We spent the day in Paducah today and visited the National Quilt Museum. When I hear museum I think old things, but this is a different sort of museum. Their mission is to honor today’s quilters and inspire future quilters. There are three main exhibit rooms and all of the pieces on display are modern quilts. There are several quilters featured with many of their quilts displayed, other individual quilts and a competition exhibit. All of the quilts were amazing! They ranged from more traditional to very abstract. You can get up close and check out the intricate piecing and stitching on each quilt. I think they succeed in their mission.

The Roaring Twenties Competition-

I just started quilting a few years ago, so I’m not current with all of the quilting happenings. It turns out that Paducah Quilt Week (which is a big event) starts the day after we leave. Had I known when we were planning our trip we might have worked it into our itinerary. A lot of the shops we went to were advertising their Quilt Week Specials and had signs as to what stop they are on the quilt tour. The American Quilter’s Society (based in Paducah) has several Quilt Weeks across the country each year – I’m already looking at Lancaster, PA in September.

We wandered around the town, checking out the murals painted on the flood wall, visiting the Inland Waterways Museum, finding my requisite skein of yarn for my trip, and having a leisurely day.

I’ve heard of barn quilts before, but had never seen one. We passed a lot of them on our travels through Kentucky.

We couldn’t leave Kentucky without getting some bar-b-que.