Paducah Day 1!!

Sadly, the second annual Mother-Daughter trip to the AQS show in Paducah has drawn to a close. The Momcat flew back home yesterday, leaving me alone with my fabric. And my rulers. And patterns. And books. And did I mention fabric? 

For the moment, however, my beloved Bernina is in the shop, as it was making this very suspicious "thump thump thump" noise when I tried working on the baby quilt last night. I was nervous about taking it into a shop, but when I arrived, I found that it was run by a woman I know from quilt guild! Now I know my machine is in good hands who can fix her up and get her back to me fast!

In the meantime, I can sort through all the pictures we took, catch up on some blogging, and work on planning and cutting some projects. 

On the way to Paducah (Tuesday)

We left my house at about 11:00 Tuesday morning for the six hour drive to Metropolis where we were staying the first night. 

You'll note here that the car only contains our suitcases. This is for a good reason; more space for fabric!

Given our early start, and loose schedule, we decided to stop at the outlet mall we came across on the way down. It was a festive side trip, resulting in two pairs of jeans and a cute shirt (see below), sunglasses for both of us, a new polka dotted umbrella and a whole slew of goodies from Bath and Body Works. 

We also found the cutest kid's ride. I did attempt to get into the car for the picture, but found I was too big. 

Much too big. 

We also saw the N-boy's favorite thing, the MegaBus. 

I think he just likes the large and somewhat creepy picture on the back. 

After a restful night, we were ready to go the next morning. Well, the Momcat had a restful night. I, on the other hand was like a small child on Christmas Eve. Well, actually like I still am on Christmas Eve. 

Here I am rocking my new shirt, jeans and pink sunglasses. 

Paducah Day 1 (Wednesday)

The Momcat and I had a long and fun-filled first day in Paducah!

We started the morning at Hancock's of Paducah, where we did LOTS of damage! This store had a back "room" that is really more the size of a warehouse, where they have piles of one-yard cuts for $4.98 each. Woohoo! 

Our strategy is to fill the cart with things we like, and then snag a bench and go through them one by one! 

Then we checked in at the Expo center and started hitting the vendors and quilt show exhibits!

I even got my picture taken with this year's Best of Show winner.

We spent the rest of the morning perusing the Merchant Mall, where the Momcat got me the most beautiful Chatelaine ever. There will be an entire post on this event. Later. When I've taken close up pictures of it!

After perusing the Merchant Mall, we had our first lecture with Libby Lehmen on organizing your studio space. It was a very interesting lecture, and made me want to give in to my desire to purchase a home labeler and then start labeling everything within site. Not just in my studio, but the whole house. I'm quite convinced we'd all benefit from this system. 

I digress. Anyway, she had some nifty ideas on staying organized and staying focused, thus resulting in more productive time to work in your studio. 

Here's me with Libby Lehman. As you may have noticed, I LOVE getting my picture taken with these celebrities from the quilting world!

After the lecture we hit the "marshmallow" as the new pavilion was being called. Erected to make up for some of the space lost by the closing of the Executive Inn attached to the convention center, the marshmallow housed even more vendors and the Kaffe Fassett display. 

After a long and exciting day, the Momcat and I headed to Metropolis where we'd somehow managed to get a hotel room. There was a snafu with the room (smoking room=not ok for the Momcat's severe allergies), so we went to dinner while the hotel ran the de-smokilator in the room. 

On the way to finding somewhere to eat in Metropolis (a failed venture, I might add, as we ended up just going back to Paducah) we did find the giant superman statue we'd heard about. Although I'm still not very clear on why it is there, it is none the less festive. 

Finally we ended up at Texas Roadhouse, where I fed the Momcat a large margarita which seemed to help greatly given her frustration about the hotel situation

After stuffing ourselves silly, we went back to the hotel room and crashed! 

It was a great first day. 

[Although I took lots of pictures of the quilts at the show, we're not supposed to put them online. So I've substituted with the large number of pictures of me and the Momcat! To see pictures of the gorgeous quilts, check the AQS website.]