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The Old Country Store

      Many consider Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the quilt capital of the United States. Home to the oldest and most well-known Amish settlement in the country, the county has a rich tradition of Amish, Mennonite, and English quiltmaking that continues today.
      Ground zero for Lancaster County quilts might well be The Old Country Store in Intercourse, Pennsylvania, about 12 miles east of the city of Lancaster. There, on the main street, shopkeepers Merle and Phyllis Good operate a thriving quilt shop, a quilt museum, a quilt-related publishing company, and an educational center concerned with Amish and Mennonite life.
      Interest in quilts from Lancaster County has flourished for at least two decades, and The Old Country Store was there from the beginning. Actually, The People's Place, the Goods' educational center, came first, in 1976. It was a natural outgrowth of the theater productions, featuring plays written by Merle on Amish and Mennonite themes.
      Two years later, the couple rented space across the street in an old brick general store, which dates to 1882. They established The Old Country Store, filling the one-room first floor with quilts and handcrafts made by area crafters.
      The Goods bought the general store building in 1982. They expanded their shop into the entire first floor and added an inventory of quilt fabric. This combination has resulted in one of the store's unique features: Both those making quilts and those buying quilts shop at The Old Country Store.
      Merle and Phyllis turned the second floor into The People's Place Quilt Museum. Revolving exhibits, usually featuring pre-1940 quilts from Amish and Mennonite makers, hang there.
      —Quilt Sampler, Better Homes and Gardens

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