North Americans 'quilt' with fabric scraps, but Turks have a different tradition for making bed covers. This lady takes the wool from a goat or sheep that her family has killed earlier in the year (during a religious festival commemorating the sacrifice God provided for Abraham in place of his son.) She cleans, combs and dries it in the sun. Then she spreads it upon a sheet outside. On top of the wool, she places a colored fabric or thin blanket and invites other ladies to help her hand sew the edges. Meanwhile, some of us baste stitches across the layers in a criss-cross fashion using strong thread. She, in turn, will help her neighbors when they call on her to sew.These wool comforters are not washable so they just air them outside quite frequently in the sun; but every once in awhile the entire blanket is taken apart and the wool is rewashed by hand and set out to dry again and resewn. The stitches are large and not exact so it doesn't take as long to finish as a pieced quilt. I've had the pleasure of taking part in one of these 'non-quilting bees.' These women work so hard.
How marvelous. Thanks for sharing this picture and the story. I remember that festival.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting! I enjoyed the photo and this post very much.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing.
~ Christina
That is beautiful ... from the religious festival to the community helping each other to the actual use and care of the blanket!
ReplyDelete--Christie
I think the art of calling on your neighbors, and helping your neighbors is a lost art! Thank you for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteWow- that was such an interesting read, and I love the picture!
ReplyDeleteI want to come help too! I love this type of thing that is virtually lost in our culture. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteRebeca
That is very interesting. I can't imagine what response I would get if I called all the neighbors to help me sew a quilt.
ReplyDeleteBut I have been thinking about seeing if I can get a few ladies together to knit squares. Then I can whipstitch them together to make some blankets for the crisis pregnancy center.
I'm sure I could get plenty of people to make them and give them to me, but I'd like to get everyone together to do it on a Saturday afternoon.
I love this entry. I'm a fan of learning about different cultures.
ReplyDeleteHow fascinating! Do you have any pictures of the finished product. I love your posts about life in Turkey. I had never been anywhere until we adopted our daughter from China, but even then we didn't get to see much of what their daily lives are like.
ReplyDeleteThat is the type of "community" I would enjoy being a part of, helping each other as needed. How cool.
ReplyDeleteCommunity is only a memory in much of the world today. This saddens me so much. I can't believe the changes I have witnessed in our world in just my lifetime. What must our living grandparents think?
ReplyDeleteDana, I love your idea for the Crisis Preg. Center. How beautiful. Recently, our children pooled their money with ours and our friends' money so that we could put together food packages and school supplies for several very poor families in our area. ONe family didn't even have a door on their 'hut.' Another had just had triplets and a father unable to work due to his arm getting mangled. One lady was caring for nine children alone. We try to do this a few times a year. May we never stop helping the poor, the widows and the orphans.
Blessings to you all today!
This is so interesting --- thank you for sharing about Turkish quilts. Do you have a picture of a completed quilt?
ReplyDeleteLaTeaDah
that is amazing! thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post and I just wanted to let you know that I linked to your post today. You can find it on my blog at the link below.
ReplyDeleteMamaArcher's Blog