Quilts & Quilt Gardens

I'm sure all week you've been wondering what quilt I've put into the hand quilting frame, how I'm going to quilt it and all of that exciting stuff. Sorry, no flimsy made it into the frame. 

I'm burnt out on hand quilting right now and the rest of summer is busy, I just don't want to have to deal with the guilt of having a quilt in the frame and not quilting on her. I've decided I'm going to wait until October and see how I feel then. 

Tentatively I'm planning that Churn Dash Diva will be the next one into the frame. When I read the post I was glad to see that I had said how I wanted to mark her for quilting. We'll see how I feel when the time comes.

The title of this post is Quilts & Quilt Gardens. I had a birthday in July and told my family I was going to have a day to myself, go where I want, leave when I want and do what I want! 

I suggest you get a cup of coffee now, you are going to have a LOT of photos to peruse and words to read!

First stop was to the Elkhart County Historical Museum where they have a temporary exhibit called "Quilts Inspired by Nature". This wasn't a large exhibit, only 8 quilts were shown but they were all beautiful. I also took some close photos so you can see quilting details.

I'm including information that was posted beside the quilts.

Spider Web Star, unknown

Turkey Tracks or Square & Swallows C. 1910

Whig Rose variation: Cockscomb & Currents 1891  Irene Luce Fuller

Sunflower (unfinished) unknown

Lily Corner variation Bear Paw or Duck's Foot in the Mud  c. 1890

Whig Rose c. 1890

Rose variation c. 1860   Poley Essic (inferred)

The Museum also had a quilt garden called Tulip Garden, this stop was a twofer stop, quilts and a garden! I took 3 pictures of the garden.

After I left the museum, I drove to Middlebury to Krider World's Fair Garden. Last summer Jeannie and Ray stopped at this garden on their way home from visiting their son in Virginia.  I've lived in Elkhart County my whole life and I've never visited this garden! This was definitely one of my stops. 

In 1934 Krider Nurseries had a display at the Chicago World's Fair: A Century of Progress. This windmill was originally part of that display. He looks pretty good!

The sidewalks were lined with these old style street lights. All of the posts had flowerpots hanging on them, they were so beautiful!

There were two sidewalks going past the quilt garden. This picture was taken from the higher sidewalk, I was able to take a picture of the whole garden in one shot. The garden is called Tree of Life.

See the lush green plants in the bottom triangles of the garden? That is parsley!

Here is a closer view of the center of the garden.

There were several gardens on display. I thought this rain garden was interesting. 

Next stop after Krider Gardens was the Das Dutchman Essenhaus complex. I actually remember the first Essenhaus! Back in the 70's I would never had thought this small restaurant would evolve into what they've become today.

First I went to The Quilt Shop because . . . .

. . . I wanted to take a picture of this quilt. This is the Essenhaus' version of Simple Swirl which is the cover quilt on Red & White Gatherings book. The Essenhaus quilt used a graduated fabric. The reds are all from one fabric, they change from soft lighter red to darker red. 

All the quilts in the book are designed by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings.

Earlier in July, Lynn and I had a day out together, one of stops was the quilt shop at Essenhaus. We loved the quilt and we both bought the book! 

Then I walked over to the quilt garden. Their garden is displayed on a natural hill. This year's garden is called Solar Wheel. 

There was a lady there taking a selfie beside the garden. We chatted a little, she was from Dayton Ohio and was driving the Heritage Trail to view as many of the gardens as she could that day. She told me I should take a selfie beside the garden. I don't do selfies so she took a picture for me. It was a bright sunny day and of course I was squinting.

We're not finished yet, maybe you should get more coffee.

I wanted to go to Shipshewana and I always take the Middlebury/Shipshewana road because I think it's a much more picturesque drive than driving State Road 20.

Dutch Country Market is located on this road. I think it looks like a tourist stop and I've never been inside the building. Their garden is called Friendship Bouquet.

After taking these pictures, I drove on to Shipshewana. I needed to go to Yoder Department Store. After I made my purchase in the store (it wasn't fabric!) I went to the hitching post to take a picture of the horse & buggies. There wasn't a single one in the lot so I took this picture for you guys. This is an old sign and is supposed to say 'Free Manure' not Free Manurf.

I always enjoy viewing the barn quilts on the south of side of Yoder's.

Next I drove to E & S Sales. This is a bulk food store. I didn't take any pictures inside but there were horse and buggies here at the tie rack.

Now remember, this was my birthday outing. If I want a birthday cake, I have to make it. I'm not fond of cake, there's always too much frosting. Since I was driving past the Essenhaus on my way home, I stopped at the bakery and bought a raspberry cream pie as my birthday cake.

I had planned to stop and eat somewhere along the way but I couldn't decide what I wanted, nothing sounded enticing to me. I took my pie home and had a piece for my late lunch. It was so good, I had a 2nd piece! I savored every bite!

There is one more quilt garden for you to view.  There is a quilt garden in Nappanee but I never get to Nappanee. I asked Connie to take a picture and post it on her blog. Here is the link. Thanks Connie for sharing with us!

This is the link to Quilt Gardens along the Heritage Trail. Here is the link to the locations of all the gardens. I may stop and take more pictures of some of the gardens sometime this summer.

Thanks for sharing my birthday outing! And I did share some of that pie with the farmer and our daughter.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday Musings