Moving Right Along

1. Said Yes to the Dress:  This is my fibre arts group's January challenge. Continuing on the theme of the figure design we used on the quilt squares for our group quilt, we are going to fabric-wrap 8" X 10" canvases and dress quilted figures in white bridal fabrics (got plenty in my stash from my chuppah/crazy quilt days).  I made the quilted figures for all of the participants from fabric left from my quilted portrait experiment.  Each participant has free licence to choose their background fabric i.e. if someone wants to piece or dye or screenprint or embroider or whatever, it's up to them.  I used a piece of printed fabric and simply quilted it by outlining the printed pattern.  Just watched a video to show me how to neatly wrap the fabric on the canvas.


2. POM ritual challenge: checked and found that the travel/dorm room Shabbat candle lighting one-drawer prototype can be modified to make a travel/dorm room Chanuka candle lighting box.  By making a two drawer version with the height of each drawer 1/4 inch taller than the Shabbat version, I can put Chanuka candles and matches in one drawer and a Chanukia in the other.  Both version are dependent on Menachem making the candle holders/Chanukia once he has sufficiently recovered from his replacement.


I must learn how to take and upload photos on my own...

Ring out the Old

Just reviewing my blog entries from last year.  All two of them... and resolving to try to be more consistent in my posting in 2013.  Why?  Because I find that committing to blogging about what I'm working on helps me to commit to working on stuff.

I do have several projects on the go.  I decided to make baby quilts from fabrics I have on hand. One is gender neutral and will be assembled from 6" squares leftover from other baby quilts I have made in the past.  The second one is definitely for a baby girl, very very pink, with 6" squares pieced entirely from 1.5 inch strips of 8" length or less.  And I still haven't depleted my pink stash.  I really enjoyed making the pieced squares and have sorted all my fabric strips and bits and am planning to use them up.  Maybe tomorrow I'll sew up the quilt tops.

It's time to finish the chance/mazal piece I started back in April.  And since I first saw the inspiration for it in Preston last February, I would like to finish it by the end of January.

I just finished the prototype for the POM's ritual object challenge.  I will either do another in a different fabric or just keep the one I've done.

And maybe make something for the FAT library show in March.

So there.  I've challenged myself to be creative in 2013.  And hope I see it through!

Initial Square Lottery Done

The first stage of the fabric lottery is finished. There are four squares (of the 36) which are shades of off white. So hopefully I will be able to move some of them when I throw the dice. In a few places, the squares are similar in shades so maybe I'll get to move one or two of those also. With my luck (ha ha), I'll roll a "1" twice. Off to look for dice.

Climbing Back on the Horse Took Longer than Initially Expected

My name is Chaya and I am a Kindle addict (thanks Carmit and Micha). So I have to get really excited about a textile project to make me put down the Kindle. In late February I was in England, Preston to be precise. I went to the local museum to see a textile exhibit. I wasn't overly impressed. However the same museum had an exhibit of pieces from private collections of local folk. In it I saw an interesting piece by Nick Kennedy, an artist who has a series called "Dice Drawings". He works on paper marking numbers in pencil using dice to determine where the numbers will be marked. For more info on how he does this, you can google "dice drawings". So there is a combination of his deciding the "rules" for his work (medium and method) but there is also the element of chance (the dice determining the location of his markings. Aside from thoroughly enjoying his concept and his result, I was intrigued how to translate the concept and introduce "chance" into my fibre art. After much thought, here are my ideas (so far). My work is largely Judaic. Chance can be translated as "mazal", which can be translated back into English as "luck". So my piece will be based on luck/mazal. Eighteen is considered a lucky number in the Jewish tradition. The Hebrew word "chai"(life) has a gematric equivalent of 18, so 18 and multiples thereof are considered good luck. The background of my finished piece will be 18" square and will be composed of 36 squares (6 rows by 6 rows) of duppioni silk in 18 different colours. Here comes the random part. I have already cut 36 squares of fabric whose position in the 6 by 6 square grid will be determined by choosing lots. The vertical rows will be numbered 1 to 6. The horizontal rows will be lettered A to F. I will position the squares on the grid as follows: I will do the grid in two parts--one set of 18 different colour fabric squares for the top half of the grid and another set for the bottom half. I will also have 2 bags with 18 numbers each from A1-6 to C1-6 for the top half and D1-6 to F1-6 for the bottom half. I will randomly pick a number and then randomly pick a fabric from the relevant bag and based on the results, place the fabrics on the grid. If two squares of the same coloured fabric are adjacent to one another, I will move one square over, either vertically or horizontally, so that the finished grid has no squares of identical colour side by side. Once the grid is finished, I will take one roll of a die for each half of the grid, and the face number will be the number of squares I am allowed to determine where to relocate on the grid. Once the final placement has been done, I will machine piece the background. The next bit will be the embellishing bit. I will have two sets of dice, one to determine the location of embellishment on the grid (one die lettered A-F and one die numbered 1-6), The second set of dice will determine the embellishment: one die will have 6 techniques (i.e. embroidery, beading, embellishments, etc.) and the other die will determine the number of stitches, beads, embellishments, etc. I would appreciate suggestions for the embellishing part such as: 1. 3 more textile techniques (bearing in mind that each square on the grid is only 3 inches square") 2. what to do if I hit a "double" (i.e. two identical embellishing rolls, one after the other -- maybe that lets me decide in which square I am allowed to decide on additional embellishing) 3. whether to predetermine the total number of dice throws (naturally, a multiple of 18) or to let me determine when I feel the piece is done 4. anything else that strikes you and hasn't yet struck me I am excited!!

Climbing Back up on the Horse

It's mid-December. I finally got my sewing machine back at the beginning of October. Then a surprise early birth of my second grandchild, a daughter, in Israel on October 7th. I left for Israel October 8th and just returned the day before yesterday. Had a busy two months spending time with my loved ones. Now I'm back in an empty house and will venture into my sewing room today to console myself. Perhaps I will even be creative.

Off to be with My People

Sewing machine still in the shop and I won't know its fate until after I'm gone. In the meantime, I was reduced to using an old clunker to finish the baby blankets. I didn't finish them, though, because I just couldn't get used to using the old machine. I've put the binding on the front but will hand sew it to the back. Oy.
I am hoping that I will have access and time to write a bit while I'm gone.
Very excited right now.

Stitching along happily until

I was making great progress on my sewing but then my machine started smelling, like burned wires (or a motor). It is going back to the shop. If they already charged me for an overhaul, this shouldn't be happening so soon after. The Scream comes to mind...