We had a day off of school this Wednesday so I went to some shops here in Istanbul to get fabric and fabric dye.  Shopping for these types of things in Istanbul is quite different than in the States.  We haven’t got any quilt shops, Joanns or the like.  There are a lot of wonderful fabric sand notions to be found, but you have to know where to look.  There is an area of the city that has shops where you can buy fabric for drapes and upholstry and another area where you can find fabric for clothing.  Then scattered around the city you can find small shops that carry a few different kinds of cotton fabric and towels, sheets etc.  On Wednesday I was in the area of the city where you find fabric for clothing and I got some silk and cotton.  I also found a store that carries fabric dye.  I got a few colors and went home to try it.

Since I hadn’t ever dyed anything before, I decided to try it out on some inexpensive white cotton.  The dye here is quite inexpensive and easy to use, but the process is somewhat time consuming.  One color costs about 60 cents and it was plenty to dye about two or three pounds of fabric.  First you have to mix the dye in a small amount of water and let it dissolve while you heat it.  Then you add it to a large pot of water and then add the wet fabric.  Salt is also added.  The fabric and dye must be heated and then boiled for 30 minutes then left to cool.  While I was doing the first batch (a beautiful turquoise color) my daughter and I decided to throw in different scraps of patterned fabric to see how they turn out.

The fabric in the middle is the original and the two on the sides the results of the turquoise and purple dye.  The turquoise one is really nice, I wish had dyed a larger piece.  I’ll do that the next time.

lots of nice colors

I was in Munich, Germany for a family get-together with my husband’s family over the weekend.  We were fairly lucky with the weather: little rain, more sunshine.  While out shopping I visited my favorite felt shop there.  The store is really just a “hole in the wall” but it is packed full of wonderful felt and felt products in every color you could imagine.  I kept my shopping there under control and just brought home a few of the colors I liked.  They also offer really nice natural wool felt by the yard. I also found some Robert Kaufman fabric and some cute ribbon and linen tape.  Now I just can’t wait to get started with a quilt that I found in a book there called Häuser-Patchwork by Bernadette Mayr.  It’s going to be a present for someone special so I can’t show too much yet.

I often browse the many quilting and sewing blogs that are out there and my daughter thought I should make my own blog.  I didn’t really think about it, so she started a blog for me for mother’s day today.  Isn’t that a nice present. Now I just have to figure out how to do this! 

I spent some time yesterday sewing a pencil case for a friend at school.  I got the pattern here.  I hope she likes it.