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.....

Great News.

And....good news for me....No, make the 'Great News',

I have had two quilts accepted for The Paducah Quilt Show. This is a juried show so first your quilts have to be submitted, it's a great thrill to have them accepted. It's more exciting to visit a show and know your own quilts are hanging there. The quality of workmanship in the American shows is so high that I am under no illusion that my quilts will ever win ribbons. I'll be shipping '1514 AKA The Horse' and 'Inner Circle Flower of Scotland' to the US very soon. I'm now getting even more excited about my trip with Linzi and Ellen...

Here is a link to the Semi finalists page for The AQS Paducah Quilt Week 2015, I can't believe that my name is along side all of those wonderful quilters....WOW......

1514 In Machine Quilting Magazine

Look what dropped through the door this week, fabulous magazine and a wonderful article even though I say so myself! Thank you Machine Quilting Unlimited, so pleased to play a small part, well five and a bit pages....hehe....lot's of other wonderful articles in there too. You can purchase this magazine on line and have it delivered to your door or your PC straight from the US at https://mqumag.com or have a hard copy delivered from http://www.contentedcat.co.uk here in the UK.

You can also see more of this quilt in this blog post 1514 aka The Horse

Back next time with some customer quilt...that's a promise...again....

Great News....

I had a wonderful phone call yesterday from Liz Villalobos. I was a totally surprise to hear that Liz's quilt 'Astrum Pennaeque' had won The Best in Show, Best Bed Quilt and the Best Longarm Award at The Great Northern Quilt Show, Harrogate, Yorkshire. UK. This quilt was pieced by Liz and freemotion, handquided (with the help of some rulers) quilted by me, Kay Bell at Borderline Quilter. I hadn't realised Liz had entered her quilt so I was totally amazed. Congratulations to both of us. Liz, thank you for choosing me to quilt for you.

Grosvenor Shows quickly released a photo showing how well a quilt can look when it's beautifully hung and lit and here it is..... you can also click on the following link to see close up photos of the quilting Liz's Lone Star 'Astrum Pennaeque'.

Batten down the hatches.....

The weather outside is frightful.....

We lost the feed shed roof this time, luckily it wasn't full of feed else that would have caused a panic. We lost power for most of Thursday so no phones, internet browsing, sewing, quilting, ironing or hoovering but I had the Aga that day so was lovely and toasty in my kitchen. I did a bit of kitchen cleaning and before dark pulled out wind up torches, oil lamps and 'fourcandles', that entertained the Grandkids when they came over for dinner. The mince and tatties in the Aga was just ready as the the power came back on, then it's soon all forgotten. Different problem next day when the Aga decided to go on strike and refused to stay a lite so it's been a bit chilly over the weekend hopefully tomorrow the Aga Engineer will short it out?

I had some quilts picked up/delivered and am now on a countdown hoping to have all customer quilts finished by the end of this week.

I had a new customer bring this French Braid table runner in Christmas fabrics.  Although Olga said she wasn't in any hurry for it I quilted it with holly leaves and wreaths ready for her to pick up before Christmas.

These hexagons were rescued, up-cycled and loving stitched into this 'flower garden' design and appliqued onto a striking dark navy background. The Primrose panto replicates the shape of the hexagons. This quilt will be raffled to raise money for Church windows over in Selkirk.

I was thrilled and honoured that my quilt 'Inner Circle Flower of Scotland won Best of Show at The West Country Quilt Show in Somerset, UK

I wasn't sure that my Scottish themed quilt would be well received down in the south of England so I really appreciated that it arrived home with rosettes for Best in Show, Best Surface Embellishment, Best Large Wallhanging and Visitors Choice (sponsored by Lady Sew and Sew with a lovely Kaffe Fassett book and jelly roll).

I was also told to expect delivery direct from the show sponsors of a Janome sewing machine sometime soon......lovely, Thank you so much......