The Long and Winding Road ...

... to Paducah

Actually, it's neither long, nor winding if I take I-24.  Just under 3 hours.

With THE Cold hanging on, I still felt well enough to make the trip up on Tuesday, as planned.  However, I did not feel well enough to take a lot of pictures ... sorry.  But here's a brief travelog.

I headed straight to the Rotary Club which always has a well-curated exhibit of antique quilts -- this year it was hexies grouped by style.  From there I headed down to the AQS books in the Finkel Building which is close to Tribeca, where I met The Girls for lunch.  After lunch we went to the Expo Center to pick up credentials, then a quick stop at Calico Creations to pick up some chairs my friends had purchased.  After that I was done wasted for the day so I returned to our cabin at Kentucky Dam State Park.

Wednesday saw us at the Expo Center bright and early for the show opening.  I bought the Aurifil thread pack I had gone for, looked at the exhibits of small quilts, and headed for the large hall.  Just too many people packed into one place -- I don't do well in crowds, especially when I'm not feeling well.  So I headed off to Hancocks of Paducah and returned to the cabin. By then I had pretty much lost my voice entirely.

Thursday I had an early lecture -- Gerald Roy, Women's Work is Never Done.  What a great hour of spectacular antique quilt tops!  After a brief stop in the Bubble to visit a couple of vendors, I wandered down to the National Quilt Museum.  The exhibits there were some of the best in recent years, especially the "New Quilts from an Old Favorite" nine-patch quilts, both antique and modern interpretations.  I wandered on downtown to visit some of my favorite vendors and stopped at one of the antique stores on Broadway where they were selling fabric at $3/yard. Finally I made a quick stop at Eleanor Burns place in the old firehouse.

Before heading to Eleanor's I popped back into the Expo Center main exhibit hall to get a view of Kevin the Quilter's entry, Radar.

"Radar" pieced by Kevin Huffman, quilted by Ann McNew

It's a very big quilt!  And really well done.  Congratulations, Kevin, on being accepted into such a prestigious show!

The drive home on Friday was truly long and winding as I took The Trace through Land Between the Lakes and the back roads home from there.

So how much damage did I do?  Hmmm .... one pattern, two books, six spools of Aurifil thread, a seam guide for my Featherweight, a Siesta Silver charm to go on my Pandora bracelet,  and **** yards of fabric!  Oh, you missed that?  45 yards of fabric.  Had I not fallen for a kit at Primitive Gatherings, I think I would have been more in line.  Most of what I purchased has a purpose (at least in my mind, anyway).

A collection of neutral FQs that have already been cut into strips for Butterscotch,

Neutral FQs

... more strippy fabrics for table runners I'll be giving to the caregivers this year,

Future table runners

... and an assortment of grays and greens, destined for a new quilt for Son-2 and DIL, assuming I've got the green right....

Grays and Greens

The kit and a wide back are in line to be laundered today.   Hmmm, even considering the kit it doesn't look like 45 yards, does it?  Maybe I should remeasure .....  In the meantime I'll use that number for the weekly stash report.

Weekly Stash Report - April 27, 2015
     In last week:                       45.0 yards
     Out last 2 weeks:                  0.0 yards
     In year to Date:                 96.25 yards
     Out Year-to-Date:             31.75 yards
     Net Used 2015                  64.50 yards (red means more in than out)

I don't anticipate any finishes this week, but next week's retreat should yield a lot of finishes for me.

Linking up with Patchwork Times.