Paducah Bound, I hope, I hope, I hope...smile

All quilter's know Paducah, or have at least heard of it. Our mecca for quilting. At one time it was it-not much in the "really big show" description of a quilt show. Now, there are several Quilt Festivals, put on by Karey Bresenhan. A lovely woman from Houston, that started a revolution, of sorts for us quilters to enjoy our craft even more.

I've been to several Houston Quilt Festival shows, as I lived in Houston for 11 of my growing/wonder years for quilting. I took lots of classes from some of the biggest names in quilting, and cherish those techniques and inspiration I picked up from them. Not to much has changed with quilting, you still stitch and you still combine colors the same as before. Today, it's the notions and the machines that impress and pretend to make our lives easier, but, they don't always.

To contrast the 2 quilt events, Paducah is a town in Kentucky, that puts on a quilt show. When I say a town puts on a quilt show, I mean just that. The whole town trots itself out in the Spring for quilt related activities. Everyone gets in on the act. The Rotary Club has it's quilt show, the AQS puts on the show at the Executive Inn, the Mall has it's own quilt show. There is a veritable plethora of quilt shows around this gorgeous town by the river.

The Quilt Festival shows, Houston, Chicago, and elsewhere, are all self contained in a huge, I mean huge convention center, and it doesn't matter how big the venue, it still feels like you are crowded!. But, the vendors have got to be the winners in these events, cause there appears to be many happy quilters feathering their fabric/notion nests. If you are in the market for a sewing machine, this is where you want to be, because, almost every representative from every company will be here and your walking time is greatly reduced, compared to Paducah.

The Paducah quilt show, will have the same things the Quilt Festival shows have, they are just more spread out and finding your way around the event can be confusing-by the pool, upstairs, downstairs-it's a maze of quilty goodness.

In the end both are not to be missed and if you are going to either, book early for the nearest hotels to the event

Home again...smile

Welp, we made it through round 4 of the 14 chemo treatments my daughter must have. We find out about surgery this Friday. The decision needs to be made, radiation or surgery. A 23 year old should not have to make these choices, but, Jennifer is charging on and learning Spanish in her "down time" at the hospital.

Now, so far so good with the Clover Heart Needle Threader, if you are looking for a gift for a quilter, this is my suggestion. I'm not a shop owner, or get anything from Clover for my recommendations, but, that's it, so far, my favorite needle threader. The only thing it's lacking is a cap to protect the wire. During my "down time" at the hospital, I'm working on a floral boarder for this pink and brown hourglass quilt that's been in my UFO pile for quite a long time, and, other than embroidery, applique can be a very satisfying project to work on in your lap. This is a king size pieced nine patch and hour glass block quilt. I really like visual texture in a quilt and combing applique and piecing is a great mix, in my opinion.

If you'd like to see pictures of my pink and brown scrap hourglass quilt, click on the labels below for that and the UFO and you'll see lots of pictures I've taken of it.

Frist Needle Threader Tested...hmmm...

My first tested needle threader was a great success, so much so that I am tempted to stop at this one, but, I'll keep to my bloggy word and carry on with the experiment. So test number one has me trying this Clover needle threader, priced $6.95 from Austins. I'm still going to get the 2 other quilt stores in my earlier entry, but, I think I'd have found this one there as well. Suffice it that convience was the key factor in stopping at Austins sewing center.

Now, I've made this a truly hard test, because the needle I've chosen is the Piecemakers Hand Applique SIZE 12. You needle aficianados know that there ain't much smaller eye/needle than a 12 in the quilt world, that I know of, at least. I figured this is about as tough a needle to thread in a low light situation as you can get.

On a scale of 1 to5, this Clover HeartNeedle Threader gets a 4. The only thing that is not in it's favor is the diamond shaped wire is so fine that it is hard to see! Go figure. But, once I got the hang of lining up the needle using the metal back of the wire, it worked fine.