Hark! I Hear a Baby Boom! Be Prepared!

(Below, a brand-new human on a recently finished quilt. Eyes are covered to protect anonymity.) 

Is romance in the air? For whatever reason, in my world, babies are a-poppin! Fortunately, I am prepared! Here's my neonatal kit: An oversized shoebox full of maybe 200 4" squares, some of them sewn into 9-patch blocks.

Unpacked, below, you'll find stacks of squares, many tourniqueted with torn white fabric strips, and the category name scribbled in pencil on torn-paper labels, in handwriting so terrible (mine) that I can barely read them. 

In the photo above, the categories, starting on the top row left and going across, I discern piles of:

• Transportation; Ocean; Nature. 
• Middle row: Music; People; Creatures
• Bottom row: Science; Sports & Games; Food (that's garlic on top).

Not shown: Places; Black-and-White Prints; Rainbow Geometrics; Sky-Aerial Transportation-Flying Bugs (one category!) and the biggest pile of all, the sublimely descriptive "Stuff".

I periodically cut these squares from my novelty fabric stash, and then, when I hear rumors of a human emerging shortly, I sort the squares thematically into 9-patches, and organize those blocks into quilt tops. Here's the front the quilt upon which the baby above is laying.
  

Below is the back. 

The strips for the back didn't come from the shoebox; it came from a larger, more densely packed container (a pastel blue suitcase, circa 1965 -- no wheels!), which features scraps not only inside it, but also upon it, and surrounding it for a radius of several feet. 

(Especially when the cat tunnels into it, clawing out heaps to create a cave.)

(Below, the video evidence).

 

Next, a closer look at the back. It was wonderful to revisit scraps I hadn't seen in years. It was like greeting old friends! (I thoroughly washed this quilt after finishing it, to get out the kitty cooties.)

Below are some of the front's nine-patches. In the middle are science-related fabrics. 

Next, below, on the upper right are nine sky-themed fabrics (and you can see why bugs and transportation are part of the aeronautical category, along with UFO's and eagles.) 

(The hand is in a black-and-white border, and a "cats" nine-patch starts on bottom.)

Next, a meeting of two different nine-patches: Random Creatures on top, Places on bottom (the latter includes houses, a carnival, a map of Southeast Asia, and a Manhattan subway map). Black-and-white border squares are on the right. 

This one's People, real (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) and imagined.

Below is the Food unit (lower right). Stuff squares are above it (pencils, erasers, computers, stamps, crayons, cellphones, laundry.) 

And this is the cat block. On bottom is more Stuff, including....

...directly above, a Featherweight sewing machine! Was I happy when I found that fabric!

This "random animals" nine-patch has one of my favorite fabrics, anteaters on pink.  Also note Elvis, top row center.

And sew forth! Keep in mind that it took me 30 years of minimal-impulse control to accrue this encyclopedic collection. 

If you're hanging around people capable of surprising themselves and you with a baby, you might want to get a head start now by cutting squares. I promise you'll have a lot of fun, laugh, and best of all, you will, as the Boy Scouts say, Be Prepared! 

For more photos of my baby quilts, click on the term in the word cloud on the right. I hope you will consider signing up for my occasional newsletter, at http://eepurl.com/idjomb

Quilting Elvis: Small Holiday Postcard = Big Gift

Uh oh! The holidays are upon us! If you're still stuck for a fast gift to make for people who deserve  more than an e-card, consider a quilted fiber art postcard. If you use novelty fabrics from your stash or LQS, they can be thoughtful, personal, and fun, all at the same time. (If elegant is more your style, consider making batik postcards, instead.)

Here's one of my latest:

(Elvis is singing Shalom, which means hello/goodbye/peace in Hebrew. Elvis had a non-secret Jewish history!) The card is one of six I made in September:

This one, let us call it "Lips," incorporates just three novelty fabrics: 

Plus one more on the back: 

The next one's a bit cluttered, with six different fabrics. The background is eyeglasses fabric, but it's hard to tell with all that stuff on top. 

A bit simpler, but also six different fabrics, and a hairy polka-dot Jan Mullen fabric in the background: 

On the backs, I chose more Elvis fabrics from my Elv-cyclopedic stash: 

I later strategically placed small mailing labels on top, trying to let Elvis' eyes and other significant features show. 

Making one fiber art postcard is a bit of work, but making 12 more doesn't take a dozen times as long -- there are Elv-ficiencies. I've published fabric postcard tutorials in the past, but here's one specifically for novelty fabrics. 

