The Woolen Needle

 

 

Today I'm going to try to outline a great quilt trip for you.  Gather up your friends and head out to Iowa.  It's time for a road trip.  You can fly into Cedar Rapids or Des Moines and rent a car.  You may need to pull a trailer! :-)  If you fly into Des Moines, and head out on I 80 you will pass a little town called Antique City which is a mecca for antiquing.  The scenery I believe to be quite lovely....very green and rolling hills.

 

Your next stop would be the Woolen Needle in Williamsburg Iowa.  A fantastic quilt shop. And Williamsburg is the gateway to the Historic Amana Colonies.  The Amana Colonies started out as a communal religious type experience...you'll have to Google and check out the history, but today there is wonderful shopping, and another quilt store or two which I didn't get to.  There are 7 historic villages with wonderful old buildings, and it is beautiful in the fall when the leaves are turning and they would not be as crowded.  Then just beyond the Amana Colonies you will find the Amish settlement where Sue Bender stayed when she wrote the book Plain and Simple.  She shares her story of living with them for a few months.  I thoroughly enjoyed her experience shared through her story.  On one occasion while visiting in the Kalona, Iowa area, we came across a large building being moved by bunches of Amish men, spaced about a foot or so apart.  They must have had a hand hold somewhere....it was quite fascinating to see this building being moved down the road manually by all of these men.  Seeing is believing!

 



 

So much inspiration!

 

And so much glorious fabric!

 

They design many of their own patterns......all very traditional......I was hyperventilating and my heart was singing!

Did I mention wool?

 



 

There was beautiful wool.  They hand dye all of their own wool.

 

And more wool!

 

A great selection of gorgeous brushed cottons and home spuns.

I could have spent much more time there, just absorbing every nook and cranny!

 



 

High and low and everywhere in between there was something to tempt me!

 

Simple but lovely!

 

The wool I couldn't leave without purchasing.....

And these awesome pinks for something in the spring.

 



 

These fabrics were purchased from their sale fabrics......what a find!

 

And....I just couldn't leave without a bit of these......I need a medal for the restraint I used.

 

Here's what you need to know for starters!

 

"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting...a wayside sacrament.  Welcome it in every fair face, in every sky an every fair flower, and thank God for it is a cup of blessing."  -Ralph Waldo Emerson