Finger Pin Cushion
Finger Pin Cushion from The Old Country Store

Look what I found when I went to visit Lancaster, PA earlier this year! Well actually I didn’t find it. I totally missed it. My BF found it and got it for me as a surprise 🙂 🙂 🙂 Score! AWESOME FINGER PIN CUSHION!

It’s a tiny little pin cushion that fits on your finger! Traditional ones are much larger and strap onto your wrist. They’re much handier for the serious home sewer since they can hold a lot of pins at once. But this one is great for small projects and such. Plus it’s really cute!

Finger Pin Cushion Finger Pin Cushion Finger Pin Cushion

It was freezing cold but we managed to browse around Kitchen Kettle Village in Intercourse, PA and we also stumbled across this whole cache of Quilting and Yarn Stores right nearby! Jackpot! That’s where I found places like The Old Country Store and Bitty Kinna’s. And the Lancaster Yarn Shop where I first saw the Knitter’s Pride Interchangeable Needle Set in person! They remind me most of the Knit Picks Interchangeable Sets.

I bought my first Quilt Block Kit and am planning to make my first quilt block shortly! I found it at a quilting wonderland of quilt stuff and fabrics at The Old Country Store. I cracked it open and, although I’m excited to start, it was a little confusing already! The fabrics I got did not match the pattern, so it wasn’t easy to figure out which pieces were meant to be cut into what squares. I’ll have to tackle that soon though.

Quilt Block from The Old Country Store - Lancaster, PA Quilt Block from The Old Country Store - Lancaster, PA Quilt Block from The Old Country Store - Lancaster, PA

I ate Chipped Beef and Shoofly Pie for the first time. I. LOVED. CHIPPED BEEF! Ha. Which was basically some type of sliced corned beef or pastrami-type deli meat smothered in this white flour/milk/butter gravy. I ate it for breakfast! But didn’t care for the Shoofly Pie much which was basically sugar or corn syrup baked into a pie crust. We also ate Whoopie Pies! YES! We went to the Canning Kitchen in KKV and sampled a huge variety of pickled vegetables, pickles, jams, and spreads. Everything was weirdly sweet IMHO. But in general the food was great (albeit gut busting and not the most diet conscious). Great for every once in awhile or a little splurge.

Shoofly Pie Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast Whoopie Pie

We stayed at Eden Resort Best Western. The service was so warm and friendly, they made our stay very nice. The room rates were great and came with an awesome breakfast buffet each day! It was seriously the best meal I had all day while visiting. The bathroom was spotless and had these cool dual shower heads one with a rain shower head from the top and some water jets from the sides. The entire hotel was well kept and clean. They also had wonderful amenities like indoor and outdoor pools and whirlpools and sauna. The indoor one was really nice, it was crowded with kids (and not the cleanest) but decorated really nice. Great for families with kids and nearby attractions like Dutch Wonderland.

We saw lots of horse drawn buggies clopping around, weirdly old fashioned yet with modern materials. It smelled like horse poop everywhere, even at the hotel! There were even metal posts found along the streets for buggies to tie up their horses. It was affordable, we went in the off season, took the Amtrak (although a car is really needed) and trudged around in the snow. But we had a lovely little “country” getaway from NYC that turned out to be a great knitting and sewing trip too!

Knitter's Pride Interchangeable Needle Set - Nova, $89Lancaster Yarn Shop
3519 Old Philadelphia Pike
Intercourse, PA 17534
(717) 768-8007
http://lancasteryarnshop.com/

I found the Knitter’s Pride Interchangeable Knitting Needles here! And Debbie, who I think her name was, was so lovely to chat with about knitting stuff and very sweet! We were semi-stranded and she offered to give us a lift to our hotel!

Kitchen Kettle Village
3529 Old Philadelphia Pike
Intercourse, PA 17534
(800) 732-3538
http://www.kitchenkettle.com/

Eden Resort Best Western
222 Eden Road
Lancaster PA 17601-4216
(866) 801-6430
http://www.edenresort.com/

It was wonderful! I highly recommend it as a place to stay if ever in Lancaster, PA. I recommended it to some co-workers too.

The Old Country Store and Quilt Museum
3510 Old Philadelphia Pike
Intercourse, PA 17534
(800) 828-8218
http://www.theoldcountrystore.com/

It’s a general store with local Dutch wares and goods, a Quilt Museum (you will find a lovely display of quilts!!!), and a quilting/sewing fabric store all in one.

Bitty Kinna Quilt Shop
3466 Old Philadelphia Pike
Intercourse, PA 17534
(717) 768-8885
http://www.bittykinna.com/

They had some lovely quilts on displays and best of all I found all these wonderful sewing tools hanging around the shop that I’d never seen before. From a mini (yes mini!) vintage Singer sewing machine that was about 6 inches tall to a mini-sized iron (not the Clover ironing paddle thing) but it was about 4 inches x 3 inches. Wished I took pictures.