Mazal Finds Us Challenge - Needlepoint Piece - Finished

 The challenge was to create a piece, using "chance" to determine some or all of the elements, and to have the piece "Judaic", either in size, number of stitches, theme, or something else not previously pondered by me.

I had made a piece several years ago, making a 6 square by 6 square grid,  using duppioni silk squares and beads, employing the drawing of lots and beading.  (6 X 6 = 36, double chai and finished size 18" ish.

 In keeping with my recent practice of using what I have, I decided to needlepoint, using this bin of needlepoint yarn passed on to me by Nora Freund.

This time I chose to again make a 6 X 6 grid, but each 3" square to be needlepointed, the yarn colour placement determined by drawing of lots.  I got to chose the 36 colours but I pulled those 36 skeins one by one from one bag and the corresponding slips of paper with the location from a second bag.

 

Here is the grid I worked from.  

 

I only changed the needlepoint yarn from those drawn by lot if the yarn was thicker than the canvas allowed and then, I stayed true as much as possible to the original colour chosen.  I also admit having changed one position - A1 and A2 were switched because the blues of A2 and B2 were too close in colour, IMHO.

I didn't realize that needlepointing was so time consuming, since each square took between 2 to 3 hours to complete.

This is the finished needlepoint.

 

This is the needlepoint back, which is interesting in itself because of the texture where start and finish thread were covered.

 

So I had a lot of time while stitching to think about what I would do with the finished needlepoint.  I had thought about turning it into a "snakes and ladder" board.  In the end,  I decided on buttons and used the "roll the dice" method of determining the placement of buttons on 18 blocks.  I rolled two dice (one with letters A-F, one regular with numbers) to determine which squares would get buttons, and then an additonal di marked with biblical directions from B'reishit: yamma (west), kedma (east), tzafona (north) and negba (south) and the last two mercaz (centre) and ani (me - I get to decide).  Here are the dice.

And here is the card recording the dice rolls.

 

And here is the finished product.

Now I have to decide whether to frame it or finish it as a wallhanging.

 BTW, I calculated the estimated number hours of needlepointing multiplied by Ontario minimum wage and the finished piece, unframed, is approx. $1,500.00.  Anyone interested in buying it?...

Tov Shem Mi-shemen Tov

Other than a brief hello when I went to pick up something from Susan, I did not know Merv.  Susan had gifted me some white cotton shirts which Merv no longer wore.  I cut one up and when I was dyeing silk scarves with remnants of silk ties, I put in a few cotton pieces from his shirts.  The dye result on the cotton was nowhere near as vibrant as on the silk. 

I decided to use them in another project and had gotten as far as quilting 3 squares with random quilting lines and "framing" the squares with a rich burgundy duppioni silk from my stash.

Unfortunately, Merv passed away.  At Merv's funeral, one of the eulogy's themes was "שם טוב טוב משמן טוב" (from Kohelet - Ecclesiastes) which loosely translates: one's good name is worth more than material goods.  And indeed, from what I heard, Merv truly had a shem tov.

I decorated each cotton square with fabric beads I made from leftover silk tie pieces.  Then I fused the biblical saying Tov Shem MiShemen Tov" in white duppioni Hebrew letters onto the piece and finished the back with a lovely floral piece from my stash.

Now that I have given the piece to Susan, I can show it here.