Paducah - Day One

Can you spell    B  U  S  Y???   Even though our booth is in the "dungeon" and we're at the back of that area, we were swamped the entire day!  Sometimes at shows in a location like we're in - it takes an hour or so for people to trickle in. Not so with Paducah. It did quiet down a bit around 4 pm but was still pretty steady almost to closing time.

I've said my label spiel many times.  Thankfully I didn't dream about labels. People are loving the demo and loving our booth.  So bright, so colorful and everyone loves Stonehenge. The fabric that is!

We've had people from Australia, England and the Netherlands stop by the booth.

Eating and drinking well at these shows is sometimes a bit of an issue. But we found an excellent solution - we stop at Kroger's (the grocery store) on the way and have sandwiches made.  These are excellent sandwiches and for the price - well worth the stop.  There are tents outside the convention center for eating, but I would imagine the lines are long and we don't have time.

I think I managed to eat my sandwich around 2 - I had to - I was fading fast.  I took my sandwich outside the convention center and had to sit on the curb to eat.  I'm sure if I walked over to the tent, I may have found a chair.  But here's the deal - the outside of the convention center looked like there had been a fire alarm.  There are people EVERYWHERE.

The lunch tent

People come rushing up to our booth - OH - you're here - I need help.  They are looking for fabric they can no longer find in the stores.  I'm sure if we brought fabric to sell, we would be busy.  Very busy!

There are some quilts in the area where we are located - Tentmakers of Cairo and a display of Japanese quilts (I think).  No time to look at them.  Since we are at the back of the room, I take a different route every time I go in and out and so I've seen a lot of the booths there. I might buy something at the booth across from us - The Christmas Shoppe from NH.  She has gorgeous stuff in her booth and well - I could just say - I'll take one of everything.

Once we were finished for the day, Patti and I headed to Hancock's of Paducah.  Oh my - what a place.  I've heard stories about this place, but until you actually go there, you have no idea.  It's huge - I mean warehouse huge. And the place was packed!!!!

Employees only area - it's crazy!

Kits and pre-cut area

One of the first things we saw when we went in was Susan's quilt from New Zealand.  The Town and Country 365 Block a Day quilt.  They had starter kits and the background fabric.  Susan is there every afternoon to chat about her quilt. After looking at hers again, I must get started on mine - it really is a gorgeous quilt and so much fun with all the personalizing you can do.

Town and Country 365 quilt - Susan Claire

I'm on the hunt for something extremely specific and I keep asking, but there is NO ONE who is even stocking the brand of fabric (yes - it's a competitor product) that I want.  Hmmmm  - that tells me something!  Maybe I'll get a chance today to sneak upstairs to have a peak around, although we've heard from the AQS folks that yesterday was a slow day and today and tomorrow are the busy days. I didn't believe them in Lancaster, but they were right so I'm guessing they are right again for this show.

Anyway - wandered around Hancock's of Paducah and I glanced at a few bolts, I browsed through the patterns and I took a couple of pictures. But I bought NOTHING!  I think I was too tired, I was too hungry and just overwhelmed by all that fabric and with nothing specific in mind - well - it's not like I need anything.   I didn't even look at prices to say - oh - it's a better deal here than back home.  No idea what the prices were like.  How's that for an exciting visit to a HUGE quilt shop!!

Have run into a few people that I know - there are the girls (Audrey, Marsha, and Marilyn) from Waterloo and I saw Marsha again at Hancock's of Paducah last night.  I ran into another person from Toronto who used to be in some of my classes and oh yes - Elspeth, whom I've just met last week in Toronto. And I think that's it!

The aisles are jammed with people in our area and I can only imagine that it's jammed equally everywhere. We did have another quick peek into the main quilt display and some of them are stunning. You know, I'm not even antsy to see them.  Hmmmm - I've been quilted out and it's only day one!

Anyway, time to get ready for the day and to find some pictures for you.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!