Our Story One day we were having coffee and decided to start a project. We’re bringing together the old and the new, inspired by the feisty women of our families and the dusty sewing machines of our grandmothers, to create a project we call Ibra wa Khayt, needle and thread. With Weeam’s obsession with having a thobe made, and Tamara’s fixation with the sherwal pants she added her grandmother's embroidery to, Ibra wa Khayt was born. Each piece of embroidery tells a story. These pieces are handmade, and have been revived from older pieces that represent various phases of our tumultuous history and a changing, yet resilient cultural heritage. They tell the story of Occupation, dispossession, and the Palestinian Diaspora. By that same token, they tell the stories of celebration of life and the rich history of the villages they come from. Today however, we only see the gorgeous embroidery worn by our grandmothers or at weddings and other formal events. They remind us of a time past of old cobblestone streets and the connection to our fields of olive groves and citrus trees. This is a way to wear a piece of your own history and tradition in a modern way, not forgetting where we come from and the responsibility we have to our community. The quest for the perfect (and sometimes quirky) pieces of embroidery and fabric has taken us to different parts of Palestine, from old city markets, to refugee camps, and damp storage rooms. Through this (small…for now) project, we’ve also had our fair share of adventures, laughs, and negotiations (but far less tedious than type of negotiations we’ve all grown sick of hearing about…plus we have something to show for it! (if anyone is FB friends with a certain Palestinian negotiator ehm…tag him here)) with local suppliers, tailors, seamstresses, and other small business owners. All our pieces are made locally – from start to finish – baladi miya bil miya yama! With all of that being said, we are happy to launch Ibra wa Khayt and hope that you love these pieces as much as we do. (Yes, Zeina, we know you love them as much as we do too!) Our Pieces Each piece tells a story. Each piece is unique – no two are the same because no two pieces of embroidery are the same. Each piece of embroidery comes from a different village, town, or city around Palestine. They come from different eras, different generations, and come in unique colors, and styles, reflecting the diverse personalities of the women that made them and the villages they come from. They are pieces of actual thiab that have been worn by the resilient women we call Mama, Sitti, Ukhti, Amti, Khalti, Binti…. We take the pieces we find to the women of our villages and refugee camps and ask them to identify the name of the village, the name of the embroidery style, and the time period they came from. If your embroidery has a story, we’ll share it with you.