and 2018, and then became the chair of the festival in 2019, which was our last in-person show. And then we were planning the 2020 show and the pandemic hit. So everything was shut down. Tell us a little bit about the world of quilting. In past years, we have had people come into the studio and we may do that later this year as the show gets closer and they explained to us various quilts, but give our viewers a general overview of the world of quilting. Well, it's no longer your grandmother's quilting world where everything was calicoes and hand tied or maybe they did crazy quilts for display. Basically in quilting these days, anything goes and the festival does showcase traditional quilts and modern quilts, which are very graphic, very a lot of open negative space that people use for quilting. We have art quilts. We have just a wide variety, all shapes and sizes, applique where we even have quilts made of some non-traditional materials such as leather or Tyvek and things like that. I mean, people use their creativity and it's a wonderful thing to see. Tell us a little bit about the history of quilting. Where it came from and how it pertains to New England or any other part of the world. Oh boy, I'm not really a quilt historian. I don't come from a long line of quilters unlike a lot of my friends who have grandmothers and great grandmothers that they learn from. But I think, I mean, from what I've learned over the years quilting was initially, it was a very American thing and was used to make, it was a utility. It was a necessary, it was a need. People needed to be worn. So it started with, I think a lot of people using maybe clothing that was worn out and the women of the time would sit together and or in the evening, perhaps even cut fabric and put bits of fabric together in order to make quilts for the beds for the family. I think from reading, I also know that it was a social thing. Groups of women would get together and that's where you get the quilting bees from. Women would get together and help each other finish a quilt because it was all hand-culted. And even when I started quilting back in, back in the early late 80s, early 90s there was still a lot of hand quilting going on and machine quilting was a little bit frowned upon. But then I think in history, women also started to use more wealthy families. We know we've seen quilts. If you go to the Shelburne Museum here, you'll see many, many quilts which you know were made from very expensive materials and they were used more for decorative purposes. And then different parts of the country or different parts of the world have different quilting techniques that are more or less specific or indicative of their areas now. And if you go to one of the quilt shows that hosts international, a lot of international quilters, you would see some of those differences from region to region. One of the things that we noticed from our past treatments of the Vermont Quilt Festival was the variety of people involved, the male, female, young people, older people, teenagers, how did this all develop? Well, Richard Cleveland was the founder of the Vermont Quilt Festival. He started it basically as a guild show, I believe, back in the middle, middle 70s when there was a huge resurgence of quilting in the United States, probably due to the bicentennial at the time. And so that's where it started. He, Vermont Quilt Festival has been going since the mid-70s, and it was always open to anyone. It is still one of the only quilt shows that I'm aware of where the quilts that are entered to the contest are not juries. So it's a first come, first serve. If you enter a quilt into the contest, it is not judged necessarily against other quilts because our judges do have a form and they look at your quilt alone, judge it, give you pointers on what you did really well, where you could improve a few things. And so it is a wonderful learning experience for people. There's no prize money in the show, but we do give ribbons. And then the youth quilters, which we pride ourselves on, and we do plan to have a youth quilting section again in 2023. We're not sure what the gifts will be. That's always up to the discretion of our sponsors. But we do pride ourselves on having a very robust youth component to our show and to our contest in order to encourage young people to take up the art of quilting. And it is an art. It is a craft, but it's also an art. The interest in the art form is also, I suppose, spawned some collections and some valuations and some rare quilts and I guess like any other hobby, some value in the collections themselves. I know people are not going in there to just get an award-winning or that kind of thing, but what about how it's increased in value the whole economic aspects of this art form over the years? Well, I mean, over the years, the one component that we always have within the show is our antique exhibit. So we like to showcase those because those, that is where some value is. I mean, if you have some quilts from 100, 200 years ago, there's some value there and there's historical value. There's emotional value, of course, and probably some financial value as well. And we try to showcase where quilting came from. As far as the business of quilting, it is a huge business. I mean, in years past, I don't know what the pandemic has necessarily done for it, but in years past, I mean, it's a multi-billion dollar industry. And one thing I know that during the pandemic, many people pulled out sewing machines, dusted off their sewing machines that