Das-Dutchman-Essenhaus' quilt in Middlebury. Photo courtesy Elkhart County Convention & Visitors Bureau
Happy July 4th.
Celebrate with a tour of quilt gardens in Elkhart County, which keeps money in the state and supports an area that has struggled with high unemployment in this economic downturn. Very patriotic!
The second annual Quilts Garden Tour features 16 gardens and 16 large murals painted in quilt patterns sprinkled in several communities, including Elkhart, Middlebury, Goshen, Wakarusa and Shipshewana.
Volunteers planted more than 80,000 flowers grown from seed by an area business. The free self-guided tour is open seven days a week, dawn to dusk through Oct. 1.
Elkhart County 4-H Grounds has heart-themed quilt garden. Photo courtesy Elkhart County Convention & Visitors Bureau
The Quilt Gardens Tour, thought to be the only one like it in the country, stitches together the art of gardening and art of quilting, each deeply embedded in northern Indiana Amish heritage, said Diane Lawson, executive director of the Elkhart County Convention & Visitors Bureau, which started the initiative.
In Goshen, Meadow Brook Farm has a 1,225 square foot quilt garden planted with beans, rye, wheat, sunflowers, corn and red geraniums. The plants represent Meadow Brook Farm’s history and heritage. Built around the Civil War, the farm once was the host of Farm Betterment Club Fairs, attended by governors and dignitaries, who spoke in town hall like settings. Meadow Brook Farm offers tours of the farmhouse, barns, smokehouse, pastures and animals on the working farm.
There are many special events in honor of the tour, including a dinner-theater production of “Quilters the Musical,” Aug. 6 and 7. It tells of a pioneer woman and her daughters, who share stories and songs through their handmade quilts, each block commemorating an event in their lives. The play opened on Broadway in 1984, and has been performed in community theaters throughout the country. Before the play, visitors will dine at Das Dutchman Essenhaus.