For lo the winter is past

Ha ha. It snowed yesterday and there's flurries today. And it is cold.
I have been sick for a few days with cold/flu symptoms and this weather is very conducive to staying indoors and catching up.

The sdarim are over and were both lovely. The first night was chez nous and we had 16 people: the usual suspects minus Alissa and family plus Roi and Nicole. Roi (one of my father's former pupils) and his wife, Nicole, came in from Pittsburgh and stayed with us so that was an additional pleasure.
The preparations were relaxed, the seder itself was relaxed and the clean-up was also not terribly daunting.

The second seder we went to Alissa's. Also very, very nice. It was just family -- Alissa and Mel, Sari and David, Johanna, Matty, Aunty Ethel, my mother, Devora and Noam, and Menachem and me. So we were able to carry on conversations without too much hoo ha.

I had been feeling lousy off and on since before Pesach, running nose, itchy eyes, headache, but it developed into fever and chills, so I stayed home Wednesday and yesterday and slept off and on during the daytime and even during the night (something I haven't been doing recently). Today I'm better insofar as fever goes but I think it may be developing into a sinus infection so I'm going to take it easy for the next few days.

This morning, feeling better, I went into my studio to stitch a little. I'm almost almost finished the Heschel piece. I just have to sew on the hanging sleeve, attach a label (still trying to decide what it should say) and perhaps a few bobble and beads at the bottom corners.

I have more or lest finished my UFOs and am now into my WIPs. I want to finish the challah cover, two more cq pink squares and a few other pieced pieces (another blue Auf Simchas trio, and two more pink/purple Auf Simchas trios. I have the Inbal quilt tops to finish, sandwich and quilt, and some other things floating around.

So, that said, I'm off to stitch. And because it is Good Friday and the Easter weekend, there is the most fabulous liturgical music on the radio. Relaxation at its best.

Gefilte fish and tsimmes

One of the reasons I blog is to keep my children who live an ocean away up to date on what's going on in the parental unit's life.

It is erev erev Pesach and we are preparing for the Seder tomorrow evening which will be at our house. I actually started cleaning last week -- cleaning of the heavy-duty once a year variety. I continued yesterday and today.

This morning Menachem made gefilte fish, using his late mother's recipe. While he was "putchking" with the fish, I, as sous chef, peeled a ton of carrots for the tsimmes. So now the fish, tsimmes and vegetarian clear soup are ready, the dining table has been extended, the Pesach dishes have been washed, the list of things to do tomorrow is ready and we're relaxing, sort of, for the rest of the day. Menachem and Yunkie have a basketball game this evening.

Tomorrow, Menachem will make Pesach meringue cookies, chicken with prunes, baked potatoes and yams, roasted vegetables, and a fruit platter. (My mother is bringing her veal roast which, according to the family's carnivores, is delicious, Devora is bringing a salad, Mindy is bringing ratatouille, and Bat-Sheva is bring bits and bites for dessert. And my mother is bringing compote, the traditional anti-dote to matza overload...

We love having the family over but it's always a little sad for us because our kids are so far away...
We are having company, though. One of my father's pupils and his wife, Roi and Nicole, are coming for the Seder from Pittsburgh. Although Nicole has family in Toronto, they have cats and Roi is allergic. So they'll be staying with us. They should be coming this evening.

Anyways, I'm off to nap. I have a cold and it's making me tired.

Chag Sameach to whomever may be reading.
I haven't been in my studio for a while. I haven't been sleeping well so I have trouble getting up early to stitch in the morning and am too tired to stitch in the evening...
Oh well. Hopefully this too shall pass.

Free motion quilting

I have been struggling with free-motion quilting the borders around a cq piece I made. I am not happy with the results and have already ripped out stitches twice. Thankfully, the fabric is forgiving and doesn't show needle marks.

I have been trying to do the fmq free-hand and it just doesn't work for me. I'm finally at a point where the top and bottom stitches are OK and stitch length OK but the pattern isn't.

I will give it one more try, using a pattern I print onto tissue paper which I will attach to the fabric. Either it works or it doesn't. I will not rip out stitches again (on this piece...)

Note to self: take a course in fmq and stop complaining.

Visuals from my last post

These are the two projects I finished from my UFO's which I wrote about in my previous post.

