Embroidery Challenge - continued

 I should have read the instructions.  Not only did I get the size wrong, I am also supposed to incorporate the calendar, Hebrew or otherwise, in the piece. Back to the drawing board.

Embroidery Challenge

The Pomegranate Guild announced last April-ish a year-long embroidery challenge.  The idea was to "make a pie" with 12 segments, and embroider each, or something to that effect.  Shirley has been faithfully sharing with us at our L&S meetings embroidery stitch videos from the internet.  Some of the stitches I knew. Some I never heard of, and being inherently lazy, some I will never learn or use.  Since we're approaching the March meeting reveal, I figured I better get cracking. 

My "pie" is actually a structured crazy quilt circle with 12 pieces.  I took an embellished crazy quilting course online years ago with Sharon Boggon.  I was uncomfortable with putting together the fabrics with a piece in the middle and adding on one side at a time because you don't know what what the "naked" finished block will look like.  I prefer to know in advance so when I do crazy quilting, I use an existing pattern (thank you, internet) or make my own. 

I also decided to use my wedding dress stash as the background fabric.

So I based my circle on a 14" embroidery hoop which is how I will display it.  I drew a 14" circle on freezer paper, divided it into 4 and then divided each of the 4 segments into 3.  I now had 12 pieces.  I cut out each freezer paper piece, ironed it onto the fabric, cut it out adding a 1/4" seam around each piece as I cut, and then sewed together The pieced circle was then sewn around the perimeter to a piece of batting.  I like to stitch with a batting layer so that you don't see my sloppy stitches and improper knots through the top fabric.  Don't judge me.

So this is my first pass through of the embroidered seams.  I will continue to build up the seams with embroidery and perhaps some beading. 

I have two yellow seams which can barely be discerned.  Will have to remedy that. 

And the needle at the bottom is stuck in a piece of my wedding dress fabric.  For a mini dress, I'm getting a lot of mileage from that fabric!

I've got the Blues

 And my final task for today, to present the following works, in blues or framed in blue.

For the Pomegranate Guild's 25th anniversary, each member made a shadow box.  I called mine "Layers" because it had layers of fabrics, stitches, beading and embellishments, and meaning.

The white fabric at the bottom right is a piece of my wedding dress.  I wore a mini at my wedding and have used an amazing amount of this fabric in my work, considering there was so little to start with.  The white fabric on the left is from my cousin Ruthie's wedding gown.  The middle white fabric is source unknown, but the tree is made from pieces of one of my father's ties.  I was in my embellished crazy quilt phase then.  And the button cluster in the top left corner brings me full circle to the recent button presentation Gwen and I did for the Guild.

OK.  I don't know how to rotate the picture or the following ones.

This piece is called "Degrees of Separation" as was made for a Pomegranate Exhibit "People of the Book".  I made an accordion book, which reads from left to right.

Page One: Tzena Urena is found in the Song of Songs.

 Page Two: (again sorry about the orientation) is my representation of the choral Tzena Urena of Yehezkel Braun.  Did I mention that I used to sing soprano in an a cappella choir?

Page 3: Tzena Urena in Yiddish from a Yiddish translation of the Song of Songs.  Tzena Urena was also the name for a Yiddish language prose book c. 1590s, which was considered the Women's Bible, as women for the most part were not taught Lashon Hakodesh (Hebrew) of the Torah.  Did I mention that I studied Yiddish at U of T for my BA?

 Page Four:  The banjo is a nod to Pete Seeger and his popularization of Tsena Tsena as a folk song. Did I mention that I sang folk music is my youth?

Page Five: the words of Tzena Urena in a Hebrew word cloud.

I didn't have six pages so I couldn't do six degrees of separation...

And finally:

This little piece (about 12" square square) was another POM challenge to make something monochromatic.  Another piece of my wedding dress, my sister's too, buttons, beads, embroidery, etc., framed in blue. And on the back,

the bobbin thead for the quilting was done in rainbow colours.

So I have accomplished all the tasks I set for myself for today.  Yeah me!

 

Papermaking - Take Two

 So I decided to try papermaking again.  My first attempt was so so.  I put threads into my first attempt so all of the paper turned out pink.  And the whole thing was messy.

So I consulted with my new best friend, youtube for a simple papermaking method.

First of all, you don't need a blender to make the pulp.  After the paper sits in water for a few hours, you can mush it up between your fingers.  Since I don't like getting my hands dirty, I opted for the blender.  I had, after all, invested in it.

