Birthday fun!
The middle of April was my birthday--my golden birthday to be exact--and the Hubster asked me a couple of weeks prior what I wanted to do. At first I said I didn't want to do anything special and ... POOF! ... the light bulb clicked on.
The AQS quilt show began later that week. Paducah is about a 5-1/2 hours drive from here, but it's only 3 hours from my sister's home in Memphis. I told him I wanted to go to Paducah on my birthday to shop at Hancock's and go to a brand spanking new yarn shop that was opening that day.
We drove to Memphis that Friday night, got up early Saturday morning to have our coffee and exercise, and took a leisurely, scenic drive to Paducah. I say leisurely because we missed a few turns...even with the navigation system telling us where to go. This was cutting into my shopping time because we had to be back in Memphis in time to go to dinner with Steph and Holly.
We finally arrived at Hancock's at noon. Now bear in mind that I haven't been to Hancock's since the last time I went to the AQS show, which was in 2000. One of the fun parts of attending the show was going to Hancock's big back room where they had all of the bolt ends and remnants laid out on many tables. Fabric would literally fly through the air as hundreds of quilters foraged their way through the thousands of pieces. One of my friends later told me that she always went to Paducah the weekend BEFORE the show so she could leisurely shop through those bolt ends without the hordes of quilters bumping into her and knocking her over (she's tiny). That thought has stayed with me all these years. So imagine my surprise when I walk into that room with a shopping cart and all I see are...precuts.
Anyone who has been quilting for more than 15 years understands that precuts have basically taken over the universe of quilting products. I am not a fan of precuts, with the exception of fat quarters. So I'm walking through this room thinking that this has been a trip for nothing...but there are some good sale prices on what's in the room, and I pick up a couple of FQ bundles and as I'm walking out of the room into the main store, an employee comes up to me. I told her it had been 16 years since my last visit, and what happened to the remnants? She pointed me to the table at the front of the store which had them, and she told me where the bolt sales were located. I headed to the bolts first because I was looking for some specific fabrics and felt I was better off making those selections before I made it to the remnants.
At this point, Hubster was still in the car. By the time I made it to the cutting table with my first batch of bolts, he wandered in. I purchased some batiks to make him some more shirts...and my Stitch & Bitch group is making black and white blocks for swapping. I don't have much in the way of black and white prints, and I found...ahem...a few.
Then I got to the remnants...and while Hubster was looking at the rest of the batiks, I told him I had not found any that were like the blue and white batiks we had sold at the shop. He loved those and they flew out the door so quickly that I wasn't able to get any. There had been a simple quilt pattern that accompanied the fabrics (Endless Summer by Mabeth Oxenrider) and he loved it. We started digging through the remnants and found several pieces, and I later purchased a few more from online sources:
The ladies in the shop admired the Hubster's fireworks batik shirt. They figured out that some of my cuts were for future shirts.
I also picked up some of the Tulip Hiroshima needles to give them a try. (I keep forgetting I have them and haven't tried them yet.)
I didn't get to go through the entire store. I wanted to get to the yarn shop and knew we were crunched for time. Off to the Itty Bitty Knitty Shop and it is tiny, indeed. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes, but here's the pretty:
We headed back to Memphis and had dinner at Firebird's with Steph and Holly. The next morning we had brunch at Stone Soup, and headed home.
A fabulous weekend--and I just might do it again next year!
Have a wonderful week--now, go quilt!
The AQS quilt show began later that week. Paducah is about a 5-1/2 hours drive from here, but it's only 3 hours from my sister's home in Memphis. I told him I wanted to go to Paducah on my birthday to shop at Hancock's and go to a brand spanking new yarn shop that was opening that day.
We drove to Memphis that Friday night, got up early Saturday morning to have our coffee and exercise, and took a leisurely, scenic drive to Paducah. I say leisurely because we missed a few turns...even with the navigation system telling us where to go. This was cutting into my shopping time because we had to be back in Memphis in time to go to dinner with Steph and Holly.
We finally arrived at Hancock's at noon. Now bear in mind that I haven't been to Hancock's since the last time I went to the AQS show, which was in 2000. One of the fun parts of attending the show was going to Hancock's big back room where they had all of the bolt ends and remnants laid out on many tables. Fabric would literally fly through the air as hundreds of quilters foraged their way through the thousands of pieces. One of my friends later told me that she always went to Paducah the weekend BEFORE the show so she could leisurely shop through those bolt ends without the hordes of quilters bumping into her and knocking her over (she's tiny). That thought has stayed with me all these years. So imagine my surprise when I walk into that room with a shopping cart and all I see are...precuts.
Anyone who has been quilting for more than 15 years understands that precuts have basically taken over the universe of quilting products. I am not a fan of precuts, with the exception of fat quarters. So I'm walking through this room thinking that this has been a trip for nothing...but there are some good sale prices on what's in the room, and I pick up a couple of FQ bundles and as I'm walking out of the room into the main store, an employee comes up to me. I told her it had been 16 years since my last visit, and what happened to the remnants? She pointed me to the table at the front of the store which had them, and she told me where the bolt sales were located. I headed to the bolts first because I was looking for some specific fabrics and felt I was better off making those selections before I made it to the remnants.
At this point, Hubster was still in the car. By the time I made it to the cutting table with my first batch of bolts, he wandered in. I purchased some batiks to make him some more shirts...and my Stitch & Bitch group is making black and white blocks for swapping. I don't have much in the way of black and white prints, and I found...ahem...a few.
Then I got to the remnants...and while Hubster was looking at the rest of the batiks, I told him I had not found any that were like the blue and white batiks we had sold at the shop. He loved those and they flew out the door so quickly that I wasn't able to get any. There had been a simple quilt pattern that accompanied the fabrics (Endless Summer by Mabeth Oxenrider) and he loved it. We started digging through the remnants and found several pieces, and I later purchased a few more from online sources:
The ladies in the shop admired the Hubster's fireworks batik shirt. They figured out that some of my cuts were for future shirts.
I also picked up some of the Tulip Hiroshima needles to give them a try. (I keep forgetting I have them and haven't tried them yet.)
I didn't get to go through the entire store. I wanted to get to the yarn shop and knew we were crunched for time. Off to the Itty Bitty Knitty Shop and it is tiny, indeed. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes, but here's the pretty:
We headed back to Memphis and had dinner at Firebird's with Steph and Holly. The next morning we had brunch at Stone Soup, and headed home.
 |
| No, Hancock's--THANK YOU! |
Have a wonderful week--now, go quilt!
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