Kentucky: Quilting to Bourbon

Paducah, Kentucky is home to the National Quilt Museum. We’ve been trying to get there for awhile. This trip we made it happen.

We arrived during Quilt Week, a massive gathering of quilters and vendors of all things quilting. Our focus was on the museum and their current exhibitions. We were not disappointed. To call what these quilters do quilts fails to convey the level of artistry involved in producing this work.

Yes! That was done with dyed fabric and thread.

One of the major shows at the museum was called “Showstopper “ highlighting the work of Marilyn Badger, a competitive quilter. And showstoppers they were.

The other major museum show was “Larger Then Life” by Velda Newman. She dyes all of her fabrics and hand quilts everything.

There are more mind blowing “Quilts” than would be practical to include here. If you enjoy this kind of textile art you owe yourself a visit to Paducah or at least a visit to the museum’s website: quiltmuseum.org.

After spending a day looking at quilts and rubbing shoulders with the hordes we drove to the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area for some bike riding.

We left Paducah and continued our journey north for a stop along the bourbon trail in Bardstown, Kentucky.

Bardstown refers to itself as “the bourbon capital of the world “. This is no idle boast given the number of distilleries in the area. In fact, as you wander the town you can smell corn mash being fermented.

We weren’t there to wander Main Street but visit distilleries. We had one tour booked but decided to do some visits without tours.

The Bardstown Bourbon Company is a new distillery in the area. They’ve been around less than seven years and have an outstanding bar in their new modern facility.

We also stopped by the Heaven Hill Distillery. The original distillery burned down in 1996 but they bought a facility in Louisville to continue to make whiskey. In 2022 they rebuilt their rickhouses on the sight of their original distillery.

We did book a tour and tasting at Willet, a smaller, family owned and operated distillery. The family were pig farmers until the abolition of prohibition in 1933 when they decided to ride the whiskey wave sweeping the country. The grounds are beautiful and they have great food @ the bar.

We made time to spend an afternoon at the 600 acre Bernhiem Arboretum. While wandering about we ran into few amenable trolls.

Thomas Dambo one of the many artists in residence that work with the arboretum created the troll series.

It’s been a great trip and after stopping at the Airstream factory in Jackson Center, Ohio for our annual repair and maintenance date, we head back to Buffalo. We plan on being back on the road in September.