This morning I finished the hanging sleeve on Sari's Auf Simchas and I will give it to Alissa when we visit there later today.

Yesterday afternoon we had a call from Mintzy. Steven (Stephen?) was supposed to come into town yesterday but couldn't. She had made too much food -- would we like to come for dinner? Never being one to turn down a free meal, we said yes and had a lovely evening. Mintzy's cousins, Silka and Al, were there and we laughed a lot. This is a good thing. We didn't get home until 10:30. Not terribly late by general standards, but I'm usually in bed by 8... And this was my third late night in a row.

Busy day today. I am off to my studio to decide which project to pick up next.

Time flies

So, I finished the four brothers. I did simple straight quilting in lines around the perimeter of the centre piece. I did the felt applique several years ago. Since then, I have changed the way I do things. If I had done it more recently, it would have had a different background, been more creatively embellished. However, it turned out quite nicely.

I also finished off a crazy quilt block. This block is one which I should have abandonned after piecing. I wasn't happy with the colour combination. Then I wasn't overly happy with the embellishments because the colour combination limited the colours I could use to get a good contrast. I chose for the border a very colourful print which instead of setting off the centre makes the piece look like one big busy mess. But did I know when I had had enough and quit? No, I soldiered on to the bitter end. I free-motion quilted the borders and as much as I adjusted, the bottom stitches are not even and look awful, but they'll face the wall, right? I sewed on a binding from a fabric which was too thick. And I haven't quite got the binding business under control so there are place where the binding is wider than others.
I shall hang this piece in my studio as a reminder how not to do stuff and as incentive to do better!! BUT I did finish it.

Then I picked up my stalled challah cover. I strip-pieced it ages ago because I thought I would use it for my Pomegranate Guild project. I have had it sandwiched and ready to quilt for quite a while. I wanted to free motion quilt it but chickened out after the first row of stitches which I promptly ripped out. This week, I decided to try out my sewing machine's double needle. The top stitches looked great, the bottom, chalushes, so again I ripped. I think I will try again this weekend. Not sure yet how but I do want to finish it.

Is it obvious that I'm trying to finish my UFO's? Another few weeks and I'll be able to start in on new projects.

I was at the Toronto Art Show at the Metro Convention Centre last night. I saw some interesting fabric related work and other work which inspired me. I took home lots of cards but am not sure I remember which is which... I am writing down their info so that if I ever want to refer to it, I don't have to pull out a gazillion cards.

One artist does landscape painting with fabric snippets. From afar, it actually looks like an oil painting. Only when you get up close do you see the details of tiny pieces of fabric. I think it was Diane Stewart www.shafleyandstewart.com.

Adrianna Steele-Card uses a combination of fabric, fibres and home-made recycled papers to create whimsical collages. www.peaceofmindcreations.com. And she lives not far from Perth so I said I may drop in on her this summer.

Alice Vander Vennen does interesting collages with fabric, metal, found objects, etc. www.alicevandervennen.ca.

Nahid Mrandi does sculpted figures of silk on painted backgrounds. www.nahidart.com

Stephanie Ford Forrester does all hand sewn applique. I was impressed by her even stitches but I don't think they were the size "required" by hand quilters. Still, lots of colour and interesting design. www.stephaniefordforrester.ca

Of course, most of the art wasn't fabric art but afforded lots of ideas about colour and design. In fact, I saw a work in mosaic glass tiles that I am thinking about adapting into a quilted wall hanging. www.filippetti.ca

And stuff which there's no way (I think) I could adapt into my work but still unusual and inspiring such as aluminum bas-relief www.josettemorency.com , paper collage www.janeteglas.com , painting with wonderful colour and imagery www.kojour.ca and this one which I'm not sure her media but I liked the colours, shapes and forms www.monikaaebischer.com.

So that's what I did this week. This evening, we are going to dinner at Boujadi, our favourite Moroccan restaurant, with Joanne. Tomorrow, I'm not sure. I'd like to get over to Yunkie and Mindy's to give Jeremy his birthday present and speak to Alanna about a tallit if she still wants one. Sunday, we have an engagement open house for my friend, Nira's daughter and then we're meeting Alissa and Mel for coffee, either at their place or out somewhere if Mel is feeling up to it. And Sunday night there's classic Israeli folk dancing and I may just join Menachem.
And of course, a little stitching over the weekend never hurts.