In stead of a regular deckle, I used a plastic embroidery hoop (small so it would fit over my foil pan.  I put the bottom of the hoop into a nylon stocking, tied both ends, and put the top of the hoop on tightly.

I put the hoop onto the contraption below.  The contraption is a foil baking pan with rigid plastic embroidery netting, and bulldog clipped the plastic to the foil pan.

 

I put the hoop onto the plastic netting like this:

and poured the pulp onto the nylon and let it drip into the pan.

I covered the pulp with a mesh bag

and pressed down with the sponge to absorb and squeeze out any excess liquid.

When the sponge came up dry and the dripping into the pan stopped, I carefully peeled off the mesh bag.  Then I carefully flipped the hoop onto a piece of fleece (or you could use a towel).

 

 

About 10 sheets of 8 1/2" X 11" gives enough pulp for four 6" paper circles, maybe more if the pulp is watered down more.  It appears that the paper will be relatively thick - I will check tomorrow.  And if you don't want circles, instead of the embroidery hoop, you can use 2 dollar store picture frames.

And the best thing of all, I just tipped the excess water from the foil tray into the sink - it didn't have any pulp in it so no worries about clogging the sink.  The only thing to wash - rinse off the nylon stocking covered hoop and rinse out the blender cup.

And the whole thing took maybe 1/2 an hour from blended pulp to paper. Paper shredding was only a few minutes.  I let the paper sit in warm water in the blender for about two hours before blending it.

Hope this helps.  Questions?

My "Day Off"

 On my way to retirement, I started a few months ago to take Wednesdays off.  So I work  9-5 Mondays and Tuesdays, and Thursdays and Fridays.

My day off is supposed to let me recharge my batteries.  I save all my doctor and dentist appointments and other errands for Wednesday.  Often I just sit and read.

I decided that today I would be productive.  So far I have substantially finished the second Torah Tie Project book back.

I also have planned a second paper-making session - the paper has been soaking for a few  hours.  I will post the results later.

And finally, I wanted to post some previous work.  So maybe posts later.

Ambivalence

 

My photography is awful but I kind of like this piece.  It was made for an exhibit of the Israeli Artists Group of Toronto.  The exhibit never happened.  The piece was supposed to represent my ambivalent feelings about being Israeli and Canadian and living in the diaspora.  I chose to use the Yehuda Halevi's poem - My heart is in the east and I am in the uttermost west.  I fused the Hebrew lettering onto organza and fused that onto fancy fabric strips.  The background between the strips is from my wedding fabrics stash.  The English phrase was also fused onto dark blue silk and that was fused onto fabric which I had snow dyed - how much more can I be in the uttermost west (and north) to do snow dyeing?

I was unable to be a member of the Israeli Artists Group as their meetings were on the same day as the Pomegranate Guild's.  I wonder IAG is still active?  Note to self - check it out.

 

Pomegranates

I guess you figured out by now that I am a proud member of the Toronto Pomegranate Guild.

When Covid started, when I was still at home before I returned to the office, I got busy working on various projects.  The first one was a piece I started after visiting Lorraine Roy's studio tour.  She is a Canadian fibre artist who does amazing work representing trees.

I was inspired to do a piece based on  pomegranates.  I started the background with a grid of 6 blocks by 6 blocks of wedding fabrics, for a grid of 36 blocks, each block being about 3" so each row, horizontally and vertically is about 18".  I call it Chai-ish because it is never exactly 18".  I placed two pomegranates - one a representation of a vertical cut and the other, a horizontal cut. The idea was to connect the pomegranates by stitching and beading in a swirling pattern.  I got as far as the first few inches of the swirl and the project stalled.  Covid restarted it.  It took longer than I thought it would but I found the repetitive stitching and beading to be meditative.

 

When I finished it, I looked for another project in my UFO's.  Well, not really a UFO.  I had a pomegranate which I had made for a Pomegranate Guild exhibit.  Each member made an approximately 6" square pomegranate, in any textile medium they wished, and all the pomegranates were inserted in a grid frame.  When the exhibit was taken down, each member got their pomegranate back.  And it sat in my sewing room waiting for something.

 

I decided to make a companion piece to my first Chai-ish.  I put the pomegranate in the centre of a solid white background satiny fabric.  I then embroidered and beaded 36 spokes from the centre to the edges.   I decided to meditate a little less so the embroidery and beading on this one is like the first, but on steroids.

