Open for Tatreez Commissions 🌟 I can help you to enhance your existing wardrobe with Palestinian solidarity ❤️ or I can source objects to be stitched on. I work on hats, shirts, bags, jackets, cuff bracelets, pillowcases, and much more!
I have some weeks ahead of me that are open and flexible, where I'd like to raise some funds for families of my friend in Gaza. DM me with any ideas or requests and we can discuss cost and timeline. 🌸 🌼
We could mutually agree on labor that is as little as 40 EUR and up (depending on size and complexity). My plan is 100% donation, but depending on the request, I may need to get certain supplies to make it happen. 🙏
#tatreez #handmade
COMING SOON 🌻
Notes to Self is a documentary‑style podcast built from the real notes I save on my phone. The messy ones, the tender ones, the half‑thoughts I promise myself I’ll come back to. I turn those little fragments into stories about identity, work, belonging, and the quiet moments that shape a life lived between places.
My deepest appreciation to @birdhouse.berlin for inviting me and a few friends to exhibit art at @refugeworldwide at a fundraiser called Threads of Liberation to help support our Gaza families. Thank you for this beautiful initiative and evening of solidarity and support ❤️
I share here the pieces I exhibited along with a few selections exhibited by my talented friends @jomana_haithem@artsysumi@shoxnerdbox@waterandseeds.threadsofhope
This summer and autumn, I recreated a relatively small side panel from a Yaffa traditional thobe, as documented by Widad Kawar and Tania Nasser in the book “Palestinian Embroidery: The Traditional Fallahi Stitch” that I also saw on some dresses at @tirazcentre (2nd picture).
My paternal side is exiled from Yaffa. If they had fled south, I too might have been in Gaza right now. I am obsessed with the amulets, hoping for their protection in our lives. I used a purple and a turquoise that reminded me of Gaza, as a connection between us.
Hanging in a private gallery in Cairo.
I collected these plants when I visited Palestine for the first time in 2024. I finally framed them today. My goal back then was to go to Palestine once in my lifetime. But since then, my goals have grown substantially. Now, I want more. I want everything. I have to dream big and hope. There is no other option for me.
I don't feel alone today, I feel surrounded by the grief and shame of every human being of conscious who is also witnessing the live-streamed genocide of my people, supported by all of our governments in diaspora.
The pressed plants left ghostly impressions in my Palestine journal. I burned waraq ghar before putting my Palestine journal back on the shelf. There are many blank pages, which I hope to fill one day when I return. What if?
November 2019, I wrote this in Lisbon while looking out at the water. It still holds true to this day but has a different sense after over 600 days of live-streamed genocide.
My life constantly feels surreal. I'm sometimes not sure if I'm navigating a continuous dream or a never-ending nightmare. One year ago, I returned to Palestine for the first time. It is impossible to really capture it in a few words except that it was incredibly emotional.
Of course, I was grateful to go and realize that very few of my family could make such a journey due to the different risks we each carry. But I also felt so heartbroken that I couldn't stay. Going was exceptionally difficult. Leaving felt treacherous.
In my imagination, there were many souls with me, and that felt both comforting and overwhelming. I purposefully didn't visit the cities of my family because I was not prepared to face those realities alone. I hope we all return soon.
These are some of my less private journal pages, in a beautiful yellow leather notebook @tufa7tain gifted me 🌼
One lesson I learned from the genocide is that we must celebrate Palestinian lives, Palestinian mothers and daughters, Palestinian elders every chance we get.
Last week, my sisters @_fida_writes and @tatreezandtea and I invited the community to celebrate Mama @feryal.abbasi.ghnaim and her lifetime achievement of practicing and passing down tatreez, along with many stories, traditions, history, and values to the next generations.
This marked Mama's birthday, and also a significant moment in my life where it feels like everything is changing inside me. Mama lost one of her sisters, our Khaltoo Hana, a couple of weeks ago. We wanted to celebrate her importance as well. Losing her generation feels scary to me, especially during the genocide. Our souls cannot handle anymore losses.
Even if it feels hard, we have to live and celebrate while we can. We have no idea how much time we get together.
Thank you @swanarosepdx@impinsandimneedles@entangledrootspress for bringing this dream to life. Thank you @suzytamimi for being with us in this significant moment and feeling like a long lost sister. Thank you @waterandseeds.threadsofhope for your beautiful painting which helped bring attention to our Gaza contacts (including your cousins).
My mom and dad are my closest connection to Palestine. As their generation grows older, I get a stark reminder that after them, I need to be the culture keeper to pass on our Palestinian values and stories to the next generation.
I feel so existential and unprepared. But I also recognize it is my duty in diaspora to take this role seriously and approach it with care.
Since October 2023, so much has been destroyed. The genocide in Gaza has forever changed me. And so much in my life has come undone. Even though we can not truly rebuild what has been broken, I hope whatever we build next will be great. I hope the future shines brightly for us.
Artwork: "A letter to the women of the world" (1985) by mama
✨️Which stories do you carry with you everywhere?✨️
There is a famous Beersheba tradition of women who have suffered tragedy of becoming a widow, embroidering blue on their black dresses. Then, when they re-marry, they don't start from scratch — no, they add new vibrant colors throughout the blue. It demonstrates the continuation of life and the stories we bear testimony to along our life's paths.
In Amman, I got hold of some of this machine made blue on black, and it spoke to me: the genocide in Gaza is man-made from machine-like structures of oppression, dominantion, and is technologically-assisted (with AI). I wanted to record my testimony of bearing witness to this absolute stain on humanity every day for over 600 days.
And, I wanted to demonstrate hope with the bright colors. Hope for a better future, hope for our Gaza friends (and long lost family) to experience liberation, justice, freedom, and the lives they've always dreamed of. As part of the diaspora, I feel one of my primary obligations is to keep the hope alive.
Thanks to my friend whose music also gives me hope and makes me dream, for letting me sew up his jacket, too.
And thank you to @waterandseeds.threadsofhope for some of her stitches, too. Help us support her family in Gaza (a few links on her page and in my bio)
Upcoming Exhibition: Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim: A Celebration of Palestinian Embroidery 🩷
You are warmly invited to join us June 28 & 29, 2025 for an intimate exhibition, curated by me and my sisters, in honor of my mother’s extraordinary contributions to the field of Palestinian embroidery at SWANA Rose Culture + Community Center in Portland, Oregon.
🎟️ Tickets are nearly sold out for the curator tour and stitching circle on June 29. If you would like to join us, register now and snag the few tickets left! 💌 Everyone, near and far, is welcome to sign the digital birthday card to share your love and gratitude for my mother. Especially my former students!
🌷Public viewing hours are held June 28 & 29, entry is first come, first serve with donation. 🌿 Donate to support this labor of love and help us cover the costs of this exhibition.
Go to the link in bio to sign the digital card, donate, and register for events.
#Tatreez #FeryalAbbasiGhnaim #PalestinianEmbroidery #TatreezAndTea
If you’ve learned anything from me through my classes, publications, or public events… then you’ve learned from my mother. She is the root of it all, and the lineage of oral history that I bring to every lecture and class.
This June, during the exhibition, she’ll be celebrating a very special birthday. 🩷 You’re warmly invited to leave a message on her digital birthday card, which we’ll present to her during the opening ceremonies.
The link is in my bio. No account needed—just a few words from the heart to bring her some joy. Please share the card widely. #tatreez #tatreezandtea
