Hoosierville

Can't believe the pictures coming out of the east this morning.  To think that I was in New York just last week and everything was as normal as could be and now today...all that devastation!  My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this horrible storm.

Last Friday morning my daughter, my mom, and I flew to Indianapolis.  Look what greeted us as we deplaned:

There is a Vera Bradley store in the airport!  We ogled all the pretty colors and patterns for a little bit and then moved on to pick up our car rental and head out.  Our destination:  Lafayette, IN.  My daughter's boyfriend studies at Purdue and she wanted to visit him.  I didn't want her traveling alone, so we decided to make a weekend of it.  She spent all of her time at Purdue; I had other plans in mind!

On Saturday morning, my mom and I drove up to LaPorte, IN; it's just a two-hour drive from where we were staying.  You all know what is in LaPorte, right?

That would be House of Stitches!  Have always wanted to go there - what a great shop.  It's a fairly good sized shop and it is jam-packed with patterns, fibers, linen, etc., etc.  There was so much to look at!  Sorry, I wasn't very good about taking pictures once inside.

While I was happy to finally get to the shop, I had two other objectives in mind for this trip.  If possible, I wanted to meet Lelia from Stitches of Life.  She is the very first connection I made when I first started my blog all the way back in 2005.  We have been online friends ever since.  I hoped that she would be available to come to the shop and she was!  Fortunately, Lelia is also a tatter and so she and my mom spent much of time "talking tatting" - my mom even learned how to do a "split ring" from Lelia, so she was especially glad that she had come along.  Lelia, thank you for taking time out of your busy weekend to come visit us and have lunch with us!

The other "mission" I had in mind was to try to connect with Ruth Ann Russell of C Street Samplerworks.  I keep telling her that I am the president of her fan club, LOL! Ruth Ann lives near House of Stitches, the shop has her trunk show of designs always on display.  Lucky for me, Ruth Ann had the day free and was able to stop in at the shop.  What a delight to meet her!  She showed me the sampler she is currently reproducing.  It's top secret, so I can't tell you any details; but I can guarantee you that I will be stitching it as soon as the chart is released and I suspect that many of you will be too.  We talked and talked about samplers, about genealogy  about her designs that she has had published in SANQ....I could have talked and stitched with her the entire day!  It was so good meeting her and I look forward to future designs from her.  Mission accomplished.

Her models are on display just above us in the display behind us!  Many of you will recognize "I Sigh Not for Beauty" (left in back) and Quaker Medallion Sampler (right in back).

We left LaPorte and headed a bit further north to Michigan City.  Found out that there was a Vera Bradley outlet store there and decided to check it out.  I'm glad I don't live there, I probably would spend all of my money at that store...it was fun to see oodles and oodles of Vera.  The prices were comparable to what you would pay via the online outlet store...After our shopping was done we headed back to LaFayette and had a nice dinner with my daughter and her boyfriend.  Great weekend.

Maybe tomorrow I'll share with you some of the stash-shopping that I did on this trip and in LaCrosse.