A UFO Cabinet Collaboration, for a Good Cause

I just finished this quilt, featuring the work of an artist who died almost 20 years ago.

Debbie Sichel, z"h (Hebrew acronym for "may her memory be a blessing"), was a hugely talented artist, and a kind, modest person. If you're a user of Electric Quilt (EQ) design software, her name may ring a bell -- she designed the Foundation Paper Pieced Hebrew alphabet that comes with that program. I met her only once, through a Jewish quilting group. 

Sadly, Debbie died, too young, in 2006. Her husband mailed her fabrics and UFOs to other quilters, including those in my group. 

I received three incredible tree blocks. All these leaves --  55+ on each of the first two trees below -- were immaculately hand-appliqued, with turned edges. Each leaf is only about an inch long. Here's the tree with a blue background, 

The white,

...Plus, one on a red background, which had no leaves. For this one, I made the leaves, and machine-stitched them in place, because I don't have Debbie's hand-applique skills. I also used a lot fewer leaves because (1) it represents autumn, many leaves have fallen off (that's an excuse), and (2) really, because I failed to see how I could cram 30 more in there, like Debbie did.

Also above, I love how Debbie used a realistic tree trunk print in the middle, and fun novelty prints for three of the branches! Maybe these blocks were her exercising for an even more ambitious project.

The box I received from her family also included hand-pieced,  purple-and-black "Crown of Thorns" blocks.  Here's a photo of the perfect hand stitching on the back.

And here's the front (after I added quilting designs to the center):

All these components sat in my UFO cabinet for 18 years. I never could come up with the right way to use them. 

Then I heard about a call for quilts to go to the Kibbutz Be'eri survivors of the October 7 massacre, in which 100+ members were killed, and 30 more were kidnapped. This seemed like an appropriate place to use Debbie's work.

I sewed the tree blocks together vertically, added leaves to the bottom one, created borders from my stash, and quilted it. Now it's ready to go. It was a privilege to do this. I am happy that Debbie's memory, and her work, will continue to be a tactile blessing. 

P.S. There were only 9 of the star blocks, and I needed one more. Fortunately, also in my UFO cabinet, I found a lovely floral block given to me years ago by my dear friend Kay Mackenzie, the queen of applique (and of kindness, and of foster kittens.) 

It's perfectly raw-edge machine appliqued. If you aspire to do work like this, check out Kay's books, here.