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.

I finally finished the piece this week. It’s a really interesting technique that brings out the true texture of all the fabrics. The depth created by this technique is amazing! Well, you can be the judge. Here are some photos.
Dimensions: 22″ x 24″ / 56cm x 61cm

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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…

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“…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.

Riki decided to master free motion quilting — specifically quilting Feathers. Riki purchased a book about mastering feathers called Feather Adventures by Patsy Thompson. After purchasing the book, Riki sketched her design and practiced it with a pencil. Next she made practice sandwiches and hit the sewing machine. Hour after hour Riki persevered, paying attention to the shape of her loops and the overall composition. Week after week, Riki painstakingly repeated this exercise until she was happy with the results. Happy is not just satisfied… Finally, before touching the real quilt, Riki did a practice run with the thread she intended to use. She didn’t like the look and actually went with another thread. After this “dress rehearsal” as she called it, Riki tackled the real quilt.

I won’t go into too much detail here because my message today is about the value of practice. It turned out the thread Riki chose was faulty and it was very difficult to sew with. Because Riki now had the confidence to do the job well, she finished it up with another thread rather than throwing up her hands in defeat.

I thought I would show you some of the practice pieces that Riki created in this process. It really was a wonderful experience watching the mastering of this skill. I learned a lot from Riki through this process. From this student, I was taught… Thanks, Riki!

Now it is my turn to tackle feathers, but more than that, it is my turn to consider the value of practice in the journey towards mastering any skill.

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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

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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″

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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.

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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″.

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