TAFA Market Focus: Jefferson Street Studios

"Quilt Reflection I" by Robert Davis

TAFA is having its first public event during the AQS Quilt Show in Paducah.  We are excited to introduce TAFA to the public at large and are hoping to raise funds for our new website.   We have a silent auction and raffle, both available to online participants and a member exhibit and vendors.   These are ways in which you can donate to support our efforts.  This blog will feature the works and vendors during the time leading up to our show.  You can see all of the TAFA Market posts in one place by clicking on this link. 

Today's TAFA Market focus zooms in on:

Jefferson Street Studios

Visit Jefferson Street Studios on TAFA

"Limbo", Art Quilt by Helene Davis

Bob and Helene Davis are two of my favorite people in Paducah.  I don't see them very often, but when I do, there is always a feeling of "home".  Both are members of our Paducah Fiber Artists group and often host our meetings at their home and studio on Jefferson Street.  We are all disappointed when Bob fails to make his expected chicken dish...  And, I am constantly reminded of them in my home as they have been extremely generous to me over the years.  When I first moved here, they gave me a couch which I use daily.  I also have fabric, thread, books and other odds and ends they have given me.  

Helene and Bob will each have two pieces in our TAFA Market show, all four shown here.  Helene is way up there, if not at the top, of my list of favorite art quilters.  She has mastered surface design, always coming up with unexpected results that ooh and aah us at our meetings.  And, I love the way she quilts!  Tight, close rows of machine stitching that make her quilts stiff, almost rug-like.  Helene also works with clay, creating gorgeous pieces that compliment her textiles beautifully.  I have found that many of us have had this marriage of interests, fabric and clay, which I find very interesting.  I worked with clay before moving into fabric and like to think that clay actually taught me how to sew.  I knew the basics and had done quite a bit of embroidery before my years with clay, but I learned how to see in a different way once I had done dimensional work.  

"Missing" by Helene Davis using her dyed fabrics.

Bob and Helene purchased a late 1800's industrial building which they renovated into a drop-dead gorgeous home, studio and gallery.  They have been our drop off site for packages arriving from our other TAFA members who are participating in the TAFA Market.  The back of the space is Helene's dyeing and sewing studio, the middle area houses living quarters and the front is the gallery.  Bob gets the monster garage.  Both are avid gardener's and have landscaped the outside beautifully.  They turned an eyesore into a must visit stop if you come to Paducah.

Inside the gallery at Jefferson Street Studios, Paducah, Kentucky.

If you are coming to Paducah for the AQS Show or for our TAFA Market, you must also stop by at Jefferson Street Studios.  Helene's quilts will be available for sale, along with her hand-dyed fabric and consignment items from some of our Paducah Fiber Artist members.

Bob is the people person and eclectic in his endeavors.  Coming from an engineering background, his quilts are precise and exercises in color and structure, where Helene's are organic and experimental.  Bob also does a lot of photography around town and has worked on an ongoing project where he reduces images of people to line drawings.  He has captured many of the local artists in this way and I hope that he someday publishes a book on them.  He did the drawing at the left of me four years ago and I almost kissed him because he made me look so young!

Bob is another of those people who has worked with clay.  He has made thousands of porcelain beads and has a display case of them at 212 Broadway, just around the corner from our TAFA Market.  You will have to stop in there, too as HeART of Healing Gallery, another TAFA member, and myself also have permanent booths there.   HeART of Healing specializes in vintage kimono and molas from Panama.

Jefferson Street Studios has started to show other artists in their gallery with excellent results.  They are just outside of the LowerTown boundaries, the artist neighborhood in Paducah, and I believe that their presence will encourage other art related studios to move into that area.  Take note:  If you are coming to Paducah, you MUST visit Jefferson Street Studios.  If you are not coming to Paducah but would like to purchase one of Bob or Helene's pieces pictured here, email me.  We can ship it to you after the show.

"Quilt Reflection II" by Robert Davis

Jefferson Street Studios:  1149 Jefferson Street in Paducah, Kentucky.

