In October 2007 thirteen of us from Southport Quilters set out on a holiday with J.J.N. Amish tours under the leadership of Jan Jefferson. During this ten day holiday we would visit lots of different places, learn about the Amish way of life and buy lots of lovely American fabric!
Our group flew from Manchester to Philadelphia and then went by coach to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. At the airport we joined up with the group coming from Heathrow so making a total of 31–––– the biggest group they have ever taken.
After a good nights rest and an excellent breakfast Jan spoke to us at length about the Amish people and their way of life. This gave us a greater understanding of things that we would see and places we would go to. Over the following days we would visit many fabric shops, look at exhibitions, understand some of the history of the American Civil War, visit Harrisburg, the state capital, and have the privilege of handling many very old quilts and of course meeting the Amish people themselves.
The weather was marvellous –––in fact 20 degrees above the ‘norm’ and it was also the run–up to Halloween so there were lots of very colourful decorations in the shops and out on display.
The two highlights of the tour were firstly the Quilt Auction and secondly the lovely meal we had with an Amish family on our final evening.
The quilt auction is held to raise money for the local Fire company as it is not government funded. All the ladies of the neighbourhood will have spent months making lots of quilts of all sizes, quillows, and other handicrafts and of course all these pieces of work will feature their beautiful hand quilting.
Many of us got ‘carried away’ with the main purpose of the day and bought items that we had no intention of buying and at the end of the day came away with several king sized Quilts! We even had to go to Wallmart to buy more luggage to get all our purchases home!
On our final evening we had the opportunity to visit a proper Amish home and enjoy a meal with them. This was a beautifully relaxed evening with a simple wholesome meal and good company. At the end of the meal the children of the family sang to us and we as a group were expected to also reply in ’song’. Luckily for us we had one lady with an exceptional voice who led us in the singing of ‘The Wheels of the bus go round and round’, ‘Old Mac Donald’, and ‘We will met again don’t now when, don’t know where’. Two of these were requests from the children. As we left the farm with the sun now setting, it was beautiful to see all the children sitting on one of the farm trailers waving to us. A very fitting memory for not only a lovely evening but also a Holiday of a Lifetime.
