Illinois Amish Heritage Center announces events for ’25 season
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Sheep to Clothing to Quilts will return to the Illinois Amish Heritage Center on Saturday, April 26. The event will feature sheep and alpaca shearing demonstrations and cleaning, dyeing, and spinning the wool into yarn. Weavers will demonstrate weaving with looms and quilting.
Visitors will be invited to try their hand at many activities. Children can learn basic sewing skills. Additionally, there will be games and activities, pony cart rides, and a petting zoo.
A farmer’s breakfast of pancakes, old-fashioned liverwurst, and grilled sausage will be offered for a fee starting at 7 a.m. The main event is from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m..
Visitors can buy lunch, which will include lamb kabobs (a big hit in 2024) along with other food options. A bake sale featuring homemade bread, cakes, and pies along with homemade ice cream will also be available.
Event demonstrations and activities, including sheep shearing, start at 9 a.m. The CU Spinners and Weavers Guild will demonstrate the use of spinning wheels used by pioneers on the frontier as well as a variety of stationary and back-strap looms. There will be wool washing and dying as well as spinning, weaving, and quilt making. There will be laundry demonstrations featuring a turn of the century hand washer and wringer, goat milking, chair caning, soap making, rope making, and gardening.
Tours of all the historic Amish buildings (1865 Yoder House, 1870’s Schrock House, 1879 Hershberger-Miller Barn, 1860’s Yoder Workshop, 1930’s German Schoolhouse) will feature demonstrations and displays of the Amish way of life. Early Amish clothing, quilts, coverlets and other hand-woven fabrics will be on display in the Schrock House including a blue and white coverlet that was woven by the Diener family before they came to America in the 1830s. Also on display will be the 1890s-era suit worn by Daniel Schrock at the time of his death in 1892, and the 1840s-era Campbell family quilt, hand-made from local wool, dyed from plants, and then spun, woven and quilted.
Vendors will be stationed again in the hay loft of the 1870s Herschberger-Miller barn, where visitors can purchase a variety of gifts, including homemade soaps, jams and jellies, popcorn, crocheted crafts, dried herbs and flowers, hand towels and more. There will be a beekeeper’s booth, book-card making, and the making of tissue-paper flowers.
Children under 12 are free.
Updates on all event activities will be posted on the IAHC website www.illinoisamish.org and Facebook page (Illinois Amish Heritage Center). The IAHC is on Rte. 133 three miles east of Arthur, and five miles west of the Arcola, exit on I-57.
The Harvest to Home festival will be held on October 10-11. Oats will be threshed and (new this year) the threshing machine will be powered by teams of horses. Many additional harvest activities and demonstrations take place at the festival. Watch the IAHC website and digital media closer to the event for more details.
Additionally (new for 2025), IAHC will produce smaller monthly events throughout the year, such as blacksmithing, a German spelling bee, storytelling, and more. Watch their website and social media for event dates and details.
In 2025, the IAHC Living History Farm will be open to the public every Saturday, 10 a.m. till 4 p.m., from May to October. Docents will lead guided tours. Reservations are not necessary. There is an admission fee.