TAFA Market Focus: Jefferson Street Studios

The Arts of Survival: Folk Expression in the Face of Natural Disaster

Evelyne Alcide, Port Au Prince, Haiti, Seisme (Earthquake), 2010

(Santa Fe, NM - March 15, 2011)—The Arts of Survival: Folk Expression in the Face of Natural Disaster explores how folk artists helped their communities recover from four recent natural disasters: the Haitian Earthquake; Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast; Pakistani floods; and the recent volcanic eruption of Mt. Merapi in Indonesia.

Opening July 3, 2011 in the Museum of International Folk Art’s ‘Gallery of Conscience,’ The Arts of Survival will be the gallery’s second annual exhibition. Last year’s inaugural exhibition Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities showed the successful efforts of women folk artists to raise their communities from the ravages of war and worse to build clinics, provide education, and the basic necessities of life. The Arts of Survival runs through May 6, 2012.
The Arts of Survival opens International Folk Arts Week and culminates with the 8^th Annual International Folk Arts Market running July 8 - 10, 2011. Highlights of the week will be artist demonstrations, artist talks, lectures, and more.

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This timely exhibit comes from one of the places I long to visit, The Museum of International Folk Art.  Maybe this will be the year!  You can find more information on this page.


The Arts of Survival....  Such an appropriate title to describe our times.  It seems like the world is exploding all around us.  The exhibit zooms in on Haiti, which is still suffering so much from its earthquake last year, and now we have Japan.  There are no words to express the horrible tragedy that continues to unfold there.  It is absolutely awful.  A friend of mine is convinced that this is the beginning of the end, referring to the predictions of the Mayan calendar of 2012: total destruction of the world.

I do not feel so pessimistic.  Yes, there is a lot of chaos in our world right now.  There is nothing we can do about natural disasters except to help the survivors, pick up the pieces and try to be smarter about where we build, what we build (nuclear reactors on earthquake prone land?), and how we impact this earth with our consumerism.  Then there is all the chaos caused by human friction: protests and confrontation all over the Middle East (and Wisconsin !!!!), human slave trade, the continued subjugation of women and children, poverty and starvation caused by greed and mismanagement of resources.  It goes on and on and on...  Survival can definitely become an art!

How do we handle all of this?  One can be tempted to just shut the news off and go about life in a little bubble, a cocoon of personal happiness. 

I think that the way to respond and to feel like there is hope is to pick a couple of issues where you can feel like your time, money and energy will make a difference.  Perhaps one that is local to where you live and one that has an international focus.  Giving leads to receiving and as we engage with the other, we find ourselves and realize that we are all connected.

Artists have recorded history through the ages: the good the bad and the ugly.  We have had war and natural disasters all along our human story.  Recording these through the survivor's narrative has such an important role in our future as one thing also remains constant: we forget.  We don't learn from our past mistakes.  We keep seeing the same dynamics played over and over again in history: power, greed, oppression.  And, out of the ashes, come those voices of hope.  I know I will want to see this exhibit and if you can make it, I'm sure that you will, too.

The Arts of Survival: Folk Expression in the Face of Natural Disaster

Allison Svoboda Showing at Woman Made Gallery

Allison Svoboda
Ubiquitous Fecundity
sumi ink on Japanese mulberry paper, collaged
78 x 72 inches
$ 2,400 each

It's a wonderful gift to watch a friend mature into a true artist.  Yeah, yeah...  we can all get into those endless, fruitless discussions on what is art, whether anything is ever really new, what the value of "art" is in our world, etc.  But, to me, I believe that being an artist is a process of discipline, maturity, and innovation that eventually, through dogged persistence, evolves into a unique body of work that contains a recognizable signature.

Such is the case with Allison Svoboda.  We have been friends for some twenty years now, both sharing an interest in cultural textiles and sustainable development practices.  I don't remember when she took the plunge to "become a real artist".  Ten years ago?  From the beginning, she was interested in contrasts of black and white, in microcosms and topography, patterns in nature and how all of this could be translated to paper or fabric.

