Yours truly was buzzing around! Not only were there lots of quilts...but there were tons of vendors! I stopped by the EQ 5 booth and there was the author of the new EQ 5 book, Barb Vlack. Well she sure was a nice lady and very helpful too! She answered some EQ 5 questions for me and even showed me some of it on the computer! She's gotten me so excited about the EQ 5 software that I'm thinking of signing up for the DECS EQ 5 project. Madame BlindHem happened to float by at this point and she immediately bought a stash CD and has already signed up for the DECS project!
Ricky Timms was there. He had some great hand dyed fabric that he was selling. I gotta tell ya, that man sure can make some great colors! I managed to be good there - but then I couldn't control myself at another booth where they were selling this new foot that fits any sewing machine. It lets ya do curved piecing perfectly - with no pins! The woman there demonstrated it time and again. It was great! And since I always seem to be going around in circles, why not sew them?? She also had a handy roller - like a miniature paint roller, but all in wood, that is perfect for pressing down seams when ya don't want to get up and go to the ironing board.
I lost Madame BlindHem and came out of the exhibition hall in time to see Susan Butler, an IFQ member, meeting up with Suzanne L and James! It was great to meet other IFQ members in the flesh! They went on and had lunch outside (James says it was a lot of fun), but I had to go seaching for Madame BlindHem. When I finally found her, we realized it had been thirsty work that morning and we headed off to the famous Paducah watering hole, the Diamond in a Square Lounge. Saw a lot of quilters and a lot of g & t's there! We had a great time!
After our refreshment beverages, we went back to the convention center and saw some more quilts. But this time, my focus was going (I do think it was because of the vast number of quilts around me....not the stop at the Diamond in a Square Lounge!) and I was seeing stars in Madame BlindHem's eyes (though, come to think of it, that's not such a rare thing). So, we decided to stop by the Diamond in a Square Lounge again on our way across town to the Vendors on Kentucky. Well, that was more stuff to buy!
Well, once we figured out where the hotel had gone to, we went back there, dumped our purchases and went off to the Diamond in a Square Lounge. And that was it for the first day!
We woke up a bit late the next day and decided to pop by the ol' Diamond in a Square Lounge for a bit of morning refreshment. We then decided to check out Hancock's of Paducah since we had heard so much about it. Wow! ya wouldn't believe it! It's got a TON of fabric from every designer ya could ever think of. And it's grouped by designer line. So ya can see how varied a line can be! I was surprised by that, let me tell ya!
But the absolute best was the sale room in the back. We're talking designer fabrics at less than half price....and we're talking American prices which would be lower than UK and Australia, for instance. WOW! I rushed in there - and glanced over my shoulder for Madame BlindHem as I did. I saw she had been reaching for a bolt and about 25 of them had fallen over on her. That made her turban come down over her eyes and her crystal ball went flying. I started to go back to her, but saw there were plenty of people helping her. She does seem to make friends wherever she goes. So I ran on into the Sales Room.
Well, let me tell ya, there was fabric everywhere. There were these stacks of batik fat quarters (I think it was about 10 fat quarters) for 5.00 a stack! I grabbed a few. And then I went to the place where they have cuts of fabric that are at least a yard, if not a bit more, with fantastic prices. There were Laurel Birch fabrics, Debbie Mumm, Timeless Treasures...oh and many more. Well, I had a lot of fun, til I heard a loud noise from the front. I figured it probably had to be Madame BlindHem in some way or another.
Sure enough, when I emerged from the back Sales Room, there was Madame BlindHem in the middle of a mess. She had dropped her crystal ball that had rolled and tipped over a shelf and all the bolts had hit the floor!
Well, we paid up and left after that. No point staying around for the clean up! After all that excitement, we had to hit the ol' Diamond in a Square Lounge. Now, can ya believe it, it was dinner time by now! When ya go into Hancocks of Paducah, ya really lose the sense of time, let me tell ya!
So while we were in the Diamond in a Square Lounge, we met some more quilters and they asked Madame BlindHem to look into the stars and tell them their horoscopes. Quilters are a fun bunch, aren't they?
The next day, we hopped into a car and visited some of the local quilt shops in the area. Now, I gotta say that Kentucky is not a bad area to live in if ya are a quilter (and have a car!). We went to one store that was so jam packed with fabric that it was hard to get from one end to another! Natch, I lost Madame BlindHem pretty much right away. I turned down an aisle and then looked back and she was gone! I figured she'd show up eventually....she always does. So I continued looking around. This shop had wonderful selection of buttons that would be perfect for embellishments. Well, I found quite a bit.
When I was finished, I started worrying about finding Madame BlindHem. I started looking around and didn't know HOW I was going to find that gal, when suddenly, I noticed some curled up shoes and striped stockings. There she was - lying with her head in the middle of the celestial fabrics! She looked quite happy, but it was time for some afternoon refreshment.
Now we were outside of Paducah so we were far from the Diamond in a Square Lounge, so we had to look around. But being that there are so many quilters in this area, it was no time before we found the Nine Patch Nightclub that conveniently opened at noon (sun over the yard arm and all that). Well, this was a fun establishment and soon we felt like we were among old friends.
This one gal started showing us a real nice embroidery stitch, one that would look good on one of the IFQ Crazy Quilt Round Robin blocks. Well, it was getting interesting 'til she started having trouble threading the needle. We all tried to help but finally gave up on THAT. It's hard to thread a needle when ya're seeing 3 of them, ya know what I mean?
A few hours later, we emerged into the sunlight and realized that we only had time for one more stop. So we found another quilt store on the way back. This was a really nice shop and the people were real friendly. But...they had a lot of elephant fabric. Well, I don't know if ya know this, but Madame BlindHem tends to see a lot of .... pink elephants, ya know. So she saw all this elephant fabric and she thought she was having one of "those days", if ya know what I mean. However, once I steered her over to the other side of the store and got her into the star fabric, she was fine.
I found a great book on paper foundation stars that I thought would make a nice gift for Madame BlindHem (after all, if she's gonna see 'em, she might as well sew 'em!). I got a few fat quarters and we were off.
We decided to join the other quiting regulars at the Diamond in a Square Lounge for our last night. Madame read a few palms and we had a great time!
Let me tell ya, Paducah is a friendly place. If ya ever get to go, make sure ya stop in the Diamond in a Square Lounge. Just tell 'em that Celluloid Sally and Madame BlindHem sent ya!
