Picking Up Sticks - the BIG Cleanup

My sister, Karen Franzen, and her son, Mike, and granddaughter Kaetlin, came to Paducah to help "pick up the sticks" in our yard. She said the photos I posted earlier didn't give a true picture of how many trees and limbs had fallen. Maybe these photos will give you a better idea.

Katie (the assistant cashier), Mike (the manager), Karen (chief flunky), and Wayne (the boss - on the tractor) filled this trailer numerous times as they gathered the sticks into piles in the backyard. They decided they needed to have titles - so they came up with their own.

This is the back right corner of our yard. Several large limbs fell in this area.

We had some fun while they were here too. We went to eat at Patti's Restaurant on Thursday evening. Here Katie gets her first look at the 2-inch pork chop we all ordered. We ate about half and brought the rest home.

The side yard - several limbs fell on the roof of the house on this side. We also lost a big pine tree on this side.

The "crew" was able to get some of the sticks burned, but then the winds pick up and they couldn't do any more burning.

Central Paving is one of the sites that is accepting limbs if you haul them there. We drove by and saw this huge barrel chipper machine they are using to chop up all of these limbs.

And this is the pile that they still have to chip. To get an idea of the height of the pile, compare the pile to the large pieces of equipment sitting in front of it.

Mike starts sawing up the limbs behind the garage.

Mike used the chain saw non-stop to get it into pieces small enough for the rest of the crew to stack into piles to be burned in the back yard.

Here are some of the 25 six-foot tall piles of sticks in the backyard, all ready to be burned when the weather cooperates so Wayne can get out there to do it. On Saturday, when we wanted to get the last of the sticks picked up, it rained in the morning. So we went out to pick up some souvenir T-shirts and stopped by to visit the National Quilt Museum. By the time we arrived back home, the rain had stopped and the wind had died down so we were able to finish it. By the time we finished, snow showers started and the winds picked up again. The weather cooperated just enough for us to get the sticks all stacked and ready for burning.

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Karen, Mike, and Katie came on Wednesday and went home on Sunday. They helped us whittle this huge clean-up job down to a manageable size. Now Wayne can get his hose out there and start a couple of piles at a time to get it all burned.

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Thank you Karen, Mike, and Katie - we would have been weeks trying to get all of these sticks picked up. We had some fun, and we went to some of our favorite restaurants in the area too. We took their photo in front of the fire station in Possom Trot...and of Mike pumping gas at the Possom Trot gas station. GRIN! I guess they will have stories to tell when they get home.

Oh, and by the way, I also gave Katie and Karen some tools so they can do some quilting. Katie went home with some of my books, and some that have some good projects for her to get started. While they were here, we made a baked potato bag...and they went home with the instructions. Katie did all of the sewing to make it too.

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And now we are all exhausted...today was spent napping, watching the Nascar race, napping, napping, and napping.

Generators Off in Neighborhood

Would you believe that finally today there were no sounds of generators running in our neighborhool? Some of our neighbors had to have the lines rebuilt from their pole to the house and they are now getting to repair those lines.

Wayne and I have been working on picking up branches and sticks...and so far just about have the front yard done...well, if you can call two hugs piles in the front yard done. We could certainly have a gigantic wiener roast, complete with marshmallows. The county is working to get funds to come pick up the limbs...if they don't, we plan to burn them right where they sit.

Next we will have to start on the side yard where we had the most damage to our house - tore the cutters on three sides of the house on that end...and the limbs are larger than what we had in front. We also had damage to the gutter on one side of the garage, and quite a bit of damage to our garden shed in the back - one big limb broke down the double doors to the shed, and tore some siding off the front.

It will definitely be a while before we get this all cleaned up. Our insurance adjuster was here today and we should have the final report back from him in a week. The adjuster was from Montana, helping out with the storm damage in Western Kentucky.

Power is Back On

Our power came back on Monday night...wow, what a relief. Our home telephone (and Internet) are still down so if we aren't anwering your calls and messages, that's why. You can e-mail me at bbquilter@gmail.com and I can pick that up at the office when I check my messages there.

This week President O'Bama designated our ice storm a Major Disaster, which will allow the cities to get Federal funds to help with the clean-up. The Paducah fire and police have gone door-to-door checking on every household; we live in the county and the National Guard came through our neighborhood. This is the worst natural disaster ever in the state of Kentucky.

