Quilt Week at Paducah

Wow!! What an experience!!
Aren't I lucky that my brother lives only 1 1/2 hours from Paducah!
And that my sister-in-law is a fellow crafter and quilter :-)
Can you imagine 4 days of non-stop movement, diving from quilt to quilt, booth to booth, talking, talking, meeting, greeting, sighing, thinking, scheming, oohing and aahing? [No time to eat, little time to sleep!!].

That was Sandie and I while we were at Paducah.
Quilt week started off with a boom; flash mob style---copius amounts of quilters dancing and waving behind a local school band weaving it's way around the convention centre - so much fun - what a blast. (It was also great that the 'mob' finished in the main convention centre so we didn't have to queue to get in!) (To see the fun, click this link if you haven't already seen it- I am the goofy one calling "Hello from New Zealand!).

And it was non-stop from there.
Quilt week at Paucah was HUGE - like nothing I have experienced before. It had at least 4 BIG exhibition areas and many other places around town to hunt out and explore. It was fabulous having so many exhibition quilts to examine and so many booths to get lost in.

So many people, this was the lunch area on one of the fine days.

It was incredible to see all the quilts on display. So much inspiration and beauty. Lots of very clever quilters out there. Quilts old and new, small and large, colourful, muted and made using every technique you could think of.....I took so many photos of them all - where I was allowed to - and to show my favourites would take a Very Long time. Instead I'll just show the Best Of Show, an applique quilt by Karen Kay Buckley. The quilter was Renae Haddadin, and you will see that she surely deserved to be sitting up there with Kay's eye-catching quilt.

Best of Show, Fiesta Mexico by Karen Kay Buckley.

Longarm quilting by Renae Haddadin - Back of Best of Show quilt

I took two great classes - both centred around free motion quilting - how great to have the opportunity to take classes with Sue Nickels and Jenny Bowker.... both have made award winning quilts and are reknown teachers. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of their creations.

Sue Nickels and I. Class - Feathers Wholecoth.

One of Sue's beautiful quilts, which was inspiring to
fondle and examine.

Sue used a camera and an overhead screen to show us closeups of her demonstrations. Very effective.

Jenny Bowker and one of her inspiring quilts.
Class - free motion quilting with an inspirational piece. 

Jenny Bowker was also responsible for bringing the Tentmakers of Cairo to Paducah. Historically the insides of their tents were decorated with colourful applique - nowadays the same techniques are used to make quilts for sale. It was fascinating to watch the tentmakers in action. Incredible skills.

Very fast needleturn. 

All made using huge sicssors and big needles!!

Beautiful quilts by the Tentmakers of Cairo. For Sale.

We also visited the National Quilt Museum... amazing to see even more (famous) quilts - the highlight being seeing Innocence by Hollis Chatelain (please go to this link to see it) which won viewer's choice at the Houston International Quilt Show in 2011. Absolutely heart shopping, if you ever get the chance to see it in the flesh, please do.
We also got the opportunity to meet some quilting legends. Eleonor Buns was a hoot, and the evening spent with Alex Anderson and Libby Lehman was very entertaining. It's so sad to hear of Libby's illness since Paducah and I hope she recovers soon.

 The bag I made to take to Paducah was well used... it was often heaving with purchases [:-)] and is looking slightly more adorned now than it did when I left New Zealand.

Fun to have these signatures and badges... Alex Anderson, Ricky Timms,
Gwen Marston, Sue Nickels, Pat Holly, Jenny Bowker

Karen Kay Buckley (Best of Show), Lisa Bongean, Lori Smith
and Edyta Sitar.

Of course there was so much more to see that I haven't shared... but I hope I have been able to give you a little insight into what Quilt Week was like. If you ever get the chance to go, I say, grab it with both hands. I've started saving for my next one!!
Happy stitching everyone,