NOVELTY FABRIC FIBER ART POSTCARD TUTORIAL

1. Cut pieces of stiff interfacing to postcard size, 4" x 6" (Peltex, Peltex 72F, Inner Fuse, Fast-2-Fuse - stiff interfacing of any kind, ideally with fusible on both sides, but okay without.) 

2. Pick background fabric for the featured side. Cut to a little over 4" x 6". Adhere them to ONE side of the stiff interfacing. (Use fusible web if your interfacing doesn't have built-in fusible.) Trim excess. DO NOT put the backing fabric on yet. 

3.  Gather the fabrics with the images you want to arrange on top.  Cut out these small motifs (like Elvis heads, or record albums, or G-clefs).  Cut at least a quarter-inch beyond the size you will want them when they're fully trimmed. 

4. Adhere these small pieces to paper-backed fusible web. Then cut them out closely, to the final size, and arrange them on the background fabric. (Alternative: Instead of fusible web, use a glue stick -  in that case, cut the motifs to the finished size, then use the glue stick with a light touch on the bacs.)

5. Press the trimmed motifs in position.

6. Stitch everything down with a zigzag. In the Elvis postcards, I used gold metallic thread. For less conspicuous stitching, use invisible/clear nylon monofilament thread.

7. Trim stray threads from the back. 

8. On the back of each card, adhere a fabric rectangle slightly larger than 4" x 6". Make it light-colored, so writing will show. Or, use a novelty fabric, and place it so when you paste an address label and message on the back, the key features of the fabric will still show.  Fuse it in place, and trim close around the edges. 

9. Zigzag all the way around the edges. I did it with the same gold metallic thread I used for the appliques. 

10. Add sticky mailing labels and return address labels on the back to write the address and message. Put a stamp on and mail! Your friends and family will love it, guaranteed!

My First Judaic Quilt Show, Part 1

I hadn't participated in a quilt or art show for a long time. But I'm resolving to get my work out more. So two weeks ago, when I got a call from one of the lovely people at our local Jewish Federation (in Southern California), asking if I would hang some my Judaic-themed quilts in their Monrovia office, I was thrilled!

For about an hour, until I realized I would have to pull out and look critically at all my Judaic work, some of which is new, and some which is close to 20 years old. Assessing old work is exciting and scary at the same time. Sometimes I say, "Hey, that one was pretty good!" And sometimes, it's a  "Glug." (Similar to "Ugh," worse than "Meh," not as bad as "Argh".)

In this post, I'll show the non-Passover related quilts that I pulled for the show (the Passover ones are next week). First is a quilt that very few people have seen, for reasons that will become apparent in one second:

Yes, it's the world's oldest Jewish joke. It reads, "Three Fairly Major Jewish Holidays on Just 1 Dinner Napkin: They Tried to Kill Us. We Won. Let's Eat!" Another detail:

It is appliquéd to a genuine lace-edged napkin. The holiday names - Purim, Chanukah, and Passover - are appliquéd to the lace along the bottom.  In hindsight, it's quite a bit messier than I would like, but the idea has potential! (I'd love to see your interpretation!)

And speaking of lace, what are you supposed to do with green lace? When I started quilting, I bought every flea market embellishment I could find, without thinking it through. This green lace was probably intended for negligées or mermaid brassieres. I've only found this use for it:

People like this one, but I keep thinking "negligée".

Next, one of my paper-pieced Hebrew alphabet quilts.

The font is based on Torah calligraphy. It took me months to wrestle all the complexly-angled Hebrew letters into paper piecing patterns. How complex? Here's the pattern for one of the more challenging letters, the tzaddi:

That's 17 pieces for one letter, but who's counting? I was pretty proud of myself when I'd finished creating patterns for all 27 letters including five final consonants (which only appear at the end of words and are not in this quilt), plus a couple of symbols. (Commercial break: The pattern is available in my Etsy shop, or Judaiquilt page. For advanced paper piecers, only.)

Up next, another challah (Sabbath bread) cover, with the clouds containing the bread blessing. It's never been photographed.

Those five layer reverse-appliqué clouds were sooo labor intensive.

At least they're raw edge appliqué - turning under the edges before stitching would have been just plain crazy. (Last commercial break: I later simplified it into the pattern that's in my Etsy shop and Pattern page.)