Here's a photo to give you an idea of what happened to the utility poles. This pole is located at the corner of the parking lot at the Paducah Expo Center. There are literally thousands of utility poles that have snapped in half, and in this case, thirds. There are 500 utility workers from nine states in town working with our local utility companies to help replace all of those utility lines before they can get power restored.

About half of our staff at AQS still does not have power back on at their homes. Cindy Carrico, our Assistant Show Director, counted 28 broken utility poles between her home in Fancy Farm and Mayfield, Kentucky - a distance of only 10 miles. That shows what a mammoth job these utility workers have to do to restore power. They are saying it will be March before Cindy's home has power again.

All for now...we have power and are warm again, and Tuffy has come out of hiding. GRIN

Bonnie B

Ice Storm Update

I'm taking my lunch break today to post a few of the photos I took on Thursday after the ice had stopped. There are big limbs and little limbs laying everywhere. We had some property damage to the house and shed that we know of now...and we've managed to stay warm and heat some food. This whole experience certainly makes me realize the trials that the people we visited in Bali and Turkey that do not have electricty have to go through every day to survive. We are definitely spoiled with our electronics and electricity.

Here is a close-up view of how thick the ice was on the branches - 1/2" to 3/4" all over the branches. You can see why they couldn't stand all that weight.

Wayne takes care of feeding our fine feathered friends. They didn't know what to think of this ice and snow. They really liked it when he spread sunflower seed on the ground to make it easy for them to find. I don't think I've ever seen icicles like this hanging from our clothesline before.

A big limb went through the doors to our garden shed out back. You can see how low our cable line is hanging. Telephone line had already snapped by the time I took this photo. Electrical line seems to be in tact ... when they get our grid of power going.

The view of our side yard from the back. We were lucky to only have gutter damage that we know of, so far. Still a lot of broken limbs just hanging from the trees.

Here you can see the grove of trees behind the garage and how they have broken in half or the tops have broken out of them. There is a lot of cleanup in this area.

Branches that have fallen on the garage.

The branches kept falling...the one tree in the center of this photo only has two main branches left of it. Behind it, our beautiful tall tulip poplar tree has lost many of its branches.

Stay warm...we are too now that we have our generator going.

We are Hunkered Down

Hello...I am at the Paducah Library writing this note. Just wanted to let you all know that Wayne and I are fine. Our power is out and last night a limb tore the phone box off the outside of our house, so we won't have a land line for a while. Our cell phones have not been working. Today I was able to get cell service for a little while, but it is still sporadic.

Thank heavens we have our gas logs in our fireplace. We have been able to keep the kitchen fairly comfortable with that. Our neighbors have a generator and we've run a line from that to put a heater in the family room. The grocery stores are getting back open so we have been able to get some things to eat. We have a gas water heater so we do have hot water.

We are just heading home from Home Depot where we bought a generator to be able to power our heater, the refrigerator, and maybe even the microwave - so we can eat something hot. This is like camping inside your house. I covered the doorway to the living room with a wool batting and that is good insulation - helped to raise the temp in the kitchen by about 5 degrees to 68. I can't wait to tell H.D. at Hobbs that I definitely vouch for the insulation qualities of their wool batting.

If you looked at my last post of the damage in our yard, it is twice that bad now. Limbs damaged the gutters on two sides of our house, and there are limbs everywhere. It's staying in the 20's so the ice hasn't started to melt yet. I've taken pictures but can't download them to post until we get power back up. That may be several days yet. Our power comes from transmission lines in Hendersonville and there are many power poles broken along that route. Today they are doing a helicopter visual of those lines to see what is causing the problem.

Until you hear from me again...we are staying warm, finding things to eat that don't require cooking, and I'm reading some books that I bought weeks ago and had no time to read (can only read from sunrise to sunset though since we just have candles and flashlights for light after dark).

Bonnie, Wayne & Tuffy (who hates the sound of those trees falling)

Ice in Paducah - January 27

The rain and sleet started last night. By 5 a.m., our power was out. Guess we were one of the first to call because the power company was here by shortly after 6 a.m. As we sat here in the house with no appliances running and no noise, we could hear the branches of trees breaking and falling to the ground. That was just the beginning. By 7:30 our power was restored. But the limbs have continued to fall. Here are some photos of our yard that looks like a war zone.

