Jo-Ann Mullen

Jo-Ann, who hails from Estes Park, Co., sent me these treats.  The first is a  blue-and-white baby quilt which makes excellent use of several Judaic print fabrics. The second photograph isn't light enough, but the piece is spiritually luminous!  It's a Rosh Hodesh quilt, made by the seven members of Jo-Ann's group which meets every month.    Each woman made a block---the ones who  aren't into visual arts WROTE on their blocks (for example, one free-associated positive words).   This quilt travels to a different members' home each month, and it also accompanies any member who is going through tough times. It's even been to a hysterectomy.  "It will continue to be used whenever one of us needs to have the rest of the group with them for support and caring," Jo-Ann writes.  You can reach Jo-Ann at a  Jmullen2@aol.com

www.temmagentles.com. Awesome.
 

 New York quilter Beatriz Ackerman created a gorgeous, spiritually-charged piece with this challah cover. And with the modern fabrics and quilting techniques, she integrated traditional  approaches, with the elegant, cross-stitched motif in the center.  I could gush about this piece for about an hour, but instead I’ll let Bea talk.

   Bea writes, “The name of the piece, ‘Vayehi erev vayei boker,’ is from Genesis 1:5-31 ‘And it was evening, and it was morning.’  Each day of Creation ends in this verse, until the sixth day, when G-d ‘completed His work, and withdrew from His activity. Every Shabbat we commemorate the Creation by resting as He did.”

   There's also an agricultural theme., Bea notes.  “It represents the elements’ of  G-d’s  Creation that, in turn, give us the means to produce our own sustenance.  We gratefully bless Him for being the one ‘who extracts bread from the land.’ These words, from the blessing over the challah, are embroidered on the center of the quilt in Hebrew, “hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz.’”

   Bea started with a mockup, using fabric  snippets. Once she liked the arrangement, she glued them to paper,  enlarged them on a color copier, kept one copy as a reference and  cut up another to create templates. She pieced the top by machine.   All the quilting was done by hand.

   As for the cross  stitch--- she designed the lettering, pomegranate and wheat clusters on graph paper. Stitching was done with  three strands of embroidery thread on Aida cloth. She trimmed the cloth to size, and, with a toothpick, added a bead of fabric glue across the edges to seal. She then appliquéd the rectangle to the center of the cover, and framed it with quarter-inch bias tape appliquéd over the border

By the way, Bea has a challenging day-job finance.  And if you’re suspecting that she’s another one of these major overachievers, you’re right---she recently cross stitched 400 napkin rings and made 4000 petit fours for her son’s bar mitzvah(!)  “Besides quilting I also do Hebrew calligraphy and have made several Ketubot, so the Hebrew letters are not a big deal for me to design. Even though I'm 'stuck' in the business world now, I was once a Hebrew and Torah teacher so I guess I have plenty to draw Judaic inspiration from.” Thank you Bea, for sharing your inspiration here.    You can contact Bea at  backerman@CANTORSeinuk.com .

 Marilyn Levy

Kippot...Matzoh covers....Tallitot and Tallit bags....this  quilt artist from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada   does it all. Her specialty: 'Watercolor' quilting techniques. At right is one of her challah covers (machine-quilted, and hand embroidered). She also uses the technique beautifully on tallitot.  Be sure to see the challah cover that matches the brides' Villeroy and Boch dishes....and the pomegranate challah cover with 613 french knots representing 613 mitzvot!  Her web page is http://www.levyjudaica.homestead.com.

 Berta Goldgaber

The work of this Missouri quilt artist is glorious, both in color and design.  The bima cover on the left was made to coordinate with the stained glass windows in the background. I am in love with the 'Two Tablets' wall-hanging in the middle. On the right is 'The Seven Sisters Chuppah' (it looks small here, but it's 80" :x 65")  Berta recently introduced a line of greeting cards with her quilts. See more of  her work at http://www.jewishart.org/fabric_art/quilt.html.

Elana Schachter

This quilt, 'Counting the Omer,' by Israeli artist Elana Schachter, is based on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The Tree of Life, as the Kabbalists see it, is  a theoretical "map" of reality comprised of ten sephirot, or Divine modes of manifestation.