I call the next one "Semi-Amish Dreidels," because of the solids-and-blacks color scheme. We display it every Chanukah. The last time I hung it, I was trying to recall how I made it. I thought I'd strip-pieced it, but after dredging through old files, I discovered that it's paper-pieced!

It's octagonal (I photographed it on a black background). Those are prairie points around the edges. Each dreidel has one of the Hebrew letters from the dreidel game quilted into it. 

Next, 'Shabbat Shalom', for a peaceful (pieceful?) Sabbath.

For six days (i.e. the top six rows of cubes), we run back and forth like chickens. On the last day, we rest, take a deep breath, try to perceive the divine. (Or at least the yellow.)

The lettering is done with dishwasher gel and freezer paper templates. I ironed freezer paper letters to black fabric, then painted around them with the gel. Let it sit a few minutes, and then gradually rinsed it off, starting at the top, so the bottom would be the lightest area, exposed to bleach the longest. (Don't try this at home without using Bleach-stop or its ilk when you're done.)

Next, one of my wedding canopies (aka chuppah).  "Seven sisters" is the name of this design in American quilt history, adding layers of meaning to six-pointed stars. 

 
Corner detail, with the word "chai" (for "life") quilted in gold thread.

Next, my "nine of anything" menorah quilt, blogged a few years ago, here.

There's an ice cream menorah....

...an Elvis menorah...

 ... a butterfly menorah, and more.

Finally, my response to the Charlie Hebdo massacre, blogged here. 

Seeing most of these pieces hanging in one hallway was an out-of-body experience. Even though the office wall was painted an intense turquoise, and there's barely a scintilla of turquoise in any of these quilts, it seemed to work out quite nicely!

Next week: my Passover matzoh covers for the show. There were a lot to choose from. I have in my home enough matzoh covers for at least a month of Passovers.

These quilts will be at the  Monrovia Jewish Federation office, here in Southern California, for three months, and they welcome visitors during their regular business hours.

Update: Part II of the show, my Passover items, are blogged here.

Public service announcement: Are you interested in making and/or learning more about stitched Judaica? Find inspiration and like-minded people in the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework, an international organization with chapters across the US and Canada, and independent members around the world. The Guild has a members'-only archives with hundreds of needlework patterns, ideas, and articles about Jewish art, tradition and culture.

We also have a Facebook page and Yahoo discussion group. And you don't have to be Jewish to join! Go to Pomegranateguild.org for more information! And consider coming to our 2017 Convention in Atlanta! You will make friends, and beautiful things, and soon be able to decorate your own hallways with your own  Judaic art!

Chanukah Quilt and Craft Projects Past

Happy almost-over Chanukah 2015! Lovely as it has been for my family, it may never again be as delightful as 2013, when it fell on the same day as Thanksgiving, compelling craftsy persons to create poultry-themed Judaica, and linguists to coin new words, like "Thanksgivvukah" (for the holiday), and "Turkorah" and "Menurkey," for turkey menorahs.

For the occasion, I made this festive banner, which, even more importantly, used up a lot of my excess dreidel fabric:

 It's overseen by an unimpressed bird:

(Originally blogged here.) Thanksgivvukah also inspired me to crochet a flock of turkey menorahs, and now I don't know what to do with my extras. (Free pattern on the bottom of this page.)

With steely resolve, I am striving make a clean break from Thanksgivvukah, since this coincidence won't happen again for 77,000 years. So this year, I hung  this totally turkey-free Chanukah quilt I concocted  shortly after I began quilting. I called it Semi-Amish Dreidels, because of the color scheme.

I wish I remembered how  I made it! It involved a lot of solids, strip sets, prairie points, and, of course, totally non-Amish buttons.

Another golden oldie: This quilt is called "Nine of Anything," because I used nine things cut from  novelty fabrics to make custom menorahs (aka hanukiot).

 Including a gummi bear menorah....

Tools:

Desert...

And, of course, an Elvis menorah, memorializing his little-known but bona fide Jewish heritage. 

A couple of hand stitches with blue embroidery thread at the bottom of each candle flame creates a little realism. The words to "Rock of Ages" are freemotion stitched into the background. 

These are fun to make, and don't take long if you just want to make a single menorah. Pick a novelty fabric, put fusible web on the back, cut out nine things, arrange them artistically on a background, press, then zig-zag all the way around everything! And try not to think about turkeys. Whoops, I'm sorry I said that.