Paducah

I came back from Paducah on Friday, but I haven't really felt like posting about it. I'm not sure why. It wasn't a bad experience; I loved many of the quilts, some of the vendors, and the town itself is wonderful. But maybe it was just that seeing two large overcrowded quilt shows in three weeks had caused me to OD on the whole experience. I hate crowds, and the AQS show is certainly crowded (and this was on what should have been the slow days)!

A few things that stand out for me are the wall quilts in general, (and the winners in particular), the beautiful quilting on the antique quilts in the Rotary club show at the civic center, the bargain room at Hancocks of Paducah, and the beautiful old houses and art galleries. The wall quilts are more innovative than the full size quilts and so I found them more interesting. On the other hand, the quality of those old hand made quilts is so outstanding that I almost find myself agreeing with my mother that things have gone downhill since the old days! And, in spite of my lack of interest in most of the vendors, it was great fun to paw through tables stacked high with one-yard cuts of fabric at half price. I was impressed with Hancocks in general, in fact. For an extremely busy store, they are very efficient, which I can't say about some of the other places. The town itself is beautiful with old houses, many of which have been restored, and many more with work in progress. Thursday was a perfect day, and the areas away from the show were peaceful and beautiful, making doing the art quilt gallery walk a pleasant change of pace. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of any of these things. The quilts are off limits for photographing or posting, and I didn't think about taking pictures of the Hancocks scene.

Amy posted a link to the American Quilter site to see the winners, and here it is again. Thanks, Amy.