A Day in Paducah

Since I am spending the week with my husband while he is working out of town, I need to keep busy. Along with the scraps that I processed, I had packed my EPP kit. What I didn't realize is that I didn't have enough 3/4 inch hexagon pieces to fill in my time here. A quick visit to the local quilt store, The Cotton Mill Quilt Company, left me with some great fabric but not the hexagon pieces I needed. Rebecca Moore, the owner, did try calling the other two quilt stores in the area, but they didn't have any either. I was going to have to take a trip to Paducah. 

Paper Pieces Pop-up Shop

Paducah, Kentucky is where Paper Pieces is headquartered. They are my go to for paper piecing shapes. They have a little pop-up shop that is open by appointment. I called and arranged with Jess to meet her at the shop on Wednesday morning. The drive took me about an hour and 45 minutes. The transaction took about 20 minutes. The shop is adorable and Jess is super friendly and an awesome resource. No hard sell but more than happy to give you ideas and recommend videos that are available to help you improve.

Not ready to return to the hotel just yet, I decided to visit The National Quilt Museum. My husband and I had visited it back in 2009. We really didn't know much about the museum back then and we were expecting the exhibits to be along the lines of a History in Quilting. It was definitely not that. Honestly, I was very disappointed in it. There were very few pieced quilts, there was a lot of thread painting type of quilts and everything was very modern. There weren't any quilts that could be considered functional. The quilts we liked the most were actually wooden carvings of quilts. That visit left me disillusioned and I never planned to go back. I later learned that the exhibits are changed frequently so I decided to check them out again. 

This time I knew more of what to expect. Yes, there were a lot of modern quilts. (I tend to be more of a traditional quilter.) Aside from the Virginia Findlay Wolfe Exhibit (which was interesting but I am not a fan), I really enjoyed the quilts. I especially enjoyed the Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry exhibit which focused on vibrant uses of color. I also learned that they offer classes and camps during the year. I might be interested in going to one of those sometime.

Even better that the exhibit hall was the gift shop. Because in the gift shop were other quilters. I met a few women from Knoxville who had come up together. We were browsing the discounted fabric and sharing stories. Talking about our lives and families as well as projects. One woman asked if I needed her to talk me into a purchase or out of it. She truly understood the need to minimize your stash and the need to buy all the fabric. Then while checking out, I mentioned to the salesperson that I was up from Georgia. Two women came around the corner and asked where in Georgia. Turns out they are from Cairo. We hugged and exchanged numbers. Hopefully we will get together, when we get back home. I could use some new friends now that I don't work anymore.

The last place I visited was Hancock's of Paducah. Every quilter I know talks about how awesome this place is and yet, I am unimpressed. This was my second visit there. Yeah, there's a lot of fabric and  it's organized by manufacturers, which is cool. But I am not loyal to any one brand. There are a lot of kits and pre-cuts available too. But is wasn't as much fun as I would have liked. It just lacks the warmth of the smaller quilt shops. It may be different during quilt week when there are tons of quilters around.

Don't get me wrong, I will visit it every time I go to Paducah. I will probably spend way too much every time as well. But I would much rather shop at a smaller quilt shop. I guess I was spoiled by Mom's Crafts and Fabrics in Delta, Utah. It was the first real quilt shop I ever frequented and it will always be my favorite.

All in all it was a very good day filled with a lot of camaraderie with fellow quilters. I had a great time and definitely would do it again. Only maybe start out sooner so I can visit some of the other small shops in the area.

Scraps, Scraps, and More Scraps

Scraps 

Anyone who works with fabric, is well aware that scraps are inevitable.  No project using fabric uses all the fabric the pattern calls for simply because fabric is either sold off the bolt or in pre-cut sizes. It is rare you can buy the exact amount you need. Then there are those of us who buy extra fabric in case we make a mistake. Or better yet buy fabric without a project in mind. This means we almost always have more fabric than we need for the project. So there are scraps.

There are differing views on how to deal with scraps. Some people simply discard the leftover fabric by either giving it away or throwing it out. There are those who put it aside and thinking they will find another project for it someday. Personally, I fall in the later category. In fact, I am more than happy to take scraps from other people. 

I tend to hold onto all of the scraps. I have been stashing them into bins for years. At least I was until a couple of years ago. I was doing a declutter challenge and realized how many scraps I had. Then, I watched a Video on managing scraps by Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. (She has a website as well as a YouTube channel.) In it she talks about cutting "Mount Scrapmore" down to size. Literally! She suggested you take time once a month to process scraps into some standard sizes. For me, anything under 1/2 yd is cut down into; Fat Quarters, 5 inch squares, 2-1/2 inch squares, 2 inch squares and 2-1/2 inch strips. This works well for me since I love to make scrap quilts. 

Another trick is to pick a pattern that you want to make scrappy and cut the scraps into the sizes needed for the quilt. This means you have to keep in mind what pattern you are cutting for. I personally have a basket with the pre-cut scraps and pattern in it. I try to keep rack of how many more I need with a post it note.

Another reason I keep and process scraps is because I love cutting fabric. It is very cathartic to me. Especially turning scraps into usable pieces. It just soothes my soul in a way that is difficult to explain. Stress seems to dissipate when I am cutting fabric. I would often process scraps in the morning before work because it helped put me in the right frame of mind to deal with difficult people.

Scraps I've processed.

In the last two years I have gone from 2 huge storage totes to one 24 liter bin. This week I am traveling with my husband. To keep busy while he is working, I brought 3 yards of fabric that had been stained, 2 - gallon size zip lock bags of scraps, a rotary cutter, an 12"x18"cutting mat, and my favorite rulers for processing scraps. I didn't have to pack an iron since there is one in the hotel room. My plan is to get some of the scraps processed. That way I feel like I am making some progress on decluttering the studio even though I am on the road. 

My day starts with getting out the iron and ironing board and pressing all of the scraps. I did buy a spray bottle and some spray starch. some of these scraps have been in storage for years. I start cutting the scraps and stack them by size. at the end of the day I put them in zip lock
bags by size. It will make organizing them at home easier.  

The problem I have run into this week is that I am here for a total of 8 days. I am 3 days in and I have already gotten through most of the scraps. I should have brought the whole bin with me. I would have gotten it all done this week. Oh well, I am sure I will have more opportunities to do this in the coming months. I may just get my scraps all caught up before I get my studio into working shape.