Five days in Paducah

[wdfifteen]

After 5 ½ years of dedicated work remodeling our house and building up our little farm, we were ready to get the hell out of Dodge for a while. Vicki is heavily in to quilting and wanted to take me to the Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. I was reluctant. I work on her long arm quilting machine so I’m familiar with quilting, but the idea of a museum left me cold. But she can be persuasive in a sleeping-in-the-guest-bedroom kind of way. So, I put my man card in the safe deposit box for safe keeping and we went to Paducah.
WOW!




This is about 5x5 feet.



The image is made in the traditional way with thousands of pieces of different colored fabric hand-sewn together. The quilting is done by free hand on a machine, so no automation.



This quilt blew me away with the stitching. It is about 4x6 feet in size.



The gray background is one piece of a gray/white print. The shading and shapes are all created on the print with freehand stitching. Some of the lines of stitching are 1/16 inch apart.




This quilt is about 4x6 feet.



This detail shot shows how the colors were made with different colored fabric and LOTS of stitching. This one was fairly coarsely sewn, with about 6 stitches per inch.

[wdfifteen]

This is another quilt of about 4x6 feet.



This one is different in that the colors in the green leaves were actually a varied color fabric, only the veins are a different colored material. The wet look was achieved with stitching in the shape of water droplets. This one has about 10 stitches per inch.




I liked this brightly colored 4x6 abstract .



The artist added interest by using stitching to give it a 3D affect.




THe "Quilts of Valor" project has been going on for many years. Artist created quilts, most with a patriotic theme for the benefit of veterans groups. They are either auctioned off and the proceeds go to the veterans or the quilt is given directly to the veterans organization.



Some of these sell for over $10,000.

[wdfifteen]

The week wasn't all fun and games at the quilt museum. I watched a drama across the Ohio river that went on all week. A string of barges were stuck on the opposite bank. At one point they had 4 towboats out there trying to free it.



Paducah is a quaint little tourist town. Lots of good food!



Dawn over the Ohio. I took a cup of coffee down to the river to watch the sun come up on a couple of mornings.

[Zeke]

Quilts or not that looks very relaxing.

I know someone who quilts using modern technology but I've never looked in on it. She is a Realtor and very competitive. I guess that's how it goes now, from once an item for the county fair to large quilting conventions.

You say hand stitched. That must take months. However, I have a hard time believing CNC isn't involved somehow. The ability to create or scan a pattern into a file and use a machine to layout the quilt has changed the game big time.

We have some simple quilts I keep tucked away and protected (why, I don't know — they should be used. Alas, we have a cat) that are from great-grandmothers and great-aunts. I truly admire the work that goes into any of these.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Zeke

You say hand stitched. That must take months.

There is "hand stitched" which is literally done with needle and thread.

This is a hand stitched quilt that Vicki has been working on for 20 years. It's about 60x80 inches and every stitch was done with a needle and thread, 15 stitches per inch.





Then there is "Machine stitched" in which the sewing is done by a machine that is guided by hand.

Most of the quilts in the museum are machine stitched or a combination of machine and hand stitched. This is a block of a quilt Vicki is doing that is destined for the museum. It is 12"x12" and has 166 individual pieces of fabric sewn into it. The final quilt will have 9 of these blocks. She hasn't decided which method to use to do the actual quilting.

Originally Posted by Zeke

However, I have a hard time believing CNC isn't involved somehow. The ability to create or scan a pattern into a file and use a machine to layout the quilt has changed the game big time.

And then there is automated quilting that you are talking about that uses Mach 3 - a two dimensional CNC software.

We have an Innova long arm "CNC" quilting machine that I run for Vicki. There are hundreds of off the shelf patterns or we can create a new pattern of our own, as you mentioned. We can disconnect the belts that move the sew head by computer control and use the big handles to move the sew head by hand - which is "machine stitching."

[Scott Douglas]

I won't be showing this thread to my wife.

[oldE]

Brings back memories of the "Sewing Circle " of which my mother was a member 60 years ago. Every year they would put a quilt into the frames. Usually the pieces had been cut and sewn together at home while another quilt was still in the frame at someone's house. Once or twice a month a group of women would gather around the quilt to stitch in the pattern which had been traced onto the top layer. Not all of them were good quitlers. I remember asking my mother why she was removing stitches and re-doing them. She explained that one of the ladies could not produce an even stitch so rather than try to get her to improve and perhaps embarrass her, it was easier to just re-do her work.

Best
Les

[ltusler]

If you have some time and like audio go see these guys and listen to the Klipsch Heritage Jubilees.

https://paducahhometheater.com/

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

WOW

Pretty skillful use of fabric to portray light and shadow. I'm blown away by the whole shebang here.

[Evans, Marv]

Blows me away too. I have maybe 8 or 10 old, hand done blankets from my grandma who died in 1982 at 96. They're totally run of the mill, simple ones that are hand stitched. I think they were made in the teens or 20s, so are maybe a century or so old. In those days they were just utility oriented. She had six kids to feed, clothe and take care of and a farmer husband to keep going.

[KFC911]

This thread is amazing.....

I need a new bankie

Thanks Patrick!

[epbrown]

I grew up a few hours away and have never set foot in Paducah. My boss in Chicago used to go a couple of times a year to fish and couldn't believe I've never been. Looks nice.

[3rd_gear_Ted]

Don't want this in PARF, but quilting is embroiled in a controversy of sorts about the veracity of the underground railroad and quilts.


"Always quilt with your needle going North because that is where opportunity is"

https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/underground-railroad-quilt-codes

[wdfifteen]

The trip to the museum inspired me to put in more time on the Innova longarm. I have become the designated machine quilting geek, so she's depending on me. We have a flannel quilt on the frame right now - it's being a real pain in the ass. Someone (me, usually) needs to be near the machine all the time with this quilt. So, while I was there, I made a short video of the Innova in action.

[pwd72s]

^Isn't that like cheating? Fabrics? I kept a scrap of pool table cloth when one of the Tables was being recovered @ the Cue Ball. Was told it's a blend of synthetic and wool...pretty thick as far as cloth goes. It comes in lots of colors other than green. Always wondered how it would look in a quilt.

[911_Dude]

Wow, thats impressive. And that CNC machine- not your grandma's sewing machine at all.

The barges will often "park" by gently running aground on the side of the river to avoid bunching up at a lock, crowding around a tight turn, etc. Sometimes they get stuck. Paducah is a nice little town to visit.