Suzani or Needlework Cover / Hanging

Eight great wheels of embroidery roll across a deep red ground, two rows of four, nobody out of step.

This suzani or needlework cover and hanging comes from Surkhandarya, Uzbekistan, and dates to the 20th century. It is cotton and silk. Suzanis were traditionally embroidered by women for a bride's dowry and hung or spread at weddings and in the home, their medallions often read as suns or blossoms. Here each medallion is ringed in green or dark purple with lobed edges, enclosing circles of blue and white around a small star. A border of sprigged flowers runs inside a dark edging. It is 63 inches wide and 91 long.

A room with this on the wall does not lack for sunshine.