Fran created this 6' x 7' family huppa in 2003. It was inspired by a Baal Shem Tov quote: "From every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven. And when two souls that were destined for each other find one another, their streams of light flow together, and a single, brighter light goes forth from their united being." The light is symbolized by the two ribbons, which form a heart shape. The inscription reads ‘Ani l’dodi, v'l’dodi li - 'I am my beloved, my beloved is mine.'  

 The background is composed of 25 blue fabrics, gradated from dark to light, and set in 9-patches for a watercolor effect.  “The 200+ tree leaves were constructed wrong side out, turned, and closed by hand," Fran explains. "I used about 30 different greens.  All were done freestyle so they are slightly different sizes and shapes.” They were attached down the middle, by machine, to create veins, after the rest of the quilt was finished. 

Dimensional flowers are at the bottom of the tree. There's one pair for each couple who marries under the chuppah.    The stems are bias strips. The leaves are dimensional. "I put green fabrics together, wrong side to wrong side, and then satin-stitch around the edges."  The couples chose the flowers, and they were added before the ceremony. The machine-pieced and -appliqued quilt has served at two weddings, and she hopes for many more.  "One day,” Fran adds, “the bottom of the quilt will be a beautiful flower garden.” Fran also put a large label on the back, where she writes each couple's names, wedding date and location, and which flowers are theirs.

 To suspend the huppa, she had a knockdown-frame custom built. "I attach the huppa to the frame with ribbons and safety pins (real fancy!) at the four corners and several locations along the edge." Fran lives - and teaches - in Skokie, Illinois. Contact  her at   FGQuilter@rcn.com

These two extraordinary parochet, (ark curtains), and the Torah covers are the work of Texas artist Lauren Miller. She created them as her bat mitzvah project (at age 44)  for Congregation Kol Ami in Flower Mound, TX.   The white set is for High Holy Days. Lauren explains, "It has  a portal design, like those from the 17th century. The inscription translates, 'Open for me the gates of righteousness, so that I may enter,' (from Psalms 118). The gates are opened to accept  individual prayers.  The columns that frame the arch are transformed into two long arms, with hands of priestly blessing." Other traditional symbols include the crown, the Magen Davids, and, in the swirling central clouds, a Shofar. This set is made from silks.

The other curtain made from cotton, also uses traditional architectural elements. The crown-topped columns bear the names of the twelve tribes. The center quote, from Micah,  translates:  'He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God.'   The seven-branched menorah has roots at the bottom, like a Tree of Life.  The words lining the center panel are the names of the 54 parshot of the Torah.  All the lettering was done with fabric markers. "The colors," Lauren notes, "were chosen largely to complement the colors of our synagogue. Interestingly enough, scarlet, purple, and blue, used with linen,  is an even older combination of colors than the blue and white combination that we think of as Jewish colors, and this reference goes back to the desert tabernacle (Exodus 25:8)." The curtain is hand-quilted.

The third image shows Torah covers that Lauren recently completed.  She holds degrees  in textile design, and has a broad range of fascinating artistic experience, including professional rug design, painted furniture, painted dreidels (She was the artist behind 'Bloomies Dreidels'), ceramics featuring Hebrew calligraphy, and ketubot.  Contact her at lauren0711@comcast.net.

Marilyn, from West Orange, N.J., saw the matzoh cover posted on my Passover II page here. She wanted to make one as a present for a  friend. She asked me if I had a pattern. I don't--but I gave her encouragement and permission to try her own, and told her my favorite places to shop for novelty fabrics.

She wasn't a quilter, but she is now!  Marilyn added her own touches.  "Everything was hand-appliqued onto the purple background using the ladder stitch."  She couldn't locate matzo fabric, so she made her own with gorgeous hand-stitching on a splotchy mocha-colored fabric. The plague names were written out in Hebrew by her friend's five grandchildren. And  the grandchildren signed a label on the back. 

     "I'm not sure how 'kosher'  it all was, quilting-wise, but I was happy with the results." Marilyn says. "Coming from me, who's usually quite a 'perfectionist' that's great! And, I do think that a lot of that comes from the good feeling  I had in making it and thinking of my dear friends-- and from the kind help you gave me.  The kids are quite proud of it, and especially that it was made by me, who's 'not even Jewish!' " Marilyn's email is msaxe_2000@yahoo.com
 

Myra is a multitalented Southern California artist. One of her first quilting projects was the memory quilt on the left.  She machine-embroidered the inscription, which reads, 'L'dor v'dor, nagid gadlecha'  -  "From generation to generation,  we tell of Your greatness."  She used family photos, of everything from ancestors from Poland and Russia, up to her grandchild's bris in 2002. (There's even a scan of a 50-year-old watercolor painting of her father's Boston kosher meat market! )  The finished wall hanging measures 29" square.

On the right is a portrait Myra made from a photograph of her friend Lou, a Survivor.  The portrait came as a surprise to Lou, "And he was very pleased when I finally presented it to him!" She made it as a project for the Quilt University class taught by Marilyn Belford, called 'Realistic Fabric Portraits.' (More info on the class: http://www.quiltuniversity.com/supply_list_realistic_fabric_por.htm ) . "It was enjoyable, though difficult the first time around," Myra say. "I really should do another one!" Reach her at  myra@posner .net.

Roz, of Montreal Canada,  made this wall hanging as a wedding present, from a pattern by Oy Vey Quilt Designs. (See  Resources, under 'More Quilting Groups.'). Carolyn Nassi did blanket stitching around all the fused figures, and Roz hand-quilted it.  Roz is one of the founders of of Montreal, Canada's only Jewish quilt guild, "Kvilt and Kvetch.!' You can find a nice article and picture at http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=6819.   Roz is at roz2@videotron.ca

Teresa hails from Texas. She wrote me a letter about a year ago telling me that she  is not Jewish, but wanted to make a special gift for a Jewish friend, Barbara.  She wanted to feature a block that had some kind of Jewish meaning, and had heard of a "Children of Israel" block. I helped her track it down. My reward a couple of  months later, was this beautiful picture of Barbara and her quilt.  Teresa explained the colors: "The pale yellow represents sunshine, green is for the promised land, blue is for the sky and water,  and of course, the famous star," (where the sashing comes together). "I had so much fun working on the quilt. Thank you for your help. Barbara said she loves it, her daughter and son were delighted as well." Teresa's email is sisteresa@charter.net.
 

Shira is an Israeli quilter who was bitten by the huppah-making bug about 6 years ago, when two of  her daughers were married in the same week! SHe made two huppot in time for the ceremonies!    Since then, she's been making several every year. She donated two of them to Hadassah, and accepts commissions from the U.S. and Israel. Contact her at  golangrl@afik.org.

The second image shows the huppa Susan  made for her son's 2004 wedding ,  Susan used hand tracings, including her own, and others gathered by her son and his fiancé. They were applied with fusible.  The green background is made from curved green blocks. To do this, Susan explains, "I cut five 40" squares of various green batiks, ironed them onto Wonder Under (TM), stacked them up and cut them horizontally and vertically in curved lines. Then I shuffled them so that no 2 like pieces of fabric were next to each other. After top-stitching with an embroidery stitch came the toughest and messiest part: peeling off all that paper! I probably won't try this again!  It did however, make it easy to adhere it to the batting and it does lie nice and flat."