Quiltingboard Forums - My F.A.R.T. to Northern Indiana

That would stand for Fabric Acquisition and Replenishment Trip. This is the second annual one for my GF and I...we did MN last year.

My GF and I just visited 11 shops and about the same number of "Quilt Gardens and Murals". (Thank you to the lady who mentioned it here that was our inspiration!) It was HOT, about 95 degrees, but the traffic was good and the travel easy. We found the people of Elkhart and the Amish country in IN very very nice.

We started in Woodstock IL (67 miles NW of Chicago near the WI line) and went to Shipshewana. What a great trip! We took our machines and a project so we shopped all day and sewed from 6-11pm.

We visited

Sew Generously in St Charles IL (small store geared more towards Home Dec with nice staff).

Prairie Shop Quilts in Batavia IL. (I like this store because I like their teachers. It is on the smaller/mid size and what I consider the "typical" store.)

The Fabric Store in Morris IL (6000 bolts with great, knowledgeable staff! A perennial favorite of mine but the first time for my GF.)

Thimbles in LaMont, IL. (Voted the cutest store by a mile. In an old building with creeky floor. Worth the visit just to look at the decor. The staff was very helpful and they had alot of more modern fabric.)

Quilt Fabric in Willowbrook IL (The home of the batik. I swear she has the best batik collection in Chicagoland plus she makes her own batik jelly rolls that she assures us you will not find any place else so your strip quilt will look unique!)

Erica's in South Bend. (Lots of stuff but I felt claustrophobic. I would go there again but not on my top three.)

Now for the Amish area! We stayed in the Comfort Inn South in Elkhart. I would highly recommend it for 90 a night. Brand new, suite hotel. We had two beds plus we set up a tiny cutting area, ironing area, TWO machines (had to bring a card table) and a design wall set up plus a frig, microwave,couch and nice bathroom.

On someone's recommendation here, we went to Jeannette's in Wakarusa. Nice smaller/mid size shop and the lady was very nice. Had a good chat with her. Bought a couple yards of material that I did not see any place else.

Calico Point. Cheap prices. I picked up the same batik that I had purchased in IL for $3 a yard less! Nice shop but basic. The staff were Mennonite and very sweet.

The EssenHaus Shop is the one I would have skipped. Seemed like they felt they HAD to have a quilt shop because of the location of the resort so they had a room with a small amount of fabric.

Yoder's was exactly what I thought it would be. Very classic, department store.

Then the Mother of all quilt stores....Lolly's. We had to go back twice! It was amazing. Just awe inspiring. Then to top it off, their regular price on Quilter's Dream batting is HALF of what we pay up here so we bought SEVEN packages of batting. I also picked up a quilt kit that they are shipping me. Their staff was nice and knowledgeable. Well worth the trip.

We also visited a couple shops that sold quilts. That was fun just looking at the finished product.

In between the stores, we visited the Quilt Gardens and Murals. It was like a grown up scavenger hunt. We had fun the first day because the gardens/murals were clearly marked and easy to get to. The second day became frustrating because the one at Amish Acres and the one at Goshen College we could not find because of poor directions and signage so we gave up. That was the only bummer of the trip.