People love to share their ideas and culture. Ask them to bring in handcrafted items for show and tell. This will help you get ideas. If quilters are not fluent in English and have an idea, you could have them draw pictures.
Let them know you are not familiar with their culture and customs and to teach you about them...especially about the icons one cannot copy or designs that are not appropriate for the type of project you are creating and its intended use.
This is a prefect opportunity for you and the Afghan quilters to learn about language and culture.
Have fun with it!
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P.S. Ask around you may find an ESL (English as a Second Language) or EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher who is a quilter and may offer to teach English classes....or a teacher who is willing to barter.