I now have two Chai-ish pieces which currently reside on the living room wall instead of the chuppah which stayed in Israel after the backyard wedding but that's a story for another day.

 

Stitch Camp

 I signed up for Textile Artist Org's "Stitch Camp", a free 5 day online course to make an art piece.  I downloaded the material list, some of which I have in my studio.  I downloaded day one, and day two and decided it was not for me.  I don't feel the need to paint fabric, cut it up, and use it for a base for stitching upon.  Don't get me wrong - the visual presentation and organization was done quite well.  It's just not me.

If I'm already going to do something, I think I will make some more paper, perhaps will a little less colour in it and see if I can make something from the paper pieces I have already made.

Carmit gave a wonderful presentation yesterday at the POM L&S meeting.  I don't generally have white or off-white scrap strips, but her demonstration of string quilting with one half (triangle) light and the second coloured was eye-opening as far as design possibilities go. Yashar koach, Carmit!

I worked a little on TTP quilt back 2, using moire fabric from Penina's bridesmaid dresses.  I think I'm out of fancy fabrics - I don't want to use wedding gown fabrics for it.  So I'll probably use the batik I bought when Carmit last visited.

Did I mention she's coming in March?? Yay!!

 

Former Forays into Felt

I am using this blog to  talk about what I'm working on but also what I have worked on in the past.

My first foray into needle and thread involved felt.  Craft felt to be specific.  It had so many colours, a nice texture, and above all, no raw edges that needed to be finished. A simple stitch perpendicular to the felt edge in a contrasting colour and I was happy.

This is a little something I made for my parents' 40th anniversary.  It's a "snapshot" of our family at that time.  My embellishments and technique repertoire was quite limited, not to mention that my supply of materials was limited.

 

And then I made this for Devora

The design was taken from Irish linen towels.  If I was making it today, first of all, I'd avoid using someone else's design... Also, I would have put it on a texture background instead of the large felt background.  And the beading would have been more intricate.

Funny how the above two pieces don't make me cringe but the chuppah I made does...
 

 

Snow Day

This is what we woke up to today.

And it's still coming down.  So what do you do on a snow day, other than shovel?

Snow dye!!  The soda carbonite, also known as soda ash, I purchased for the previous snow dyeing attempts had hardened to a rock.  Fortunately, I had purchased a blender for my paper-making experiments so I used the ice-breaker feature and pulverized a cup of soda ash, mixed it with a gallon of warm water and now have several whitish fabrics of varying types (i.e. not sure what type of fabric but they have a texture/weave).  The fabrics will soak for another hour or so.  Then I will drain and squeeze out the water, fold much like tie dye, place on an oven rack (dedicated for dyeing, paper, etc.) cover with snow, pour liquid dyes leftover from other experiments, over the snow and let the snow melt and carry the dyes into the fabric.  Am I excited?  Not really.  It's never really worked for me before but hey, there's always hope.

Under the snow, fabric is hiding.

And now the dyes have been splashed on top.
 

And now we wait for the snow to melt.

The result?  EPIC FAIL.

The colours washed away.  I don't know if the soda ash and/or paints were no longer viable.

I had fun preparing it, but I think my snow dyeing days have ended.

Working on TTP back

 These are what's left of the bridesmaids dresses from Penina and Alain's wedding:

And I am turning cutting them into 1.5" strips for the Torah Tie Project backs.

I am trying to bring the TTP blog up to date so that I can finally publish it.  I'm having trouble accessing the photos so I'll work on that today.

Portraiture

In September - October 2021, The POM Lunch and Shmooze ("L&S") had several new members who joined.  One of the "newbies" wanted to know more about the other members: what they did, who they were, etc., other than the face seen at the Zoom meeting.  A self-portrait challenge was declared.  I don't always jump at these challenges because sometimes they just don't speak to me.  Since I hadn't done any art quilting in a while, I accepted the challenge and this is what I made:

  

The face was made in two halves, not because I'm "chas v'chalilah, two faced, but as a method I used in a previous work I made, "Eshet Chayil".  I will try to borrow a copy of it from a previous blog and post it here.

The hair was cotton leftover from a fabric portrait I made of my father.  I created it during an online course.  That portrait somewhat resembled my father and the photo is at the bottom of this post.

