Place

Northern Greece

Date

1950s

DIMENSIONS in centimetres

184 x 120

Materials & techniques

Wool; Hand woven

Credit

Gift of Soula and Janie Kallinis

ID

Textile Museum of Canada T2008.21.1

Although this blanket looks like a typical Canadian overshot coverlet, it was made in Northern Greece, in Macedonia, by Maria Kallinis (1934–1988). She wove it from her family’s sheep’s wool that she hand-spun and dyed with chemical dyes in vivid red, a popular colour in traditional Macedonian textiles. She made it in her family home before she left in 1958 for Belgium and then travelled to Canada. Maria’s daughters make a connection between this textile and their great-grandfather’s trip to Canada in 1903 to work for the Canadian Northern Railway. They think he might have taken a Canadian overshot blanket back to Macedonia when he returned, which inspired Maria to make her own in this design. She was an accomplished weaver, and this blanket was one of many textiles she made for her family.
 
Homemade textiles were not unusual in Greece in 1950s when the majority of the population lived in rural areas and agriculture was the main source of family income. A small primitive loom that was easy to dismantle was in every house, and women processed wool sheared from their own sheep – washing, carding, and spinning it themselves. Wool blankets and coverlets were made for a woman’s dowry chest and also for sale to supplement the family’s income.