A day in Shipshewana

We couldn’t have picked a better day to go on our shop hop in Shipshewana.  Picture a sunny day with blue skies, white fluffy clouds, temperature about 80, and low humidity.   We had our day planned to stop at 8 quilt shops, 2 quilt shows and several quilt gardens.  Our first quilt shop, Caroline’s Cottage Cotton’s was a cute little shop in a converted house.  Unfortunately, as we drove up, we noticed the big yellow bus carrying MANY quilters.  Too many for that little place.  It was a cute place, though, with a nice selection of fabric.

Back on the road, we headed to the next shop, Homespun Treasures.  It was a very friendly shop, with lots of people waiting to help and fresh popcorn, yummm. 
 
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They were so friendly and one lady demonstrated a new ruler, the double diamond ruler. So I bought it (definitely an impulse purchase) after seeing her demonstration.  Has anyone used this ruler?  It makes this:


You can find the ruler and instructions here or at a newly found favorite blog, I Have A Notion (click on the side to go to the store).  The owner of the blog writes some pretty funny stuff.  Be sure to read the Aurifil Thread Heist.

One of the ladies at Homespun Treasures told us about the million pillow case challenge project they had going on in the town square, a few blocks away, so we checked it out.  All the hand made pillowcase were strung up in lines around the courthouse—so pretty!  We were on a mission, though, so we didn’t stop.  As we were leaving, the BUS showed up again.  Whew, missed that one, but it turned out they had returned to the shop because someone had left their purse at the shop.  Amazing that the bus would turn around and come back for one quilter’s problem.

As we traveled to the next shop, Emmatown Fabric and Gifts, the GPS took on a new life.  We started talking back to Mrs. GPS as she routed us down this and that winding road.  Where in the world are you taking us, we asked??  Lost, it took us to the wrong side of town and we had to turn around.  But, it was a blessing as we drove by many beautiful Amish farms and were forced to slow down and enjoy the trip.  We saw farmers plowing their fields using horses instead of tractors, beautiful gardens, clotheslines filled with freshly washed laundry, and even went by a farm that seemed to be gathering for an occasion, a wedding perhaps?  There was a field next to the barn marked for “parking” the Amish buggies.  Unfortunately, I was driving so there are no pictures.  :(  Here is a stock photo I found that looked like what we saw.

 
Our next stop was the quilt show in Topeka.  This was a bit different from other quilt shows I had attended.  It was more of a quilt sale than quilt show.  Many beautiful quilts, quilt tops and blocks were for sale at some very reasonable prices.  Several were hand quilted by the Amish.  The fabric room had beautiful fabrics on sale for $4/yard.  They had a bed that they laid the quilts on every 5 minutes, so that was fun to see them laid out like that.  I only took a few pictures at this show


This is getting to be a long post, so I’ll continue the story later this week.  If you’ve enjoyed the trip so far, come back to see some beautiful quilts from the Shipshewana Quilt show.