Quilt Show and travels

DH and I attended the NQA show in Columbus on Thursday. The quilts were amazing. Many art quilts and lots of heavy quilting. The tree themed quilts were interesting and varied, but I think I liked the quilts in the "scrap" category the best! We attended my family reunion in Brampton ON last Sunday, then headed west, crossing into the US at Sarnia. The next day found us in Amish country in northern Indiana. The Elkhart visitor centre has a CD with a Heritage Tour of the county. We had a blast for a day and a half, listening to the CD, stopping to see the attractions, shopping, etc. There is also a quilt garden tour along the same route, so we tried to find all the gardens - it was a bit early as the flowers weren't in full bloom, but they were lovely! We spent some time at Yoder's department store in Shipshewana, as well as quite a few other quilt shops etc. along the way. We stopped to visit the Bonneyville mill, and had a lovely tour - it was supposed to be closed the day we visited, but they were giving a private tour for a church group, so we just joined in. We were even invited to share their picnic lunch, but we still had quite a way to travel. I did pick up some buckwheat flour, corn meal and whole wheat flour that had been ground at the water-powered mill. The next day we headed for Columbus. We had found some listings online for shop hops in the area - not when we were visiting, but that didn't stop us! We meandered our way from shop to shop on a slightly zig zag path to Columbus. Today, we visited the topiary garden in downtown. They had reproduced the painting "Sunday in the Park with George" with beautiful topiary. We talked to the gardeners, who were spraying some of the plants. There is a pond with resident koi as well as a family of ducks. They even have a resident albino squirrel! Then we headed for the Ohio Craft Museum - full of wonderful works of art of all types. There were even a few quilts. By this time, we were tired of city traffic, so we headed east to Frazeysburg, home of Longaberger baskets. I don't collect them, but we took lots of pictures for a friend who does! The Homestead area is beautiful, but learned that it is being hit by the economy along with everything else. They had 8000 employees in 2001, and are down to just about 1000 now. Tomorrow morning early, we head home. I haven't counted my fabric collection, but it fills a paper shopping bag! I think I'll have to catch up on mail and laundry before I can get any of it washed!