Thanks for all your wonderful comments about Shipshewana! I promised I would tell you why we really go to Shipshewana and there were some really fun guesses in your comments and e-mails.
Is it the food? No, but that’s a great guess. There are many good restaurants in Shipshewana. The two most popular are The Blue Gate, just a block away from the auction and the Essenhaus, which, technically is in Middlebury, a neighboring town. These are Amish family style restaurants — you have your choice of menu dining, or you can eat in family style rooms, where everyone orders the same food and it comes on big platters. See the little girl there eating the cookie? (Picture from the Essenhaus website.) Those frosted sugar cookies are fabulous. We used to buy those cookies by the dozens and bring them home and freeze them. But that was back when they were 40 cents each. Once they realized how popular their cookies are, the prices skyrocketed to $1.00 each, so now we only buy a few cookies whenever we visit.
Is it the quilts? No, but you can buy some wonderful hand quilted quilts in Shipshewana. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures — since it was auction day, we didn’t have time to go to any of the shops with quilts in them.
Is it for the beautiful scenery? To see all the Amish buggies? And Amish homes with their beautiful gardens? (My favorite time for garden viewing is August when the flowers are big and beautiful.) No, but that’s another great guess.
How ’bout the fabric? YES!!! That’s why we go to Shipshewana! Shipshewana has two great quilt shops: Lolly’s and Yoder’s. Ignore the pictures on the Lolly’s site. A few years ago their shop burned down and the pictures are from when they were in a temporary location. Below are two pictures from their new shop. Also, Lolly’s has a new little outlet shop in the basement of their building — all fabrics are $5.00. It’s older fabric that they’re trying to sell. There are also lots of fun other shops in the same building that Lolly’s is in — in addition to a carousel on the top floor for the kiddies. (Doesn’t that guy in the photo look like he’s having fu-u-un? LOL.)
Sadly, I didn’t get any good pictures at Yoder’s, but check out their website. Yoder’s is much more than a quilt shop. It’s like four stores under one roof — groceries, hardware, clothing and fabrics. Over half of their fabrics are non-quilt related — lots of fabric for clothing and home dec. Yoder’s prices are better than Lolly’s, sometimes as much as $2.00 less per yard for the exact same fabric. Yoder’s also seems to be more friendly, but Lolly’s is a little more trendy. You just have to visit both shops!
See the building with the red roof? (Quilty peeps, have you seen this yet?) This used to be a great little herb shop with the most beautiful gardens out back. They always had a fun Mayfest, where you could buy lots of herbs to grow in your own garden. They’ve recently sold though (the new name is D’Vine), and much to my surprise, on this last trip I discovered the building on the left is now a little yarn shop. I’ve always wondered why Shipshewana didn’t have a yarn shop, and now they do. The building on the right has the old garden-y types of items along with a little tea shop. While I like that there’s a yarn shop, I really miss that herb shop. And I really hate the cutesy name and all that new RED garishness. What’s up with that? Kind of makes me expect some stripper named D’Vine to poke her head out the door. Someone must have been smokin’ a few of the herbs out back when they came up with the new decor!
I’ve rambled on long enough — thanks for sticking with it. I’ve you’re ever in northern Indiana, I hope you’ll stop by Shipshewana — it’s well worth the visit. For some really great tourist info, you can visit their website and have a virtual tour. Hope you’re all having a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna
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Aarrgghh (she said in her Scottish accent) – I really want to go now. I have a Monday holiday tomorrow; I wonder if I could just pop over for the day?
Ahhh, I hope to spend my next life in a fabric shop….I sorta guessed it was about a fabric shop. Why else would you take an out-of-the-way trip with no men to carry back the heavy stuff? :-)
Anna,
Thanks for sharing your adventure. That’s a day’s ride from where we live in Wisconsin… but not bad. Looks inviting!!
Joni
Yea for fabric stores! I had a feeling that would be it! ; ) I think I’ve been to Yoder’s, many years ago. We were never there for the auction, it sounds like fun. Yea for a yarn shop, but “D’vine?” I agree, it doesn’t really fit for Shipshewana.
You lucky girl! Thankyou for sharing your visit. Sounds like a real great place to visit, for many reasons.
I want to go to Shipshewana too! (Do you know it took me five attempts to type that word, nearly as hard as joiningupallthewords like you do!). Thanks for the birthday wishes
Kim x
We good have guessed it was all about the fabrics!!
Thanks for sharing your wonderful story!
Holy cow! My mother has been talking about going there the last couple of times I talked to her. She lives about an hour south of Toledo. Ha. Small world.
LOL Sounds like a fabulous place all the way around and that fabric store is the icing on the cake.
I am so going there in November.I’m going to visit Boo in his new house and I’m having him take me. It’s a must!!! Love the buggy and horse.
I love reading about your trip!
Every time I’m in a new place I have to sniff out the quilt shops! Shipshewhatta? sounds like a fun place. My daughter and fam. go to a lake up in the NE corner of Indiana several times a year. Nice countryside up there and the sweetest corn I’ve ever tasted! Yoder must be a fairly common Amish name. I’m pretty sure it was the name of a quilt shop my sister and I found in the wilds of Pennsylvania this past summer.
I think my feeble brain has finally figured out how to get over here…..
I have relatives in Indiana. Some time in the next year or so, I really want to visit them, so maybe one day, I’ll visit this wonderful place. In the meantime, thank you so much for these wonderful posts you’ve shared. I’ve enjoyed them very much!