I love Paducah!

Paducah, KY is maybe my favorite place to visit and I surely wouldn't mind living there. It's such a neat city and even more fun during quilt show but I love it all the time. First off -- confession time! I did buy fabric but not much and I can justify my purchases. Eleanor Burns (Quilt in a Day lady) had two huge tents (HUGE as in bigger than a circus tent I think). In one she had over 4,000 bolts of fabric for $4.00/yard. It was Hoffman, Kaufman, SSI and other name brands and that was too good to pass up. I didn't do bad though. My favorite was this USA print. I bought the whole bolt - 17 yards! But, this will make great backings for Quilts of Valor quilts for the injured soldiers so that was a good investment! I figure I can put one 45" piece the length of the quilt and put a solid on each side to make the backing wide enough for the quilt and that will allow more soldiers to get this happy backing on their quilt. I found these two, not that they go together but I liked them both so I bought 2 yards of each. I was a bit low on yellow so the one on the left is a good stash addition. The one on the right . . I just liked it a lot. This one will make a great backing. I'd love to make a quilt using these colors and use this one for the backing so I bought 7 yards of it. And last, I bought 2 yards of each of these to use for charity quilts. They'll be used in a quilt for a child and . . I just liked them both so they came home with me. I bought a few other things - rulers, booklets, thread, a jacket pattern, almost bought a sewing machine but didn't. OK . . the confession is out of the way. Here's what we really did. Tuesday morning Becky and I drove over to Paducah and arrived about 10. We went first to Eleanor Burns' tent city, bought fabric, bought her new book, had her sign it and drooled over all the quilts in Eleanor Burns' area. As we were checking out, they told us they also had a building downtown so we headed there. We stopped by the Rotary Club and saw the show/checked out the booths there. We also went by the bargain basement for AQS and Becky bought a few books but I didn't get anything there. Then we headed back to the park where we were staying. Connie met us and we went to Patti's Settlement for dinner. Here's Becky (right) and Connie (left) sitting out on our porch after dinner. Connie & her DH have a place near the park so she was staying there. Wednesday morning Becky and I headed back to Paducah for the show. Talk about crowds! Last year it wasn't nearly so crowded on Wednesday but this year, it was wall to wall people. The quilts were outstanding as always! I am always amazed at the talent exhibited at these type shows. Some of those quilts I could just spend hours looking at! We left there and went back to Eleanor Burns' site. She is not at the main convention center but at one of the city parks. We were able to catch her 4:00 show. She does three shows a day (10, 1 and 4) and she is hilarious! I used to not like her but now I wouldn't miss her show for anything. She is so funny and it is amazing what she comes up with as far as innovative quilting. Left there and went to Hobby Lobby looking for fabric Becky needed. Didn't find it. Went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and back to the park. We decided not to set the clock this morning and just get up and do whatever we felt like. Vince called at 8:30 and woke us up! I don't know who was more shocked that we were still in bed . . us or Vince. We hopped up, got dressed and headed back to Paducah. We walked around downtown, hit my favorite bakery (Kirchhoff's). They have salt rising bread and I love that stuff! I got 2 loaves of salt rising bread, 2 loaves of French bread, 4 key lime tarts, 6 sugar cookies, 2 cheesecake squares. So much for the diet! From there we went to the American Quilt Museum. Oh, I could stay there for days and days. The winners from many previous shows were on exhibit and those quilts are just unbelievable! Every quilter should try to go there at least once. Then to lunch, then we rode in a horse drawn carriage. Becky and I had never done that. The weather today was just gorgeous. Yesterday it was way too cold to do anything fun outside. We left Paducah, stopped to visit my friend, Betty, who was vending at a little quilt show in Grand Rivers and finally, back on the road to come home. We had so much fun. We ate way too much, probably spent too much but I can't wait to do it all again next year. Judy