Her latest work breaks through the two-dimensional, flat translations bringing sculptural elements that make her work truly come alive.  I believe that she has found her voice, her signature, and has something new and fresh to contribute to the art world.  Ubiquitous Fecundity is beautiful.  Go see it.  The show at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago runs from March 4-April 28th, 2011.

Watch Allison Svoboda.  We can only expect that this signature will continue to evolve into more surprises, more eye candy, and more beauty.  

Kudos to you, Allison!

Visit Allison's website.

Allison's Member Profile on TAFA.

 Allison Svoboda, Flora #3
30"x40" collage, ink on rice paper

Allison Svoboda Showing at Woman Made Gallery

Folk Art of the Andes at the Museum of International Folk Art

Museum of International Folk Art

Folk Art of the Andes

Most Comprehensive Exhibition of South American

Folk Art Ever To Be On View

(Santa Fe, NM, January 19, 2011) - The Museum of International Folk Art opens a major exhibition, Folk Art of the Andes, April 17, 2011. This will be the first exhibit in the United States to feature a broad range of folk art from the Andean region of South America, showcasing more than 850 works of art primarily dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The exhibit runs through February 2012. For images click here..

The creative accomplishments of the Andean people of the highland region of South America are prominent among the folk art legacies of the world. The curator for the exhibition, Dr. Barbara Mauldin, states “the Folk Art of the Andes exhibit explores the influence of Spanish arts and cultural introduced during the colonial period and shows how much of the work produced after independence in 1829 reflects the interweaving of indigenous craft traditions with European art forms and techniques.”

The collection of Andean folk art in the Museum of International Folk Art was started with an initial gift from the museum’s founder Florence Dibell Bartlett and has grown to more than 6,000 objects. Drawing from this renowned collection and other private and public collections in the United States, Folk Art of the Andes includes religious paintings, sculptures, portable altars, milagros, amulets, and ritual offerings.  Traditional hand woven ponchos, mantles, belts, and bags are shown, along with women’s skirts, hats, and shawls adapted from the Spanish.  Jewelry, wooden trunks, silverwork, majolica ceramics, carved gourds, house blessing ornaments, and toys reveal not only the craftsmanship of the work, but the ways the objects function in everyday life. Also explored are Andean festival cycles with lavish costumes and a variety of masks.

The exhibit will be accompanied by a richly illustrated 300 page catalog. Public programming related to the Andes show will take place throughout the year.

Media Contacts
Barbara Mauldin, Curator of Latin American Art
505-476-1222
Barbara.mauldin@state.nm.us

Steve Cantrell, PR Manager
505-476-1144
310-3539 - cell
Steve.cantrell@state.nm.us

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The Museum of International Folk Arthouses the world’s largest collection of international folk art, with ongoing exhibitions Multiple Visions: A Common Bond in the Girard Wing and Familia y Fe in the Hispanic Heritage Wing. Changing and traveling exhibitions are offered in the Bartlett Wing and exhibitions highlighting textiles are featured the Neutrogena Wing.   Lloyd’s Treasure Chest offers visitors interactive displays about collections and how museums care for collections. 

The Museum of International Folk Art is a Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.


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I really, really want to go see this!

(Rachel)

Folk Art of the Andes at the Museum of International Folk Art

Afghan Tribal Arts at the Pasadena Bead and Design Show!

Handcarved semi-precious stones made into beads,
a specialty of Afghan Tribal Arts.

My friend, Abdul Wardak, is in Pasadena for the Bead and Design Show there. Abdul is the owner of Afghan Tribal Arts and has been importing from Afghanistan and the region since the mid-1980's. Beads are a big focus of his family owned business, but so are textiles, carpets, carvings and other tribal crafts from the region.

July 30 - August 2, 2009, 10AM to 6PM
300 Exhibitors and Workshops
Wearable Art, Bead and Fabric Handwork, Trade Supplies
The Hilton Pasadena, 168 South Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, California

Abdul Wardak at a bead show.