"In the Jewish tradition, we count the 49 days between Passover and Shavuout," Schachter explains. "Each day has a special spiritual quality and the process of consciously counting the days is a way of fixing that quality in ourselves and in the world."  In the quilt, each of the lower seven septagons represents both a sephira and a week, and each point of the star represents a day. The colors correspond to the spectrum, and Elana used fabrics with images that correspond to the things named in Genesis that were created on that day of the week. The background and upper three septagons are made from a satiny fabric, and the others are cotton. A semitransparent ribbon marks the paths between the sephirot. All machine quilted, 60" x 37" . This quilt is also a working calender. The picture doesn't show that there's a clock hand which can be moved from sephira to sephira, and rotated from point to point to keep track of the day!  

Elana is absolutely fearless when it comes to using satins. Below is one of Elana's extraodinary chuppot, made for her daughter and son-in-law's wedding. . Here it was hung for a one-night art exhibit ---for the actual event, Elana sewed rings to t he corners, that held it on poles. "When it is held on poles, it can be held more tautly, and the drops hang straighter. We considered having people hold it for the art show, but couldn't find any volunteers. Can't imagine why!" (LOL!)

The chuppah is made in five parts - the center, plus four "drops" are attached with velcro. "The drops have the priestly blessing on them," Elana explains. " The center is the cruvim - the 'cherubs' who decorated the aron kodesh in the mishkan. The story is that the voice of God emanated from between the cherubs. I wrote on the label a blessing that the couple should remember that the voice of God is between them."

"The chuppah has been used several times since then, and I have copied the invitations of all the weddings onto fabric and added them to the back. The whole thing was made in a month because the date of the wedding  got moved forward, so there is only minimal quilting around the  shapes."

 Elana does commissioned work, including Torah covers, bar/bat mitzvah quilts, chuppot and smaller pieces such as challah covers and wall hangings. Elana just moved from Jersualem to Tzfat---yes, she closed on the house during the shelling---and we wish her a wonderful,  artistically productive, and above all, a peaceful new life in that extraordinary city.  Contact her at elana@actcom.co.il.

 Jill Pace

Jill made this exuberant wall-hanging for her daughter's bat mitzvah, which fell during the same week as Sukkot. Thus the etrog and lulav, traditional ritual items for the 'Festival of Booths.' Her daughter's name, in Hebrew, is appliquéd in the lower right hand corner. More of Jill's work is at http://home.covad.net/~ateich/.    (Check out  A Passion for Chocolate!  which is  another kind of religious experience!)

 Jean Bromer

This picture was sent to me by that beautiful bride, Meg van Achterberg.   Meg and her groom are standing under a huppah made by Meg's grandmother, Jean Bromer, of Easton, Connecticut.    

Meg wrote,  "My husband, Ariel, and I were married 4 years ago. He is Jewish; I am not. When my  grandmother, a then-80 year-old avid quilter, learned about the huppah tradition, she decided that there was nothing to do but quilt one for our ceremony. Her good friend Cynthia explained the structure of the huppah and suggested that she use the Biblical phrase: "I am my beloved and my beloved is mine." My husband's father, a scholar of Near-Eastern languages, provided the Hebrew translation of the phrase, which my computer-savvy uncle helped her make into a stencil. Then she was ready to begin. She made the most exquisite white quilted huppah, which you see in the attached photos. On the top was a blue star of David. On two of the hanging sides grandma embroidered the English "beloved" phrase in gold thread, on the other two sides she embroidered the Hebrew. Then she attached beautiful gold fringe to the entire thing. My parents made the poles out of PVC piping and white ribbon, an we were ready to go. Between the embroidery and the fringe I think it was more work than any quilt she had ever made, but I think the results are spectacular. And so did everyone who was there! It was a remarkable gift from a remarkable grandma! It will be a heirloom to pass through the generations, and has since been used in the wedding of one of my bridesmaids, Jill." You can  reac Meg at   drmargriet@msn.com .

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