I can only speak to the Paducah side of things, since I've never been to the Houston show (but I've got reservations for this year.
). My understanding is that Houston is self-contained (EVERYTHING under one roof in the convention center), urban, and large (60,000 visitors vs 30,000 for Paducah. At Paducah, the quilt exhibits are all at the convention center, but there are several other venues worth visiting, such as the Rotary antique quilt show, the National Quilt Museum (where all the prior best-of-show quilts live), Eleanor Burns' tent show, etc. The atmosphere is very friendly, very "small town USA". There is airline service to Paducah from Chicago, but I would imagine that booking a flight into Houston would give you many more options. I am sure that either one would be an AWESOME experience for you!