Paducah 2002
Since one of my quilts, A Celtic Rose Garden, had been accepted into competition and another quilt, To Defend Forever the Flames of Freedom, was in the special invitational exhibit, United We Quilt, which premiered at Paducah, I decided I should attend this year's show. Also, a tour group of Japanese quilters, many of whom I had just met in Nagoya, were coming to visit Paducah, so I planned a party for us to get together for a reunion. I was very fortunate that a group in my home area, the Log Cabin Quilters of Hayfork, had already rented a house for their trip. They had an extra bed and were gracious in allowing me to come along with them. I invited them all to attend the party with the Japanese quilters. My digital camera batteries gave out before I could get a group shot of the Hayfork quilters, but as soon as I get a copy of someone else's picture of the group, I'll scan it and put it up here.
Here's Jeanie Sexton, Scarlett Rose and Michiyo Okumoto, a Japanese quilter, at the reunion party. Jeanie lives in Kentucky and her local quilt group was having their annual show at the same time as Paducah. We had the party at her quilt show's site at the Senior Center in Grand River, about 40 minutes away from Paducah.
Here's some of the Japanese quilters with Sumiko, Jeanie and several ladies of her local quilt group.
Here's the whole Japanese quilt group, along with Barbara Smith, Executive Book Editor of AQS. Barbara is also the coordinator of the United We Quilt exhibit.
We had all kinds of snacks for everyone to try! My group brought two deli trays of fruit, crackers, cheese and meat. Jeanie provided the punch, cake and decorations. The Japanese quilters each brought a package of Japanese candy or other kinds of snacks to share. Some were very different and it sure was fun to try them all!