This is a major storm - last night the media called it the worst storm in two decades.

We only live about a mile or so from the office and Wayne took me to work this morning. All day long we could hear trees cracking in the woods near the office. Our power flickered on and off most of the day. Oh, did I say that I was the only member of our quilt show staff who made it in. I fielded calls for registrations most of the day. Then the power went out at about 3 p.m., so I came home. Guess the cell towers are iced over too because I had no bars on my cell phone and we were having trouble making outside calls with our office phones. Billy was finally able to get a call to Wayne to come get me. When I got home I grabbed my camera and shot some photos in our yard. You can get a larger view by clicking on the photos.

Even as I sit here typing, I can hear more limbs falling in our yard. Wow, there was a big tree that just crashed to the ground in the woods by our next door neighbor. And we have more sleet and snow to come yet tonight. This isn't supposed to end until about noon on Wednesday. More damage is on the way.

We are okay and have power for now.

We have a whole grove of trees along our left property line. Many, many branches have fallen from these trees. They just can't stand the weight of all that ice. It must be at least 1/2 inch thick. As pretty as the ice looks, we will have a big mess to clean up.

See how the trees have broken and fallen over into the neighbor's yard. It doesn't look like it damaged the fence, but now we've lost all four of the big pine trees that separated our yards.

This view from our back porch shows one pine

trees that has its limbs dragging clear to the ground, the next one is broken off at the roots and flopped our neighbor's fence, and smaller limbs that damaged our gutters on the back of the house.

This is the view of the back yard from our porch. Limbs are continuing to fall. I don't ever remember seeing icicles like this on our clothesline since we moved to Kentucky.

Christmas 2008

Wayne and I headed north to spend Christmas in Iowa and Illinois with our families. It was raining as we left Paducah, and the weather changed drastically after we hit I-57. Here you see a beautiful rainbow that went across the highway as we changed from rain to sleet. The sun was trying to peak through and gave us a rainbow that started on one side of the highway and ended on the other side of the highway. I've never seen both ends of a rainbow before.

Here you can see the drifting snow that was blowing across the highway, turning the road to a sheet of ice. We drove 20 to 25 mph for more than 3 hours. What should have been a 4-hour trip turned into 6 1/2 hours for us to get from Paducah to Lincoln, Illinois, where we spent Tuesday night. There were cars in the ditch and upside down everywhere along the road. We rode with the truckers and slowed way down so we didn't end up there too. The roads were a bit better on Wednesday morning -- we could drive about 40 mph.

This was the view as we drove into the Quad Cities on I-280. What can be more beautiful than snow-covered trees? Here they had been working hard on the highways so the driving was much better.

As we crossed from Illinois into Iowa, we saw eagles flying and I caught a couple of them sitting in this tree as we drove by. See those two black blobs on the branch that hangs over the open water.

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We weren't able to go do any eagle watching along the Mississippi River there, so it was fun to catch them as we drove in.

On Christmas Eve, Wayne and I had lunch with his Mom, Buster, and sister Kathi. Then we spent the evening at my sister's home - Karen and Dellwyn Franzen. She and I went through the recipes that we are putting in our Cooking with the Kirklands' family cookbook that I've been putting together. We had a fun evening together. Wayne and Dellwyn joined in when they could get a word in edgewise.

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Then on Christmas Day we picked Karen and Dellwyn up to go have Christmas dinner with most of the rest of our family at sister Marcia and Don Ekin's in Cambridge, Illinois. Here is a photo of the our gang.

Sad news....shortly after we left Cambridge to go home, we had to call an ambulance for Dellwyn. He passed away at the hospital in Geneseo, Illinois, that evening. The granddaughters and I put together a photo collage of Dellwyn - his life and loves, and the funeral was Monday. Condolences can be left at www.bentleyfuneralhome.com . We'll all miss that twinkle Dellwyn always got in his eye when he was going to be ornery. He'll be missed as a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, and brother-in-law. He went safely into God's hands on Christ's Day, and will suffer no more from his diabetes.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Wayne and Bonnie & Tuffy too...

wishes you a very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year too...a year filled with quilts, quilters, and quilting friends.

Ice Skating in Paducah!

