If you are a quilter, stitcher or maker, there are two stops you should make on your next trip to Paducah—
Quilt City, USA—Kentucky. The first one is
Must Stitch Emporium located on cobblestoned historic Market Square.
Must Stitch Emporium is nestled among the shops, galleries and the theatre center on tree-lined Market Square in historic Lower Town Paducah, and just three blocks from the National Quilt Museum. The shop occupies two adjacent shotgun style spaces with exposed brick walls that provide an inviting backdrop for the colorful quilts, fabrics, threads and displays. Shop owners, Chris and Josh, are stocking the shelves with a selection of modern, classic and traditional fabric prints in today's on-trend color palettes. As can be seen in the pieced and appliqué samples throughout the shop, there are plenty of options to fulfill your quilting and stitching desires whether you lean toward modern or traditional, classic or whimsical—or if you do it all!
Another focus at Must Stitch is counted cross stitch and hand stitching. An impressive array of hand-dyed flosses and threads from
Gentle Art,
Classic Colorworks, DMC and
Weeks Dye Works is available in the shop. So, if you're "in" to any kind of hand stitching, big stitch, embroidery, thread embellishment or canvas work, you'll have plenty of eye candy to choose from and to inspire you to get out your hand stitching needles.
The shop has been only open for a short time this summer so the expansion plans [combining the two spaces which previously housed two different businesses] are still in progress. A bricked-up archway will be opened to allow indoor traffic flow between the two spaces and make way for a large classroom space and dedicated cross stitch area for supplies, notions and patterns. It is exciting to hear about what Chris and Josh have in store for Must Stitch. So on your next visit to Paducah,
Must Stitch is a must-see!
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Another gotta-stop-at place for quilters visiting Paducah is a favorite of mine,
Paper Pieces—aka
The Hexie House. I recently stopped in on Jess and JoAnne, the owners, to get the latest hexie news and peruse the EPP [English paper piecing] products and tools.
I had a few of my
Glorious Hexagons blocks, so Jess and I did a mutual Show and Tell. She also mentioned that the entire crew at Paper Pieces is working on a new quilt-along that they hope to announce in a few months. Wait until you see what they've got cooking (piecing)! It's gonna be an interesting juxtaposition of history-meets-modern-meets-English Paper Piecing. If you enjoy EPP or the slow stitching movement or are intrigued by quilt history, you won't want to miss
Paper Pieces' next program offering!
