Trendspotting: Moroccan Wedding Quilt

Did you know that not only am I a sucker for shoes and sequins but I am also very susceptible to buying vintage bedding, quilts and blankets?  I think I have at least 20 blankets with a good majority of them being vintage - from an authentic Swiss army to a Hudson Bay striped camp blanket and a crazy bright yellow chenille peacock coverlet. I just feel a need to have a stockpile of cozy-ness at hand at all times. 

I must be missing my baby blankie.

But now I'm totally smitten with handira, a Moroccan wedding quilt.   These blankets are stunning.  I first saw one on the Corks and Caftans blog.  How could you not want to snuggle into this amazing bed?  Doesn't that look dreamy?

Well, when I saw it, I had to find out more and what I learned made them even more interesting.  These blankets are made made by Berber women in anticipation of a female family member's wedding.  Apartment Therapy has some great information on them including:

Berber wedding blankets are woven in anticipation of, you guessed it, a wedding, by the bride's female relatives. It can take many hours — even weeks — of work to attach those hundreds of mirrored sequins once the weaving is complete; it is thought that during this collaborative task, the bride's relatives teach her all about the birds and the bees, among other marital duties and expectations. After the wedding ceremony, the bride wears the blanket tied around her neck as a kind of cape. It might be associated with her trip to her new marital home, which could be a chilly ride.

For Berbers, objects and visual motifs contain myriad meanings and purposes. The process of hand-weaving, itself, when undertaken mindfully, is thought to endow the textile with baraka, or blessings. When complete, the wedding blanket serves not only as warmth and decoration for the bride, but also to ward off evil and to bestow fertility and good luck upon the newlyweds.
Blessings, sequins and beautiful craftsmanship... dreamy!
 

So I tracked down one of the best sources for these vintage quilts, Maryam from My Marrakesh.  She has a variety of these quilts as well as other beautiful rugs, poufs and textiles.

I'm in the process of ordering one from her (which one to be revealed once it arrives) so I will tell you how it goes.

There are other purveyors of these textiles - L'aviva Home carries them as well - but Maryam is considered the expert and a trusted source.  I can't wait to be wrapped up in a blanket made of sequins and dreams.