The Search for Quilt Fabric

The park strips all the way down our street look like this right now.
It is so cheery and fun. It is also interesting to notice how they
are planted, obviously with some kind of machine.

Dennis had to go to Paris for the first three days of the week so that meant I got to have sole possession of the car. Monday, I spent doing a few necessities like grocery shopping but also picked up a few things that aren't as easy to do on the bike. I bought a big bag of potting soil and a few more plants and pots. I got my plants potted and did some housework and picked Alyna up from school.

Tuesday, I dropped Alyna off at school and then went at picked up Armanda Bos and we headed out to find some fabric shops. Armanda is a lot of fun to be with and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. She speaks English wonderfully since her parents and brother, sister and son all live in Utah. She is a talented quilter and painter and she has a wonderful eye for color and texture. She is currently serving as the stake Relief Society President so although we keep planning on doing a lot of great projects together, I know her time is quite limited.

I needed to find some pieces of fabric to finish up one quilt and enough to round out the requirements for another one. I also wanted to get some baby fabric to make a gift for my visiting teaching partner who just had a baby girl. So we headed out with our TOM TOM and a list of addresses of stores that were within an hours drive. The first one we went to was way out in the country side. It was a delight to drive to because we had to drive over little canal bridges, maneuver around big farm equipment on roads that were only wide enough for one car and dodge bicycilists. We finally got to the point were the Tom Tom said we had reached our destination and it was this old farm. It looked nice but it was just typical old dutch farm yard. We decided that we were in the right place because we saw a little sign that said quilts on it.



We looked around for a bit and finally figured out where the shop was and went in. What a delightful surprise met our eyes. I wish I had taken a lot more pictures. The quilt shop was the inside of an old barn and it was so "gezellig." That's the Dutch term for the feeling of being warm, cozy, comfortable and content. There was a big old table in the center of the room with a group of about 10 ladies sitting around it and working on various quilting projects - no machines so everyone was either cutting out a project or doing hand work. It was really interesting to see what each of them were working on. The patterns and the fabrics were from Australia, England and the US so there was lots of different things to see. Then you went further into the barn and there was a great selection of fabrics at fairly reasonable prices. We found some great projects there and spent a wonderful hour browsing, selecting and talking to the various people there.

That actually turned out to be the highlight of the day. We went to 4 other shops; one had a great selection and high prices, the others had small selections but in each one we found some thing that was of interested or that we wanted to do. It was a really fun outing and it was after 5:00 when I got home. (Alyna had called while I was at a shop in Ede. She was locked out of the house so she had a long wait before I got home.)

Wednesday, Alyna didn't have school and I had researched and talked to several locals about what would be fun to do. I thought we could drive to Ede, take the train to Utrecht and see the sights there and then come home. Alyna showed me her list of homework and things she had to have done this week and we decided it would be best if we stayed home and got some things done. That was fine with me. I finished one quilt that I needed the bits and pieces for and started the baby gift. I also took an hour and went out to find the two fabric stores that are closest to my house. One was just tiny and specialized in small template (Marti Mitchell) type quilting. The other one was bigger and had a nice selection of fabric. It's always nice to know what is available but also really nice to know that I will be going back to the states often enough that I will rarely need to pay the high prices of fabric here.