Til the next time.

More stuff done

So, I put the pieces of my second robe quilt together. I haven't done the borders. I am going to take out Terry's instructions and follow them to the letter. If they work (and they should), then I will concede defeat, rip out the borders of the first quilt and redo them.

In the meantime, I sandwiched and free-motion quilted another cq block. Now I just have to sew on the binding. Free-motion and I are not friends. I think I need to take a course. I've practiced but it just doesn't come out right. Oh it's OK because the stitch colour is mostly hidden in the background fabric. But I'm still not totally happy.

I also am making progress on the four brothers from the Hagaddah. I sewed borders around the felt piece. I printed from the Hagaddah onto fabric (well, I actually typed in Hebrew into word, enlarged to the desired size and printed onto fabric attached to freezer papter). I am not debating how to attach the printed fabric onto the top and bottom borders and whether to quilt the piece before or after I attach the printed fabric. I tend to think quilt first, attach second.

So I'm on a roll with finishing off stuff. I still have to sew a sleeve onto Sari and David's wedding cq.
I have to sandwich and quilt the piece I made for Heschel. And I have several cq embellishing projects in holding pattern.

And since Pesach is approaching, I am trying to do my spring cleaning and re-organizing/re-arranging.

I had a birthday last week and all three of my children phoned which was very nice. I didn't do anything special to celebrate. DH was all ready to take me out to dinner but I was pooped so we ordered pizza and stayed home. I had bought myself a tooth bonding procedure earlier in the week so that's my birthday present to myself...

Multi-tasking

I wanted to make something for the Pomegranate Guild's 25th anniversary. The theme is "Threads of Identity". I also wanted to finish some UFOs. So I multi-tasked. I took an unfinished embellished felt applique piece I had made fixed a problem or two, and finished it with a quilted border.

The piece is based on a photo of my maternal grandfather and my brother at our family Pesach seder many years ago. I tried to make it even more "Pesachdik" by adding several Jewish elements: the "ke'ara" (Passover plate), a matza cover based on the one I use, which was made by my paternal grandmother, and a hagaddah with the passage "avadim hayinu" in Hebrew printed onto fabric. I also considered putting a wine stain on the tablecloth...

There is a very slight resemblance between my grandfather and my brother in the photo and the appliqued figures but I think it is more warm fuzzy memories at play.

What do you think?

Winter storm

Yesterday we had a winter storm. Well, actually it started Thursday afternoon. The drive home which usually takes 15-20 minutes took close to two hours. I get a lift to and from work from my sister and brother-in-law who live near me. We were about 2 minutes drive from my house, stopped at the lights and the traffic wasn't moving. In the end, I told them to drop me off there and turn back to their house. It took me less time to walk the rest of the way than it would have to be driven.

Friday morning at about 2 a.m., the power went off. Many trees fell in the storm and took the power lines with them. When I woke up, there was no power and it was snowing/sleeting/freezing raining/raining so we decided not to go into work. Which might have been great if the power had been on. Because when the power is off: a) no electrical appliances (kettle, microwave, toaster, tv, radio, I'm sure you get the picture) and b) the furnace doesn't work i.e. no heat and c) no sewing machine!!

Fortunately, we have a gas range so at least we could boil water for coffee and later made soup.

I do have a hand-cranked sewing machine but haven't used it for at least 30 years and was too lazy to open it, set it up, etc. So I decided to do hand sewing work. I used to do felt applique and had a piece based on a family photograph I had started but never knew how to finish it. Yesterday it came to me. I finished the hand detailing and when the power came back on at 2 p.m., I finished assembling and quilting the piece. Now I just have to sew on the binding. I will submit this piece for the Pomegranate Guild's 25th anniversary but I really haven't been keeping up so I don't know if they have all the pieces they need or are still open for more submissions.

And now off to ponder what my next project will be.

Quilting Friends

Now that our computer has been rehabilitated, I can share photos of my IJQ quilting friends. On the left is my visit with Shulamit. She does lovely work and is now working on embellished crazy quilting. She also showed me some of her quilting projects. I was amazed when she told me that for many of the techniques she has done she simply followed instructions in magazines such as Quilting Arts. I am a very visual learner and usually have to have something demonstrated to me. I read instructions and blank.







