Thursday, July 26, 2018

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.

River Discovery Center, formerly River Heritage Museum

117 S. Water Street
Paducah, Kentucky 42001
270-575-9958

Admission: Adults $8, Seniors $7, and Children $5. Free parking.

http://www.riverdiscoverycenter.org/

Founded 2003; renamed 2008

The River Discovery Museum was originally the River Heritage Museum and was developed to showcase the Four Rivers Region maritime heritage. In 2008 they added a number of interactive displays for participation by children, thus the River Discovery Museum.

It is located within the only surviving antebellum (before the war) building in Paducah's commercial district.

The building has served as a bank, a river front hotel, a hardware and provisions business, and a dealer in industrial supplies.

There are many boat models displayed representing the history of the river.

A model of a flatboat

This is certainly one of many interesting facts posted around the museum.

This display is about the importance of the rivers in the Civil War.

An entire room is devoted to the 1937 flood. 90% of Paducah was covered by the flood.

in the room there is a movie about the flood and a rain table.

In the museum there are also displays about the animal life of the river. This fossil is an example of animal life that lived in the water here 330-354 million years ago during the Mississippian Age. It was found nearby along the Cumberland River.

This shows the life-cycle of the freshwater mussel of the area rivers which mostly has been used to make pearl buttons, but also jewelry, pottery and utensils.

Aquatic Habitat Display

In 2008 when the museum was renamed River Discovery center, many hands on activities were added. In this one pushing a button brings up new information in the display.

This is a play area for young children.

Here you can help work the locks and dam and learn all about them.

Push a button and the paddle-wheel turns on this large model.

The boat simulator gives you lots of fun, unless of course, you crash the boat!

Here you have the option of lighting up all waterways on the map or certain water routes if you prefer.

When you enter the museum you are first greeted by this fun gift shop with lots of educational items for children.

Before visiting the museum we went to Kirschhoff's Bakery for lunch and for a few bakery treats.

and to the Ice Cream Factory for ice cream. It is right around the corner from the museum.

Comments: This was a fun little informative museum. Who knew there were three large rivers in the area of Paducah? Only the street and the flood-wall are between the museum and the Ohio River making it almost a riverfront museum. In the 44 hours we were in Paducah we saw three "paddle-boats" full of tourists come into the port as part of their many-days excursion on the rivers. The rivers are definitely an important part of Paducah's history and life today.

This would be a great museum for children to visit. It is a member of the Association of Science and Technology Center Museums and the Southeastern Museums with reciprocal and unlimited free admissions to all with membership in just one of the over 550 museums.

The museum offers a 17-minute film about the river and its importance. It is well done and I recommend watching it before going through the museum.

The gift shop was fun!

There are many restaurants within close walking distance. We chose Kirchhoff's Bakery which came highly recommended for lunch and it was indeed very popular. You placed your order at a counter and then returned for it when it was ready - there was some confusion with that. But all in all our food was good and the bakery items were excellent. And then around the corner was the wonderful ice cream store. Yummy!

Across from the museum is the Paducah Wall to Wall Murals. Paducah's rich history is captured in fifty life-sized paintings on the city's floodwall. These panoramic murals overlook the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. It is well worth walking the wall to see them all. Here are some of them.