In Memory

On October 7, 2023, my life changed, as did many others.  I was enveloped in immense grief over the personal loss of my friend, Havik, murdered by Hamas.  I was enveloped in immense grief over the loss of lives of those I didn't know and will never now know.  I felt the need to put my grief into textile.

As is my practice to use recycled materials, I found a piece of black corduroy, black lining and sandwiched a quilt block, 17" wide by 25" long.  I machine-quilted random diagonal lines using red embroidery thread in the bobbin and sewing on the back so the red embroidery lines would appear on the front.  I embellished the red embroidery thread lines by wrapping additional red thread around them and leaving unfinished tails.

I had "cut offs" from the Torah Tie Project.  The colourful cut offs  I am using for scarf dyeing but I had set aside the blacks and greys.  I now found a use for them.  I fused them onto the quilt top.  The cut offs were fairly narrow strips, most wider on one end that the other, their edges raw, much the way I feel.

I looked for text and found it in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes).  Kohelet is read, depending on the tradition, on Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.  The verses I chose are simple, and hold a certain degree of hope.  I originally attempted printing onto grey organza but the text was not legible enough.  In the end I printed it on pongee silk.  I had ribbon to make a border to sew it down on the cutoffs.  It somewhat resembles the death notices printed and posted in Israel with a black border. 

I then fused and stitched now the Hebrew letters, Nizkor, because the horror and the massacre itself is not something we can forget and something we should remember.

I had tried sewing a black binding but it seems too finished for my piece.  In the end, I just zigzagged the edges with a satin stitch in black.

I think this piece is finished.  Although I have not finished grieving, for all the victims on both sides of the border, it is time as Maya pointed out to attempt a return to "normal", so as not to give Hamas any victory.

And the absurd is that we are all hoping for an end to the war, but no side will be victorious.