Fabric and Ice Cream -- What More Could A Girl Ask For?

Wow! What a wonderful 2 days I just had! Bright and early on Thursday morning, I drove down to Quilt Odyssey, the big quilt show down in Hershey, with 5 quilting friends. We spent the afternoon drooling over all of the gorgeous quilts on display and overdosing on the quilting supplies available from the vendors. The 2006 and 2007 winning quilts of the $100,000 Quilting Challenge were on display in all their glory. What a sight to see! Absolutely glorious!

After a dinner at Duke's Bar and Grille on Chocolate Avenue (their menu is huge!), our van found its way to a local fabric shop, Quiltmaker's Cottage. It was just the beginning of a credit card marathon...

We spent the night in the Hershey Lodge where the show was held and ran into many other quilters and even some of the well-known teachers. Here's a shot of the wallpaper in our bathrooms...
Of course, since we were in the vicinity of Amish country, a fabric shop hop was on the agenda. Bright and early on Friday, the red quiltermobile hit the road. First stop was Burkholder's Fabrics in Denver, PA. The store sign in the middle of the rolling farm countryside was just the beginning of a quilter's dream...This is just an example of what was waiting for us inside...the photo is just the batik aisle. With over 12,000 bolts of quality fabric, overdosing was inevitable. And they were even having a sale (the regular prices are amazing, so the sale prices were a bonus)!
The next stop was Sauder's Fabrics, also in Denver, where in addition to great fabric, we stocked up on some bulk food supplies.

Lunch was at the Park Place Diner and Bakery in Denver...great food and comfortable atmosphere. Here is what I had for lunch...


... and this...

I saw no reason to waste time with a sandwich or something...I went straight for the good stuff -- a root beer float and a piece of Boston Creme Pie (the others with me assured the main courses were good as well).

The lunch provided us with energy to go on to our next stop which was the Old Country Store in Intercourse, PA. More fabric to see and buy and a wonderful quilt museum on the second floor.

Although our credit cards were starting to smoke a bit, the quiltermobile somehow found its way to the Quilt and Fabric Shack in Bird-in-Hand, PA. We felt we had to do our bit to help the economy, so we spent a dollar or two...

Finally, with a van stuffed full of fabrics and exhausted quilters, we made our way home to Tioga County, stopping for dinner at Country Cupboard in Lewisburg, PA.

It was a wonderful way to spend a couple of days...but I'm beginning to think that a couple of days is not enough....