A Cornucopia of Quilt Shops

It feels as if I've made a pilgrimage to the land of quilting here in Lancaster County. I've never seen so much fabric congregated in one place. My friend Robin drove up from her home state of Maryland to show me the area, and what a wonderful day we had. Ordinarily, I'd do a little "review" of each shop, but honestly...it's all a blur at this point. Rest assured, however, that I'm going to show you what you need to see. And then...you should definitely add Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to your bucket list, if you haven't already.

While I waited for Robin to arrive, I noticed that one of the Amish farmers bordering the RV park

was out with his mules and plow. And of course, I stood there like an inside-out peeping Tom taking his picture. Tourists. What can I say?

Robin came bearing gifts from her home state and from one of the quilt shops we visited. Look at this little bag. The quilt block there is a pocket:

Inside were these lovelies. I didn't know this, but Old Bay seasoning originates from Maryland. I've seen it before, but Robin told us all sorts of tasty new ways to use it. There in the lower left corner is a box of chocolates. On the box is the Maryland flag. Of course, we haven't eaten a single one of the chocolates yet. Wait...did I say we hadn't eaten a single one? Actually we ate every one...yes, already. We're not ashamed.

Thank you, Robin.

We started out at Weaver's Dry Goods in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

There was so much fabric in here. Each time I turned a corner, I discovered another whole room as large as the one below, filled with just as much fabric.

I started taking pictures of individual fabrics, but quickly realized I was going to need to pace myself. You'll have to be happy knowing that every quilt shop we visited was likewise stuffed to the gills with fabric.

Most of the quilt shops were also gift shops, and I could have gone absolutely crazy. We would have needed another trailer to bring home all the loot, and so I managed to restrain myself. Nevertheless, I picked up a regional print in each store. From Weaver's, I chose this one.

And these two:

The one on top caught my eye because it was such an unusual batik. The one below...well, you know I loves me a fun striped binding.

Next on the list was The Old Country Store in Intercourse, Pennsylvania. They had a parking lot to the rear of the store. As we walked around to the front, I noticed they had a whole separate structure for classes. It would be so much fun to return here for a class sometime.

Here's how the shop looked from the front. I'd say this was my favorite shop, but honestly, each one had its own charm. I just happened to spend the most money here.

Out front are hitching posts where Amish buggies can be tied up. Also, a fellow shopper informed us that this was the place where a scene from the movie, Witness, was filmed. Remember the scene where some tourists attempt to take the picture of an Amish woman? It was here. And if you haven't seen Witness, you must. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.

Among my many purchases here were these wooden earrings.

Here's some information about them.

This store had a little of everything. I also picked up a plastic whisk that can be used on nonstick cookware...I'd just said to Mike the night before that I needed one in the trailer. Also, some Solmate Socks, which happened to be in the washer when I was taking these pictures. They're made of cotton and so soft. Being socks, they match, but only sorta. Robin pointed them out to me, and I couldn't resist. You can see what they look like at this website. Let's see...what else?

Well, I fell in love with this 30 x 30 table topper hanging on the wall...which I guess makes it a wall-hanging too. Anyway...I picked up the pattern for that.

And you didn't think I was walking out without this, did you?

I didn't purchase this, but I took its picture. Diane, this one is for you.

Like I said, this was a gift shop as well as a fabric store, and Squee!

Oh my gosh! Who had one of these as a kid? I rode mine everywhere. Usually, I got tired before the horse did, but we rode many miles together.

The only thing I love as much as cats and sock monkeys is Raggedy Annes and Andys. So, pardon me for a moment. Squee!

Cats, of course.

Oh yes, and bird houses. I love those too. Do you see how I could have spent every last cent in our retirement accounts in this store? It was tempting to step outside the door and ask to have the whole store wrapped up so I could take it home.

In addition to the socks, and the whisk, and the earrings, and the patterns, I purchased these two fabrics. Of course, a stripe...I have one similar to this at home, but the colors are pastel instead of these pretty saturated colors.

And this was the perfect regional print.

We'd worked up a powerful appetite with all that shopping, and so we went to lunch just around the corner at this place. Such good food, and a lovely day, so we sat outside.

Robin had a turkey sandwich and she shared her fries with me. We learned that we are both cranberry lovers. Robin's sandwich had cranberry mayonnaise.

I had an open-faced chicken sandwich smothered in cranberries. Yum.

From there, we walked down the other side of the street from The Old Country Store. We stopped in at a shop where finished quilts were for sale. Look at this room full of quilts. They also wrapped around another whole wall on the right and outside the frame of this image. (There was an Amish woman standing there, and I didn't want to photograph her without her permission.)

This shop also had a big supply of handmade crafts. I fell in love with these tissue box covers. The body of the animal fit over the tissue box. There were also dogs, pigs, and cows.

From there, we walked down to Zook's. This was an interesting store. Many of these structures actually contained more than one shop. This one was shared toward the back with Nancy's Notions (no, not *that* Nancy, I overheard a shopkeeper tell another shopper).

All of the shops had a good supply of solids, obviously catering to their "plain and simple" customer base. But, honestly, they were beautiful. So many colors.

Toward the back of this shop, one could find Amish garb for sale.

And, of course, bolt after bolt of fabric. That's Robin standing there.

From here, I chose this for my regional print.

Our last stop was The Quilt & Fabric Shack. This was another structure housing two shops in Bird-In-Hand, Pennsylvania. There was another shop downstairs.

We limited our shopping to the one upstairs.

I found a simple, but practically irresistible quilt. It was made from a fabric panel with some simple hand quilting, and very little piecing. I said out loud to Robin, "If they have this panel, I'll buy it." She had just seen it, so whoa! This was definitely coming home with me. Robin liked it and purchased one too. Look how cute this is.

I'll cut out the blocks and give it a sashing and a border...I don't actually have a plan fully hashed out, but for sure, I'm turning it into something.

There were so many cute fabrics here, and great prices too! I bought a couple of yards of each of the ones below. The cats are metallic gold.

I was having a hard time deciding on a regional print, but when I saw this one, I knew it was The One. Do you see what I see there? It's Robin's kitty! The Emperor!

And by then, we'd made a full circle around. The RV park was just around the corner. Mike had a day to himself with the kitties, and we enlisted him to take our picture.

So thank you, thank you, thank you, Robin. It was a wonderful day. Thank you for the fantastic tour and for chauffeuring me around all day. It was a pleasure to finally meet you in person.

After Robin headed out, I got Smitty out for his second walk of the day. It seems everyone had a good day.

This butterfly landed on the state of Maine while we were saying our good-byes, and it sat there for at least a half an hour before flying on. Several like it flew past while we sat there. Again, I can only think we're on their migratory path.

If it wasn't already a great day, it was made even better because I stitched the last of Abigail in the morning.

Next month, I'll be doing Thelma. I love her wire-rimmed glasses and bobby sox. If you're stitching along with us, please stitch whichever bag lady you like. As long as I had the iron and ironing board set up, I got her block ready to go. She'll be under my needle come November 1st.

So we've packed a lot of shopping for me and R&R for Mike into this stop in Pennsylvania. Today we're heading to Harrisburg. We have a new RV toilet there waiting for us at the Camping World, and Mike is ready to switch out the old one for the new one. The leaking hasn't gotten any worse, but it's been a problem the entire trip. It'll be good not to have to mop water from the bathroom floor. We'll spend the night at the Walmart there in Harrisburg, and then move on to parts unknown. I'll have to study up for what's next on the agenda, but I do know one thing...grocery shopping is on the list for today. Oy.