Paducah – the city, the porches, the food, Yeiser Art Center and the National Quilt Museum

NOTE: This 1,400 word, 50 photo post is about one afternoon and one morning in Paducah!

Paducah, Kentucky is a beautiful town, with great food, beautiful porches, unique shopping and lots of art. You might not expect all that to exist in a town in far west Kentucky with a population of 26,000. It is a fabulous place to visit!

The entire town embraces the influx of visitors to Quilt Week and the Show. I enjoyed incredible dining while there, including a delightful dinner at the nationally renowned Freight House as well as a delicious Thai restaurant. Oh my, spectacular food + stimulating conversation makes for a memorable evening.

As an aside, I hail from a small town in north Central Illinois, population 20,000-ish when I lived there, a river town just like Paducah. I felt such strong nostalgia there – the river, the barges, the smell before the rain…

A few quirky things too:

Gas is cheap!

The flags are huge! You may not get the scale from this photo, but there were many giant flags.

And I loved this – the parking spaces were huuuuge! One Paducah parking space = 1.5 California parking spaces😊

Paducah sits on the confluence of four rivers: the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississippi. It floods and flood walls are needed. Paducah has graced their walls with historical murals that tell the story of the town:

The floodwall next to the Convention Center where most of the show is housed, has its own murals:

I took a stroll through the Bob Noble Park, a huge park with lots of massive shade trees and many recreational areas. My hike gave me a little sense of the area:

I tell ya, there was a LOT of green!

Ohhh, and the porches of Paducah! I must have taken 80 photos of porches. I had the most delightful walk, early Sunday morning, before I left. The weather was perfect, a light breeze and thousands of singing birds. Apparently no one is up at 5:45 AM, so I could take my photos and not look like a creeper😊 Enjoy:

I also visited the National Quilt Museum. Oh what a delight! Walking through the current exhibit united the old with the new. So many iconic quilts that I remember from early century mixed with current quilts:

This just smacked me in the face as I entered, such emotion:

Escapade, Libby Lehman. Libby has had a huge influence on the quilting world. About a decade ago, a stroke took away her ability to quilt. I took a class from her early century through my local quilt guild and she was so creative, and such a beautiful soul. I miss her.

Flower Power, Philippa Naylor. This is another huge influence on me. When her book came out I devoured it, every quilt and photo. This is wholecloth and trapunto, a remarkable piece.

On the Wings of a Dream; Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry. To me, this is Caryl’s most iconic quilt. It is breathtaking and has such personal significance to her. There was an entire exhibit of her work and it was amazing.

Rail Fence, My First Quilt, Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, 1976. NOTE: We ALL start at the beginning! This is where Caryl started; take comfort in knowing that we all start with baby steps.

Adventure Awaits, Sue McCarty. Oh this photo doesn’t even come close to doing this astounding quilt justice. It is covered in crystals, before the whole quilting world started to add crystals. I tried to catch the shimmer in a photo, but it was impossible. It just absolutely shimmers, the whole thing. I remember a photo of this quilt in Quilters Newsletter Magazine. Oh how I miss that too.

Somewhere in Time, Marjorie Haight Lydecker. This takes me back in time, to when quilts were simple. The workmanship is exquisite and I love this simple, elegant, edited, spot-on design, a breath of fresh air.

Butternut Summer, Diane Gaudynski. Ohhhh, what a treat to see this quilt in person. Diane has had a huge impact on me. I took her for a total of 8 days and my world pivoted. She is such a talented, kind and giving person. I think she is the best sit down machine quilter, without peer. She is quite old and I don’t hear from her anymore. I miss her too.

Char #4, MJ Kinman. No one did this before MJ, creating fabric gems. What a innovative talent she is. This is a pretty large quilt, an arresting image as you round the corner. It is just spectacular.

Growing Into the Light, Louse Harris. She wrote: “Another of my quilts whose design was decided as I worked on it.” Just brilliant use of color and value.

Option Expedition, Victoria Findlay Wolfe. Copy from the exhibit write up: “takes basic shapes of patchwork — square, circle, triangle, parallelogram — and breaks down design principles of space, balance, scale, line, shape, color, emphasis, contrast, value, repetition, movement, texture, and unity to look at the bold, beautiful choices available.” The scale of the exhibit was impressive.

Tree of Life: Spring, 1994, Jane Sassaman. Jane was another huge influence on me. I read her book over and over, intrigued by her designs, use of color, scale and value. It was wonderful to see this in person.

Grace, 1993, Erika Carter. I don’t remember where I saw this image, but it was one of the first art quilts I encountered. At the time, I had no idea there was such a thing as an art quilt. This is another quilt that I was delighted to see in person.

71, 1987, Pamela Studstill. This was SO innovative in 1987 – the gradient, use of value, construction, use of striped fabrics. It is way cooler in person.

Complementary Compositions, 1989/1999, Gerald E. Roy. I saw this quilt on display at the Museum when I took Diane Gaudynski’s class, maybe 2012? I was just blown away by his use of color and value. It taught me that “mud” is a very useful color. The use of the striped fabric and the piecing was just brilliant.

Infused Plaid, 2016, Cassandra Beaver. I saw this quilt in person at QuiltCon, 2016 in Pasadena. I’d never seen thread used in this way. Simple walking foot stitching created such an intriguing design.

And then there were the minis, oh. my!

I also spent a bit of time downtown:

Found at one of the shops; I love this idea!

Great food, shopping and scenery abound.

I stumbled upon the Yeiser Art Center. I wasn’t sure where it was and I was delighted to find it. It was well worth the visit! The current exhibit was “Fantastic Fibers”:

What a day – the park, the Museum, the Yeiser and downtown, all in one fabulous afternoon! I’ll show the quilt show and my classes next week. I’m still catching up right now!

I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday