Camera back, cameraman sick

Menachem came back from Israel with a very bad cold/flu, although he had the flu shots before he left. He's been recuperating all week so I didn't want to "huck" (pester) him. Tomorrow, however, I will because I finished the sewing portion of Jeremy's bar-mitzvah preparations. I made Yunkie a tallit bag and both Yunkie and Jeremy tefillin bags using my father's ties from a pattern (not tallit/tefillin related) downloaded from the internet. The bags were relatively easy to make, once I figured out the idea behind the construction. I personally think it's ridiculous putting the words "tallit" or "tefillin" on the bags. I think if one peeks into the bags and sees their contents, they'll know what they're for and not mistake them for grocery bags. Lots of tallit/tefillin bags are made of navy blue velvet or some similarly non-descript fabric. It then becomes necessary to embroider/applique the name of the owner on the bags because they all look so much alike. Well, Yunkie and Jeremy will not need their names embroidered on these bags. No one will have such funky tallit/tefillin bags. Hope they like them.

Camera on Vacation

My camera is vacationing in the Middle East so I can't post any photos until it returns.
I finished my tzedakah (charity) box house. It turned out quite well.
I finished my January challenge "Underground" based loosely, very loosely, on the Toronto PATH system.
I made a "green" Tu B'shvat potholder set for Mindy and Yunkie from quilt trimmings -- batting and green fabrics.
So what now?
My next projects, with a February 20th deadline, are a tfilin bag for Jeremy, and a tallit bag and a tfilin bag for Yunkie. So I have a chance to use up more of my father's ties which sort of lets him "take part" in the simcha.
But other than thinking about it, I won't start until tomorrow morning when my head is clear and ideas are fresh.

And Now to Work

I am currently making another organza composition in blues. Off to stitch.

Wedding Square

And finally, a bit of fluff which was play for the sake of play. I made one of these in honour of Maggie's wedding and since I still have quite a bit of wedding gown leftovers, I decided to make another. It didn't make too much of dent in my whites stash, but it was fun.

Pomegranate Challenge

The current challenge for the Pomegranate Guild is "Jewish Symbols". Size doesn't matter but it has to be no more than two colours. Since I have a bag of kippot (yarmulkas, skullcaps) from Yunkie and Mindy's wedding, I decided to use a kippah as my symbol. I deconstructed one and used one of the six pieces as a template for a flower. I made the flower from fabric mosiacs from fabrics left over from Johanna and Warren's chuppah. The centre of the flower is a button, and a ribbon covered plastic washer from the computer disc container. So my colours and blue and magenta. I may just take another kippah and cover it with fabic mosaics as well.

And Another

Lavender fabrics left over from Alana's tallit.

I Liked the Technique of Organza

I really like the format of the 12" X 12". And while I had those fabrics out, I made another piece. This one had no restrictions of a theme, just a composition of technique, colour choice and embellishment.