Paducah has a new ice skating rink downtown across from the National Quilt Museum. The City rented a portable unit that has been having 1,000 skaters a day visit on the weekend. They have milk crates that can be stacked for the novice skaters to help them stand up until they get the hang of it. Private parties have filled the hours when the rink is not open to the public. It will be open until early in February. So put on your skates and don't break a leg -- that is exactly why I'm not digging out my old skates.

It's Nearly Christmas

Tonight after the Schroeder Publishing Christmas party, Wayne, Andi Reynolds and her husband Dennis, and I drove through Noble Park to see the lights. This was a really nice nativity scene.

We enjoyed dinner catered by Patti's Restaurant from Grand Rivers, music by the Tilghman girl's chorale group, and an enjoyable evening with our colleagues.

Tomorrow is a vacation day for me. After going out for breakfast, I have just a little shopping to finish up and we'll be all set to spend Christmas with our families.

Did you see that moon on Friday night?

When we came home on Friday night, the moon was so big and bright that I had to grab my camera and go out to take a photo. It had a colored halo around it. Wow, what a sight!

This was the closest the moon has been to earth in 15 years. It was about 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than the other full moons seen so far this year. That's because our cosmic neighbor will be much closer than usual. The moon will be at 221,560 miles (356,566 kilometers) from Earth. (Info taken from the Internet).

We thought Tuffy would want to go outside and stay out all night...but he didn't. Maybe he likes it darker at night.

Cooking with the Kirklands & $1.49 gas today...

More recipes are coming in for our family cookbook. It won't be ready for Christmas; we'll proof it over the holidays so we can get it printed shortly thereafter. Typing all of these recipes sure does make me want to make some of these dishes. Everyone is sharing their favorite recipes. I did go out and purchase some items to make a couple batches of candy. The real cooked kind of chocolate fudge with pecans or English walnuts is one of our favorites.

Wow, can you believe that our gas is now below $1.50? We'll take every penny they give us. It is sure nice to be able to fill the car with a $20 bill.

After Thanksgiving...gas is $1.50 here now

After enjoying our Thanksgiving turkey, it's been a nice quiet weekend. Shopping for a few groceries for things to eat up the rest of the turkey...turkey & noodle casserole, and turkey salad sandwiches, and a trip to Office Depot to replace our computer keyboard (I actually wore out the e and s keys) meant that we had to head to the shopping areas. Surprisingly, we were able to park close and the traffic wasn't bad. We bought an ergonomic keyboard and so far I like the feel of it. The keys are in a slight arc instead of straight across. It seems like a natural fit for the hands.

I've kept busy this weekend. For the last several years, our family has talked about doing a family cookbook to share our favorite recipes. I have collected recipes and I spent Thursday and Friday typing them into a recipe format. You know how sometimes you write a recipe on a card and only record the basic stuff. Well, when you put those recipes into a cookbook, you have to fill in all of the other information that people might need to cook it...like, how long you bake those cookies or cake. Mom even dug out her recipe for Hard (lye) Soap, and we have Karen's recipe for Homemade Noodles (and they are really good). I'm still waiting for recipes from some of the family so we have some from everyone. I don't think it will be done in time for Christmas because it will take 2 - 3 weeks to get it printed. We'll gather some more recipes when we go home for Christmas and then get it finished and printed. I want to include photos of our families too.

Some of the recipes that I included are the candies that Wayne's Mom and I used to get together at this time of year to make. We would each buy 10 pounds of sugar and we'd spend a whole weekend making batches and batches of different kinds of fudge, divinity, peanut brittle, date roll, and more. We wouldn't stop until we'd used up all of that sugar. Then we had goodies to share all through the holiday season. Typing recipes for all that food made me go out and buy some ingredients to make Toffee, peppermint bark, and Santa's Snicker Surprise cookies. I haven't baked much lately...so this will be a treat. Oh, and I need to make my favorite - Snickerdoodles - Mom added that recipe to the book.

Wow, I love the feel of this new keyboard. It has a good touch.

Gas here ranges from $1.50 to $1.56. Doesn't that make you wonder why there were charging us $4.00 a gallon a while back?

Today is a sewing day. I haven't stitched a thing for a while, and I'm ready to make a sample of a Lone Star quilt for a new class that I'm going to be teaching soon.

Have a great Sunday!

