Eat your heart out, Willie Nelson...

"On the road again...just can't wait to get on the road again...(sing it, Willie...).  It seems to be my summer to put thousands of miles on the car.  But I made a little detour about 10 days ago...

(ssshhh...don't tell Ola and Mary J where I stopped...)  I mean really, I was just passing through.  I left at 6:15 AM from Ann Arbor to take Riley to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp on the OTHER side of the state.  From there, I headed south to Alabama for the second time in a month.  I decided to take a new route, south through Indiana to meet up with my normal path in Louisville, KY.

I just HAD to go through Shipshewana, in the heart of Indiana Amish country, to get to I-69 south...REALLY...

But I forgot that it was Wednesday, which is Flea Market Day...on Wednesdays the town is filled to bursting with locals and visitors.  Buggy AND car gridlock...

As I inched through the traffic in town, I soon realized that a stop in town at Lolly's was out of the question.  Parking was impossible.  I decided that a quick spin through Yoder's was the best that I could hope for.

I was overjoyed to discover that THEY ARE EXPANDING THE ENTIRE BUILDING !!!!  The picture above is the expanded center hall, and the one below shows the HUGE new expansion of the quilting part of the department store (the tools are still set up, as they are finishing the expansion across the hall from the department store.  I'm not sure if they are expanding the grocery store, the hardware store, or BOTH.

It is well-lit, spacious and so enticing!

They had only been in the new part for 2 weeks...just in time for the big show they had a couple of weeks ago. 

This is the expansion across the hall...still working on that...

They are still moving things around and putting out new fabric and displays.  I want to go back soon and see the finished product!

 

OK...enough of lurking in the hall...let's so SHOP!

Out of my way, sweetie...I just gotta get in there...

Wow...can you believe THIS is Yoder's??  I remember when the fabric was just a few displays between the straw hats and the suspenders!

 

Anne Sutton fabric is featured nicely...

 

Nice, wide rick-rack above a nice selection of 30's fabrics...

 

Part of the color wall...

Reproduction fabrics...

Thimbleberries and Kansas Troubles...

 

More color wall...

MORE Kansas Troubles (YOU could get in trouble here, Mary J...!)...

 

I kept being drawn back to the color wall...

 Halloween into fall into Christmas...oh my!

NICE, comfy area with leather chairs for browsing books and magazines...

Minnick and Simpson for Moda, etc...

What is WRONG with me?  I've been here 20 minutes and there is NOTHING in my basket??

More color wall...

 

Lovely samples were EVERYWHERE...

 

Notions, notions, notions...

And don't think that just because it is "Yoder's" that they aren't up-to-date with the newest items...just look at the GO! display...

 

Our favorite magazines from Australia and New Zealand...

 

And all the rest of my favorites...

 

Halloween...

Now...THAT is more like it...

 

Lot's of lovely 30's...

This huge cutting table accommodated 4 nice ladies cutting for customers...no waiting in line...even on a Wednesday...

 

For everyone loving wool and a more primitive look...

 

Lovely wool...

Then I drove like a maniac the rest of the day and well into the night, bumping into a deer at the Tennessee-Alabama border at 1:00 AM (thank God I was alert enough to slam on the brakes and slow down to only 10 MPH...we BOTH survived...and I didn't wet my pants...the deer might have, though...) and rolling into my northwest Alabama destination at 2:20 EST (one thousand miles later...).  I got home to Michigan late last night, and now we are off tomorrow morning for 2 days of entertainment at Riley's camp and to bring her home.

I wish I could say that the summer road trips were over...

Happy trails...wherever they lead you...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)