This is a photo of my visit with Klara. She is an amazing artist and showed me some of her work and her studio. Earlier that day, I had been in Bustan Hagalil and seen some of her work which is on display in a museum/studio there.










This is a photo from my visit with Marlyn (to my left) and Sue and Terry in Terry's studio. The quilt in the background is one of Terry's.

From these visits, I came home inspired and set to work on Inbal's quilt whose top I have just completed. Please see the previous post for details.

I want to again thank my Israeli quilting friends for their encouragement and inspiration. They really made our trip most pleasurable.

Quilt Top Finished

This is the finished quilt top. It came out a little wonky -- some of the fabrics I used were stretchy.

The story behind the quilt? There is one fabric here which is from a robe I bought on the occasion of my daughter Inbal's birth 35 years ago. The fabric is a white background with a black, brown and yellow design. I tried to choose fabrics which either matched in colour, or had an interesting texture. So the bright yellow and the white, black and yellow fabric are waffled, and the solid black is corduroy.

I have yet to figure out how to quilt it. I will machine quilt but what kind of a pattern, I don't know. Also, I think it's a little too big for a crib quilt and the colours would probably scare a baby, so it will be a lap quilt.

And I may yet cut the border into wavy shapes as well.

Any suggestions how to make a wonky quilt less wonky?

Breathtaking

My quilt is breathtaking, if I do say so myself. I have finished piecing over half of the blocks and laid them out on the floor to see how it would look. I am so pleased. I think I will make two smaller quilts. I tried putting two blocks from the robe fabric in among the pieced blocks but they get swallowed up. Maybe if I give them a black border to set them off. Otherwise, I will leave them out. But I have used robe fabric in the piecing. And already have an idea to use the blocks in yet another quilt...

Our computer at home is sick with a virus and I'm not sure when (if) it will be well. In the meantime, I can't post photos but soon, I hope.

Inbal's quilt --started

Actually, I got started on Sunday. I made the cut out templates on freezer paper, ironed them onto the fabrics in stacks of three and four and started. I have three "lots" of fabrics and each lot will be 14 squares. The quilt calls for 48 squares. I plan to use 3 or 4 squares of the robe fabric as squares themselves (not pieced) and another 2-3 squares of light coloured fabric appliqued with robe motifs to make up the difference.

I started the first lot and finished half of the squares on Sunday. I finished the other half yesterday morning. I now have to stitch before and/or after my regular work day. I left work early yesterday. I took some sinus medication and I think a took a little too much and it just made me so drowsy. So following the instructions not to operate heavy machinery (i.e. my sewing machine) while using the medication.... I waited until the evening when I was awake to sew a few blocksk of lot 2. It is now 5:30 a.m. and I am waiting for DH to wake up so I can sew a few more.

At this rate, it should take me at least a week to piece the blocks. Hopefully I'll finish early this weekend and start playing at arranging them. I am having thoughts about making the blocks into several smaller quilts instead of one large, but I'll have to see where I am once I finish the blocks.

I also have to get back to the cq-ing. My work room is now set up so I have a separate areas for sane quilting and crazy quilting. It's just a matter of getting back into a routine.

Off to stitch.

Organized

I set myself a goal today of organizing my sewing room. Instead of having my three tables in a cluster in the centre of the room, I have arranged them against the walls. This gives me a feeling of more space and limits the surface space for mess.
I set up one table for cq-ing and another for fabric cutting. I have been using a folding wooden TV table for my sewing machine and I set up another one beside it to use as an ironing surface for when I'm assembling blocks, so I don't have to get up each time to iron after I sew a seam. We'll see how it works.

Although I had previously searched high and low for the strip scraps from my onion quilt, I hadn't searched high enough. I found them inside a box on top of my storage wall unit. I had an idea to make coasters. I may try that tomorrow. I want to shuffle and cut the pieces for my new quilt tomorrow also. Hopefully, the new and improved space will be conducive to creativity.

I am still jet-lagged but hoping to get back into a routine of stitching in the mornings and evenings.

I'm back

We returned a week ago from Israel. I have been so jet-lagged that I fall asleep early each afternoon/evening and wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. Before going away, I was usually in bed by 8, asleep by 9, and sometimes up at 2 or 3 a.m., so you could ask what's the difference... Energy is the difference. So I decided to give myself a week before I hop into my old routines.