I wear glasses and the glasses here are from pink organza - i.e. I tend to look at life through rose coloured glasses.

The lips are ruby red, for no particular reason because I never wear lipstick, red or otherwise.  If I could have redone them to show a smile, I would have been happier.  Ah, I just remembered a folk song from my youth with a line "and who will kiss your ruby lips when I am gone?" So I'm claiming it was intentional...

I am wearing earrings made from pieces of jewellery  gifted to me during my now dormant embellished crazy quilt period. 

The blouse if what's left of a beautiful embroidered blouse Menachem brought me from Europe from a folk dancing festival.

 And since I try to connect the dots leading to Judaic content, I made a "thought bubble" containing the "im ein ani li mi li" or,loosely meaning that if I am not for me (stand up for myself), then who will (stand up for me)? The bubble is printed onto fabric using a laser printer.

And the "dots" in this case are buttons, a nod to a program Gwen and I presented to the POM L&S group last year, the year before?

And here I am again, so you don't have to scroll back to the top.  I will be happy to answer any questions about my creative process or techniques used.

This is the quilt I made of of my father.  My choice of fabrics was not the best, probably because I didn't know before I took the course what the technique was.  It does however somewhat resemble him (again the mouth was problematic) but the yellow sweater was his signature comfort wear.
 

BTW, the background fabric for my self portrait is fabric  from an ottoman Menachem and I made for my parents, using clarinet pieces as the legs.  Did I mention that my father had a long and illustrious career as a clarinetist in the TSO and as a clarinet teacher?

The background fabric was leftover from the ottoman below which we made for my parents from my father's spare clarinet parts.

 

 

Blogging, realistically

 A daily post would be ideal but since I don't have time in the morning before I leave for work or motivation in the afternoon/evening after work, twice a week will have to do.  Once I deplete my documented stuff from the start of the pandemic to today, I will try to focus more on continuing or new work.  This is really just a reminder to myself to blog.

Ironing Station

 Did I mention that I am taking part in Just Get It Done Quilts' Decluttering Challenge?

I have seen the photos some participants have posted.  I immediately think  "hoarders" TV show but that is very judgemental on my part.  It also seems the more room you have, the more you are able to hoard clutter.

My sewing "room" is fairly small - one half of my bedroom.  I have two tables which we shlepped from Israel 33 years ago (the 3rd table is in Doron's room).  One I use for my sewing machine and the second is my cutting table.

With the Torah Tie Project I am currently working on, every time I made a quilt or quilt back, I had to transfer them from the design wall to the bed and at night onto my cutting table and back and forth.  In the meantime, I had a standard ironing board which is great but all the space under it is wasted space.

So Menachem made me an ironing table which is as long as my previous ironing board and twice as wide, and it sits on an IKEA kallax unit.  I now have where to store the TTP pieces, and my other UFOs.  I am still in the process of trying to use every inch of space by getting better organized.  He also made me this shelf under my cutting table.

Call me happy.

Baby, it's cold outside

I started this post on the weekend and poof - it disappeared.

I'm trying to remember what it was about... but it was cold enough to stay home, except for my weekly visit to my mother, and create.

Ah, it's coming back to me.  I made another silk scarf from tie leftovers.  I say another because I had previously made one and gifted it to my mother.  

My mother's was made with strips laid horizontally.  The second was made by random piecing.

And this is how they are done:

I used a white 5mm pongee silk 11.25" wide X 60" long.

I first laid out a piece of cotton in the same dimension.

Then I laid the tie pieces as a mosaic on half of the scarf length.

Folded the second half of the scarf over the first.
Rolled the "sandwich" tightly from the narrow end into the roll below.

The roll was then inserted into a pot (dedicated to art, no food!!) and left to simmer for 20 minutes.  I have a rock I use to weigh down the roll.  Twice I have been asked by family members if I'm cooking stone soup...

And this is what came out:

I prefer the horizontal strips, of which I have many.

BTW, the idea is not mine.  I saw it on a youtube video  T, but apparently this project was in Quilting Arts Magazine, October/November 2010, using lengths of ties.  I only have cut-offs left from The Torah Tie Project.

Oh.  I also reviewed my Tu B'Shvat box and found this table runner I made a few years ago with my granddaughter.

We also made these wine glass charms for the 4 cups of wine/grape juice at the Tu B'Shvat seder.

And this downloaded Haggada which I hope to condense into a one page double-sided laminated version for this year.