Wow...what a busy week we had. The 25th Anniversary Quilt Show closed at 5 p.m. last night. And Wayne and I were able to sleep in past 6 a.m. this morning. My feet and knees still hurt but I'm taking it easy today.
We began on Friday, April 17, as we moved into the newly-renovated Julian Carroll Convention Center (thank to the City of Paducah) to prepare for judging the quilts. The judging was done on Saturday and Sunday as Libby Lehman, Yvonne Porcella, and Mary Sorensen viewed and judged all 16 categories in the contest. Mariya Waters from Australia won Best of Show and she arrived at the show on Wednesday morning. What a delight, as she accepted the honor of winning this top award, talked with visitors about making her quilt, and enjoyed visiting Paducah. Wait until you see the photo of this quilt in the next issue of American Quilter magazine - you'll see the miles and miles of hand couched thread around every applique piece in her quilt!
Monday and Tuesday were set up days - getting the quilts all hung and vendors set up. Did you all visit all of the vendor areas, from the Expo Center, to both levels of the Convention Center, the Galleria near the Patio Dining Room in the hotel, and of course, the Vendors on Kentucky (Finkel Building) where we had even more vendors and the AQS/Collector Books "hurt book" sale? I bet you didn't buy just one book!
The show officially opened on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. Thousands of quilters were waiting to view the winning quilts. Congratulations to all of the winners in this year's contest. Wednesday afternoon, Nancy Zieman hosted the afternoon tea and shared tips for making landscape quilts and some other quick projects. The evening program, the 25th Anniversary Celebration, sponsored by Janome, included Keith Harrell as the keynote speaker, introduction of the past Best of Show winners, presentation of the awards to this year's winners, followed by a reception for all who attended.
Thursday was the Quilt Auction at the Four Rivers Center in the Afternoon. That evening Eleanor Burns regaled the audience with a look back at her past 30 years of Quilt in a Day - she even admitted when there were patterns that took more than one day. GRIN
On Friday afternoon, the AQS/Hobbs Bonded Fibers Fashion Show included both the models wearing their fashions in the contest, and the Quilted Elegance Fashions by Rami Kim during the judging intermission. All were a feast for the eyes! The Ricky Tims Concert, sponsored by Ken's Sewing Center, featured Ricky playing the piano, his mini piano, a recorder, flute, and a trumpet. We are lucky to have all of this talent wrapped in one of our quilters. We already have him scheduled for next year...so if you weren't here this year, put Friday evening on your calendar for next year.
The Brunch & Fun with Helen Squire on Saturday morning was like something from outer space - you should have seen Helen's GREEN hair. She shared tips for getting all of our UFO's quilted.
And, so now, we move on to finalizing our plans for the Knoxville (July 22 - 25) and Des Moines (October 28 - 31) shows later this year. The Knoxville registration is open online (http://www.americanquilter.com/) and we are working on the registration materials for Des Moines so they'll be available soon.
