Shipshewana Quilt Festival

Deb, Kathy and I headed north for our second annual trip to the Shipshewana Quilt Festival.  This year, we added a few stops at quilt shops on the way.  We had intended to stop at the two quilt shops in Wakurusa, but Deb and I didn't quite have our navigating/driving coordination in gear so we whizzed right by the turn into town.  Rather than turn around, we headed toward Calico Point and were much more careful to take the right road (24856 County Road 40, Goshen, Indiana) as this is a wonderful shop that we didn't want to miss.  If you're ever anywhere near Goshen, make sure you check out Calico Point.  They have a wonderful system for displaying fabrics on these racks so that the entire range of fabrics can be seen at one time.  And their prices are several dollars less than the typical quilt shop.  If our purchases are any indication, they make up for it in volume!

After spending an hour or more there, we headed north to Erica's in South Bend.  More fabric than you can shake a stick at and plenty of notions to go along with it.  They always have fun fabrics for kids quilts, too.

Having exhausted our eyes (believe it or not, you can have fabric overload!), we headed for the hotel and dinner.  We were near the Notre Dame campus and knew there had to be eating spots close by.  We found a good one and had a delightful dinner on Ladies Night.  After dinner, we enjoyed a walk around the Notre Dame campus...

Kathy and Deb pointing to "Touchdown Jesus" - the mural that is visible from inside the football stadium, just over the football goalposts and score board.  The real title is "The Word of Life."  To learn more about this mural which is 134' x 68' and contains over 5700 granite tiles, watch the 6 minute You Tube clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XnqAdSI5MU.  It includes comments by Father Hesburgh, president emeritus of Notre Dame University.

The first floor walls of the Hesburgh Library included many symbols of Christianity.  I liked this one for its quilting design possibilities.

We then were able to walk through the Basilica and view the gorgeous interior.  There were actually quite a few people admiring various aspects of the architecture and art in this lovely building.

 On Thursday, we headed over to Shipshewana to scour the quilt shops in town for bargains and fabrics not found elsewhere.  Not that we were slow getting started, but by the time we got to Shipshewana, it was time for lunch so we ate at the Blue Gate Restaurant.  Good food - and lots of it.  The meatloaf and sweet potato casserole were excellent.

Then it was time for Lolly's bargain basement (fabrics at $5 - $6 per yard) and worked our way upstairs to Lolly's main store.  There were several other shops in that complex that we wandered through and our one regret is not stopping for a hot pretzel.  Next year!  On to Yoder's for another round of fabric buying.  They had wonderful black, white and red fabrics so I indulged and now have a good selection of fabrics for at least two different quilts.

Friday we finally hit the quilt show.  This is only the third year of the show and they had 114 quilts entered in the show and a special display of quilts set on point.

This quilt intrigued me - not only because of the stunning color palette but because of the creative ways in which the border print fabric was used.  You can see one aspect of the border print in the sashing.

Look at the creative way in which another part of the border print is used as one of the borders.  The side triangles are actually appliqued to the pieced orange and border print fabric.  What an interesting way to achieve this beautiful effect.

I just love the bright colors in this quilt.  But I took this picture because I have some leftover blocks pieced like the border.  I like this idea and have been thinking about what type of quilt I want to have in the middle.  Stay tuned!

I was thrilled that my Cambrian Moon quilt won 1st Place in the small pieced category. 

After looking at all of the quilts in the show, we ended by looking at the vendor booths.  While we did purchase a few items, we had pretty well decided to stop at Calico Point on our way home.  We spent another hour or so buying more fabric there and I was able to get a picture of this stunning quilt.

 Although the red, black and white fabrics I purchased on this trip aren't quite the right combination for this quilt, I have some fabrics in my stash that will work quite well with this design.  I purchased the pattern but will make some adjustments to simplify the piecing.

Finally, we headed home with a trunk full of fabric and gobs of ideas for upcoming quilt projects.  We're meeting on August 5th to see what progress we've made in getting any projects out of our heads and into the realm of a completed quilt top or wall hanging.

Cheers!
Margaret