Paducah report

For those of you who are here expecting quilt photos, I'm very sorry, I'm going to disappoint you. I stopped taking photos at quilt shows because I never really go back to visit them so for this trip I just promised myself that I would relax, have fun and enjoy the blog break.

​So mostly what I'm sharing today are photos of my purchases and my overall impressions of the show.

We left Tuesday, spent Tuesday evening in Knoxville, TN and arrived in Paducah Wednesday afternoon. We were in Paducah 3 nights and the had a 2-day ride home with an overnight stop in Bristol, TN.. We listened to a couple of good books in the car which made the ride more pleasant. But driving interstate 81 in Virginia is grueling and, just because of the length of the drive, I doubt we will go back to Paducah again. It was a lot of driving for basically 2 days of the show. That is not a reflection on the show at all.

Paducah is a lovely town and everyone there is SOOOOOO NICE! Kindness abounds there. The quilt show is in 2 buildings and there's also the Quilt Museum and at least 2 large fabric stores to visit. The quilts in the show were amazing and better than the ones we usually see at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. That's expected because the AQS show is so much bigger.

When we arrived Wednesday afternoon we checked in to our hotels and headed over to the show, only 4 miles away. They had shuttles from the hotels but we didn't have any problems finding free parking near the venue. Wednesday afternoon we walked through the Pavilion building and a building nearby that hosted a discount fabric store. I think all of the fabric was $7.99 a yard and there was a lot to choose from. Mom and Anne got fabrics here.

Thursday was started at the Museum and then to the main show building where we made it through all of the booths and saw all of the quilts. We also had time for an initial visit to Hancock's of Paducah and then went back to the show for the auction. I don't know how this auction has worked in the past but this one was not run well at all and I don't think they made much money. I'm sure they will take lessons from it and have a stellar auction next year.

On Friday we went back to Hancock's then headed downtown to check out some of the local shops and scenery. It's a really nice town with a lot of cute shops. We ended the day with one more pass through the show.

​So let's get on with the purchases.

I did not plan to buy much and I stuck to that plan for the most part. I think that I've just been quilting long enough that I don't really want any new gadgets, especially specialty rulers. There were lots of booths selling massage products, home care products, jewelry and other non-sewing things. I wasn't interested in any of that (except for one little thing below).
​I did purchase a t-shirt from the quilt museum and I got the Accuquilt die that I was looking for. Some black and gray thread and needles rounded out my intentional purchases.

Hancock's was packed every time we went there. If you have ever been to the old Mary Jo's in Gastonia, NC, that's kind of what Hancock's is like except that Mary Jo's was bigger. It was running very efficiently and the customers and staff were all in good spirits. I don't really buy fabric anymore unless I need something specific for a project but I took the opportunity to pick up these patriotic batiks for more veterans quilts. These were on sale for $6.99 a yard! I had a couple of these in that last big batch of patriotic batiks that I used last year. I'm happy to work with them again.

At the show I found a new craft project to do with Ella! These are diamond painting stickers. We'll work on them together. I'll do the dinosaur sticker for her brother while she does the other pack for herself. These were only $12 a pack.

This is going to be my new pattern to make!

I'll use that pattern to make a replacement quilt for the guest room bed and it will be in the same Red Sunset color palette. I like the quilt I made for this bed but when I added a foam topper the quilt is now too short and my sheet shows! It drives me nuts.
The pattern quilt is only large enough for the top of the bed so I'll add a border. I don't know yet if the border will be pieced or if it will be a wide gradient border. I've got a lot of planning to do before I get started on this project.

I had two really cool finds in town and the first were these 2 sweaters. I've been looking for some lightweight cotton short sleeve sweaters that I can wear over tank tops in the summer. I do not wear tank tops in public anymore. No one needs to see that!
These came from a cool shop named Tuscan Rose. She sells hand dyed yarns, fabric and clothes. I got these for $21 for both! She had all clothing half off. We talked for a while about her process and where she sources the clothes. They are all new and she gets overstocks in bulk so she can offer them quite inexpensively. Her yarns are beautiful too. While we were talking she figured out that she had ordered fabric from me before so I was glad to return the business!
​I am soaking these to get out the excess dye so that going forward I can wash them in the laundry. I knew they would bleed because there's no way she could do the soaking process and sell these so inexpensively. I was happy to take that job on myself.

My last find were these cute little wobbly neck toys. When I make Ella doll dresses I always take a gift for Eli and it's hard to come up with ideas for a little boy who only loves dinosaurs. These were $4 each and I think Eli is going to love collecting them.

All in all, we had a lovely time and we were so happy to finally check the Paducah box. All quilters should try to get there at least once!