Travels

So, on our way home from Shipshewana, Mom and I had nothing on the schedule. We were done with our commitments, had the whole day ahead of us and no rush to get home. So what did we do?

Well, we had to stop at Lolly's in the Davis Mercantiles!

 That building (yes, all of it including the brick parts) is the Davis Mercantile, home of 23 amazingly unique shops. Sorry the pictures kinds blurry, it was raining  and I tried to take it from inside the car...

 All of the shops from the inside have little storefronts and bright colors that make it look so magical. This is a picture from the 3rd floor (there's 3 floors plus a basement!)

 And I got a better picture of the tree inside the building this time with Mom next to it to show scale...it's huge and runs all the way from the basement floor to the rooftop!

 And they have the cutest displays all over the building, not just in each of the shops...

 This is one of the doors for Lolly's from their porch (which I just discovered). I have a funny story - I was going to take a picture of this porch from the inside, but there was a gentleman sleeping in one of the rocking chairs and I thought it would be mean to take the photo...

 But isn't this just the most cozy porch ever?!

 Along with the Quilt Festival is a Shop Hop, so we had to check it out! Our first stop was Caroline's Cottage Cottons in Rome City, IN. It was about a half hour drive from Shipshewana, but look how adorable it is:

 It's the coziest little shop and Caroline, the owner, is such a doll. Mom and I met Caroline at the trade show we participated in a few weeks prior in Shipshewana, but we had no clue this was her shop...

 There's Caroline cutting up a paisley fabric for me I couldn't leave without owning. If you're in the area, you must stop, it's so adorable.

 Then we had to stop at the Door Mouse in Bettsville, OH. I have heard of the Door Mouse for years, but never had the opportunity to visit. Well, there's 2 stories (kinda) in this barn with 17,000 bolts of fabric in this barn. But, it's in the middle of nowhere.

Literally it's in the middle of a cornfield. It was a neat experience and I left with some good buys, but it's almost too much. There's so much fabric in this shop it's everywhere, it's stacked on the floor in front of the shelves so you can't see most of the fabric on the bottom shelf and I wouldn't recommend it for the claustrophobic. But if you're looking for that perfect fabric that you can't seem to find anywhere else, it'll probably be here or something close to it.

So I shopped and bought some more to add to those stacks I showed you earlier, but I have a few other projects in line ahead of that particular growing bundle...I'm hoping to get to it soon.

I have been sewing so much lately and have been enjoying every minute of it. I actually have the next couple days off still and I'm hoping to finish a quilt top in those days. I'll let you know how that goes.

I hope you're having a great holiday weekend and I'm giving it the good ol' college try here... So far it's working! What are your plans for the weekend?

A Little Here...

The last week has been a complete whirlwind, but a good one. I've done a little this, a little that, some here, some there. Wanna see?

So, I've mentioned before about how I wanted to put in a garden this year. Well, mission accomplished and to top it off instead of just one, I have 3!

 Hubbin and I created 3 raised beds, one a bit larger made out of Architectural Splitface Block (from job #2) and two kits purchased at a local store.

The first bed has 12 different kinds of herbs including some off-the-wall types like purple basil, lemon thyme, golden oregano... And the front row is shallots and onions. 

 This one has 7 different types of tomatoes including Mr. Stripeys, Pinks and Tomatillos...

 Last one is mostly peppers including sweets and some spicy, green and yellow beans, and a small attempt at corn. (You should see it now, we planted the corn and green beans a week ago when we built these and the corn is already a few inches tall!)

There's also my lilies that seemed to grow over a foot in a few days and we have a window box with ever-blooming strawberries and carrots. I can't wait to start canning!

 And now onto my trip to Shipshewana. I was so busy once again buying fabric at Lolly's in the Davis Mercantile that all I remembered to get a picture of was the huge tree in the center of the building. It doesn't look like it here but this goes all the way from the basement to the roof above the third floor and is probably close to 3 feet wide at least if not closer to 4 feet wide. I promise to show you what I bought soon, I'm soooo excited about it.

 Here's where I was for a couple days, setting up, then working the show itself and tearing down. My spot was in the corner back there. We line all the latest and greatest quilts of upcoming fabrics up along the walls. It was really sunny all day so that's why some of the quilts look like they're glowing, there's huge windows all along the one wall.

 Lynne Hagmeier from Kansas Troubles Quilts was at the show with us (what a doll!) And Sandy Klop from American Jane was in the area for a nephew's wedding and decided to stop by! It was such a pleasant surprise!!!

Lynne and Lois (Lynne's Assistant) were so fun to hang out with and their quilts are gorgeous!!! If you love Fall, you have to check out her new line Cattails and Clover - it's wonderful!

 Here was my little corner of the booth... some Moda Bake Shop projects, the newest patterns and Stars All Around from American Patchwork & Quilting's June 2011 Issue (only on newsstand copies).

 Lynne's Booth was full of treasures just unpacked from Spring Market.

And I got to see a quilt (a whole quilt) out of Ruby by Bonnie and Camille! It's even better than I thought it'd be!!! Once again sorry for the bad picture, I should have snuck into the Conference Center after Dark, but I was busy watching the Voice - alright, who else loves the Voice?

So basically that was my week in a nutshell. Lots of fun, I got to meet several wonderful shop owners - some familiar and some new. As mentioned before, Lynne and Lois from Kansas Troubles were so much fun to hang out with. And my garden is in and thriving!!! Simple pleasures, but that's all it takes some days.

So tell me, what did you think? Also, I'm trying my best and it's only been a week but my garden is still going strong... That may change. Do you have any gardening tips for me? I'm planning on making tons of recipes and canning what I can this year for the winter months. Wish me luck.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend and a good week this week. I'll show you what I got in Indiana this week and show off some other little tidbits later on! Until next time!