I came back without energy but with plans to reorganize my sewing room and jump into several projects, hopefully this weekend.

Our primary reason for visiting Israel was to see our children, family and old friends. Dynamics have changed and change is always challenging. Aside from the children, family and old friends, I used this trip to meet "new" friends, of the internet and quilting variety. And came back energized and inspired.

So I'm jumping in with both feet and starting on a new quilt. It's based on a pattern in Karla Alexander's "Stack a New Deck". And it's special because I am using fabric from a robe I bought on the occasion of Inbal's birth (she'll be 35 in May...) and fabrics I've been collecting over the past two years in Perth, Toronto and Israel.

I started cutting up the fabrics (22 different patterns) this morning. I'm sure the piecing won't take more than a week or so, an hour here, an hour there. I'm excited. And I intend to quilt this one myself -- que sera sera.

I purchased all kinds of findings, ribbons, threads, stamps, etc. in Israel, received all kinds of the same from my new friends and hope to use them on my cq.

I also want to do a piece for the Pomegranate 25th anniversary exhibit. So I've got to get busy!!

I'll post my progress.

Off to, hopefully, sunny Israel

OK. So I'm squeezing in one final post before we go this evening.

Here are two more finished shadow boxes. The boxes were made by Menachem.

Yesterday I put together a six block naked blue and white quilt. This morning Menachem had to go the bank so he dropped me off on the way and I picked up a piece of velvet for the quilt borders. Then we went to the thread store for silk ribbons but the shop is closed Mondays. Bummer. I hope I can get silk ribbon in Israel. And we ordered the cab to take us to the airport.

This morning we packed and we're ready to go. A little confusion about what can go on the plane and what can't but hopefully there won't be any problems at the airport.

Off to stitch to kill time.

My posts are getting farther and farther apart

I've just been too tired or busy to post daily.

We're going to Israel tomorrow so we've been busy getting ready (i.e. shopping for gifts and requests).
We finally finished most of the shopping yesterday and only had a few errands left for today.

Early this morning, I cut out and sewed six cq blocks, standard pattern, using blues and whites, royal blue and light blue duppioni silk left over from Dori's chuppah, navy blue a synthetic something from someone's shortened dress pants from a seamstress, and highly textured whites from Ruthie's wedding dress, Bat-Sheva's and mine.

Then we went to Mintzy's to borrow a suitcase. We usually travel with two suitcases each, filled with stuff for our kids and other people. This time, we have a little less to shlep and hopefully will be able to get away with two large suitcases. But we lent our suitcases to people who bought more than they had expected while here -- Ami in the summer and the kids when they visited. So I borrowed one from Mintzy. We usually return with at least one or two empty suitcases and this time shouldn't be any different.

Rotem had asked for some books which were only both available at Indigo Hwy & and Yonge. We picked those up and then went down to say goodbye to my mother.

Returned home and decided to sew this six cq blocks into a quilt. I don't have fabric yet to sew the borders -- I'll look for some in Israel, so I just zigzagged the edges in the meantime so the fabrics don't fray too much. Then I spent most of the afternoon arranging cq stuff to take with me to work on in Israel. I haven't finished that yet but am working on it.

I also am playing with the idea of making a cq wallhanging for the POM exhibition based on Shivat Haminim. I am still in the "thinking about it" stage but I sort of know what I want to do. I'll have to see if it can be done.

And I had some unfinished Pomegranate Guild business to take care of which I did.

So now it's 5 p.m. and my eyes are too tired to sew and I think I'm going to go watch mindless TV for a while...

I may post tomorrow, maybe even pictures, maybe not. Anyways, I will try to post with photos while I'm away but if not, at least I hope to take photos to post when I return.

Ciao.

My posts are getting farther and farther apart

I've just been too tired or busy to post daily.

We're going to Israel tomorrow so we've been busy getting ready (i.e. shopping for gifts and requests).
We finally finished most of the shopping yesterday and only had a few errands left for today.

Early this morning, I cut out and sewed six cq blocks, standard pattern, using blues and whites, royal blue and light blue duppioni silk left over from Dori's chuppah, navy blue a synthetic something from someone's shortened dress pants from a seamstress, and highly textured whites from Ruthie's wedding dress, Bat-Sheva's and mine.