have been sitting up in the attic and or bought machines and started making obviously masks or other needs for the pandemic. And I think many of those people, what I see, because I worked our time also in a quilt shop, is that many people who started that during the pandemic, now that they're not making masks anymore, it's like, okay, what do we do with these machines? We like sewing. And so people have come in and they have taken introduction to quilting classes and we have a whole new group of people who are quilting and there's a renewed interest in it. I'm hoping that continues. That's great. And it's also good for business too in Vermont to all the associated members and venues around the area and tourism, could you just tell us about, I remember from the prior shows, you had a lot of visitors coming to this. Can you give us some of the numbers? Yes, absolutely. It is, to me, it's always surprising because in Vermont being small, you don't think of a few thousand people. We have well over 10,000 people attending our show over the three day full days that it's open. And to me, that's a very large number. And considering that we haven't had a live show, an in-person show since 2019, we're expecting to see those numbers again. And we already have interest from some bus companies. There are some tour groups coming. We've already been contacted about how do we make hotel reservations? It is, we are during the pandemic when we were talking with the state. It was eye-opening and also very heartwarming to learn that for the state, Vermont Quilt Fest, well, actually there is a small economic engine for Chittenden County because of the number of people that do come in. And it has, as you say, a ripple effect. They come to the show, they're gonna go out to dinner, they're gonna stay in a hotel, they're gonna get gasoline, they're gonna pick up groceries. So it's a widespread, they're gonna go to quilt shops. So the local quilt shops see an influx of people. So it's, and that's even though we have, usually we run about 90 to 100 vendors, they'll still go visit other shops. So it does have that ripple effect. It's not contained, not solely contained within Champlain Valley Expo. That's great. Well, give us an idea, it's scheduled for June, but now there is a contest going on. Tell us about that contest. Well, the contest goes on during the, people can come in and see all the contest quilts during the festival, which is June 25th through 28th. June 21st through the 29th. I have June 21st through the 24th. Okay, that's, I am sorry. I should know this. That's why we're doing it so early. But I understand February one, there's a- Yes, on February first is the contest will open. And as I said, it is a first come first serve because it is not a judged show. With the reconfiguration of our space that we've tried for the first time in 2019, we are able to have more quilts on display. And so we're hoping we normally receive about 235 quilts for the contest. And that includes our youth quilts. But we're hoping that we will see more than that. And because we do have the space to expand, we will have a category of non-judged if there are people out there who do not want to have their quilts judged but still wanna share their quilt with the audience, they're more than welcome to enter the quilt. And we, it normally fills up within the first few days. So I know I've seen comments on Instagram and Facebook. How quickly does it fill up? Do I need to be ready at noon on the first? You should be pretty ready. Take a look out there on the website at the forum. It's there for you to look at. It's there for you to get your materials pulled together so that you have your photograph. You have all the information that we're asking for. And then when February 1st comes, you're ready to fill it in and submit it. What tells us about the process for this? I know it's gonna start in a day or two. Tell us how that works. And do people bring quilts in or they just do it photographically? No, it's just a photograph. So we need to have you submit your quilt, submit all your information, attach an image, just upload an image of your quilt and we only need the front of it. That is, you know, we take a look at it. The majority of quilts we accept. We do not accept quilts. You can't enter quilts that are made from a block of the month or a kit where you did not select the fabrics. So that's the key. The judges wanna see your fabric selection. You can use someone else's pattern, but they wanna see what you do with it. So anything that was prepared for you, basically is not accepted into the contest. And then we need the size of the quilt, what you consider it to be, whether it's traditional or modern or whether you have applique or not. And then we look at the pictures, we sort them and then we put them into the categories. We use the pictures for a couple of things. Identification, when you drop it off and when you pick it up, most important that it gets back to the right person. We use it, we use your photograph in order to lay out the contest so that we do try to put pleasing colors together so that when we have our bays set up, you know, a lot of times if we have three quilts that all depict flowers and we can put them all together in one place, you know, we do. Or if we have some other theme, we try to put them together so that they look nice together. But as I said, it is first come, first serve. We're not judging, we're not a jury. We're not using your picture to select, oh, we're not gonna have that one in. Unless for