Every spring, thousands of quilting enthusiasts make the pilgrimage to Paducah Kentucky for the American Quilters Society Annual Quilt Show. Almost a religious experience, women (and a few men) from around the world descend on this town for 4 days doubling its population from 26,000 to over 56,000.

Paducah is the mecca of all things quilting, National Quilt Museum is located downtown, Handcock Fabrics is a huge quilt shop along the interstate, and there are a dozen or more locations that pop up this week that sell quilting fabrics and supplies. Ask any quilter and, if they haven’t been there, it’s on their bucket list to do someday

For years, back when Suzanne managed Prairieland Quilts, she organized single-day bus trips to the Paducah quilt show every year. Leaving the shop at 5:00 am, she would make stops in Paxton and Champaign to pick up excited travelers who couldn’t wait to make this journey. Arriving home around 10:00 pm, exhausted and penniless, ladies would exit the bus with bags and bags of fabric, books, and tools of the trade. It was always a little baffling to me how much they would spend that day but it was like pulling teeth to get them to buy the same stuff in our store.

Suzanne has continued to attend this event every year with one of her dear friends. The 2021 show was canceled due to the pandemic but she wouldn’t have been able to attend anyway as she was still healing from her surgery and just trying to just survive. In 2022, there were still concerns about her travel, eating was a challenge, and even Covid was still around, but the force is strong with this woman so she still attend. This year, her friend is now struggling with her own cancer battle and was unable to attend, so I decided that Suzanne needed this escape and took her myself.

Going to quilting events is not new to me. All the time Suzanne owned the quit shop, twice a year we attended attend market events where she would order fabric and other retail items. Like fish out of water, the few other guys that attended these events like me were basically pack mules, carrying all the stuff around on the show floor that their significant other had picked up. Trying to find a restroom was always a challenge as most of the restrooms marked MEN, now had a WO taped on to sign in front of them.

Even though I make fun of it, we had a great time. It’s always enjoyable to see Suzanne in her element, admiring other people’s work and trying to figure out how to better her skills. Sometimes, she talks with others while looking at the quilts and you can see the wheels spinning inside her head with ideas for her next project. As for next year, I’m planning and praying that I’m sitting that one out.

In your marketplace they traded with you beautiful garments, blue fabric, embroidered work and multicolored rugs with cords twisted and tightly knotted.

Ezekiel 27:24