Then we went to Mintzy's to borrow a suitcase. We usually travel with two suitcases each, filled with stuff for our kids and other people. This time, we have a little less to shlep and hopefully will be able to get away with two large suitcases. But we lent our suitcases to people who bought more than they had expected while here -- Ami in the summer and the kids when they visited. So I borrowed one from Mintzy. We usually return with at least one or two empty suitcases and this time shouldn't be any different.

Rotem had asked for some books which were only both available at Indigo Hwy & and Yonge. We picked those up and then went down to say goodbye to my mother.

Returned home and decided to sew this six cq blocks into a quilt. I don't have fabric yet to sew the borders -- I'll look for some in Israel, so I just zigzagged the edges in the meantime so the fabrics don't fray too much. Then I spent most of the afternoon arranging cq stuff to take with me to work on in Israel. I haven't finished that yet but am working on it.

I also am playing with the idea of making a cq wallhanging for the POM exhibition based on Shivat Haminim. I am still in the "thinking about it" stage but I sort of know what I want to do. I'll have to see if it can be done.

And I had some unfinished Pomegranate Guild business to take care of which I did.

So now it's 5 p.m. and my eyes are too tired to sew and I think I'm going to go watch mindless TV for a while...

I may post tomorrow, maybe even pictures, maybe not. Anyways, I will try to post with photos while I'm away but if not, at least I hope to take photos to post when I return.

Ciao.

Fuschia & Hot Pink Shadow Box Series

I am working on a series of six shadow boxes. Why six? Because I used the same pattern and "shuffled" the colours. The fabrics are family fabrics -- the whites are from family wedding dresses, the pink moire from a wedding dress and the fuschia and hot pink dupionni silk are leftovers from Sari's chuppah.
I have three finished shadowboxes (I will post more later) and one almost finished. I actually had it in the frame but decided one area needed a bit more... The remaining two blocks are seam embroidered and I'm working now on the motifs.

I signed up for TAST -- Take a Stitch Tuesday, organized by Sharon Boggon of www.inaminuteago.com but am having trouble keeping up. Each week, she demonstrates a particular stitch and the challenge is to work on it, in any medium -- sampler, postcard, cq block -- and post the results on our blogs, flickr accounts,etc.

I am amazed by the creativity of some of the challenge participants. I started using a postcard format but it is just too limiting. I think I will change to sampler format. I will do a few row of straightforward stitching and then "borrow" the ideas of others to complete the sampler. So far there have only been three stitches so I should be able to catch up.

We are going to Israel next week to visit the children. There have been many changes in their lives recently and these changes are going to be a challenge to all of us. I am hoping I can be a supportive parent.

I am going to try to make this a fabric related excursion, seeing as many textile exhibits as possible and discovering new fabric/textile/findings sources. And meeting some of my internet textile friends. I will try to post from there a travelogue of sorts.

Herringbone stitch

The challenge was to use the herringbone stitch. This 4" X 6" format has four seams.
The top seam is done with a double herringbone stitch, couched over a piece of ribbon. The bottom row of stitches is gold coloured perle cotton (haven't learned the numbers yet) and the top is a velvet thread.

The bottom seam is burgundy DMC or similar thread, three strands and has a gold mesh type thread woven through the stitches.

The top and bottom stitches I prefer because they are very precise in their size and shape.

The right hand seam is done in a copper DMC -type thread. I tried to make the stitches random in their height and width.

The left hand seam is done in a ribbon like thead, don't know what it's called. I made these stitches short and very close together.

I went outside of my "box" on the left and right seams and I guess that is what the challenge is all about. I don't like the results.

However, from the results of the other participants, I saw some lovely ideas and may just give them a try.

So thanks to Sharon for getting us started and all whose ideas enrich my own stitch repertoire.

Just under the wire

I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last post. So much for my New Year's resolution to blog daily...
But I had a good excuse -- Rotem and Efrat were here for nine action-packed days. We went to St. Jacob's (centre of Mennonite quilting in Ontario) and Niagara Falls, and did the rounds of family and friends. It was fun.

I did get a little stitching done but just remembered on Saturday that it was week one of Take a Stitch Tuesday -- TAST for short. So I quickly did a 4" X 6" piece which I can't seem to find the photo image of right now. I will post it and my comments a little later.