More about Paducah...

Are you tired of hearing about Paducah yet? I'm not tired of thinking about it or talking about it, so here is some more information you will hopefully enjoy...

I have permission from Jenny Stratton of Checkers Distributors to post the link to this very interesting review of Paducah...click here. You can read about the Kentucky ice storm which resulted in so many trees being damaged, and the trials of coordinating this huge show. 

One of the things that really tickled me in Paducah was how everything was oriented to women...all the washroom signs were changed from "Men" to "Women" in quite creative ways! 

And at Hancocks, the men weren't even allowed to use the indoor washrooms!!

The AQS website has posted photos of all the prize winners and there are over 60 quilts sporting ribbons! Click here to see them. I loved so many of these quilts that I cannot possibly pick a favorite. I particularly enjoyed the miniature quilts, as well as the exquisite quilting, done both by hand and by machine.  And if you really want to learn all the details of the construction of the grand prize "best of show quilt" made by Mariya Waters - click here.

There were also unbelievable quilts at the Quilt Museum, but I haven't been able to find photos of them on the web, and photographs were not allowed. They had the Best of Show quilts from the last 25 years hanging there, and I have never seen anything like those amazing quilts. I loved a quilt from Sharon Schamber called "Sedona Rose". There is a tiny photo of it on her website - click here.  But the photo doesn't do justice to the beauty of this quilt. It is machine quilted in black thread and the backing was a bright yellow, which showed all the quilting, and there were something like 130,000 crystals glued on to the backing which was a sight to behold!

If you would like to read more from other quilt bloggers who were in Paducah...here are a few to keep you busy:

Jeanne from Michigan at Luv 2 Stitch 

Sharon from the UK at Shiny New Thing

Connie from Indiana at Cootie Bug 

Trunk Show and Paducah purchases

It has sure been a busy week to come back home to!  I have 2 on call shifts at the hospital, 4 quilting classes to teach and one trunk show to do...plus all those usual things like laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning. I rushed around to get myself organized on Monday,  taught a quilt class at the senior's centre and then drove to Elmira to do a trunk show at the Elmira Needle Sisters in the evening. I took a photo of some of my quilts piled up and ready for their showing. For some of these quilts (the ugly ones!) it's the only time they get unfolded and aired out! Anyway, it was a lot of fun to be at the Elmira guild and I was able to visit with a lot of quilters that I haven't seen for a while.

I have also been struggling this week to learn how to use my Mac computer.  Everything is hard the first few times...especially getting photos to load on my blog.  It is taking me about 3 - 4 times as long to get a blog post finished these days, and I sure am counting on that improving asap because my patience is running a bit thin on this technology challenge!! I will try to load photos of my purchases from Paducah and see how it goes!

On the left is one of my favorite finds...FQ bundles from Back Door Quilts. People always ask "what are you going to make with that"? I have no idea, but I just liked it and I'll probably put it into my next Quiltville mystery.  These fabrics are from the Jo Morton fabric lines.

On the right are some additions to my collection of the "Oh Cherry" Moda line. Again, I have no idea what I am making with these but they make me happy and apparently I want to make a quilt from them, so here they are!

On the left is a collection of odds and ends I found that jumped into my bag...a kit from the Robert Kaufmann collection called "Permission to Play" that I bought at Hancocks because it just glows,  two packs that were 5 FQ's for $5...so who could resist that, and some guitar FQ's because I thought I was making a pillowcase, but I have way too many now to be a pillowcase,  so I'm either making a dozen pillowcases, or a quilt!!!

This is a black and white collection that I bought to split with my friend Marj who asked me to pick up some pieces for her. I guess I am secretly planning to make a black and white quilt also!

And this is my favorite purchase of all...a FQ bundle from Batiks Ecetera. This was one of my favorite booths...alive with colour and a lot of fun things to dream about making.

My other favorite booth was the Cherrywood booth...I could have filled my sewing room to the rafters with the fabrics they make...gorgeous! I just bought 2 "grab bags for crazies" because I liked the idea of getting little pieces of all their fabrics and because I am crazy, so it was perfect for me! 

Oh yah...and somehow 3 of John Flynn kits jumped into my bag...don't know how that happened! These kits are all coordinated batik fabrics and are precut, so it saves 2 steps for you! But I haven't yet sewn one, so I hope it works out well...I'll let you know!

That's it! Well, except for a few little odds and ends that I can't find today. That's enough damage to the credit card, don't you think?!?!

Back from Paducah!

I am back from an amazing, "once in a lifetime" trip to Paducah, Kentucky! It was everything I thought it would be...and more! There were over 400 vendors at the Convention Centre... can you even imagine how much fun and fabric shopping that is??!? It was absolutely mind boggling the amount of shopping that you could do, if you were so inclined! I will show you my fabric purchases another day (when I can take them out of hiding and photograph them!).

Today I will show you a few of the trip highlights, since I know my quilting friends will be checking in on their computers on Monday morning and if there is no blog report, I will hear about it for sure!

We saw beautiful scenery! Everything here in Ontario, Canada is pretty much still in winter hibernation...not much green to be seen. But in Kentucky, everything was green and it was lovely spring weather, which we enjoyed every sunny minute we were there.

There were fascinating people to see everywhere we went...and here is one of them, happy to pose for a photo for the tourists. I saw very creative outfits, quilted clothing of every description,

 funny hats, groups of women with matching t-shirts, etc. I wish I had taken more photos of the people to show you.

Then there was the fantastic entertainment...we had "tea" with Nancy Zieman, enjoyed an evening show with Eleanor Burns, and heard a fantastic concert from Ricky Tims. 

Who knew that this man was such an incredibly gifted musician as well as being an award winning quilter?!??! He has CD's of his original compositions for sale and I will be asking for one from Santa at Christmas time.

And, of course, I enjoyed the entertaining company of quilting friends! Here we are with a group of quilters that we know from home, which we just happened to meet up with, and we  enjoyed a laughter-filled meal together.

What a great trip we had! 

Oh yah, did I mention the incredible, breathtaking quilts we saw?

The AQS show was unlike anything I have ever seen. Exquisitely created quilts, both hand and machine quilted, that are so beautiful that your jaw just hangs open in awe! But I can't show you the quilts of course, because the rules explicitly state that photos of the quilts cannot be posted on the internet, without permission from the AQS and the quilt artist. However, I was just happy that we were able to take photos of these quilts for our own purposes, since the Canadian Juried Quilt Show in Newfoundland last June did not allow any photographs of any of the quilts, which was very disappointing for me. At this show I was able to take photos of my favorite quilts, and close ups of the techniques for me to study and enjoy in the future.

I now have my own little quilt show on my computer, so come on over if you want to see it!!

Paducah

I am packed and ready to leave early in the morning to head south to Paducah, Kentucky! I am hoping to go to the Quilt Museum and to see Ricky Tims, Eleanor Burns, and then have tea with Nancy Zieman. 

And of course, I might buy a Fat Quarter or two!!

How will I ever get any sleep tonight?!?!

I'll make a full report (including a purchase confession) when I return!