Shipshewana – oh man I hope we are not going to any shops tomorrow....

What a great day today turned out to be...

The weather was still bleak, but we soldered on just like wedid yesterday... we had a 2 -3 hour drive to our next destinationShipshewana.   We left the state ofIllinois and entered the state of Indiana. We lost an hour as 10 o’clock suddenly became 11 o’clock  and it was not long that we were turning offthe very flat and straight motorway.  Weknew we were entering amish country when the yellow sign post  was not cautioning for wombats, but for horseand carriages.  Suddenly everything wasstarting to get a real quilty feel about it....
Our first stop was Yoder’s Shopping Center....  here was a big department store withpatchwork fabric and clothes on one side and gifts and nik naks on theother....  You could buy everything tocomplete your wardrobe regardless if you were amish or not... I should havebought a bonnet...

Now if you are somebodies husband reading this ... be afraid... be very afraid .... I assure you we were like women possessed ....  If we don’t get this american economy turnedaround by the time we leave they will have no hope!!

It was so interesting to walk around and see so much of oldand new living together ..... After the first horse and carriage you didn’tblink twice as you watched them pass you on the road.... they sat in trafficthey stopped at lights just like everyone in the cars around them....

Bobby our Bus driver

Howard our Tour co ordinator

We visited some lovely shops, patchwork, antique, primitiveand lots of xmas shops all over the place. The wares and smells reminded me so much of my much loved and missedoriginal Berrima Patchwork...  andeveryone was so friendly in the shops ( I think they saw my shopping bags ) aswe laughed and chatted about australia....

In the evening we were taken to the Blue Gate Bakery fordinner .... we were led to a table of 4, the other lady with me was fromour tour and 2 others which I thought were locals... it didn’t take too long torealise that I was talking to Alison and Tammy, 2 of the  Three Sisters from Three SistersFabric....... well suddenly you couldn’ t shut me up and I sure those poor girls had my quilting life story withinthe first 10 minutes....They came over specially from New Paris to have dinnerwith us...  They are just the loveliest  people and I am so glad that we had all thattime together.... then I had to share them with the rest of the group....

Tammy, Joanne and Allison

We must of really made a good impression as they came backto the hotel and sat and chatted with us for another couple of hours....

Did I mention the hotel.... OMG ... what a contrast...  Katy and I spend  the first 10 min running around takingphoto’s before we messed everything up in our room....... We love the little touches and the beautiful decor ... right down to thepatchwork freize in the bathroom......

Now just to get the internet to work....