Spring Quilt Week

So just like that, Spring Paducah Quilt Week is over and done. This year marked my 7th show!

It's still exciting to meet quilters & see amazing quilts from all around the world.  We host a reception for our members- Friends of the museum- at the start of the week to get the party started. Momm & I even managed to get a photo that night which isn't always the case. We also went to see the Rotary Antique Show and shop a little for fabric.

  

Tulip Quilt by Kathryn McClintock, 1970 

Tuesday night means the awards ceremony to get first looks at the winners & then sneak preview where E & I explored all of the quilts in the show itself.     

A few things I noticed this year about the show: brighter colors & more modern designs in some of the Japanese quilts, quilts from Brazil, quilts from Spain, a handful of wholecloth designs and lots of great ideas!

The Woman by Kyoko Ochiai, Japan

   

  

Anne's Favorite Cherry Tree Road in Avonlea by Mutsuko Shindo & 9 Friends, Japan 

 

Moonflower by Molly Hamilton-McNally, CA, USA

 

Wearable Art by Philippa Naylor, UK 

 

Golden Glow by Mary Ann Van Soest, IN, USA

 

The Navigator's Star by Aline Bugarin & Natasha Bugarin, Brazil 

  The rest of the week at work I'm kept busy working the shop registers, minding the shop and taking the occasional turn through the galleries to soak in the sight of loads of people admiring the Museum. I did get to meet/see some familiar names including: Shirley Kelly, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Sue Nickels, Pat Durbin & Philippa Naylor - what a joy! Even managed to say hello to our resident superhero: Quilt Man!

 

A Garden for All Seasons by Victoria Findlay Wolfe- 9' x30' !

 I'll be taking today to chill out & catch up on house things. If you didn't make it to Paducah this past week, never fear! Mark September on your calendars and join us here for Fall Paducah Quilt Week!

Quick selfie with Victoria Findlay Wolfe's quilt

WIP :: 4/29/15

Last week was Paducah Quilt Week and our busiest week of the year at the Museum: we basically eat/sleep/breathe quilts. :) One of my favorite weeks to be sure - it's thrilling to have so many people in the galleries enjoying the quilts, to have quilters from all over the world in town and I get to be on TV talking about our nationwide kids contest. There were even a couple days where we had over 1,000 visitors through our doors! I was lucky to get to see all of the quilts on display at the show, visit the Rotary antique quilt show and visit some great vendors when not at work.

Another great thing about Quilt Week is that Momm comes to visit and we get to talk quilty all day long. I even get to put her to work in the gift shop as a helper (hehehe). After Show, I had an extra day off so Momm & I could spend time doing what else? Quilting! IT was nice to relax, watch some good movies and make progress on several projects.

Here's what I've been working on lately - enjoy! Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Indigo Dye:
Before Show I was able to test run Indigo Dyeing at work. #bestjobever  I'll be running a class for kids with indigo dye the next 2 Saturdays which will be a lot of fun. 

Postage Stamp:
Using a bunch of mini charm packs and a solid (Kona?) for this one and made great progress to join them into four patches and sets of eights. While re-watching the Marvel movies in order, I got all of these pressed last night. Now they are ready to be made into larger sections.

TDF:
This one's been in the works for a couple of years and I finally got to the actual sewing stage this wknd - hooray! I used the jersey colors of White, Green, Polka Dot & Yellow for the background and a fun Tour de France fabric for the stage profile. I used a technique learned in Katie Pasquini's class to get the profile ready and then it was top-stitched down.  It's basted and ready for quilting.

Baby Quilt:
Still can't show this one - as it's sort-of a surprise! (they know I'm making a quilt, but the reveal is a surprise). The top is finished, backing made and I basted it tonight so it's also ready for quilting.

Swap block:
Made my April block for the Bakers Dozen swap, a circle flying geese block. I'm finally making some of the blocks on my 'to make' list and it's a lot of fun! I'll probably end up making duplicates so I can keep some too - hehehe.

Even got sleeves on several quilts and hung Vibrato up on my wall! So dear readers, it's been a whirlwind these last few weeks but in the best way possible since it was full of quiltings - wishing you happy quilting.

the Post-Quilt Show edition

 Quilt week was awesome!  I'm pretty sure I only sat down for meals all week because we were non-stop busy every day.  Always a good sign and it was fun having so many quilters visiting from all over.  It was good to have Momm visiting too - definitely made it more fun in the evenings.  We talked quilty-talk all weekend and had two days after Show to actually quilt!  I'm still tired and am so glad the weekend is here again to catch up on some sleep.  :)

 We also made it to Flamingo Row (my fav. local restaurant), drove through the Dogwood trail and once we put out the hummingbird feeder watched the hummers zip in and out.

