Paducah Bound...

This is what happens when your husband starts hinting he needs to go on a trip. You look at your calendar and say, "I have Wednesday and Thursday clear this week." Okay, time for an overnight trip. Where to go, where to go?  Remembering how much we enjoyed Dogwood Trail in Paducah a few years ago, I Googled and learned it would be this week! Fantastic. I secured the last river view room in the Holiday Inn Riverfront for Wednesday night. I found possibilities of other things to do. Then I took my findings upstairs to Claude's office and assured the Big Guy that I had done my part. Now he had to pick what he wanted to do and drive us there and back. This all happened on Monday, April 12th. 

Wednesday, April 14th, we got up and headed out in time to get a biscuit and a soda for breakfast a Hardee's in Sadieville. We would enjoy this traditional-for-us breakfast as we pointed the car onto I-75 southbound. As we left Love's Travel Plaza, in front of us was a tow truck with a hearse on it. We just found this interesting and a bit ironic. As we drove and munched away on our biscuits, I told Claude the saying should be, "A biscuit a day keeps the doctor away!" We were off to a good start on a very rainy morning. The forecast was for it to clear the further west we got. 

The drive went very well. We stopped once in Beaver Dam, Kentucky for a little burger for lunch. We crossed the Tennessee River. We enjoyed all the red bud trees in bloom with the dogwoods blossoming with them.

Upon arrival in Paducah, we let Goggle Maps guide us to our hotel . We found Big Foot along the way!

As usual, we forgot to take into account that Kentucky is split down the middle with a time zone change. We were an hour earlier than when we left Sadieville and way early for checking into our hotel. We opted to go to the National Quilt Museum and see if it was open for visitors to fill our time till check in. It was open! Yeah!!

The rounded part of the building is where their conference room is located. It has stained glass windows in it. This little bird came up an posed for a picture! 

On the lawn of the museum is a statue titled On the Road of Discovery.

We entered the museum and asked for tickets at the Old People's Rate. The nice lady suggested we go into their conference room first and look at the wooden quilt. Okay, we can do that. I took a picture of a quilt done in water colors on rice paper with cotton fabric and silk thread on the left wall as we entered. 

I found myself looking for a wooden quilt. The room was sparsely decorated and I didn't see anything that resembled what I imagined a wooden quilt would look like. So, I opted to take pictures of the stain glass windows. 

On the last wall of the conference room hung a beautiful quilt. It was made of wood!! I was totally surprised. There was one sample piece that you could touch. There were explanations of the work on display. Another couple was there from Florida. She had heard of this artist in Florida, learned there was a piece of his work at this museum, and they stopped to see it. The things you learn. The artist is Frazier Smith from Tampa, Florida. The quilt is actually made of many smaller blocks of wood glued together to look like one large block of wood. This was an amazing piece of work. Even up close, I still thought it was a cloth quilt. Stunning.

I did not take pictures of every quilt in the museum. I tried to take pictures of the ones I really liked and the ones Claude really liked or that either of us found interesting for whatever reason. It seems quilting is a way to express your opinion about things, to remember things, to share about the field in which you work, to count the days in a year, to use up things you have saved and they gave you an idea of how to make that quilt, to remember a loved one, and the list goes on and on. Here are the quilts we enjoyed to most. 

The first picture is titled "Dusk" and the second picture is "Silk Road Sampler".

This quilt reminds me of the Pennsylvania Dutch items we found often in Pennsylvania in the Amish communities. I love Pennsylvania Dutch items. I love when they are done in bright colors. Since taking a picture so you get the entire quilt in a picture misses some of the detail, I would take a close-in picture of a bit of the quilt to get that detail. This quilt is an example of an appliqued quilt. It is titled "With You".

The next set of quilts are from the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG). The first one is titled "Right Matters". If you look closely, you will find the words 'Right Matters' in the quilt. The quote was made by Colonel Vindman who said, "I believe that in America, right matters." The maker of this quilt hopes that quote is always true.

This quilt is titled "Somethings are not Easily Seen: Poverty". This quilt actually spells out the word 'poverty' in red. Took me a while to see it. Claude looked at it before me and he was able to help to find it. 

The title of this quilt is "Frequency". It is a modern interpretation of soundwaves. They alternate directions but follow a continuous wavelike path. Start at the top left corner and you have a continuous white line all the way to the bottom left corner. Cool.

This quilt is titled "Vote". It is really a four block quilt.

"Big Love" is a quilt of what the word 'love' would look like as sound waves. 

I told Claude the next quilt made me think of our Bailey. He agreed. It is titled "For the Love of Squircles". The quilter used scraps and cut her squares free hand. She did a block each day for a year. It is hand quilted.

The final quilt in the Modern collection actually had one corner of a room with many quilts of this type. I picked this one for my picture with a close up of the work. It is titled "Pattern Fusion No. 18: Motherboard 9". The quilter is actually a male professor at the University of Kentucky. He weaves strips of film from a projector to make the surface and applies other materials. This reminds me of Hayden who is good with electronic things and would love a career making movies. 

Now for a quilt that is full of detailed quilting stitches. Titled "Roses in the Round", this is a memorial quilt. It is the last quilt the quilter and her husband worked on together. He passed away and she finished it as a fitting memorial to all their years together. It is made of cotton and is all hand appliqued and hand quilted.

