Country Heritage Tours - Quilt Man in Paducah, Kentucky

Quilt City - Paducah, Kentucky

What an awesome beginning to our Quilt Week in Paducah.  Our bus pulls up to the little visitor center in the small town of Paducah and who should appear to greet us but "Quilt Man"!  His sidekick "Bobbin" was out on a mission.  This just proves that real men quilt!  Check out the video below:

Country Heritage Tours

If you are not familiar with Country Heritage Tours, let me say I would highly recommend them for anyone who enjoys tours and is also a quilter.  This was my second trip with them; my first was up to Vermont for the Vermont Quilt Festival along with my sidekick, Barbie (Bobbin).  Miss Vicki Pitts was our tour leader and we were fortunate to have her again for the Paducah Tour.  She is top notch because of her tour experience, sense of humour and caring attitude.  Vicki made us all feel special!  I found out that Country Heritage Tours is family owned and when you call, you get a person, not a recording.  Here is the website for information about their upcoming tours.

Country Heritage Tours Website 

Along with Vicki, we also had a top notch bus and a top notch bus driver.  His name is Pat or Sweet Cheeks as Vicki so fondly called him.  By the end of the tour we were all calling him Sweet Cheeks.  He was wonderful and funny.

Meanwhile, back to our adventures in Paducah.  Barbie and I walked around the town and enjoyed the sunny weather.  Pink and white dogwood, lilacs, and tulips were blooming; plus, the trees had leaves!  Wowser!  It was beautiful!  

The dogwood was in full bloom and especially pretty this year.  How blessed we were to be visiting just at the right time to see them.  There is a "Dogwood Trail" through town where the trees are all lit up at night and Pat (Sweet Cheeks) drove us around the trail one night. 

Pink Dogwood

You are probably anxious to see some of the Paducah Show quilts.  We were not allowed to take pictures in the museum, but I did take some at the show.  The show quilts were all spectacular, and here are a few highlights:

Traces of Seasons Past, Roxanne Ferguson, Mayfield, Kentucky

Dreaming of Home, Barbara McKie, Old Lyme, Connecticut

Under The Ginkgo Tree, Tanya Brown, Sunnyvale California

Katie and the Cornflower, Robbie Porter, Batavia, Ohio

Park City Barn, Jan Berg-Rezmer, Gladwin, Michigan

My Mother's Spirit Guides Me Still, Sara Sharp, Austin, Texas

Blue Tone, Aki Sakai, Tokyo, Japan

Plainly Not Simple, Denise Havlan, Plainfield, Illinois

Purple Feathered Star, Charlene Brians. Red Bluff California

To end this post, here is one of Miss Vicki's encouraging quotes that she shared with us:

"Love is a quilt; a quilt is love.  Both love and a quilt should be:

Soft enough to comfort you

Bright enough to cheer you

Generous enough to enfold you

Light enough to let you move freely

Strong enough to last a lifetime

and

Given gladly from the heart."

Thank you for this quote Miss Vicki!

This is just the beginning of our adventures and I have lots more to write about - tomorrow. Right now, I need to curl up under a quilt for a little nap.