You may remember my mentioning that Mike and I were in Philadelphia over the 4th of July. We decided to drive there and, to make the journey more enjoyable, we chose to take our time (3 days out and 3 days back) and stay in Bed and Breakfasts along the way. Mike used to absolutely refuse to stay in B&B’s, but after a number of years of my politely requesting we try it, he gave in and it was such a good experience – we’ve stayed in many since. Prior to this trip I did some on-line research into B&Bs in the area we’d be traveling through, and things couldn’t have gone better.

In Somerset, PA we stayed at Quill Haven. I was truly excited when I first found them on line, only to realize it wasn’t Quilt Haven (the owner, Carol, has a thing for hedgehogs :-).

But in their lovely home Carol had quilts on the beds, made by her Mother. She and Rowland also had beautiful flower and vegetable gardens, chickens and … goats who liked oatmeal cookies (and their goat’s milk fudge was delicious).

We enjoyed the surroundings and conversation so much, we stopped for another night with them on the way back to Wisconsin also.

Further down the road on the return trip we stayed at the Big House in the Little Woods near Shipshewana, IN. Once again, the owners were warm and friendly and their home was charming. This was obviously in Amish country and Gail not only made a scrumptious breakfast (with Dave’s help), but she’s a quilter. There were once again quilts on all the beds,

as well as the walls

and windows. Gail said she adjusted a table runner pattern to make this valance. I apologize for the poor quality photo – the colors were really lovely)

A real highlight was when Dave asked if we’d like to go for a buggy ride. He called his neighbor, Ben, and within the hour we were touring the Amish countryside in a horse drawn buggy!

Riding with Ben and Missy (the horse) was a real treat.

Ben has a wonderful sense of humor (he has 11 children, all of them boys except for 9), a wild sense of color (he chose the interior for the buggy without any help from his wife),

and a real gift for conversation. Mike was in the back and did the photography (with permission from Ben).

Ben Borntreger holds two quilt/rug/craft auctions every year at his farm in Millersburg, IN. The auctions are held on the 2nd Saturday in April and the 3rd Saturday in September. The address is 4110S 1000W, Millersburg, IN 46543. You can call him for more information (they have a phone by the road and they check their messages often): (260)593-2640. I hope to get to one of his auctions in the near future. It would be a great opportunity to visit Ben, Dave and Gail once again!

A quick addition to last week’s pictures from Rostock, Germany. I didn’t want you to think I was the only one hugging German men. Wendy found two (Reinhard, and Klaus – the tour guide):

And Kristi (our fantastic travel planner) rated a kiss!

Speaking of Kristi, she arranged for a phenomenal trio of classes while we were in Tallinn, Estonia. Estonia holds artists in very high regard. We began with a stop in a handicraft type shop. This shop had quite a variety of items (from hand knit sweaters to wooden trivets and so much in between). They were all made in traditional Estonian style.

In the back room of the shop was an exhibit of fiber art. The artist’s made wall art inspired by jewelry (the jewelry was displayed in shadow boxes next to the art).

This reminded me of a recent Milwaukee Art Quilters challenge called Bead Inspired (click here to see the quilts in that exhibit).

Many artists are trained at the Universities in Estonia, and the old town of Tallinn is filled with shops and studios featuring these very creative individuals. A short walk from the handcraft shop we discovered more fiber art for sale:

What a feast for the eyes. But this was nothing – Kristi had scheduled our travelers to take classes with a group of Estonian artists! Our next stop was the studios of the Katariina Gild.

Here is a picture of the members of this “Gild” from their website:  http://katariinagild.eu/index.html (I highly recommend visiting their site! It starts in Estonian, but if you scroll down a ways it’s in English! Be sure to visit all the pages 🙂 )

We broke up into smaller groups and some of us took a class in Patchwork, making an embroidered and quilted bag:

Others took a Fiber Art class, and made broaches from yarn and other embellishments.

and there were even workshops in Leather Art. I found that intriguing, and the instructor, Pille, was very talented and very inspiring. In the first photo Jerrie and I are making business card wallets. In the second we’re posing with Pille and our finished creations. It was an interesting process, and I did buy one of her handmade books (on the shelf behind us).

It was a wonderful day of inspiration and learning. I didn’t take any photographs of the finished projects (the patchworkers actually placed their projects into a packet and stitched it closed for the trip home – so none of the rest of us got to see them), but we’re having a cruise reunion in July and I’ll be inviting everyone to bring what they made for show and tell. Watch for pictures in a future post.

I wish we could have had another day in Estonia – what a wonderful place to explore!

Wendy and I have returned from our quilting adventure on the Baltic Sea – and it couldn’t have been more wonderful. We traveled with a warm and friendly group of 51, including quilters, non-quilters and 5 men! Each and every one was a blessing to Wendy and me. Our event planner, Kristi, of Journeys and Gatherings, was able to join us on the trip, and she kept everything running oh, so smoothly. We visited 6 countries in 12 days and the weather couldn’t have been better (they say it is only sunny 60 days each year in St. Petersburg and we got 2 of them :-)! The Norwegian Star cruise ship crew did a fantastic job of keeping us comfortable, entertained and well fed.

I’m planning to share the quilt/fiber aspects of the trip over the next few weeks. Kristi did a great job of fulfilling our wishes for special excursions that would appeal to quilters and fiber artists, and these stops were mixed well with tours of the important things every tourist in that area would want to see. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about what quilters and fiber artists are doing in other countries. We’ll begin in Denmark :-)!

We flew into Copenhagen very early on a Sunday morning. After a visit to the Viking Museum (which included a typical Danish lunch) we checked into our hotel for a bit of a rest (we’d flown through the night) – and then it was on to Kirsten’s Quilt in Roskilde. Yes – a real live quilt shop just outside of Copenhagen! And it is a large and well stocked shop. That would have been exciting enough, but then Kirsten and her group of Danish quilters served us a fantastic meal in the upstairs classroom and then we all ate together and got to know each other. I bet you can’t tell the Danish quilters from the Americans! Kirsten gave each of us a placemat pattern of her own design: After dinner, Wendy and I made a little presentation of some things we brought to share with the Danish group. I gifted copies of my 2 most recent books and Wendy shared the story of Quiltina, and then gave Kirsten her very own Quiltsissie! We also brought fat 1/8ths of a lovely green/blue fabric which we gifted to all of the Danish quilters in hopes they will join us in a: Next we went downstairs to do some fabric shopping, and admire an art quilt display by Charlotte, one of the Danish quilters. To see Charlotte’s work, please go to her website: http://www.charlottebergstroem.com/ It was a delightful evening of quilts, food and friendship. If you’re ever in Denmark, I highly recommend a visit to this shop. And that was just the beginning of our Baltic adventure.

The final day of our trip we spent in Copenhagen once again. This time a number of us set off on our own for a train ride into the city and we discovered the Happy Wall. It is a large black wall with hinged, rectangular, colorful “doors”, that passersby are invited to flip, thus creating words and designs. We couldn’t resist making our mark: Here’s a distance shot, so you can get some perspective: What fun! Next week I’ll share what we learned about Blaudruck fabric printing in Rostock, Germany.

And one more thing :-): I have a free motion quilting class coming up on Friday, June 13th, called Beyond Meandering. In it I share how to make quilting the quilt as much fun as making the top.

The class needs a few more students in order to run. If you’re interested, please register at www.wctc.edu. Thanks!