Bonnie B

It's Saturday...gas is $1.58 today

Hi. It's Saturday and I'm starting to get myself organized for Thanksgiving. Wayne and I did our grocery shopping today before the crowds hit the stores next week. We'll be spending a nice quiet weekend here at home. After working hard these past few weeks to get the Paducah Registration Guide finished, I'm ready for a few days of doing some sewing...wow, I haven't touched my sewing machine for weeks.

I just received the updated version of the Bernina digitizing software, and I've been itching to digitize some of my own designs.


This is also the weekend that I work on our Christmas Newsletter...written like a small newspaper, complete with photos and news articles from throughout this past year. It takes me a few days to get it written and then several more to print it, so we always starting on Thanksgiving so it can out in early December.

The price of gas is still dropping here. It is still crazy though. Some days it will drop 10 cents and then go back up 5 cents the next day, and then drop again. Guess it is a byproduct of the turmoil our economy is in.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Breezy fall day and gas is $1.71 today

Happy Saturday...it's a breezy fall day here in Paducah today. Wayne and I did some shopping this afternoon. We couldn't believe the traffic at the mall...all of the stores had sales already and the day after Thanksgiving is still a couple of weeks away.

This week we had rain Wednesday through Friday, so we had rain showers and the trees were raining leaves all over our yard. Now we have to get those leaves dry before we can do our mulching with the mower. And we are still waiting for Mr. Tree Trimmer Guy to come take care of the four trees that were damaged from Hurricane Ike winds. They have been swamped.

We saw gas for $1.71 here today. It sure makes you wonder why it was $4.00 a gallon a while back, doesn't it?

Looks like a good night for some hot soup.
Keep warm wherever you are.

Bonnie B

Colorful Trees, $1.95 gas & More

Today is Saturday and I worked until about 1:30 p.m. - we are working on the Registration Guide for Paducah and info is still coming in from the teachers.

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This was the view in our back yard this afternoon - the color in the trees is very late this year. The pretty yellow, oranges, and reds are just now showing off their color. These trees go down the left edge of our property. Some of the trees have been raining leaves this week as we've had brief periods of wind and rain showers. Next will come mulching up the leaves with the mower. We don't rake leaves, we just mulch them and let them nurture the ground during the winter.

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More good news is that the price of gas has fallen below $2 a gallon. Today it is $1.95 at the station up the street from where we live. Who would have thought that we'd think that under $2 was cheap. Wayne certainly likes filling the gas tank for $20 instead of $40.

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It was a beautiful, sunny, crisp fall day here today. We took advantage of the bright sun with a little shopping trip and stopping for a bite of lunch.

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Hope you all are enjoying these nice fall days. Soon it will be cool enough that we'll want to stay inside and quilt though. That will be a good thing!

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Bonnie B, who is ready to make a quilt...

Fall Trip to the Elk & Bison Prairie

Wayne and I always love to take a trip to see the leaves. Yesterday we invited Andi Reynolds, our new Executive Book Editor at AQS, to join us for a trip to the Elk & Bison Prairie at Land Between the Lakes (that's between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley) about 40 minutes from here. They have 32 elk and 69 bison on the prairie and I think we must have seen all of them.

We go so we arrive their about 4:30 p.m. when the animals start moving to the watering holes and feeding. You can also go at 7:00 a.m. but that's too early for me.

If you come to the Paducah area, it is a nice drive to get there, and the drive through the prairie is picturesque. We usually drive around at least three times because the animals move from one grazing area to another. We've been there enough now that we know most of the spots to look for them. I hope you enjoy my photos of our day at the Elk & Bison Prairie.

While the color in most of our trees hasn't been very vibrant this year in this area, the reds and yellows show up nice behind this elk. You can see how tall the prairie grasses get too.

This bull elk had a pretty nice rack.

Here is number 32 and her friends grazing under the trees. All of the elk have been tagged.

This group of females couldn't decide which way to go. The bull elk was way off to the right, and I think they didn't want to get too far from him so they went across the road and back again. We did get to hear one good bugle from one of the bull elk. I guess he was protecting his ladies.

We see other animals there too. Yesterday we saw a pair of turkeys just walking through the tall grasses. We also saw a pretty heron...but I was too slow on the trigger to get his picture.

Here's part of the herd spending the afternoon soaking up the sun. There were quite a few small ones among the group. Several were having fun rolling around in the dirt.

Sometimes the traffic had to stop and wait for the bison to cross the road. This one stood there for quite a while...like he was saying, "whose road is this anyway?"