Abdul does many of these bead shows, but he also wholesales to ethnic galleries, boutiques and sells directly to collectors. His normal route focuses on the Midwest and Southeast, but he is interested in making some contacts on the West Coast, too. Visit his website, Afghan Tribal Arts, for contact info and for more images of the types of beads, textiles and products he normally carries. The show info states:

AFGHAN TRIBAL ARTS
Nomadic and tribal jewelry from Afghanistan and Peshawar; Turkman and Pashtun crowns, silver jewelry, Pashtun wedding dresses, vintage clothing, beads, jade, carnelian, lapis lazuli, silver, findings, embroidered and beaded textiles, camel tassels, interior decor, kilims and carpets.
California Ballroom #C190

Catch your fancy? I know I absolutely love everything from that region! People may know about the war in Afghanistan, but little do they know about the beauty of that country and its people.

Abdul Wardak of Afghan Tribal Arts in Afghanistan, 2002

Abdul began the business when he realized what an economic impact his purchases had on the lives of small businesses and artisans in his home country. He also has a deep love and appreciation for the products themselves, their beauty and the skills involved in making them.

If you meet Abdul on this trip, you will have the pleasure of enjoying a warm heart, great storytelling and certain unpredictable laughs. His sense of humor is always brimming, even now as his back is giving out. You will also meet Roshan, Abdul's oldest son, who is learning the ropes and will hopefully keep Afghan Tribal Arts in business as my dear friend gives his back a needed fix through surgery and rehabilitation.



You can read other posts about Afghan Tribal Arts in this blog.

Afghan Tribal Arts at the Pasadena Bead and Design Show!

A Pilgrimage to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

If I were to go anywhere in the world as a pilgrimage, my choice would be the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. I can't think of another place that would be a Mecca of all my interests in culture, people and the wonderful things they make. Sure, there are many other folk art festivals that would be interesting, but this has to top them all! Every year I hope I can go and so far I haven't been able to afford the trip. You see, it's not only going there and experiencing the environment that would thrill me, but I also would want to buy, buy, buy!!!! Someday it will happen!

Meanwhile, you go. Go be my eyes and ears and report back about how much fun it was! Tell us all about the wonderful people you met and what treasures you bought. The Market will be loaded with all of the ingredients to make anyone clap with joy, dance with delight and participate to their heart's content. There will 140 artists present representing 41 countries! You can travel the world just by walking around! Workshops, ethnic foods, live music and cultural presentations combine to make this a world event in one of the most interesting cities of the world.

Here is a video from last year's market:



My biggest joy would be to interact with the artists and see them at work. The International Folk Art Market's website has a full listing of those who are scheduled to come with a bio of their work. I picked a sampling just to give you an idea of the wonderful diversity of both regions represented and the work they produce, although I have to admit that even though I love all craft forms, I do tend to gravitate towards the textiles. The photos and text belong to the Santa Fe International Folk Art's site and I am quoting a partial bio just to entice you over to their site. Click on the Artist's name to see their full page.

Hugo Yucra Quispe Paricela and Rosa Ticaona Vilca

Peru

Artisan Committee of Centro Poblano de Chijnaya

Chijnaya Foundation

Embroidery

The Andean village of Chijnaya was born after a flood in 1963 devastated villages near Lake Titicaca. As part of the resettlement project, and through the influence of Peace Corps volunteers, the concept of having the children embroider scenes of daily life took hold. What emerged were “bordados” employing hand-dyed alpaca yarn embroideries soon captured world attention and on a ground of “bayeta” or hand-woven simple weave woolen cloth.

Hind El-Arabi

The Palestinian Territories

Sulafa Embroidery Shop/project of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency

Embroidery

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency runs a self-supporting embroidery program which employs over 500 refugee women in the Gaza Strip to produce articles to sell at the Sulafa Embroidery Shop, helping preserve valuable traditions and increasing family incomes.

