The National Quilt Museum

215 Jefferson,  Paducah, KY 42001 
270-442-8856

Admission is $12; Seniors are $11; and students are $5. Parking is free.

https://quiltmuseum.org/

Established in 1991.

The National Quilt Museum is 170 miles from St. Louis and is visited regularly by St. Louis area residents.  It opened to the public on April 25, 1991. It is the world's foremost museum devoted to quilts and the only museum dedicated to today's quilts and quilt-makers.  

The main gallery is devoted to a rotating selection of the museum's permanent collection of over 500 quilts. The museum does not allow visitors to take photographs of the displays and quilts so the only pictures I have are those that were taken by the museum and placed on their Facebook page. This beautiful one is "But Can He Sing?" by Roberta Williams, 2005.

" Turkish Treasures" by Pat Holly was the Best of Show Prize from AQS Quilt Week 2018. 

This 2003 tribute to the U.S. space program is by Pat Holly and Sue Nickels. 

Patriotic quilts included "Map Makers" by Cassandra Williams and "...And Our Flag Was Still There" by Melinda Bula

There were three special exhibits while we were there.  The largest was Fly Me to the Moon, an art quilt journey of quilts honoring the Apollo Astronauts, Apollo missions, and all things lunar. 179 art quilts were entered by over 130 artists from 8 countries, expressing their interpretation of the space program and all things lunar. The exhibit displays 44 of these quilts. All of the quilts are the same size.

 Moonlight in Vermont

Luna: The Everlasting and The Ephemeral

Lunar Rover

Fred Haise – Apollo 13

 Ed White

 Shine on Harvest Moon

Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong’s First Step on the Moon

Cosmic Moon Over the Mountain and Phases (Faces) of the Moon

High Flying Flag, Where Were You on July 20, 1969… YELLOWSTONE, and The Stars and Stripes on the Moon

Cherrywood Van Gogh Challenge occupied the next biggest special gallery. The participants in this challenge were inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s work and life to create their own small masterpieces with Cherrywood Fabrics.

 Again they are all the same small size.

 The bottom right quilt close-up looks like this.

And finally Color-Play in Portraits by Lola Jenkins occupies a small gallery.

If you are a quilter no trip to Paducah is complete without a trip to Hancock's of Paducah. According to a Paducah travel website Hancock's "offers the world’s largest retail selection of premium cotton fabrics. Be awed by the 60,000 square feet of space dedicated to the textile arts and abundance of fine fabric and sewing supplies."  And we were most definitely awed! 

Whenever we go to a museum we visit a local restaurant and our trip to Paducah was no exception.  For lunch we ate at Flamingo Row! 

The menu was quite varied including these shrimp tacos,

chicken salad, 

portobello mushroom burger,

and lots of other luncheon specials.

We had dinner at Max's Brick Oven Cafe and did try one of their famous pizza's.  

Forgot to take a food picture until we were all done! 

Comments:This museum is so worth the three-hour drive from St. Louis.  The only negative thing I can think to say is that they won't let you photograph the quilts in fear that you will copy something or some technique in making a quilt.  I would have loved to have been able to share pictures of some of my favorite quilts. 

Their permanent collection has unbelievably exquisite fabric art - plus one quilt made out of wood! Most all of the quilts we saw were thirty years or less in age.  Many quilts in the collection are winners from the annual quilt competition held each spring that brings thousands to Paducah. Two of the galleries held exhibits from challenges/competitions that took place in the last 12 months.  That being said I have been to this museum in the past and have seen quilts from the nineteenth century.  

The museum is constantly changing the special exhibits and the quilts on display so this is a museum one could visit over and over again.  

The museum offers a number of programs for children and we enjoyed seeing quilts that children starting at age five and from many states had designed and sewn and entered into the museum's competition.  

We also enjoyed their gift shop with several of us making purchases. Books, shirts, patterns and other items are available online, also.  

The food at the local restaurants was superb.  We loved  Flamingo Row for its food and atmosphere.  Max's was great, also.  It is a block or so from the museum, one of several great options in walking distance.