Paducah Here We Come

I’m on my computer posting this week’s topic to my blog, as my friend Lori Dickman and I are driving to Paducah (don’t worry ~ she’s driving 😁). We know that it’s Easter Sunday, but we are both women of faith who celebrate the resurrection of our Savior every day in our hearts, so we will listen to our church services via LiveStream, and praise God together while we’re on our way!

And since we’re both teaching ~ the truck is packed full!

Once there we’ll meet up with our friend Jeanette, and Monday afternoon we’ll begin to hang the quilts at the AQS show. What a blessing! Last year I taught at the show, and this year Lori and I are both teaching classes. WooHoo! As I was preparing for Quilt Week I got to thinking that you might find some of my pre-trip craziness interesting.

Back in March I contacted Y.L.I. Thread to ask them about thread for the kits for my classes. They have generously provided thread for my students in the past. The response I got came from Bob Purcell. I knew that name!?! I remember attending a number of his talks on thread years ago. He was so knowledgeable and he shared that knowledge in a humorous and informative way. He and his wife owned Superior Threads at the time. Over the years I’d heard that they had retired and sold Superior Threads. So why was he at Y.L.I.? I did a bit of web surfing and discovered that his wife Heather passed away in 2022, and since then he purchased Y.L.I because he found retirement “boring”. His response to my email was very generous! He sent spools of Y.L.I. Elite thread for each of my students. What a blessing! I can’t wait to visit their booth at the show and thank him in person.

Please click here to visit the Y.L.I. website. The site also includes a “Thread Mastery Institute”, which contains thread tutorials that are very helpful. And if you’re going to the show, Y.L.I. has some special pricing in their booth. Here’s the flyer:

Sew ~ a week and a half ago, I started making the kits, and they require a lot of cutting. I wouldn’t want to do it without my Quilter’s Slidelock™ and my June Tailor Shape Cut ruler™.

Providing kits for classes allows the students to get right into the stitching without taking up class time for cutting. But it does take me a bit of time and effort. As I cut the pieces for my “Fall Into Repliqué” class I stack them in piles.

Each pile is then placed in a bag with handouts, and put in a bin ~ ready to go.

I’m not providing kits for my Beyond Meandering class, but I still have to pull the quilts I need as examples from my shelves and magic box.

Isn’t it interesting that I’ve pulled all the quilts I’ll need for ALL my classes, and yet it doesn’t look like anything is missing from my shelves. After 38 years of quilting one does acquire quite a collection 🤪.

I saved the Seminole Sampler kits for last because they require the most effort. I not only cut all the strips, but I arrange them in files according to each border we’ll be making to avoid confusion in class.

If you’ve taken this class from me you’ll probably remember that I’m a control freak about these kits. I take a lot of time combining the strips for each border we’ll be making, and I put them in the cases in order. And NO ONE is allowed to pull anything out until given permission to avoid confusion 😁!

Making the kits this way is worth it because it’s such a joy to see the students accomplish so much in a 3 hours.

On top of all that we’ll be setting up our kitchen studio at the B&B, so we need machines and supplies for that. It’s going to be a wonderful week! Thank you Lord!

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And one more bit of information for those of you heading to Paducah. Last year there was a wonderful additional area of quilts and vendors at Carson Park.

This venue is not walking distance to the show, and this year Paducah has discontinued the bus that ran out to Carson Park. I was saddened to hear that because it was a very nice stop, and I purchased some unique pieces there. So if you’re at the show, I hope you can find a way to visit this show. For more information click here!