Lime Green Suzani Cushion Cover with Coral Medallion

A coral and pale blue medallion fills nearly the whole of a lime green ground, symmetrical on both axes, with black hooks and small white flowers packed into every gap. It is the densest embroidery in the section — the ground barely shows.

Product details

• Product type: suzani cushion cover — cover only, insert not included
• Hand-embroidered in silk on a cotton ground: basma couching for the solid shapes, yurma chain stitch for the outlines and vines
• Size: 50 × 50 cm (20 × 20 in); fit a 55 cm insert for a full cushion
• Closure: concealed zip across the back
• Backing: plain handwoven ikat, usually beige, so the zip never crosses the embroidery
• Main colours: lime green with coral, pale blue and black
• Motif: a dense symmetrical medallion filling the whole square
• Cut from a vintage Soviet-era suzani, not an antique — Uzbekistan does not permit antique textiles to leave the country
• One of a kind: cut from a single suzani, so no two covers are the same
• Care: Remove the insert. Dry-clean by preference; a separate cool machine wash in a bag with no spin is allowed. Press on the reverse over a towel and keep it out of direct sun

Where it goes

A loud cover and it knows it; give it a plain sofa and nothing else patterned nearby. See the rest of the suzani cushion covers, the whole suzani panels they are cut from, or a plain ikat cushion cover to sit beside it.

How this suzani is made

A suzani is a dowry cloth: cotton strips laid out, the design drawn on in ink, then embroidered in silk by several women of one household and joined up at the end. The filling is basma, a laid-and-couched stitch that lets the silk sit flat and catch the light; the outlines and vines are yurma chain stitch. A cushion is cut from such a cloth so that one whole motif sits square in the panel, and sewn up in our workshop in Bukhara.

Availability

This cover is sold. Each one is cut from a different suzani, so this exact panel cannot be repeated — but we cut new covers from other embroidered cloth all the time. Tell us what you are after and we will send photographs of what is on the table.