Paducah 2015 - Chicago

Chicago, a wonderful town or rather city, we stayed at the Acme hotel on East Ohio Street, it was casual and 'cool!

Two blocks and we were on Michigan Avenue and the Magnificent Mile for real high end shopping, we spent our first late afternoon and evening wandering this area before heading for supper at the Pizzeria Uno, said to be the home of the first deep dish pizza, the base was very thin and wafer crisp like pastry with a filling of around 1.5 inches deep.  It was delicious and we should have taken heed from our waiter, who subtly advised us that an individual 'pie' would be sufficient for each of us, we order 3 small pizzas....

Of course we ordered far too much and had nearly a full pizza to take back to our room luckily we had our own little kitchen area and waiter too....

along with our own 24hr illuminated bathroom....hot lips pink....

The next morning we took a 'hop on hop off' tour bus ride around the city, it's a beautiful city, wondrous buildings with many friezes and cornice work, I took lots of photos here are just a few....

Our hotel was right across the street from this Bloomingdales Home Dec Store, it was a beautiful building with lots of decorative stone work.

This sky scraper had it's own 'Skydeck' where you could walk out onto a glass deck high above the city,we declined but didn't have time anyway.

I was standing up taking photos of the view on the top deck of the bus when our tour guide said 'Mam, I advise you to stay seated'!

When the bus drove under one of these bridges with around 10 inches to spare above our heads I never stood up again and have had strange thoughts about being garotted ever since, scary stuff..

It was extremely cold and windy up on the top of the double decker bus!

Ellen resting on the stairs of the Apple store on Michigan Avenue, it was a very swish shop....

In the afternoon we visited the 'Bean' and The Art Institute of Chicago .....

The Bean has an amazing mirrored surface in the shape of a coffee bean, these images have not been photo shopped and are just as they come from the camera, we couldn't count the number of reflections, it's incredible!

In the evening we ate at 'Eaterly', it was an interesting place, a food hall really selling everything you could imagine but also serving food,

And then it was time to leave and head of home to Scotland, can't wait until next time!

Paducah Trip 2015 - Paducah

I know it seams like ages since Paducah but there you go. Please see previous post of photos of friends I met along the way....

Check out our accommodation, that wonderful green house, we stayed with the Gayle Mayor of Paducah

We arrived in Paducah to a threatened thunder storm, we did get caught in rain on our way to the award ceremony. We were a little late and missed David Taylor's entertainment but were just in time to see all of the Awards, we then left to get a sneak peak at the winning quilts.

The Best of Show and what a deserving winner, Majestic Mosaic pieced and appliqued by Karen Kay Buckley, quilted by Renae Haddadin, it's fabulous and look at that wonderful smile on Renae's face.

Had to get a photo of Renae with her side which she said was the back!

I had to check out my own quilts had really arrived, they were a little creased, I had expected them to be steamed, after all they had been in boxes for around three weeks. No ribbons but you know I wasn't really expecting any, I was really thrilled to see them hanging in Paducah among all of those fabulous quilts!

In no particular order here are a few of my favourites from the show...

The Glow of the Coast at Sunrise by Nobuko Kotani and 21 Friends , Japan

The Pink Lady by Jan Hutchison and Russ Schmidt

Fabulous October Sky by Bethanne Nemesh!

In the Marsh by Caryl Bryer Falert Gentry

My overall favourite Robber’s Roost by Joanne Baeth

My Tree full of Life by Susan Cronenwette

Healing Waters by Holis Chatelain

Chasing Bubbles by Hyroko Miyama  and Masanobu Miyama

Vintage Moments by Jan Zimmerman 

Coastal Lily by Thelma Childers and Judi Madsen

Words to Live By by Linda Hrcka and Lisa Bongean

Whetstones and Stars by Carolyn Rider

Next Day we headed off for breakfast at the the Gold Rush cafe where I treated myself to Gold Rush omelette with biscuits and gravy, it was delicious. The biscuits are more like scones but on this occasion seemed to be like small sponge cakes, the gravy was a cheese sauce mixture.

Paducah is renowned for the dogwood trees they are everywhere, the rosettes for all of the winning quilts are handmade to replicate the dogwood flower.

Linzi and I thought we had scored big time when we found these two flimsies for $40 each, mine is the stars, we later saw simply pieced tops like these for  $200 - $500 each.

We had fabulous accommodation at the Mayors house, I couldn't help but take this photo of Linzi in her night attire matching the decor so well having her first morning coffee.

On one of our evening walks we met up with Confederate soldiers, we laughed as the guy carrying the drum said he was '“packin’ a drum cos his friend couldn’t carry it', we had a historical chat with them and were given directions where to find moonshine! 

We did so much walking that we just had to stop for refreshments, our feet and legs were aching so much.....

We picked out a couple of car registration plates, don't know who they belong to but that red convertible must be mine, Kay - Borderline Quilter.

Ellen exercising considerable restraint!

It was obligatory, we had to visit Hancock's of Paducah, I had to check if it was bigger than Fabric Depot in Portland, Oregon. My verdict is no, Fabric Depot is bigger and has a bigger variety of fabric. I bought a fair amount of fabric at Hancock's. I decided that on a future visit to the US, I need to check out Keepsake Quilting to see if that is any bigger, these things need to be done!

How convenient to find a liquor store right next door to Hancock's...

Menage a Trois

We resisted the Moonshine and just bought a couple of bottles of wine....

We continued down the road to visit the 27th Annual Rotary Quilt Show where there was more shopping to be had and a wonderful display of  'Hexed' quilts curated by Mary Kerr and also some of the Hoffman Challenge Quilts

Before long our eventful and short stay in Paducah was over, we left passing Hancock's again on the way to Nashville......more to follow.....