Palms at the Kinneret. W: 22 in x H: 24 in. 2014.
Last year at the summer workshops of the Israel Quilter’s Association I started a piece based on my photo at the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). The workshop was taught by Maya Schonenberger. It was great! Maya is exceptional. Her work is exquisite and we all learned tons.
Drawing classes, what a wonderful surprise. I found out I can draw!!! What an amazing discovery. You need a pencil or two, an eraser and a lot of patience. I have a long way to go, but it is a beginning. Now I will tell you a little about what I learned.
I had an epiphany towards the end of the year and I didn’t want to wait till 2014 to start. I thought that if I could improve my drawing skills, my artwork would benefit all around. I sought out a local teacher and thankfully found a talented, creative, energetic art teacher, named Naomi Ocean.
My first real project was of Poor Yorick (Hamlet). I worked on him for 3-4 weeks together with Naomi’s guidance and help. Who knew what one could do with a pencil and an eraser and a lot of precision? The pencil strokes and shading form the face and the background. You can’t just have an image floating on the page though. It has to have a background, right? Shading the background is how you make the focus of your drawing pop. You shade with a pencil but you draw with a pencil and an eraser. Lighter areas are brought out by erasing lightly. It’s all so basic, but not at all simple. I am sure that with these new skills I will find painting with thread even more fun than before. Here are a few shots of Yorick. Let me know what you think of him…
There is a saying, “From your students you will be taught…” Here is a story about a good friend of mine, Riki, to whom I teach quilting. Riki has a special quality. She believes in the value of practice. She told me that she once learned with a music teacher as a girl who used to say:
“…Every song you sing should show some evolution from one to the next. Everyday practice is an occasion to evolve. When we practice, though it doesn’t seem like much, it is actually a spiritual event and should be treated as such…”
Riki keeps these words in mind as she works on any project.
Color can evoke emotion in art. That is the theme of my latest work, “Tango Dancers”. Can you feel the extreme heat from the warm colors as well as the movement of the dancers?
To evoke passion and excitement, I used many values from the warm range of the color wheel. I think the varying values helped add contrast and made the background pop.
The focus of the piece is a pair of tango dancers in silhouette. I thread painted their musculature using warm colored thread. I layered another layer of batting behind the figures so they would also pop.
If the quilt is accepted, it will travel around the US for the next year as part of a SAQA exhibit, so wish me luck!
Dimensions: 38.25″ x 29″
Materials: Cotton fabric, cotton / polyester batting, interfacing, cotton thread
Art Quilting Studio magazine just came out with their Winter 2013 issue and guess what? I have a three-page spread in this issue. The topic of my piece is “From Photos to Quilts” where I discuss the process of creating quilts based on photos I have taken.
Here is the table of contents. It’s a quality trade magazine available at books stores, newsstands & online. 
Kibbutz Shluchot. W: 35.5 in x H: 51 in. 2012.
I am very excited to report my quilt, The fields of Kibbutz Shluhot, which I created in 2010 for the 100 Years of Kibbutz anniversary, has been selected to be part of the International Quilt festival in Beaujolais, outside Lyon, France, 18 – 21 April 2013. The French committee selected my quilt together with 29 other quilts from the Israel Quilters Association to be shown in this exhibit. You can see more about the exhibit by visiting their site:
Quilt Expo at Beaujolais
The quilt reveals a scene in northern Israel of Kibbutz Shluhot overlooking Mt Gilboa, which is very special to me because it reminds me of 30 years ago when I volunteered on this kibbutz. I tried to convey the quiet and serenity of the scene in my quilt.
I created this quilted fabric art using raw-edge applique and many different cotton fabrics as well as “snippets” of fabrics and yarns. The date trees were hand sewn and the fence is made of yarn. I thread painted using all different threads to embellish the piece and finally I machine quilted the layers into a magical quilt that hangs on the wall.
Dimensions:
130cm h x 90cm w / 51″ x 35.5″
Never underestimate the connections forged by using Facebook. One of my high school classmates and I were reconnected on Facebook during this year. We hadn’t been in touch in over 30 years! Anyway, she saw my quilt art and really liked it. Coincidentally, she was looking for a unique gift to bring as a wedding gift for her good friend, Neil Diamond,… the famous singer.
Israel’s national flower is the poppy. In the spring, fields are carpeted with these amazing wild flowers of red petals with black centers. I had this in mind when I composed me latest needle felt design, which I call ” Field of Poppies”.
It’s made of a medley of wool fibers sculpted together in a soothing composition. I hope you like it.
It’s available on my Etsy shop. So, come visit.
The staff of Quilting Arts Magazine decided to include many of the quilts they received for the “Greatest Pet Peeve” Reader Challenge” in the Dec/Jan 2011 issue. So, I am happily mailing my quilt off to the magazine. I’ll keep you posted. I’m very excited at the prospect of seeing my work in print. Friskers, the main character of my cat-scape was thrilled as well. She was rewarded with some tuna. She didn’t ask why, she just ate it all…
It’s done! Bound, sewn and delivered. I hope it’s a finalist. It was really fun to do.
I tried to bring out the three-dimensional quality of the scene. I wanted you, the viewer, to understand that you and a cat are looking at a fridge with lots of stuff on the shelves.
The closeup view shows the cat and her long white whiskers peering and sniffing at the contents of the fridge. 
I used cotton fabric, cotton thread, some synthetic fabric, some stabilizer and tulle. (The door is meant to be a little fuzzy because of the plastic shelving, which I made with tulle.)
The batting is Warm and Natural, cotton batting. The final size is 8.5″ x 11″.