About us

Some time ago, I found myself settled in Helsinki, Finland, having left my intense ICT career and chaotic environment of Istanbul, Turkey. It was the result of a very sudden, fast developing and I think incredible love story.

Creating a life with someone is not easy, even with someone from your own country, speaking the same language and having grown up with similar cultural codes. It becomes harder to change countries and not being able to communicate with your mother tongue. But Finland embraced me with its people and nature, though not during winter and cold.

Quilting is my real therapy

Things in life do not always progress along a powder pink path as in love-story movies. Moving to a new country is actually changing life completely. At some point I found myself on the verge of a deep depression. I needed psychological support and started using medicine. My therapist advised me to try something new if I did not enjoy what I used to be doing.

I decided to give a try to learning sewing. Luckily there was room in one free course at the community institute, creating quilted mini patchwork blankets as charity for prematurely born children at the Pediatric Hospital. It did not take long to notice that I enjoyed incredibly from producing something concrete with my own hands.

Happy end

Gradually I got out of depression and turned into a fabric maniac. Fabrics and crafts relieved me from my desperate situation and I thought it could guide others too into more happy lives, so I decided to establish TILKKUNEN. “Us” part in “About us” refers to sisters and friends who supported me with their ideas and labor in this project. TILKKUNEN means a small and cute piece of patch. The name was a suggestion by one of my friends.

“Haberdashery” was the business that my grandfather engaged in to support his family. If you asked about his profession, he would however definitely answer “poetry” instead. People visited his shop, sitting there and drinking tea, chatting sometimes for hours with him. Times are different now but I really miss that one-to-one relationship era. TILKKUNEN is serving mostly as a web-shop but if you are nearby, don’t hesitate to visit me for a cup of coffee or tea!

My goal is to offer you the best quality products that will help to reveal the creativity within you at the most affordable price.

Please

I am in new waters with this business. I would appreciate any kind of feedback. Please feel free to contact me in any subject. Of course I would love to hear good feedback that motivates me to keep going, but also welcome any kind of critique or ideas for improvement. You may also contact me and request fabrics you would like to see in my shop and special prices if you need any fabric more than 5 meters.