some reason it's inappropriate for our show based on our rules. And who is gonna be taking an initial look at these if anyone? Well, our contest chair is Carrie's VISA and she's the one who will receive all of the applications. She's the one who organizes it and sets it up and lays out the display. And then when the show is hung, then right before the show opens, people who are close to us will drive up and drop their quilts off. We also will have instructions if you're not close enough to drive up to us on that Saturday, there are mailing instructions. And then if you need them mailed back to you, we will mail them back to you. And so on that Saturday, we take the quilts in, we identify them, we tag them. And then on that weekend, Sunday and Monday, we hang all the quilt. And on, I believe since the show opens on Wednesday evening, we're judging on Monday and Tuesday. And then Wednesday morning is for the last few cleanup items. So once we start, it is a hectic week. I can imagine. Give us an idea, again, I wanted to get this in early because the fact that the last one was in 2019. Give us an idea of what people can expect at the Champlain Valley Exposition when it opens. Well, we will open with the awards ceremony on Wednesday, June 21st. And yes, the show is running from June 21st through to June 24th. And we will open with the contest with the awards ceremony. And then at six, 30 or seven, we're still discussing what time will open, but we'll have the chocolate and champagne preview like we always have. And where people can come get a first preview, our vendors will be available. So people who come in and shop, they can come in and look at the quilts. Classes will start on that Wednesday as well in the morning. We will have our class catalog out online here soon. That'll be coming in February. And then during the festival, we'll have classes on, as I said, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, all day, half day classes on Saturday. And then we will have multiple exhibits. We have a few new challenges aside from the contest. We will have, as I said, our antiques exhibit. We have three other exhibitors. You'll have to come to the show to find out who they are. And hopefully, you know, we also have also an exhibit of we ask our instructors to send along a quilt that we hang in a display so that people can enjoy the quilt at the instructor's work as well. And we have a roster of classes. This time we're looking at classes that are beginner and intermediate because we know that there's a lot of experienced quilters there who may want to refine a technique or learn a new technique. So we are also looking for instructors that have a little bit more advanced classes and they will run the gamut from color to a mystery quilt to different technique classes, applique, wool, applique, piecing. We plan to do some work with machine quilting. And we're hoping to have some long-arming classes for people that have long arms or are looking to purchase one and learn more about them. What's a long arm? A long arm is a machine that comes in two varieties. So people put their quilts together, the top of the quilt together on a regular domestic sewing machine that everyone is familiar with. And then there's a couple of types of long arms or mid-arms. One is a sit-down, which is a large table and you're still, but the only function for the machine is for it to quilt the three layers of the quilt together because it's not a quilt until you have the top, the bottom and the batting in between. And so with a mid-arm, you're still moving the fabric underneath the needle in most cases. A long arm, you load, you actually have a machine with a very large frame that can be from five feet to 12 feet and you load the back of the quilt onto two of the rollers, then you put the batting in and then you put the top in and you attach it to the other two layers and it does the quilting. You move, the head of the machine moves over the top of the quilt, the quilt remains stationary on the frame. And that's how we put the three layers together. We described a little bit of the technology and what about the range of this? Do you have people who are doing this all by hand and others who do machines or other things like that? Could this an idea of the varieties of quilting? Absolutely, we still have, because when you enter a quilt to the contest, we ask you, is it hand-quilted? Is it machine-quilted? And then if it's machine-quilted, is it done by your domestic machine? There are plenty of people who are quilting their quilts on their regular sewing machine. And so we ask, we ask for the breakdown. And so it runs the gamut. There are still plenty of people doing hand-quilting that enjoy the pace of hand-quilting and then there are others who don't do that anymore and they want to do it by machine. Many people, the other thing we also ask is, did you quilt the quilt or did you have someone else do it? Because there's a whole industry has been built up around quilting where there are people who actually all they do, well, not all they do, but one of the services they provide is to longarm quilts. So I make the top, I take my top and maybe my backing and my batting as well to another person and then they put the quilt together for me and then it comes back to me to put the binding on. And so we ask that as well. And if a quilt receives an award, we also acknowledge the person who has quilted it if it isn't the same person who made the original quilt top because we need to honor them as well. That's great. Well, I