The de Jongs are back in the dream house! Our schedule has been pretty fun as all three of us are dealing with jet lag differently. Niels bounced back quickly. Our 4YO has been up at 4am each day and is full of energy. I have been a zombie, sleeping the days away and walking in a fog when I am awake. But it's been a few days so I want to get back on the wagon and finish up a few more trip-related posts before sharing some projects that I foolishly thought I'd be able to write up when we were on vacation. Ha!
So, let's talk stoffen, the Dutch word for fabric. Even before we left for the Netherlands, I was looking forward to doing some stash-building at the Utrecht Fabric Market (in Dutch lapjesmarkt). A Dutch blogger I follow, Happy in Red, told me about this ah-may-zing fabric market on Facebook awhile back. Each Saturday, from 8am to 1pm, more than a hundred fabric vendors descend upon Breedstraat (and even slightly beyond) offering their wares. What's more impressive than amount of fabric available each week is the fact that this market has happened every week for more than 400 years! Yes, this weekly market has taken place longer than America has even been a nation!
It's impossible to show how big this market is due to the trees and narrow street, but I can tell you that it took us almost two hours to check out all the booths!
Can you tell we are in the Netherlands?
I was especially happy with low prices.
Many of the booths had fabric precut into one meter pieces. Of course, I had to browse through every.single.pattern. (I should mention here how much I love my husband and his willingness to spend a day a fabric market with a wife who likes to look at every.single.pattern).
I found lots of fabric I loved, but I tried to limit myself to Dutch theme fabric that I wouldn't be able to find back home in the States.
I was not disappointed.
I had to buy this Pink Dutch pattern.
This canvas design based on the Dutch postal system was very popular. I kinda wish I would have bought some.
In addition to the cottons I love for quilting, there were many, many stalls with home decor fabric.
I would say most stalls were filled with apparel fabric.
Overall, I'm happy with my choices.
And the Utrecht Fabric Market has not become one of my must-do trips when we are in the Netherlands, along with visiting my in-laws and Marissa, of course!
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What fun!! Visiting from Vals Archives
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