This big fella was walking right along side our car...I was standing up through the moonroof on our car so I could shoot photos. Don't you wonder what he was thinking seeing this woman in a red sweatshirt taking his picture?

A View of the AQS Quilt Expo

Wow, what a busy two weeks we've had. The AQS Quilt Expo in Des Moines was beautiful. Can you imagine being surrounded by 900 quilts and 300 vendor booths? It was almost quilter overload.

I thought you would enjoy seeing a photo of the exhibit hall floor -- well, this is part of it anyway. The Iowa Events Center has a row of windows that overlook the exhibit hall floor and give a spectacular view of the show. Just look at that riot of color that explodes right before your eyes from this viewpoint.

I had a fun surprise at the show. My friend, Euphie Bielejeski, and her husband Gary, stopped by the show to say hello. They had been visiting friends in Centerville and saw an article in the Sunday Des Moines Register that had my name in it. So they decided they would stop by on their way home to see if I was there. Indeed I was. I didn't recognize her until she spoke. What a nice surprise. We have kept in touch at Christmastime, but hadn't seen each other for about 25 years.

After the show, we visited our families in eastern Iowa. My sister, Karen Franzen, just retired and we had a surprise retirement dinner for her and Dellwyn, who retired this year too. And would you believe that no one spilled the beans so they were definitely surprised. Then we spent a day with Wayne's Mom and sister Kathi. We went to the apple orchard and had lunch together on Monday. Tuesday we finally got to sleep in and then visited Connie and John Bohling. John and Wayne were in school together - wow, they've known each other for a LONG time.

And, then it was back to work on Thursday and Friday. On Tuesday of this week, they finally signed the sales agreement to sell the Executive Inn to Space Coast Hospitality. The closing should be this next week and then they can begin the renovations on the hotel. The City is already getting bids for the demolition for the remodeling of the convention center. We just might have some renovated facilities in time for the 2009 quilt show - let's keep our fingers crossed.

All for now....

Bonnie B

Meet Me in Des Moines

Wow, can you believe it is time for the AQS Quilt Expo in Des Moines. I will look forward to seeing my quilting friends and Iowa friends at the show.

It's going to be a BIG quilt show -- more than 900 quilts on exhibit - that the largest number of quilts ever exhibited at an AQS quilt show. You'll need at least a couple of days to see all of the quilts and the 300 vendor booths in the Merchant Mall. And if you like hockey, the opening game for the Iowa Chops will be on Friday night at 7 p.m. - they are having a special for the quilters and you'll get your own cow bell to cheer on the Chops. Many of our AQS staff will be there and I'm sure you will hear them. For more information about getting tickets to the Iowa Chops game, go to http://AQSQuiltNews.blogspot.com .

Watch the TV and listen to the radio in the Des Moines area, I'll be the guest at the stations there sharing information about the show.

See you in Des Moines, October 8 - 11.

Busy Days...

It's almost time for us to head to Des Moines for the AQS Quilt Expo at the Iowa Events Center, October 8 - 11. We're busy at the office with all of the last minute details, and packing all of our supplies to go on the truck. It's always a challenge to remember everything that we might need there -- and 8.5 hours is too far to come home to get it.

We are really excited to have more than 900 quilts for our exhibits there. That will be the largest number of quilts ever exhibited in one AQS quilt show. Wow, can you imagine getting to see 900 quilts in one place?

Be sure check out the AQS Quilt News blog - we are always posting news items there.
http://aqsquiltnews.blogspot.com/ . You can post comments and ask questions there too.

Hope to see you all in Des Moines.

Bonnie B

Nashville Quilt Expo was great fun!

What could be more fun as a show producer than to see so many quilters anxious to get into the show. And there was plenty for them to see - more than 500 quilts on exhibit, and 350 vendor booths with all of those goodies that we just have to have. Who else gets to plan a party for 25,000 quilters and have them all show up?

This was our eighth quilt show at Gaylord Opryland, 2000 and 2002 - 2008, and since they didn't have July dates for us in 2009, we'll hold our show in 2009 at the Knoxville Convention Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Opryland is a great facility and very convenient - only two hours away - but we needed to have July dates to separate our shows for the sake of our staff in preparing for each of them. This year with the show in late August and our next event in early October, it is very challenging to say the least with only 5 or 6 weeks in between. Two months between the shows will be much better.

