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.

 

 

 

Chaya tries Papermaking

At the start of the pandemic, I ordered some handmade paper from "The Paper Trail" in New Dundee, Ontario  (west of Toronto, south of Kitchener).  They also teach papermaking and I was planning to entice Devora out to take a papermaking workshop.  Devora gave me her mould and deckle, leftover either from her OCAD days or something.  Needless to say, Covid put the kibosh on the workshop idea.

A few month ago, Menachem and I went for a drive in the country.   When we stopped at Tim Horton's in Lindsay for coffee, I went into the Mission Thrift Store for a look-see.  I wasn't really looking for anything but when I saw a blender for $7.99, the light bulb over my head said "papermaking" and I couldn't resist the idea. This blender is now dedicated to art only, no food!!

I still wanted to pay. I mentioned the blender and papermaking on one of the POM Lunch and Shmooze meetings.  Shirley asked me yesterday when I would share my papermaking journey with the group.  Since today is my day off work, I decided to get organized and see what I could do.

I started yesterday by watching a whole bunch of youtube papermaking videos.  I am not following one particular video but looking for the fastest and easiest method.  Funny how I have patience to spend hours stitching but am impatient for other techniques.  And, I don't like to get my hands dirty (i.e. repeatedly dipping my hands into deep water with paper pulp, or for that matter with clay, or sand, or messy dyeing, not to mention ground meat...)

OK. So here we go.  These are the materials needed:

A blender. 👍

Paper for recycling 👍

Anything you want to add to the paper.  👍 I am going to add cut off threads, cut into lengths short enough so they don't wrap around the blades and cause the blender's motor to blow.

A mould and deckle. 👎 Devora's is too big and clunky.  I am going to try to make one from styrofoam, duct tape, and screening. 👍  OK, not my best attempt but it may work.

A basin to hold water into which the mould and deckle fit. 👍 This tray is leftover from my snow dyeing days.

Old towels. 👍

Paper towel, or fabric (cut up old sheets) or craft felt.👍

Step 1:  Soak paper, torn into approx. 1" squares in warm water, for several hours.  It is now 10:30 am.  I will revisit in about 4 hours.  Notice how I am using the blender cup to soak the paper.  Not sure if this is a good idea but I am also queen of using as few dishes as possible to lessen clean-up.😁

in the meantime I am turning this pile of threads into shortened lengths.

 So four hours later, I blended the pulp.

Added the threads, blended some more, and poured the pulp onto the screen which was submerged in a bigger container than I had thought to use.  Note to self, next time use a wooden frame - the styrofoam floats...

I ended up with three "sheets" of paper, tinged pink from the red threads.

They now have to dry.  I thought of ironing them dry (actually I tried but did not succeed).  I also saw that you can use a hair dryer or if you have a dryer with a shelf for shoes, sweaters, that you can dry them on a low heat.

Frankly, at this point, I have lost interest so I'm just going to let them air dry.

So the question is, will I continue papermaking?  I'm not saying yes, but I'm also not emphatically saying no.  So I guess that's a maybe?

 

Kishkas (or Guts)

 I was gifted a lot of silk ties - read my Torah Tie Project blog.

Anyways, after gutting the ties, I had this humongous bag of tie guts, or kiskhkas, the Yiddish word for intestines.  

I am in the process of decluttering, or in my case re-organizing because I really don't have all that much to declutter.  Since I am home today with a headache and intestinal distress, I decided to figure out what to do with the tie guts thereby getting rid of a large bag sitting on the floor.

I decided only to work with the wide triangle end of the tie gut, am ironing them and then will cut them to 18 inch lengths.  My idea then is to dye them - snow dyeing, marker and alcohol, shaving cream marbling, and embellish with stitching, beading, embroidery, etc.

This new project is temporarily being called "Chai-ish" or "Kishkas".

Didn't want you to think I am lazing about.

Oh, did I mention that I replaced my standard ironing board with this ironing station that Menachem made?

BTW, the bag to the left of the ironing board is not the kishkas, but rather the tie strips for the back of books 2,3,4 and 5 of the Torah Tie Project.

 

 

2022, for Better or Worse

I am making no New Year's Resolutions because I never manage to keep them.  I will, however, try to be mindful in what I do.

This is the second (or is it the third) year where I am buying as little fabric as possible, using up the stuff I have.  

I have joined Karen Brown's 2022 Declutter Challenge but from the Facebook page posts of other participants, I see that I am miles ahead of many of them.  I am focusing on using what I do have.  In a previous post by KB, she talks about capacity, both physical and mental.  My physical space is limited - my sewing room shares space with my bedroom so there's only so much space to store stuff.  And mental capacity, well I don't want to think about having so much stuff in general, not only sewing stuff.

Most of my fabrics are off-cuts from previous projects.  I have been making scrappy quilts for a while now since Carmit introduced me to diagonal strip piecing.  I saw a video recently of a woman who has a fabric "pantry" where she keeps 2 1/2" squares, 5" squares, etc. so when the mood hits, she's ready to go.  KB also has videos of using up scraps.  Most of my fabrics are stored in clear plastic shoeboxes.  I think today I will make my own pantry from cut offs and see if I can turn the smaller scraps into strips of some sort.

Maybe I can finally use up the fabrics which don't match anything else that I bought when Quiltmakers on Avenue Road closed...