If you are a Beatles fan, this is the quilt for you. It is correctly named "The Beatles Quilt". I have included the plaque describing it as it details what all the songs included in the quilt are. 

The next quilt is an example of machine piecing and machine quilting. The title is "Big Bang".

The quilter of "Turkish Treasures" was inspired to make this quilt after a visit to Turkey. The designs come from ancient Roman ruins, the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and is made of silk fabrics. The quilter made the Oya needle lace that edges the quilt.

"Pop Stars" was made by a quilter from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. My sister, Neffie, lived in Saudi Arabia for six years when her hubby, Mike, worked there. Neffie is an avid quilter and does beautiful work. I kept thinking she should look into exhibiting some of her work here. I liked this because of the connection to my sister, Neffie.

Ever seen a metal ceiling? Now you have in quilted form. This quilt is titled "Painted Metal Ceiling". It is machine pieced but hand appliqued and hand quilted. 

I spied this beauty from a room away. We visited Japan and a Torii Gate. I love purple but I do believe my second favorite color would be red. This was made by a lady from Roy, Utah. The name is "Harmony Within".

Oh be still my heart. This is a quilt I found amazing. Not a lot of explanation about it. It was named "Alabaster Relief". 

A lady in the Philippines made this beautiful quilt. It is named "Le Jardin de Nos Reves" which means "My Garden of Dreams". 

"Tiger, Tiger" was a quilt Claude and I stood in front of for a long time. Embedded in all this quilting are 16 tigers. You can see one of them in the tree branches. We did not find all of them. Not anywhere near. Amazing!

"Forest Walk" was inspired by a walk the quilter took in Redwood Park.

This quilter apprenticed to a 92 year old African-American woman in her home who taught her how to make pine cone quilts. She continues to teach others pine cone quilting. This piece of her work was in a section of the museum that had small quilts in it. "Vintage Rose Garden" is actually 20" x 20". 

"Fire Dragon Rhapsody" was inspired by an iron grillwork in an old post office in Pueblo, Colorado. The man who made this quilt has 32 dragon motifs quilted into the quilt. 

This quilt caught my eye because it is of a St. Catherine's Chapel in Allenspark, Colorado. We lived Denver, Colorado for 8 1/2 years. It is titled "Mountain Chapel, 2008".

Claude particularly found this one interesting. The quilter realized she had almost a complete set of charms for the alphabet. That set her to work creating this "Charm School" quilt. Very clever.

Our next quilter loved using her longarm quilter. When her husband passed away, she decided to try something different and make a quilt just for her with no time limit on getting it finished. She made "Arandano, 2016". I love the colors and the pattern of this quilt a lot.

"Unexpected Beauty" caught my eye because of the purple color. Around the border of this quilt, starting at the top left, it reads "If you open your mind, beauty can often be found in the most unexpected places." Lovely! I agree!!

So many more quilts in this museum. It is truly worth the visit. We decided to check out the gift shop. There is a patio area with a statue in it titled "The Strength of One". 

We purchased Claude a cane in the gift shop. He did not need a cane. But it had the Air Force logo on the top and that drew him in. 

We could now check into our hotel room. It was on the fifth floor and had a balcony. We spent the later afternoon sitting on the balcony watching the Ohio River.

I had asked the front desk clerk at the hotel about a local place which she really like to eat and would recommend to us. This is always fun to get to eat something local to the area. She suggested Flamingo Row. It was on the other side of town. We found it, put our names on the wait list, then dined. Excellent food with a Caribbean flare. 

Our evening was the true purpose for our visit. We would drive the Dogwood Trail in Paducah. The residents light their dogwood trees and it is a beautiful drive. 

Time to find a pillow an rest our weary heads. 

Thursday, April 15th, we slept until we wanted to get up. I found this on the Ohio River from our balcony. 

We found a Hardee's on our way out of town and got our biscuit and soda for the road. We would travel back home the same way we came. So a view of the Tennessee River from the other side of the bridge is in order.

We drove thru Muhlenberg County and over the Green River. This brought song lyrics to our minds. I searched for the lyrics to Paradise by John Prine. I found them along with a recording of him singing the song. We listened to it and sang along.

When I was a child my family would travel

Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born

And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered

So many times that my memories are worn

And daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County

Down by the Green River where Paradise lay

Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking

Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River

To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill

Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols

But empty pop bottles was all we would kill

And daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County

Down by the Green River where Paradise lay

Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking

Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel

And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land

Well, they dug for their coal 'til the land was forsaken

Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man

And daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County

Down by the Green River where Paradise lay

Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking

Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River

Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester Dam

I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'

Just five miles away from wherever I am

And daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County

Down by the Green River where Paradise lay

Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking

Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

A little more research and I found Airdrie Hill where the Public Television station had done some video of that area. There was a mine. It is long finished mining. There was a town called Paradise. It was originally called Stom's Landing and was on the Green River. It no longer exists. We felt like we had been in a part of history for a bit there.

We also passed a military convoy. Don't see many of these anymore. We used to see them often in Louisiana when I was a child because of Fort Polk. Fort Know is in Elizabethtown. This convoy may have been coming from there.

We stopped in Lexington for dinner at Montana Grill on the way home.

This was such a fun trip for us. No pressure time wise. Just find a spot and have a little time away enjoying this beautiful world. Claude thinks we should do this once a week. I don't think he was kidding!