What a wonderful trip to Paducah! The quilts were amazing, the crowds were huge, and a good time was had by everyone I spoke with! As I mentioned last week, Wendy and I had a display of our quilts at the Tribeca Gallery, but Wendy wasn’t able to spend Quilt Week in Paducah this year (It is her birthday today though – happy, happy birthday Wendy!). Another dear friend, Linda, joined me in the fun. Here we are having lunch at Kirchhoff’s:
One of the quilts hanging at the gallery was a collaboration quilt between Wendy and me entitled Garden of Grace. Last year, while having a lovely quilter’s lunch at Grace Church in Paducah, I took this photo (the dogwoods were at their peek!)
Wendy and I had talked about doing a “slice quilt” together, and decided this was a good photo to start with. The National Quilt Museum’s traditional block for the “New Quilts From an Old Favorite” contest this year was the ever popular 9-patch. We decided it would be fun to photoshop in a 9-patch quilt,
enlarge the photo to 50″ square, and divide it into a large 9-patch. Colored corner and center squares alternate with black and white ones (you’ll have to look closely to see it in the picture).This made the entire quilt one large 9-patch. A line drawing was made next,
and each of the 9 squares were printed out full size. We each chose the sections we wanted to make and got together when most of the blocks were done.
At this point we decided it might actually work – and scurried to finish all the blocks.
The blocks were sewn together and Sommer helped me layer the quilt in a frame.
Wendy and I took turns quilting it, and Wendy did the finishing. Our quilt was not accepted into the museum contest, but we were thrilled with the memory quilt we had created, and we both felt we learned a lot in the process. It was very exciting to have the opportunity to display it in Paducah, even if it wasn’t at the museum. This is the finished quilt:
So, Linda and I had lunch this past Friday at Grace once again and I was surprised to find that the crumbling base on the cross in the church yard had been repaired and the large dogwood branch cut away.
It looks lovely, but I think the photo from last year was much more interesting 🙂 !
I spoke with some of the ladies from the church and they’re very interested in having it hang at their quilter’s luncheon in 2016. What a blessing!
I’d like to leave you with a few more photos from the AQS show. One of my favorite quilts (and there were many) was made by Nancy Prince. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The figures in the foreground were machine embroidered and then applied to the quilt. It was amazing.
A fun way to get around town was to ride in the bicycle rickshaws provided by Quilt in a Day.
Linda and I really enjoyed an evening Ghost Walk tour through the streets of downtown Paducah. We were led by a costumed guide from the Market Street Theater who entertained us with many gruesome tales.
And at the end of the day on Friday, Lisa gave new meaning to the phrase “shop til you drop”.
I went up to her and asked if she was alright and, when she assured me she was, she gave me permission to take her picture. We introduced ourselves and had a nice conversation 😉 !
Now I’m home, having great fun reliving a wonderful week in Paducah, and looking forward to Quilt Week 2016!