This little trip was a fabulous getaway that my husband planned, the pictures are in no particular order, as I never can figure how they will appear when I upload them, and I just might make then disappear if I mess around too much.
Anyway, he got on the Internet and found quilt shops in the Northeast corner of Iowa, and Southwest corner of Wisconsin to check out. We toured the countryside, which was beautiful, visited a John Deere engine plant, to see how they are made, and were to end up in Monroe, Wisconsin Friday at 6:00 for a hot air balloon rally.
We started at 7:30 am. and drove by expressway to Clinton, Iowa. From then on we took back road, and county roads. You see so much more. There were beautiful rolling hills, farm animals in pastures, and crops. The corn there as well as here will be tasseling out by the 4th of July!! It has been a perfect summer so far for the crops. Ron could not get over seeing huge boulders in the middle of a field. (Has to do with the glaciers coming through millions of years ago.) Those beautiful orange day lilies and hollyhocks were in bloom everywhere. Because the rainfall and the warmth and sun the gardens are beautiful.
Here are a couple of pictures from this wonderful display. I was in awe with the quilts. Some were as far back as the 1800's. It was to showcase quilting by Norweigians. I had to take pictures of it all. One quilt was made out of lingerie fabric. It looked so soft. Signature quilts
seemed to be prevalent in the display. They were beautiful.
This was the first quilt I saw when I started looking at the display.
Again, when you travel to different areas, new fabrics and patterns show up. You don't always realize how many fabric and pattern companies are out there. We stopped at shops in Osage, Decorah, Dyersville, Oelwein, Independence, Greene, Waverly,and Cedar Falls, Iowa. We did see other things that the town may be noted for. (quilt shops are not always the highlight of the town) Every shop is different. At the one in Cedar Falls, Ron came in (surprise, surprise) and actually picked out fabric for a quilt he would like me to make. (No picture)
The other thing we were always on the lookout for was Barn Quilts. This quilt was on display at a rest stop in Grundy County, Iowa. Most areas had the 8 x 8 foot displays which were easy to see. Others were pretty small. If you did not know where to look you could miss them. I got a few good pictures. Some were taken as we drove by, so you can figure what they may look like!!
We had visited this one several years ago. It has beautiful stained glass windows. Dyersville used to be the home of Ertl toys.
There was a Trappist Monestary, New Melleray Abby. This area was in a beautiful setting.
Needless to say, we did not get to see a balloon launch on Friday evening. Starting Thursday night with our stay in Decorah, storms started to come through. There were tornado and storm warnings When we got up on Friday the skies were blue and beautiful. As we headed toward Wisconsin the black clouds were gathering behind us. The eventually caught up with us. By the time we got to Monroe, it was pouring. It was 3:30 in the afternoon and the launch was to be at 6:00. We did talk to someone at the fairgrounds, who thought they would launch. After much consideration we decided to head home. We were going to have a 3 hour drive. If we had known for sure they would go up and no storms we would have stayed. We kept hearing about storm warnings.
I had a quilt workshop on Saturday. If that had not been in the works we would have stayed overnight and been there for the Saturday launchs. We did not hear if they did launch. We were both disappointed, but there is always next year. I won't schedule a workshop.
All in all it was a fun 3 days. I had my "Quilters Travel Companion", the latest version, and I do keep a written diary as we travel. I have started keeping a log of Barn Quilts. I pickup brochures for reference. They are a great way to see the countryside. Traveling the backroad leads to great adventures. You just don't know what you will see.
Have a great day Quilting
Mary