Moussa Albaka

Niger

Silver and Gemstone Jewelry

Moussa Albaka is from Niger, Africa, and as a metal-smith he designs gorgeous jewelry using sterling silver, Tuareg silver and semi-precious stones. His techniques include engraving intricate geometric designs, using decorative inlay, and a lost wax process.

Nino Kipshidze

Georgia

Georgian Textile Group

Embroidered, Woven and Felted
Textiles and Objects

Nino Kipshidze, founder and president of The Georgian Textile Group (GTG), has been involved in crafts since her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. GTG is an association of artists, designers, researchers, art historians, and ethnographers working to revive and improve the quality of Georgian folk textile art and craft and to support artisans works and by creating an international market for their work.

José Francisco Borges

Brazil

Tesoros Trading Company

Woodblock Prints and Chapbooks

José Borges, one of Latin America’s most celebrated folk artists, wields his knife and piece of wood in his humble workshop, attracting collectors and curators from around the world. Considered an unlettered folk poet, Jose has more than 200 cordel, or chapbook, titles to his name and is still writing.

Yuzhen Pan

China

Minority People Textile Folk Artists Cooperative of Southwest China

Weaving, Embroidery and Batik

Yuzhen’s family continues to farm in Guizhou while she lives part time in Beijing working in an embroidery workshop and selling Miao textile items at an open air market.

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As you can see, each artist comes with a story, a life-line that connects them to their region. It will surely be fascinating for anyone who can make it to the festival. But, I also think this is such a profoundly valuable opportunity for all of the participating artists. I have worked in multi-cultural groups for many years and remember how disturbing it was to me that each group has its own set of biases, misconceptions and stereotypes that can lead to racism and narrow-mindedness. This is not only about white people learning about the world and "helping" through their dollars, but instead, contact and interaction opens all people to a larger world filled with new opportunities. We all have the need to both give and receive, to teach and to learn, to share and to grow and this makes the world a safer, healthier and more dynamic place to live.

If you make it to the Market, please report back here and tell us how it went! Or, if you like to write, I would love to have your experiences documented in a post. Take lots of photos and share them with us! Someday I will make my pilgrimage, but until then, enjoy yours!

Visit the Santa Fé Convention and Visitors Bureau for travel info.

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A Pilgrimage to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

The Value of Quilt Shows by Donna Hussain

Star Spangles by Donna Hussain
A quilt based on an Islamic design.

Many women remember snuggling in bed on cold winter nights under quilts made by their moms or grandmothers. They become quilters because they want to give similar gifts of love and comfort to their families and friends. While making their first quilt they learn basic sewing skills. Other quilters have a lifetime of experience at the sewing machine. In all likelihood they sew clothing, Halloween costumes, doll wardrobes, band uniforms, and prom dresses in addition to quilts. In quilt competitions this group of quilters has a decided advantage over sewing novices because judges grade both the construction skill of the quilt maker and her artistry. The winners of major quilt shows are talented artists who have mastered sewing techniques for quilt construction and choose fabric as their medium of expression.

Featured artist gets premium space at a quilt show.

These artists deserve the prizes. (The awards advertised for the Pacific International Quilt Festival in October, 2009 is $18,000 in cash and prizes.) At shows all quilters flock to the winning quilts to study their construction techniques, their use of color, and their embellishments, their thread play and quilting patterns, the design of their borders, they way they portray their theme in abstraction or minute detail, a view from afar or through magnification. There is much to learn by the study of displayed quilts. In the process we less talented quilters harvest ideas for future quilts of our own.

Quilts displayed at a show inspire
other quilters with color, technique and design.

To be juried into a major quilt show like the American Quilters Society spring show in Paducah, or the International Quilters Association’s fall show in Houston is an honor for the average quilter. We don’t expect to win, but are thrilled that other quilters will view, and hopefully admire, our work. Acceptance into the show is a way of validating the growth of our creativity and the improvement of our quilting skills.