The Des Moines show, October 8 - 11, will have more quilts than we have ever exhibited at one show. You'll get to see 800 quilts on exhibit in Des Moines. Wow...that's a whole day or more just to see the quilts. And then there will be 350 vendor booths to go through...that another whole day or more. So come stay all four days and enjoy it all.

If you haven't purchased your ticket for Mark Lipinski, editor of Quilter's Home magazine, do it right away. This will be a sellout! You can call Marcelle in the AQS office at 270-898-7903, ext. 146 to order your tickets .

See you soon in Des Moines, Iowa.

Bonnie B

Hi from Kentucky

It is definitely summer here in Paducah. The temperatures are down into the mid-80s now, but they've been in the 90s with a heat index in the 100s. Too hot for me. Air conditioning, here I come.


The AQS Quilt Expo in Nashville begins next week. We have some great quilts in the contest, and a whole variety of special exhibits. The Chicago School of Fusing quilters will have an exhibit of their art quilts...all fused, of course. They certainly know how to use color in their quilts. And for those who love traditional quilts, an exhibit of quilts inspired by 1840s quilts from the American Quilt Study Group will show off their handiwork. With this being an election year, I thought we needed a patriotic quilt exhibit - we have one, God Bless America, a contest curated by Judy Buckboard, Buckboard Antique Quilts.


I can't wait to see the performance by Joe Cunningham, Joe the Quilter: A Musical Quilt Show. And we'll have a great time at Show & Tell with Eleanor Burns, and Brunch with Sue Nickels.


It is just fun for me to see all of the quilters who come from all over the country. If you still need tickets, check at the Workshop Desk once you arrive at the show. The Workshop Desk will be open at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, and at 8:00 a.m. on show days, until closing time each day.


Hope to see you at the show.

Bonnie B

Dog Days of Summer

The heat here in Paducath this past week sure makes it feel like the dog days of summer - we were over 100 degrees for the heat index all week long. And rain on Thursday evening just made it muggier - and it was already muggy enough.

It's nearly time for the AQS Quilt Expo in Nashville - August 20 - 23 at Gaylord Opryland Resort. We'll have more than 500 quilts on exhibit. Don't miss Joe Cunningham with his performance as Joe the Quilter.

Registration is closed so we can prepare for the show -- make the last name badges, gather all of our supplies, and get all of our staff oriented to their job assignments at the show.

If you still need tickets or want to check on the availability of any workshops, just stop at the AQS Workshop Desk at the show. The Workshop Desk will be open on Tuesday, August 19 from 12:00 noon to 7:00 p.m.

If you are a first-time visitor to our Expo in Nashville, I highly recommend the Quilter's Link at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday in the Magnolia Ballroom (just up the stairs from Finley's Pub). Representatives from the Nashville Visitors Bureau, the hotel, and our AQS staff will give you some tips for getting around the city, the hotel, and the show. There is no charge for this event so just come to the Magnolia Ballroom to join us.

See you soon in Nashville, Tennessee.

Bonnie

Three's A Crowd

We've been watching the wrens for the past few weeks...building their nest - notice the twigs sticking out under the roof line. They we heard little bitty cheeps, and recently they've making a lot of racket. Here they are with me standing about 4 feet from the bird house, waiting for momma wren to bring them some juicy bugs. One of these little guy was trying his wings inside the house. I thought - three is definitely a crowd in this little house.

On Monday, they flew away. It's always fun to watch them grow.

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.

Blue Hydrangea

Look at the pretty blue of the hydrangeas in our front yard. The rain this week had battered them a little bit. As you drive around town right now, the hydrangeas are just beautiful. The white that you see in the background is Tuffy wandering under the bush.

Tuffy Came to Help Me Take Photographs

I went outside this evening to take photos of the hydrangea bushes in the front yard and Tuffy came to help (???) me. He decided that he'd wander in and out of my feet while I tried to get close to the flowers.

How can you not take a photograph of those beautiful blue eyes?

Des Moines Convention Center - High & Dry

Several people have asked about the condition of the convention center in Des Moines. It sits on a hill and has been high and dry through the flooding that occurred in some parts of Des Moines. The ball park parking lot that we will use was flooded for a couple of days, but they played a ballgame last Saturday night - with no one there but the two teams - and the lot is back to normal now.

