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Lilo talks with artist Elisabeth Strub Madzar while visiting Istanbul.

Internationally recognized artist Elisabeth Strub Madzar came to Istanbul in 1965 from Paris.  She began her quilting journey by studying with Sevin Hanif in 1987.  Over the course of two years, Sevin taught Elisabeth the techniques needed for all areas of hand piecing and hand quilting.  At the time, her father-in-law had a company that required him to travel and visit villages around Turkey. Elisabeth often joined him on these trips.  As a woman and an artist, she was able to get to know many of the women in the villages they visited.  She was enchanted by the beautifully handmade and hand-embroidered textiles that were kept in hope chests as part of each woman's trousseau.   Many pieces had been handed down by the women in the family from generation to generation, especially items of great value, such as hand-woven linen/silk embroidered with silver or gold threads.

Elisabeth's work includes fragments of fragile and otherwise unusable textiles, as a way to give honor to their original creators.  She says that by preserving and including these antique pieces, they in turn are reborn to live again.  Whether the pieces find their way into a quilt or a paper maché object, it is about respecting the past.

Next week we will tour Elisabeth's studio and share some of her work.

For more information about Elisabeth's week-long study course (which includes, room & board, class instruction and inspirational tours) send an email here.

Purchase Elisabeth's book Turkish Patchwork by QUILTMANIA.