Shipshewana, part 3

Let’s get right to the quilt pics, shall we?

This one had some awesome quilting

A closer look at the quilting

A blue ribbon winner.  Great design & colors.

Another neat design

I’d say a lot of work went into this one.

More fabulous quilting

Then there was this beauty

A closer look at the beautiful fabric choices

I love bold colors on a black background.  The borders really compliment the inner blocks.

Of course, we had to have a cat quilt picture.  It wouldn’t be right not to see a cat quilt on this blog.

Hope you enjoyed the show.  Thanks for the lovely comments on my prior blogs about the journey.  It was fun.  This is one quilt show that will definitely be on my list next year.

Shipshewana, part 2

Continuing on our trip around Shipshewana from the previous blog, we decided to ignore Mrs. GPS after we left the quilt show in Topeka.  We turned right, and she said “re-calc-u-lating” in that snotty voice of hers, so I turned around and went left.  Again with the re-calc-u-lating so I turned right again!! (see Shirley’s blog for more funny stuff about the GPS). I knew from working on the MapQuest that we just needed to head north and we should come out somewhere near Shipshewana.

We came out exactly where we needed to stop at the Little Helpers Quilt Shop.  This store was not on the shop hop, but has been a favorite of mine whenever I’m in the area.  It is a store built on an Amish farm, and they have some very beautiful quilts and other assorted hand made items for sale.  We must have been hungry for lunch as we both ended up with a jar of apple butter.  This one is a little different because it is flavored with red hot candies. It is pretty tasty!  Anyone know what the difference is between apple sauce and apple butter?  Tastes the same to me.



Next stop, Essenhaus.  Yessss, finally some lunch with some of the chicken they are famous for, finished off with a shared slice of red raspberry chocolate pie.  I won’t torture you with any pictures (don’t have any pics), well, maybe a little torture with a description of a smooth chocolate pie (think French Silk pie) with fresh raspberries and whipped cream on top.

Full of sugar and ready to go, we went to the next quilt shop, appropriately named, The Quilt Shop at Essenhaus.  It was there that I decided to go crazy and buy fabrics for the shop hop quilt.  I just fell in love with this quilt, the colors and fabric that this quilt shop used.  Here is a picture of the quilt


What was I thinking?  I already have so many UFO’s!!  I do love the soft green, pink and black floral fabrics.  Next stop, the quilt garden at Essenhaus. 


And finally, to Shipshewana and the quilt show (and two of my favorite shops, Lolly’s and Yoders).  This was a juried show, and the quilts were amazing.

 

The quilting on this one was gorgeous.

a closer look

 

I bought this pattern a few years ago.  It's on my to-do list

I like this basket weave pattern.

I like the colors and the checkerboard pattern on this quilt.

So colorful!  Reminds me of my NYB quilt.

I’m drawn to pictorial quilts

Love the quilting on the bear quilt

I don’t want this post to take too long to load with all of these pics, so I’ll stop here and post more in the next few days.  Have a great weekend.  Looks like the weather is going to be beautiful!

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. 
 
\
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.