Visiting the Amish in Lancaster, PA

Hi! It's a beautiful Sunday here in Paducah, and I haven't written on my Blog for a while. I thought I would share some of the photos I took while I was in Lancaster a week ago for a quilt show planning meeting. I have reduced the size of the photos to make this message load faster. You can enlarge any of the photos by clicking on them.

We (Terry Guill and I) stayed at the new Cork Factory Hotel. It is a restored cork factory with a lot of charm. My room had a comfortable bed, a huge shower with lots of hot water (not always the case in hotels these days), and very high ceilings.

Like many hotels and convention centers today, the Cork Factory Hotel had a very interesting bar of "green" soap.

The box says "This innovative ergonomically shaped "waste reducing" soap has been designed to eliminate the unused center of traditional soap bars."

When you think about it...what do we usually throw away - that center that they didn't put into the bar in the first place. Great idea! The box is made from natural recycled packaging with soy based inks.


While we were there, Terry and I had a couple of hours to spend seeing the sights, so we took a buggy ride into the Amish countryside. Here are a few photos from our ride....

We knew we were getting close to the farming area when we began passing the buggies on the highway.

Aaron & Jessica's Buggy Rides was the one we chose. There are a number of families along the way that provide these rides.

Our ride began by driving through a covered bridge. Did you know that there are 27 covered bridges in Lancaster County and many of them are near the city of Lancaster. Sometimes you can look over and see one as you are driving along.

It was fun to see all of the flowers blooming at every home along the way
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What a pastoral scene. Our driver told us that 80 families live on the farms you can see in the background.

In addition to horse and buggy travel, this young man was hitching a ride on his wagon as it rolled downhill. Both young and old alike used these scooters - a bicycle with a flat section for your foot...and no seat. They moved along at a pretty good speed on these scooters.

Someone asked what the children did. Then we say this young girl making hay on this hot 90+ degree day. The children help with chores around the farm.

We had a fun afternoon enjoying the peace and quiet of the Amish countryside. We are having fun learning more about Lancaster and the Amish community there.

The dates for the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster are March 16 - 19, 2011. You can make your hotel reservations now; just click here to book your room online.

Vendors Relax on Boat at Kentucky Lake...and more

I thought you all would get a kick out of this tape from WPSD TV Local 6 about the vendors who stayed on an 80 foot houseboat at Kentucky Lake, and about the fancy portalets that we had behind the Pavilion this year.

Click here to view the tape.

Bonnie B

Dogwoods are Starting to Bloom

This week the first of the dogwoods started to bloom. Look at how pristine these blossoms are. The redbud trees are all in full bloom now too, which means that they will probably be finished by the time the quilters arrive for the quilt show. Hopefully the azaleas will be showing off their color for the quilters then. The AQS Quilt Show is only 18 days away now. Do you have your plans made to be here to help us celebrate our 25th anniversary, April 22 - 25?


Look at this beautiful peppermint striped dogwood that I found today. It was at a home in the Downtown Artist area. I've never seen one that looked like this. I am calling it Peppermint Patty - have no idea what it's real name is.

Spring has Sprung

The first sign of spring in Paducah is the daffodils starting to bloom. The Bradford pear trees are blooming too, but many of them are scarred from the January ice storm..so they look a little battered.

The quilts for the AQS Quilt Contest have been juried, and there are 400 excited quilters who can't wait for the judging to see if they won. The judging is done on the weekend right before the show.

We are busy working on the final details for the 25th anniversary celebration - do you know that more than 10,000 quilts have been shown at the Paducah show over these past 25 years...and AQS has awarded more than $2.5 million in cash awards to quilters across the U.S. and around the world.

Most of the classes are full, but there are still a few seats if you want to register for a workshop or two. You can always attend some of the lectures - that's a great way to learn more about that instructor's techniques.

Be sure to sign up for the 25th Anniversary Celebration & Reception on Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. It will be a special night. The past Best of Show winners will be honored - all but 4 of them will be here as guests of AQS.

And, I'm busy working on details...like finalizing the lodging list for the sponsors and teachers, and getting the BEO's (Banquet Event Orders - there's a slip for every room for every day) updated with this year's information for the hotel; and beginning the text for the Showbook that will be available at the show. There are things to be finished every day between now and the show.

Hope you all are planning to come join us in Paducah, April 22 - 25, 2009. If you need lodging, call the Visitors Bureau at 1-800-PADUCAH and ask about the AQS Home Bed & Breakfast program. We still have some local homeowners who are willing to host quilters for the show.

Rainy day here today...good day for a book and a nap. GRIN

Bonnie B

25th AQS Anniversary Quilt Show in PADUCAH !!!

Hi All:
Today we announced that AQS will host its 25th anniversary in Paducah, Kentucky. Space Coast Hospitality Management Services, the new owners and management company of the Executive Inn, has contracted with A & K Construction, Inc., of Paducah, Kentucky, to renovate all of the hotel rooms and provide improved hotel services by April, 2009. In addition, the City of Paducah has committed to remodel the Julian M. Carroll Convention Center.

The remodeling will solve many of the problems that we had at the 2008 show - air conditioning problems in the convention center, and the run-down conditions at the hotel. It has taken the months since the show for the plans to develop far enough that AQS is comfortable that the renovations can be completed in time for next year's show. More renovations will continue after the 2009 show with the building of an entirely new entrance and other exterior modifications.

We will all look forward to a new look for this hotel that has hosted the AQS Quilt Show for the past 24 years. Watch the AQS Web site, www.AmericanQuilter.com for upcoming information on making reservations at the Executive Inn; the reservation system is one of the things that will change soon so they aren't ready right now to handle reservations for the show.

And even though many of you have complained about the high rates the hotels in Paducah charge, those rates are set by the hotels. In Paducah we do not contract with the hotels like we do in our other show sites. We certainly can't be involved in price setting of the rates the hotels charge. If you don't like the hotel rates here, I suggest that you look at attending one of our other shows where there are more hotel rooms and thus more competition between the hotels, so the rates are in line with what is charged at other national quilt shows.

For me, this announcement today means that we can move full steam ahead with the plans for our 25th anniversary quilt show.