Monday, April 26, 2010

My Paducah Trip

Shirley Kelly - "Remembering Kelly" (I have permission from Shirley to post this photo)

Home from Quilt City USA, and back to catching up on home things. I had a good trip, fabulous weather, great food, and it was wonderful to see so many at the National Quilt Museum Monday night for Hollis Chatelain's tour of her Imagine Hope exhibit.  Also saw many familiar faces and old friends at Sneak Preview and the opening day of the show.

Shirley Kelly, above, won two first place awards for her fabulous work, hand applique and home machine quilting.  Anyone who sees her work will remember it, and this one was especially poignant with the mementos and memories of a great horse's life.

My treat of the show was to finally see Sandra Leichner's quilt, "Tea with Miss D." below, permission to add this photo to my blog granted by Sandra, and these are her photos.

Sandra Leichner ~ "Tea With Miss D."

It was more than I could have imagined, a treasure to see and take in.  The handwork and details were amazing, the machine quilting designs and execution the very best.  I am afraid my mouth might have been hanging open as I gazed at this delicious concoction, discovering detail after detail, and I know from the many comments of quilters that so many enjoyed it tremendously.  To see it and many detail shots, go to Sandra's blog, and be sure and check out the fabulous quilting too.  Below, the center tea cup surrounded by little strawberry shortcakes.  Oh my.





We had perfect weather early in the week, but rain arrived later, after I had left for home.  Crowds were not as big as in the past, parking was at a premium so lots of trekking was needed, and those who went in the new Pavilion for vendor shopping liked it.  They reported it was airy, bright, with lots of room and much easier to shop than in the old vendor locations in years past.

Now I am home, I am going to try and trace some of my new digitized designs for home embroidery machines and quilt up a sample, of course, free motion, and gasp, I have to follow lines so the designs will resemble those on the CD.  Not easy now that I am so used to quilting with minimal marking.  I like the designs but know I will do a bit of fudging as I quilt to make them even better looking.  I'll post a photo  when the project is finished.

Oliver was ecstatic to see me when I arrived home.  The gymnastics, the run, run, run, squeak, squeak, squeak....all off the charts of feline happiness.  He is now thinking maybe I am home for good, of course until the bags come out to pack for the next trip.  Below, his special place on his "special" chair in the living room window so he can watch the birds in the bushes outside.  And chirp.  He is a great little chirper, and I swear he grew and gained weight while I was away!  His fur is getting thicker and prettier every day too. 

Yesterday he discovered rotary cutting.  Oh my, time to close the door to the sewing room and work alone or risk paw amputation!


Hope you all enjoyed the AQS Show in Paducah, and.....keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.
Diane

6 comments:

YankeeQuilter said...

This year was my first trip to Paducah. I really enjoyed it! Lots of inspirational work on display, great vendors, and the people in that town are as nice as you will find anywhere!

Joan said...

Great to hear about Paducah, and to know you are home safely. I am looking forward to seeing what you have designed and the sewing of them. No wonder you get such a selcome from Oliver :)

Featheronawire Sally Bramald said...

Lovely quilts, super cat but that chair! WOW!

Diane Gaudynski said...

It is good to be home, and working with fabric. I always enjoy Paducah, through all the changes, etc. because it is all about the quilts.

The chair? Oh, something I had just rattling around and he needed a perch.....:-)!

antique quilter said...

Love that chair , well deserved btw!
perfect for Oliver!
Shirley's quilt is amazing, the details are wonderful and I love Sandra's too, her fabric choices are beautiful. The quilting well its just amazing!!!!!
some day I will get to go to Paducah, thanks for sharing the pictures
Kathie

Diane Gaudynski said...

Thanks Kathie! Oliver and I love the chair too, VBG!

There were many, many amazing quilts. We can't put photos online without permission though so I restrained myself from showing you more.

Julie Lambert's "Crowning Glory" was spectacular, a blue/white classic quilt reproduced from a vintage one, machine quilted on a home machine beautifully, with very difficult design choices. No easy rocks, lots of straight closely spaced lines, and beautiful motifs. It was breathtaking, and so nice to see a traditional quilt like this in the show, done on a home sewing machine. Not easy, and getting less common to see.

In person it is such a delight to discover the details in quilts you can never see in photos. Also the texture, the richness of color, fabric and thread choices, and design are great to view "in the cloth."

Exceptional quilters make everything look effortless, so sometimes you forget the skill and expertise needed to achieve these results when you look at the quilts in the show.

Listening to comments of quilters as they view the quilts is always interesting, what they love, what stands out, the arguments between friends about a particular prizewinner.

It was nice to hear so many were attending the show for the first time or had quilts in the show for the first time too.