Most quilt guilds sponsor an annual local show for the display of their members’ quilts. The show is usually the highlight of the guild’s calendar year and its major fundraiser. Space is rented to vendors to sell fabric, books, and quilt supplies. Sometimes judges are hired; sometimes not. Judges usually give two encouraging comments and two suggestions for improvement on the judging sheet for each quilt. The advice can be very helpful even though I tend to scoff upon receiving a comment like “Quilting corners need improvement” telling myself that there is nothing wrong with my corners. But you can be sure that I pay close attention thereafter to corners when sewing my quilts.

Quilt shows are a lot of work!
Here the quilt frames are being raised.

Other advantages of guild quilt shows include giving members a deadline to finish quilts in progress and a place to display their talent. The show certainly promotes quilting to the local community. A guild is usually energized by a show because it requires so much work, so much involvement of its members. New friendships are made and bonds between members are strengthened.

Guild members develop friendships while
they take a break in preparation for a quilt show.

I recommend that all quilters join a local quilt guild. Novice quilters are always welcome. They are usually surprised at the support they receive from more experienced members. The sew and show portion of monthly guild meetings helps beginners decide which style of quilting they favor and which color combinations they like. Most guilds offer inexpensive quilt classes that help beginners master quilting skills. In quilt shows most guilds include a category called “First Quilts” to encourage novice quilters to display their quilts.

Quilts hung in a show might be in many categories,
giving both the novice and the expert chances at recognition.

Although my quilts have been juried into a number of national quilt shows I have never won a large financial prize. My only claim to fame was becoming a finalist in the contest Reflections on Heritage sponsored by Quilters Newsletter Magazine in 2002. The quilts of the forty finalists traveled together as an exhibit to Quilt Expo VIII in Barcelona, Spain in April, 2002, then on to the Houston show in the fall on that year.

When I first read about the contest I speculated that my quilt, Star Spangles, which coincidentally had recently been completed, would be the only entry representing a Muslim heritage. Since I was sure the contest organizers wanted a balanced representation of cultures, I figured my quilt would be a shoo-in. Allowed seventy-five words in the application I wrote:

My husband was born in India and raised in the Islamic faith, while I come from an American Christian family. I try to represent our mixed family heritage in quilts for our home. The pattern for this quilt was taken from a tastir panel (a line pattern, a geometrical motif) that is typical of the beauty of Islamic ornamentation. But the creation of this quilt required the inspiration of my two Kansas grandmothers who passed on their love of quilting to me.

Husbands offer both labor and support,
"Your quilt is going to Barcelona?"

How excited I was to receive official news that I was selected as a finalist. I told my husband that I wanted to travel to Barcelona to stand behind my quilt to hear the comments of viewers. “What?” he said. “Why would you want to do that? You don’t even speak Spanish.”


California quilter, Donna Hussain, has exhibited in major quilt shows around the country, authored books, and is a regular contributor to Fiber Focus. Click on her name to see all of her past articles.


The photo shows Donna with her husband, Pascha.

The Value of Quilt Shows by Donna Hussain

Fabric: The Search for the Perfect Piece Transforms Paducah During the AQS Show

Beautiful Batiks from Indonesia, A Favorite Among Quilters

If you are a quilter, you most probably have a stash of fabric that's taking over part of your house and your life. Quilters need a selection to pick from and that elusive perfect color or design ever calls us to adding to our stash, "just in case"... For some, it can actually become a disease, an urge to have and collect more than could ever possibly be used in a lifetime. Most artists struggle with this need to have supplies on hand, "Oh, I will use it someday..." which competes with the reality of storage demands and the ever-present war against clutter.

Rolls of complimenting colors allow a quilter
to have a nice selection without purchasing too much fabric.

At almost $10 a yard in most specialty stores, purchasing fabric can be a serious financial investment. So, a quilter will go glassy eyed when they see fabric on sale. And, when you have a large gathering of quilters such as the AQS Show in Paducah, a whole city will transform itself to try to meet this need and reinvent itself in fabric opportunities. Paducah is known as "Quilt City, USA" and local businesses join in the fun, hoping to attract visiting quilters in for their non-fabric wares.