know this from past shows that there was a good deal of international interest. I think there was some quilts that came from England or other countries. Any of that this year in the works? We do, we usually receive several, a fair number of quilts from Canada, which I know living up here, I don't necessarily think of Canada as international because we don't cross the body of water, but they are. And then there has been interest from we've received quilts from Germany. A few years ago we had interest from someone in Japan. So it is an interesting, it is a mix. The majority of quilts are from the US. Many are from Vermont. We actually have one category best Vermont quilt that receives our governor's award. We're hoping to have the governor or someone from his office there this year. I hope we can make that happen. And then of course we have our founder's award and that is from, we always invite Richard Cleveland to select his favorite quilt. Can you give us an idea of the faculty for some of these courses? Who are they? Are they famous in the field or just famous locally? Some of the people who'll be teaching. Well, we have, I don't know the full list of teachers at this point, but I do know that we have a lot of regional, what I'm gonna call say regional instructors. We've got people, Kimberly Aimo is coming. She is a well-known name. We didn't think she would be here, but she is back in the US. And will be, she's a wonderful supporter for us and she will be with us for four days. She'll be teaching four different classes. And off the top of my head I am a little reluctant to name too many other people. Although we do invite teachers nationally to submit their proposals and we have a lot of proposals. So we're hoping that we have, that we'll have a roster of instructors in the range of 25 to 40 instructors. We're still finalizing the list. Sure. And can you give us an idea of the vendors? I know it's a very interesting part of all kinds of conventions. So I go to stamp collective things, these vendors, these exhibits. Tell us a little bit about who's gonna be doing it. The vendors is, that's gonna be interesting. We have, we're looking to have about 90 vendors. We're slowly climbing there. And we have, what we're doing differently this year is we're inviting, since we are the Vermont Quilt Festival, we decided we wanted to focus on some Vermont crafts as well. So we are inviting Vermont crafts people, not necessarily associated with fiber or quilting, but to come apply at the festival to be a vendor and to show what Vermont has. Because we get, as I said, we have over 10,000 people over the course of a few days, that's a lot of exposure for art. And I think it's worthwhile to give our Vermont artists some exposure as well. Additionally, we have, we have our machine sponsors, Genomi, Bernina, Elna, we'll have some long-arming people there, hopefully, and thread people, fabric. And then a lot of local shops, a lot of regional vendors that are focused on not just fabric vendors, but we also have like Door Woolen Mill, or Door Woolen Mill is coming, and they focus on wool and rug hooking, but it pertains to quilting because a lot of quilts are made with wool, it's done with wool applique, and a lot of quilters also are interested in knitting and weeping and rug hooking and other fiber arts. So we try to have a lot of, you know, a good selection of vendors that focus on fiber art. And then we always have our, you know, we will have, we have some clothing vendors that are hand dyed, hand dyed clothing, you know, it's a range. And so I'm hoping that we will have, and we should be getting a lot, some new vendors because during the pandemic, sadly, we did lose some of our vendors who have decided to retire or no longer travel. You know, they're still in business, but they've decided not to travel. I see. Well, that sounds great. And hopefully we're gonna have you back just before or at the time of the festival to get a look at some of the wonderful quilts. I know we had you in the studio years and years and it's amazing we had to even get extra space in the studio to put some of these huge quilts up and that took a while to set up, but we will be in touch. And that's gonna be a lot of fun. It sounds like this is very exciting. I'm glad to get an early heads up on this for our viewers. And you have a website, www.vqf.org. That's the- Yes, that is our website. And we are trying to maintain the homepage so that it is convenient for people to find, you know, we were focused on vendors, primarily a month or two ago. So that was on the homepage. Now we've moved contests there, you know, and soon as soon as our classes are available, we will do our best to make it easy for people to find what they're looking for. That's great. Well, we will be in touch and I wanna thank you. Just maybe you can give our viewers a little bit of a send off while coming near the end, just say goodbye and we'll just give us another little pitch if you want. Well, I hope that people who are watching, you don't have to be a quilter to come to the show. I think anyone who enjoys seeing color and people's artistic talent would enjoy visiting the show. And I hope to see many, many new faces as well as many of our old friends who have come to visit us over the years. So thank you, Dennis. I appreciate the exposure so early. Thank you very much. And I wanna say that our guest today on Positively Vermont has been Marty Del Nivo, the chairperson of the Vermont Quilt Festival. And thank you Marty and thank you all for watching.