Thursday, April 20 - Paducah, Kentucky

 By this point, we had seen the places we were most anxious to see.  We really wanted to be on our way home to San Diego.  Still, we had plans set in St. Louis that we couldn't change so we kept with the itinerary and made some quick stops in Paducah.

Adventure Time

If you're a quilter (I am) you may have heard that it is called The Quilt City of the USA (I had not). Ha! Still, I saw that the National Quilt Museum was located there and figured since we were close we should stop.  But then I started thinking we should just head West and forget about it.  Brian finally convinced me that we were already in town and I'd regret it if we left ... even though I know he was not interested, at all.

When we got to the Hotel last night, I noticed a big sign:  Hancock Fabrics.  This is a HUGE fabric store that has closed all it's shops and focuses mostly on online sales.  I actually didn't know they had a real store available.  That was the first stop of our morning.  

I've never seen one store this big with sooo many bolts of fabric.  At first I was excited and then I was overwhelmed.  Many months ago I visited Quilt Town USA, aka Hamilton, Missouri the home of Missouri Star Quilt Company.  That one fabric company has put Hamilton on the map with MANY quilt shops running down both sides of the main street.  But they are all owned by MSQC.  The different stores are different themes.  That compartmentalizes things and makes the smaller bites a little easier to handle.

Brian waited patiently on the benches labeled "The Lost Husband Waiting Spot" with another guy.  I ended up buying 2 items and we left.  Worth it!

Down the road we went to the National Quilt Museum.  It was A-MAZ-ING!  I never knew quilting could be like this.  

We were told there was a quilt made out of wood. 
We walked past this 2-3 times before we realized THIS is made out of wood.  😮

This type of quilting fascinates me.  I so want to learn this art.

I wanted to get Brian in the picture for scale.  These quilts are GINORMOUS!  

This is from a Chilean artist.

There's no way to zoom in enough to see the intricate quilting on this one.  It's like the fabric was created by the stitching.  I'd have no patience for this type of work, but I admire it a lot.

Made by a Japanese artist, this one is full of detail (can you find the open oven door?) and extras.

I walked away from the museum with such respect for artists of this medium.  I never think of the quilting I do as "art".  But it sure fills my creative impulses.