Here's what I worked on - finally a butterfly block for my wall!  This is my second time sewing curves and they are fun!  I finished up the binding last night while watching hockey.  Playoffs are on and that typically means nothing gets done except during intermission....ha!  Linking this finish up at Crazy Mom Quilts Friday Finish.  

Today at work I tested out our equipment for leaf pounding and it turned out well.  This will be for an upcoming GS program about trees and after the hammering, I'll take them through the galleries to see how trees are represented in quilts.  

Tonight I tested out a few ideas while making several blocks for the Quilts for Boston collection.  I'm planning to have the Junior Quilters make blocks at the next meeting to send out to the Boston MQG as well and participate in a great project that helps spread the love stitched into quilts with those who need it.

Tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby, mint juleps, catching up with chores and more quilting.  What are you working on this weekend?

quilt show 2.0

Whew!  I've made it through my 2nd Paducah quilt show.  Even though I worked 7 days straight it was awesome!  It's taken the last few days to sort of get back to normal - or at least feel like doing anything in the evenings.

The show itself runs Wed. - Sat., but we are prepped & start events Monday so it's a full week for us.  This year was nice because I got to do more than just Admissions.  I helped in the Shop, registers, general breaks & extra hands for whatever came up.


I get to attend the awards ceremony and the School Block winner came this year - she was so excited & the whole family was impressed.  It was fun to see her enthusiasm for accepting her award!  I also get to attend the Sneak Preview of the quilts  which is my only chance to actually see the show.  As always at a quilt show - the quilts were amazing!  The winners were spectacular and there's so much talent & inspiration.

the early morning line

Momm came down to visit & have fun at the show while I worked.  It was fun to have someone else to talk quilting with and relax with at the end of the day.  :)

the fabric (& me!)

Friday morning was the Fabric Flurry.  160+ bolts of fabric cut into 1/2 yards, 300 quilters ready to grab fabric and a good time by all!

flurry!

We even got to help put the Purchase Award quilts up in the gallery on Sat. night.  Once the show is over, we get to keep the winning quilts if the quilter takes the monetary prize.  So there are new quilts to marvel at when I need a break from my desk.  It also means I have to learn their names [quilt & quilt maker] for future tours!

It was a long week and Sunday afternoon I took a nap, sat around all afternoon watching episodes of 'Who do you think you are?' and reading.  Very nice, but not enough time to recoup completely.  I have a workshop this week and am looking forward to a day off soon.  

Flood 2011

In January of 1937, the Ohio River flooded across several states - including the city of Paducah.  At the time the only barricade was a levee that couldn't hold back the river, which eventually reached 60.6 feet.  Buildings downtown have markers that indicate how high the waters rose as it flooded the streets.  Afterwords, the flood walls were built to protect the downtown from future floods and has done that job well. Although, up until this point; the walls have never been tested with this much water.   <--yikes!

closing up the walls

With all the rain we've had in the last several weeks the river has pushed into the major flood stage and currently several counties are in a state of emergency, bridges are closed, roads are flooded out and people in outlying or low lying areas have evacuated. The annual AQS Quilt Show had to move to several other venues in town once they closed up the flood walls last Monday- the Convention Center is on the river side.   *oops*
Interestingly, the walls don't get closed very often; some co-workers say maybe it's happened once in the 10 years or so they've been here. The predicted crest is for 55.8 feet by Thursday and the forecast has little sunshines in it for the next several days - hooray!  Right now, we are at 54.7 feet and so far it seems flood 2011 will be the new 2nd place holder for highest crests.

Yesterday the Corps of Engineers blasted out some areas of the earthen levee out at Birds Point (South-east Missouri) to divert the water into the floodway fields/farm land.  The initial blasts shook my apartment enough that I had to turn the news on to figure out what it was.  This should help keep the river from getting up to 58/59 feet and will help keep it out of towns on the Mississippi & Ohio rivers.  Several businesses on the way into work are on lower ground at the edges of the walls and have water in the parking lots, car dealers moved their stock to higher ground and lots of dirt has been trucked in to build some berms to help stop the water from spreading.  

We took precautions at the museum and moved all the quilts in storage off-site to our backup higher ground location.  Putting boxes into plastic bags & loading them on & off some vans/panel trucks.  Boxing up quilts that need to go into storage and placing them on the higher shelves in the vault; reviewing how to take down quilts in the gallery in case we need to grab & go made for an interesting week so far.

all closed off - apparently the seepage is normal

I'll leave you dear reader, with the link for the city flood wall cameras that give a good view of the water at the walls which has been fun to watch over the last few days!  Flood wall camera views.  Usually there's a road there so you can drive alongside the walls and view the river - pictures from earlier posts about the rising river were taken in that area!