Keep all those who are caught in the waters of the flooding rivers in your prayers. Our families in Iowa are dry, but there is water covering bridges near Wayne's Mom and sister Kathi. The bridges over the Cedar River have all been closed due to the high water. Kathi said her doctor, dentist, insurance man, Dollar General store, and gas station that she uses in Columbus Jct. are all under water.

Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday and it is the third night in a row that I've eaten out. We went to Patti's Restaurant in Grand Rivers - my favorite birthday dinner spot. Of course we had the 2-inch thick pork chop...yummmmm. We didn't have room to eat dessert then so we brought home coconut cream pie - my birthday pie... ymmmmmmmmmm. The meringue is about 6 inches high.

Kelly's Baby Shower

Last night we had a baby shower for Kelly Meyer. Her baby should arrive the end of July and then she's going to stay home and take care of her little girl.

When she arrived home last night, her husband Chris said the baby had more clothes than Kelly does. GRIN Such cute clothes. One of my favorites was the box of Mary Jane socks that Chrystal gave her - too cute. Wayne and I gave them a Raggedy Ann doll from Arcola, IL, home of the designer of the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls - we stopped there on one of our trips; and a piggy bank with some 2008 dollar coins to commemorate the year of her birth.

Our Anniversary

June 16 was our anniversary. These are the pretty flowers that Wayne sent to the office...lilies, daisies, snapdragons, and whatever those filler flowers are.

This was our 45th anniversary...guess I'll have to quit saying I'm 39 now. Wayne and I enjoyed dinner at Outback Steakhouse - our favorite place for steaks.

Catching Up

Since I last wrote here, I've been to Peoria to teach - always love getting out into the classroom. The Gems on the Prairie Quilt Guild is 250 members strong. I did my Princess & the Pea lecture, looking at quilting in the U.S. and all around the world. Also taught classes on Borders, Bindings, and Windmill - Twisted Log Cabin - the quilt that get all of the mail from the opening images on Simply Quilts.

And we are busy finalizing the Registration Guide for the AQS Quilt Expo - Des Moines that will be held October 8 - 11, 2008 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. Let's all keep those Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa folks in our prayers - they are being inundated with water, water everywhere.

Happy Father's Day to your Dad and all the Dads out there.

Bonnie

In memory of our friend and neighbor - Lorraine Ingram

Yesterday our next door neighbor, Lorraine Ingram, passed away at her home. She loved her home and all of the flowers in her yard. Over the past few months her eye sight was failing and she didn't get to work in her gardens much. We helped her when there were things that Wayne and I could do - we always told her that we were helping her and we hoped that someone would help our mothers in the same way.

She loved her little Jack Russell, Katie. She was good company for Lorraine. Katie's barking more than once set us off to make sure Lorraine was okay - usually Katie was just barking at a squirrel or a bird in the yard.

Bless you Lorraine - you're in His hands now. Lorraine had read through the Bible at least five times.

Eastern Towhee

This is the first Eastern Towhee we've seen this year. The white stripes along their tail really stand out when they are in flight. This one is eating the bits on the ground under the squirrel feeder.

Improper Eating Manners, GRIN

The squirrels have learned how to lift the lid to the squirrel feeder. The feed is getting low here and this one has to practically stand on its head to get the sunflower seeds. Notice how it's standing on one leg and using the other to lift itself up. Our back yard is always busy with birds and other animals. We're might have baby wrens - both mom and dad wren are bringing in food, but we don't hear them yet.

Indigo Bunting

I thought you would enjoy seeing a young indigo bunting in this flowering tree. This one is just getting color. Did you know that they really have black feather and it is the light refracting that makes them look blue. Some of them will look like they have black feathers in their wings and tail sections. I like to photograph them when they are sitting in the late afternoon sun when they look such a gorgeous blue.

This is the Tulip Poplar blossom - you see how it got its name. The leaves are also a very unique shape. The whole tree has been covered with these blossoms for a couple of weeks now.

Tulip Poplar tree

The Tulip Poplar tree is the state tree of Kentucky. We have one in our yard and I couldn't get far enough away from it to get the whole tree. It is very tall. It's been blooming and I'll show you the pretty blossom next.

Little Tubby

This little ground hog decided to visit our back yard. If we go out the door, he runs for cover under the porch. They live in the woods across the street. I guess they like to munch in our yard too.