"How about a coffee and cookie, dear Quilter?"

The show itself is hosted in the Convention Center which is located right on the river, downtown, within walking distance from the Quilt Museum and the downtown businesses. Half of the space at the Convention Center is dedicated to vendors who come with their wares from all over the world. Then, AQS sponsors other sites around town for satellite vendors.

The Finkel's Building downtown on Kentucky Avenue,
normally empty, becomes a satellite space for AQS during the Quilt Show.

Non-AQS businesses and groups also set up vending opportunities. The Rotary Club of Paducah/McCracken County hosts an annual show of antique quilts and also rents vendor spaces.

The guys at the door collect $5 per visitor, money that is used to fund educational and scholarship programs.

Inside, quilters become inspired by the quilts they see.

Inspiration leads to temptation.... "Hmmm.... I think I need some more fabric for my stash..." Vendors are there to supply the need. "What to get? What to get? ..."

Fabric makes the quilting world go around.

And, for those who don't want to go to the trouble of making it, there are plenty of lovely finished quilts available...



Oh, and quilters also need their tools: scissors, thimbles, thread, templates, batting, rulers, glues, special paint sticks, and on and on. Every year there are new inventions that help expand the quilter's universe of possibilities.

Quilting templates, a coveted accessory for some.

Many of these things are not easily accessible in most towns or cities. You can find almost everything online, but that's never the same as seeing something right in front of your face where you can size it and touch it. And, of course, there are all those one of a kind pieces that you will not see on the internet, things that can be incorporated into a quilt, or that you just have to have.

Vintage lace and doilies.

Informal vendors also have wares to sell. The streets are filled with tents and people trying to get in on the action.

When else will Paducah fill up with 30,000 women or more, all with big bags they just might fill?

Charter buses take the quilters to the different points in the city that have vendors or exhibited quilts. Parking, of course, becomes difficult downtown. A couple of fun modes of transport include the trolley or you can go by horse and buggy!

Paducah's trolley.

Horse and buggy, a fun way to see Paducah's downtown.

Others just enjoy being outside and seeing the city come alive. I ran into my friend, Stefanie Graves of Cowango, working on a watercolor down by the gazebo.

Stefanie Graves talking to a visiting quilter.

One of the best things about this invasion of quilters and vendors in Paducah is that most of the people that come are really, really nice. (Note emphasis on Most...) This kind visitor took a photo of Stefanie and me. She modelled Stefanie's hat...

Me with Stefanie Graves.

Well, I had done my rounds and it was time to get back to work. Yep. I'm a vendor, too, hoping like everyone else that some green dollars will make there way into my grubby hands... My niche is a small but special one in the quilting world. I sell ethnic textiles online and in my permanent booth at English's Antiques at 212 Broadway, downtown Paducah.

Rachel Biel Taibi of Rayela Art

You can find the links to my stores on the third column of this blog. Rayela Art has stores on Etsy, eBay and 1,000 Markets. They are a bit depleted right now as I pulled a lot out for the show, but will be restocking soon.

I find it fascinating to see what people do with their hoards of fabric. I have my own stash that keeps growing and am committed to also using it up, making new pieces as time goes on. I always push myself to learn something new, to push the boundaries of what I have seen and translate it into something that becomes mine. Sometimes it works and sometimes it's an "Now what have I done?" experience. I am definitely inspired by cultural textiles, but also by contemporary fiber artists. The possibilites seem limitless...

Today is the last day of the show here in Paducah. Life will resume its normal pace and we will all play with our new fabric and supplies. We are all grateful for those of you who have been here and hope to see you again next year. And, for those of you who have not been to Paducah, do visit us sometime! It's a great community with wonderful galleries and year round, we are

"Quilt City, USA"!!!

Fabric: The Search for the Perfect Piece Transforms Paducah During the AQS Show