Paducah & Houston

How nice to see you again, Karen. I can't compare the two shows for you I'm afraid. I'll leave that to others who have visited both. I will just say that I had problems booking for accommodation in Paducah a full year ahead. So, if you decide on Paducah, try to book your room(s) as soon as you decide. Do watch out for conditions, though. My hotel/motel might have been exceptional; but I had to pay in full in advance; I was not allowed to pay by credit card; my booking was not transferable; I had to book for the whole four days; and the cost of the room was raised for those four days. Much of this is understandable, but a bit scary, in case ...

Nevertheless I loved the show, and the classes available to take. The AQS Museum was wonderful - probably my highlight - and I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely group of RCTQ'ers - outside the show, in a local park. The atmosphere of a whole town devoted to quilting for a few days was also lovely.

I went independently - so I didn't get any offers! Dianne Huck, editor of British Patchwork and Quilting usually takes a group every year. If you don't take the magazine, I could give you her contact details if you fancied joining a group? . In message , Ian or Karen writes

Did you try looking here?

or maybe hook up with a tour to the show. Then you'd have a gang to travel with and they've deal with the accommodations

marcella

Howdy!

No need to skip Paducah 2007. For the Paducah show I flew into St. Louis, rented a car, drove over to Illinois & stayed at a B&B in southern Illinois (national forest, beautiful little towns, wine country); took a short trip (about 30 minutes) down the highway to cross the Ohio River and find easy parking in Paducah to get to the quilt show:

Metropolis is right on the river, has good accommodations forlodging and eating, very close to Paducah: 's there, too. ;-> Flying into Nashville or Chicago is also an option. The show is held in a huge hotel/convention center along the Ohio River; a block or 2 away is a large public (free) parking area. There's plenty of parking all over that end of town, within easy walk of the show. Best part of Paducah during quilt show week is that the entire city is Quilt Town USA. Everyone speaks, everyone is friendly, and there's lots of quilty stuff to see and share and buy all over Paducah.

The Really Big Quilt Show in Houston if self-contained, you can see everything in one big convention center, branch out from there to see the city, go to Galveston, mix w/ the locals. It's a HUGE city, lots of traffic and traffic jams and everything that goes w/ huge cities. The convention center holds all the show, all the quilts, the vendors, the people, w/ shuttle buses going in-between many hotels/motels.

Of the 2 shows, I prefer Houston's set-up (Paducah's convention center just isn't big enough to hold it all and it sprawls out and down and you need a road map to find daylight ). But for relaxing and touristing and getting away from the crowds, Paducah is fabulous. The quilt museum is next to the convention center, there's a very old bakery a block away from the museum, wonderful goodies, surrounded by quilt shops and antique stores.

Both places: the people are friendly, helpful, interesting. Quilts are wonderful at both shows, some are the same quilts. Don't let the worry over lodging stop you. There are alternatives to the close-in hotels/motels. One tip about Houston: many quilters are leaving Saturday; I got a room for Saturday night just a couple of weeks before the show; rooms are easily available after that. You still have time to see the show & take classes (I don't but you might want to) on Saturday & Sunday, stay over for a couple of days and have a look around. And, again, I vote for staying in southern Illinois and driving down to Paducah. Beautiful countryside, easy drive.

Ragmop/Sandy

Good point! I will add that if you go to Houston with a vegetarian plan on having almost ZERO to eat. It is Texas after all and even though you're in the business district (where you'd think a vegetarian business man might have to travel) few places even had a token dish on the menu.

From our last night...

"The soup tonight is cream of Asparagus" "Is it vegetarian or do they use something like chicken broth" "Yes, they use chicken broth but it's vegetarian because there isn't any meat in it."

sigh.

Ok, well we laughed later when the waiter couldn't hear but that was basically the response any place we went other than pizza. And, also being downtown unless you like Starbucks for breakfast the cute bakery outside the office building is closed on the weekend as were many other places. So, no good breakfast Saturday or Sunday. Houston has its quirks too. It's the way travel is sometimes.

marcella