Museum of the American Quilter's Society

 

This is taken from a postcard. I love the way you can see a quilt featured in each window. Of course we were there during the day and you can't see inside.

It is a non profit museum dedicated to honoring today's quilter.  Open year round it is America's largest quilt museum featuring bi-monthly changing exhibitions of quilts.

I took that info from the back of the postcard.

You can go here to visit their website.

Because we were not allowed to take pictures, I am going to show you a few postcards of quilts we saw. We were also not allowed to touch.  Do you know how hard it is to look at a quilt and not touch....but I do understand the reason. Even though there were many contempory quilts, I only bought cards of  the traditional ones that were my favs.

 "Stardust" 

I loved the piecing of the stars and the appliqued border.

 "Spice of Life"

I especially loved the colors in this one and the bias strips that made up the flower stems.

This was probably my favorite one.

 "Mother's Day"

 I loved the playful children's silouettes and all the aplique was so intricate.

(Sorry, just realized this is sideways)

"Flowers of the Crown"

This one is unbelievable. It is so realistic and was a favorite because I got to go to tour Churchill Downs last year.  These quilts were all hand quilted, but there was a lot of beautiful machine quilting too.

 

This one is made from wood.  It was in a separate room.

We were told there was a wood quilt in the conference room....

we walked in and I insisted there was not a wood quilt is this room. I got as close as I could and still argued it was not wood.  Don't tell anyone, but I touched it and yes, it is carved from wood. It is hanging from a swagged rope and had folds, texture and looks hand quilted. Don't tell anyone, but we got a picture of this one.  I'm not a rule breaker normally, but.....

The picture does not represent how authentic it looks.

Here we are as we were leaving.

Me, my cousin' s daughter Amber, my 90 yr. old aunt and my cousin Judy.

Amber wants to quilt and we headed back to Hancocks to get her started. My Aunt (her grandma) has quilted and sewn all her life. Judy...well she would rather golf, but was so sweet to take us on this special trip.

It was all her idea and she planned it all.  Thank you my sweet cousin.

After stopping at "Patti's 1890's Settlement" for dinner (I'll tell you about that tomorrow night),

we got back to my Aunt's house late and after the 4 hr. trip home, we all were pretty tired.

We took it easy today. We sat on the porch tonight and Judy said, "9:00 on a Saturday night and we are sitting in rockers on the front porch watching cows....only in Kentucky"

"My Old Kentucky Home"

One of the many places I lived when growing up was Paducah, KY.  As with many of the places we lived, we didn't live there for long and I don't remember too much about it except we lived in a trailer...a very small trailer. In those days they weren't called Mobile Homes or RV's like today...just trailer. But it's all I knew and we made the best of it. While in Paducah the last couple of days, I was wishing I knew exactly where we lived and how old I was, but there is no one in my family left to ask about it.

As we were driving around yesterday looking for the Quilt Museum so we could find out when they opened, we drove past this cute house and I asked my cousin to go back so I could take pictures.

Since I don't know where I lived, I could pretend I had lived here...not really...It is not a fancy house and not all that big, but something just drew me to it.

You could tell they were working on it and had the kind of cottagey flowerbeds I love.

Just as we (my cousin's daughter Amber and I) were taking this last picture of the swing and shutters the lady of the house came out with a big welcoming smile on her face (thank goodness). We were being rather bold in our picture taking.

I told her why we were taking pictures and she said she was so flattered and that they had moved there 2 years ago and had to redo everything .  She continued to tell us all they had done and then invited us in to see the inside. We would love to we said, but our 90 yr old aunt (grandmother) was sitting back at the hotel waiting for us to take her to dinner.  I think she was so disappointed that these strangers didn't want to come in and see her house.

Only in Kentucky!!

Opps, I forgot the other special place I wanted to show you!  We actually went here first.

There is a story to the excitement of being able to go here too. I always have a story...

Back in the 1980's, (oh am I dating myself) I took a class from Eleanor Burns. I learned how to do her first quilt, the Log Cabin. Then I took classes from her at Quilt Market to be certified to teach her quilts.

In fact she was the one who taught me about the Rotary Cutter.  For many years, I taught her various quilts.

So this was another sentimental journey for me.

Here I am with Eleanor!!

Here are Amber and I with Jeanie who runs the store.

She was so sweet and fun. We just had a great time.

Here are a few pictures I took of the store.

My cousin, Judy in front of the store. It is located about a block away from the Quilt Museum in an older downtown area. As we drove around, it looked like they were trying to refurbish many of the buildings.

     

These are for you Anne.

Because of my love for Barn Quilts, I got Eleanor Burns new book called  "Quilt Blocks on American Barns"

There are wonderful pictures of  barns with quilts painted on them and stories to go along with them. She also shares the instructions for making many and for using them in quilts other than the one on the front. I found a few I really want to try.

Tomorrow night I will share about our final 2 stops in Paducah....The National Quilt Museum and the great place we had dinner (yes, more quilts) on the way back to my Aunt's house.