Quilting and other fun

Here is my post from Paducah. we have moved on but the terrible internet service would not let me post.

We have been in Paducah, Kentucky for several days.  Why Peducah? Home of the National Quilt Museum!

 Peducah is also a port at the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers. It is about halfway between St. Louis, Missouri and Nashville, Tennessee.  Along the river front there is a series of murals depicting the history of Peducah.  They were very well done.

 The National Quilt Museum was founded in 1991. The museum is the world's largest museum of quilt and fibre art.  It attracts about 40,000 people interested in quilting annually. The museum has three galleries.  The main one houses the museum's own collection.  The museum's collection of 400 objects is rotated 8-10 times a year. The other two house travelling exhibits.

Currently there is an exhibit by Pat Campbell, a showing called Deceptively Simple: Split Nine and Nine Patch Quilts and a section of Miniature Quilts. If you are interested in seeing some of the quilts, click on the link below.  We were not allowed to take pictures because of copyright concerns.

http://www.quiltmuseum.org/current-exhibits.html



The museum reminded me of an art gallery.   Just like art galleries, I wondered how the decisions are made as to what is gallery-worthy and what is not. I am sure that I know some quilters whose work was every bit as good as anything in the museum.  What makes a famous quilter?  Or a quilter famous?

After looking at other people's quilts in the morning, Dalton dropped me at Hancock's of Peducah (a fabric store) after lunch.  It was HUGE.  Almost overwhelming, in fact.  I managed to shake off the feeling and  find quite a few pieces to add to my stash.  Dalton wondered if I had enough fabric for the winter.  As if!

Today (Wednesday) we drove out to look at the Quilt Trail Project.  These are quilts painted on the sides of buildings.  We looked for several in the area of Sturgus. They were rather hard to find.  We found a couple.  We got a picture of one.  The other was on the back of the house and we would have had to watch through yards to get a picture.After some driving around using the GPS, we decided that we had better things to do.

This is Amish country but the only signs of them we saw were some men with beards and old fashioned clothes sitting outside a house and two young women tending a small stall selling something.  There were signs indicating that we should watch for horse-drawn carriages but we didn't see any.



So off we went to Metropolis.  Yes!  Home of Superman.  (Quite a change from looking for the Amish.) And there is indeed a large statue, right between the detention centre and the court house (that's it behind him.). We saw prisoners in shackles being moved between the two. Other than a museum/store that seemed to be the extent of Superman's influence in the city.

Before I forget, I found out that corn stalks are nearly as valuable as the ear.  They are used for such things as cellulose for packing and for smokeless explosives, varnish, paper pulp, stock food, and poultry food.