The Hostess With the Mostess

Our wonderful hostess each year in Paducah is the mother in law of our friend Diane.  Betty Jane is the sweetest woman to allow the five of us to crash at her house for a few days each year.  We try to make our stay less work for her by bringing food we have fixed at home and can re-heat for our meals, plus snacks too.  We try to do the dishes and clean up after each meal but this year she shooed us out a couple of times before we got it all done.

Betty Jane is not a quilter but still is interested in everything we do while at the show.  Each evening when we return for the day we kick off our shoes, fix some snacky food, open a bottle of wine and relax on her screened in porch while dinner is heating.  The outside temperatures were mid 70s I would guess the whole time we were there so it was really nice on the porch. 

After our "happy hour" we have show and tell.  We all bring the bags of goodies we have purchased that day and take turns showing Betty Jane and each other what we bought or about what we saw.  She asks us questions about the treasures we have purchased if she doesn't know what we use it for or how it works.  She just laughs at how excited we get about certain things.

Betty Jane is one of Paducah's Red Coat Ambassadors and worked one day during the convention.  This year she was assigned to work in the "bubble".  She was to answer questions and to guard one of the emergency exits so someone wouldn't accidentally open that door.  Guess the air pressure in the bubble would be awful if a door was opened that should not have been and could suck you outside. 

We all really appreciate everything Betty Jane does to make our stay wonderful and to be able to stay right in Paducah is the best when we know a lot of people have to travel to lodging miles away each day and evening.

More Paducah report later,
Lynn

My Trip To Paducah

my sister Jeannine, me, my sister Barb, my niece Caroline, our friend Diane

The trip to Paducah last week was great, wonderful, fantastic,...etc.  We arrived early afternoon on Wed. so had time to go down and get our entry fees taken care of and do a little shopping.  Decided to wait until Thursday morning to start looking at the quilts.

We like to all get t-shirts alike each year and this year we bought them at the museum.  They are the same design we get each year but the message around the outside is different each year besides the current year printed on them.  This year the message was a little tongue and cheek joke. 

This year's message; "In the name of the stash, the bash and the big E's collapse!  Amen."  The big E they are talking about is the large Executive Inn that is attached to the convention center - it is closed and the city owns it now.  Guess they are not sure what will happen to it, if it will be torn down or sold and renovated.  This hotel had many rooms for guests (sleeping) plus some large rooms that in the past were used for vendors.  It left the show in a real bind when it closed and the city of Paducah purchased a large pavilion that was erected outside the convention center to help house more vendors and quilts.  It was like a blow up large room and there were lots of vendors and some quilts on display in it.  The "bubble" as our hostess called it was air conditioned and was really light and roomy so it was very pleasant to shop.  I think all the vendors liked it except the ones right beside the large air conditioner vent - burr it was just way too cold in that spot.

Thought you might want to know what the last two year's messages were on the t-shirts; 2009 "In the name of the shears, the beers, and the 25th anniversary!  Amen."   2008 "In the name of the fun, the friends and the fabric...Amen."  I wonder what next years will be?

Lynn

Paducah Gifts

  Finished beading the last needle case a few weeks ago but didn't want to spoil the surprise in case one of my sisters or friend happened to look at my blog so waited until now to show you them all in a row.  Changed the post date of this blog so it would be posted after I left for Paducah - hope I am having fun!  

You can see all the beaded dogwood items I made together.  I used Delica beads and the Peyote stitch to make them all.  The three smaller in diameter containers are wooden needle cases that I beaded around and will go to my two sisters and one niece.  The two larger containers are what I call Pill Keepers.  They are also wooden and beaded in the round just like the needle cases.  They are for my friend and her mother in law, our hostess in Paducah.  Neither of these ladies are sewers so didn't think they would get much use out of a needle case so beaded these larger wooden cases for them to use to put a few pills in - maybe they will want to carry them in their purse.  

I still like beading but am glad to not make any more of this design for a while, even though the dogwood design is perfect for Paducah and the AQS show. 

Lynn

My Bags Are Packed....I'm Ready To Go

Just a quick note - if I can do quick and short that is.  Today is the day I leave for Paducah.  YAY!!!!  Meeting my sister in eastern Nebraska around 10, driving to Kansas City to pick up our friend then on to Columbia, Missouri area to stay with our other sister.  Along with my niece, tomorrow morning we will leave fore Paducah.

Seems like I have been waiting forever for this week to come, I hope it doesn't go too fast as I want to savor the experience.  If it will be like the last two years it will be wonderful and I will fill you all in when I get back.

Yesterday I thought I was so organized and I was.  Had my bag packed, food ready to take, house semi-clean.  I was watering some outside plants before I left on this trip and decided to come in the house to get a drink as I was pretty thirsty.  Well, it is a good thing I did as I heard water, lots of water and ran to the stair door to the basement and opened the door.  I could hear a waterfall!

Ran outside as fast as I could and turned the faucet off next to the front door, ran back inside and down to the basement to see if that shut the waterfall off....it did thank goodness.  I guess the inside works of the outside faucet must have broken and all the water, at least 10 minutes of full blast water was going down into the basement.  Thing is it was still coming out my soaker hose in the flower bed so I didn't know it was happening.

Called John who was planting corn in a field several miles away and I proceeded to start moving things out of the room.  The large room where the water was coming in is used for a play room for the kids and an extra sleeping room when we have company so there are lots of toys, book shelves, play kitchen's, etc.....you get the idea.  Besides all that we have an extra queen sized bed, extra twin bed, couch and a couple of chairs too. 

By this time the water covered 3/4 of the room which by the way is carpeted with a foam backed carpet.  I got the small shop vacuum out and proceeded to start sucking the water up.  I had emptied it 3times by the time John got there and he went out to his shop to get the large shop vacuum he has there.  We filled it several times too and got as much as we could sucked out of the carpet. 

I started the dehumidifier right away and have two fans blowing down there to help dry it out.  We will have to empty the dehumidifier out twice a day (Uh, John will because I am leaving in an hour and will be gone all week).  Anyway I am hoping it will be dry and not smelly when I get home.

Need to shower yet so must close - talk to you later.

Lynn