Amish country tourism and fabric shopping...

Some years ago, I went with 2 close friends (non-quilters, but hey, I'm a liberal) on a road trip through Amish country, ending in Reading. We stopped in every little Amish town, shopped wherever the spirit moved, had a wonderful time. Can't tell you names and places any more, but it'S all lovely and charming. Bit of a tourist trap, but so pretty one doesn't really mind. There was a great farmer's market along the way too. I filled up most of a suitcase with fabric. PA has no sales tax on clothing and fabric for making clothing -so you plan to sew a lot of cotton shirts or something, right? Best get at least 2 yards of everything :-) Let serendipity rule.

We did Amish country >Hello folks,

Jo,

I went a couple of years ago, on my own, I stayed in Inter****** (take a guess, I had to blank it out to not be labelled a spammer!) in a lovely B&B.

The owner of the B&B arrange for me to visit and have dinner with an Amish family, there were several other guests too (not from my B&B) and it was a nice way to learn a little of their culture without it being intrusive.

I did go to see a farm museum, they did a guided tour of the main house and then we could walk a round the grounds and the outbuilding freely. I'll look that up.

And I simply bummed around, stopping at fabric stores, and regular stores (dry goods?), galleries etc.

I spent 2.5 days there and would love to go back - there is always more to see and do.

You should also go to the Quilt Museum in Lancaster (PA, not England!) - I stopped by on my way back to Virginia, and it was great. There is a market right close to it, and I went there, had a look around, bought some cakes to take back, and lunch to eat on the way.

I'll look up some of the details of my trip, if you like.

OK, finally an admission. I went to an Amish school, a single-room school. School had finished for the day, and the teacher was marking papers. I asked if I could come in and have a look around. She said yes, and I took a good look at the class room. We chatted about the classes they do (or don't do), and about what I had seen while there. I am still somewhat embarrassed to have done something quite so touristy, but I absolutely treasure what I learned. Hopefully, she does not think of me as that crazy rude Dane who walked into her school as if it was a museum...

Hanne in London

klhquilts had written this in response to

: There are many lovely fabric stores. The main street in Interc**rse has several; you'll have no trouble finding them.

There are also some not-so-lovely stores, like Obie's Country Store in Goodville -- an absolute must-see, but I find it way too cluttered to go back. There's an amazing amount of fabric, but it's all jammed into this old, creaky wooden building -- you'll find bolts of fabric that haven't been in stores for 10 or 15 years, but you'll also find brand new Modas. If you ask the owner for something with pansies on it, say, she'll know where every bolt of pansy fabric is, even if it's buried behind 100 bolts of miscellaneous novelty prints.

But assuming you have a car, you have to find a way to get to Burkholder's Fabrics in Denver -- it's amazing. Fabulous selection (they claim over

12,000 bolts, and they're probably right), great service (the shop owner kept the store open for us for over an hour after closing, because we got there so late). It's a little hard to find because it's on a country road, situated on an Amish farm. Their web site is (I'm not affiliated with them at all; I just fell in love with the shop and the shop owner.)

It's a lovely area and well worth the trip. The only tragic part is seeing the farms being sold off for new housing developments. It's a shame ... but nothing stays the same forever!

Karen in Cambridge MA (Our Fair City)

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On Jul 31, 12:12=EF=BF=BDpm, Jo in Scotland wrote= :

I have been twice because I have an aunt that lives in New Holland. It is so nice to drive around and check out lots of shops. Bird-in- Hand is another good town to see. We went to a couple of quilt shops in Amish homes - they have signs out on the road. Some of the work is not super. They do have "help" with the quilting now that the demand is high.

Hi Jo,

I live in PA Dutch/Amish country. We moved here 3 years ago and I'm still finding new fabric and qulting shops. All of those mentioned by others are great places! Also, there's Sauder's in Denver which is one of my favorites, and the Hayloft in Morgantown (where I live). Go to

for a listing and brief description of some of the shops. There are also several others a little further away that I can recommend if you want the information. Landscape-wise, I prefer to take back roads. There are covered bridges, farm markets, Amish bulk-food stores, garden centers, dairies (fresh ice cream), woodworking shops, etc. etc. I, too, have visited the Amish Farm and most of the stores in Inter course, Bird-in-hand, and Paradise. Lancaster City has a very large farmers market three days a week, and it's all indoors. About time...you could spend several days or a week easily, but you could also hit some of the highlights in a couple days. If you need more info, let me know.

Alice

Jo, last month DH and I went to Carlisle with another couple for the weekend. They guys went to the car swap while Deb and I went to the Lancaster area shopping. There are many fabulous quilt shops on Hwy. 340 just out of Lancaster. One that we went to had tons of Moda and other fabric marked down to $3-4/yd. One of the quilt shops was in the basement of a home and was run by Amish women. They were so nice and helpful. I have their business cards here somewhere and if I can find them I will send you the addresses. There is a wonderful restaurant called Good and Plenty that you really should try out. I wish we would have had longer than one day to spend there.

Hugs, Mika