The 25th Annual American Quilters Society Quilt Show runs from April 22 - 25, 2009 at the Convention Center in Paducah, Kentucky. Hundreds of the world’s most outstanding quilts are featured at this juried show. Vendors from all over the country, and in fact from around the world, are also here. Click HERE or on the link above to see the 2009 AQS Paducah show winners! Pictures of the Winners are posted now! Follow the links on the homepage. (Only official press people are allowed to publish pictures from the show…sorry, none will be on this site.)

When you make the trip to Paducah (which to many of us is the Mecca of Quiltdom) be sure to visit the Rotary Club building. Each year the club displays antique quilts from different private collections, and they are exceptional. There is a free shuttle bus from the Convention Center to the Rotary building. The shuttle also takes you to additional vendors and interesting places throughout the city. Most of the places you will want to visit are within walking distance, but if you plan on buying anything you should plan on riding the shuttle back.

The National Quilt Museum is only a couple of blocks away from the quilt show, a really nice walk along the Ohio River front. DO NOT MISS THIS MUSEUM. And allow plenty of time to spend at the museum. Each year the museum sponsors a contest called “New Quilts From Old Favorites”, and selected entries are hung in the museum. In this contest, quilters create a new interpretation of the contest block, using the traditional quilt block as inspiration.

During quilt show week, the whole town celebrates our art form, and everywhere you go in “Quilt City, USA” you will see quilts and related items. Some local quilt artists (such as Caryl Bryer Fallert) open their studios, so get a map and brochure of all the sites and activities so you won’t miss anything.

Paducah also has a rich Civil War history, and there are several wonderful Civil War sites you can visit.

The Indiana Heritage Quilt Show held annually in Bloomington, Indiana fills the Convention Center with wonderful displays of quilts of all kinds. There are great vendors, several guilds have quilt raffles, and some of the best teachers in the country offer classes. The pictures of the 2009 winners have been posted, and you can CLICK HERE to see them.

Bloomington is a rather small town that happens to be the home of Indiana University, so it swells by about 40,000 inhabitants when the fall semester begins. For this reason it is a diverse center where many cultures are homogenized, yet distinct. Campus is a short distance from the show, and there are many interesting shops and quaint restaurants.

During the quilt show, there are special exhibits throughout the city. You can reach these via the free bus shuttle, and there is no admission charge to the exhibits with your hand stamp from the quilt show.

The exhibit tour includes the historic 1835 Wylie House, which was the home of the first president of Indiana University, Andrew Wylie. The home has been restored and contains some of the original furnishings of the Wylie family. Antique quilts from the 19th and 20th centuries are displayed throughout the home. The children’s bedrooms feature vintage toys as well as quilts, and the kitchen is filled with pioneer era cooking tools. This is a fun place to wander from room to room; every time you turn around you will see something different. There are narrow, rather steep stairs to the upper rooms, but there is plenty to see on the main floor if you can’t climb.

Across the alley from the Wylie House you will find a special sale of heirloom garden seeds. Many of them are from the plants on the grounds of the Wylie House, and others are from university and other local sources. The quilt show is always the first weekend in March, so most plants are still dormant in central Indiana. If you come later in the spring, the grounds of the Wylie House will be full of blooming trees and flowers and herbs.

Also on the free tour is the Monroe County History Center Exhibit. This is a permanent county museum with all manner of relics from the first days of settlement through the mid 20th century. During the quilt show, the upstairs hall contains a national traveling quilt exhibit, usually from the American Quilt Study Group. The traveling quilts in 2009 were “Red & Green Study Quilts” and were scale replicas and interpretations of antique red and green quilts.

The shuttle bus will be back again by now, and you can continue on to the Mathers Museum of World Cultures where the quilts on display are made by local and regional artists.  Gallery North on the square hosts a fiber arts display, and The Wonder Lab Museum has quilts with science themes.

The total distance is only a couple of miles if you want to walk rather than ride the shuttle, or you can walk part of the way and pick up the shuttle at any of the stops. You really need two days to see everything.

And remember to bring your camera!

Well, I’m back, after a busy time filled with non-quilt related events.
Except for the IHQS Quilt Show that is held annually in Bloomington, Indiana.
And that is completely quilt-related.

The 18th annual Indiana Heritage Quilt Show provided a great venue for quilt artists from everywhere. There were three full days of classes featuring such teachers as Paula Nadelstern, Wendy Butler Berns, Cathie Hoover, Marsha McCloskey, Velda Newman, Andi Perejda, Nancy Prince, and Mary Stori.

As usual, the quilts on display were of exceptional quality. Isn’t it wonderful, how each quilt show gives you inspiration in some new way? Some IHQS winners for 2009 were:

BEST OF SHOW 2009 -  Sandi McMillan, Albion, NE

VIEWER’S CHOICE 2009 - Kelora Lee Goethe, Knoxville, TN

And one of my favorites was:
EXEMPLARY WORKMANSHIP HAND QUILTED - Linda Roy, Knoxville, TN

Check out the official photos as soon as they are posted, and the complete list of winners. If you are a quilter with something to enter, this is a non-juried quilt show with a large following. Entry forms and more information is at the IHQS website.
http://www.ihqs.org/

I will look for some of the quilts that were entered in the IHQS to be displayed at the AQS show in Paducah, Kentucky. That show is April 22 - 25, 2009. See you there!