Measure Twice, Cut Once

Measure twice, cut once. That's a tried and true saying, but what if you don't measure at all? It would have helped me if I had measured the Torahs for the high holiday total covers that I wrote about previously. 

But who would have thought to measure? Aren't they all the same? I've made a bunch so far, all the same length. 

I was surprised when I received a call from our synagogue 2 weeks ago. One of the Torah covers is too short. Really?? How could that be? I am used to screwing up, but I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. A friend of mine suggested I sew some jumbo Rick rack along the bottom. Not a look that I would like. So, I headed over to check out my shortcomings - oops, the cover's shortcomings. It wasn't an inch or so too short, that could be remedied with Rick rack. Ha!  It wasn't 2 " too short. IT WAS 4 INCHES TOO SHORT! I wish I had taken a photo, but I thought it would be inappropriate, especially in front of the Rabbi.  It was like high water pants, but on the Torah. I wanted to laugh, but at the same time I was appalled by my mistake. Measure twice .....even if I had measured once, I would not be in this predicament. 

For those who may not have read my initial post, this is one of the covers that I delivered at the end of October. I have a unique way to create the cover that involves wrapping the cover onto a wooden top and attaching it with Velcro. It makes the cover easy to remove, store and clean. It's like a wrap around skirt. 

Deciding how to add 4 inches to the cover without it looking like I had added on 4 inches was my challenge, especially since this was one of 4 companion High Holiday Torah covers. I knew adding onto the bottom was not the solution. It would always remind me of my faux pas. 

Surgery was my only design solution. I sliced it right through the gold and white silk. 

I had to unstitch the side binding before I cut it, so that's the fabric that is hanging off the side. I would have to extend that too. 

So what was I going to do to add 4" to this cover? The cover is definitely contemporary and I thought something traditional would be a good counterpoint. The curves of a vine and appliqués leaves would integrate the top half with the bottom. For some reason, and I usually don't know where my ideas come from, I felt compelled to hand stitch the vine. It was meditative. 

I found another use for Curvalicious - to draw the vine!

It was perfect. 

I drew right on the silk with a Frixion pen. 

I used gold metallic DMC floss for the stitching. 

Then I added the silk leaves. 

And voila! The finished cover. 

I'm happy with the result and this cover will definitely blend nicely with the others, even though it's 4" longer. We all know the moral of this story. 

The Frixion pen was instrumental for this reconstruction. 

The marks disappear when ironed. It's just amazing. You can purchase these ones at Staples or your local quilt shop. 

And now that Yom Kippur is upon us, I'd like to wish all my Jewish readers, L'Shana Tova and have a sweet, healthy and happy New Year. 

Summer Wrap Up

Everyone that I talk to agrees on one thing.  This summer has flown by.  I know it has for me.  It has been such a busy summer and I thought I needed to justify why I have not gotten on my bicycle - not even once.  (OK - I just remembered that I did go for a ride with my son, where he left me in the dust.)  My bike stares at me every time I pull into the garage.  It's silently saying "ride me, ride me".  I want to, but my studio is calling at the same time.  When I see cyclists out on the road enjoying the beautiful weather, flying along the hills, I want to be out there too.  There are just not enough hours in the day and by this point I am so out of shape that I think instead of flying up the hills, I would be walking my bike up those hills, huffing and puffing the whole way.

So here's my justification list:

• Mosaic Pet Retreat - A great long weekend with a great bunch of students.  Loren and I finished the Cooper top. Now it's om my to do list to quilt it.

• MAQ- I taught 3 wonderful classes at Mt St Mary's University  reconnecting with students and friends from years past and making some new friends.  It does take a lot of work to get ready to teach 3 separate workshops.

Dupioni Silk Lone Star

Beachalicious

Curvalicious Pillows - The Perfect Finish

• AQS quilt show in Syracuse - This was a wonderful experience with Don as my co-pilot.  I demoed my heart out for 4 days, sold a bunch of tools and made lots of new Curvalicious fans. Plus, Curvalicious found a place in 3 new quilt shops! 
  
   I was so motivated by this show that I am in the process of signing up for the AQS show in Daytona Beach next February.
  

• Torah Covers Commission - I designed, created and delivered 2 High Holiday Torah covers to Temple Sholom in Broomall

                           

• Shhhhhhhh - I worked on one other project for close to a month, that I can't wait to share, but not yet.  I am bursting at the seams with excitement.  More info to come in October.

The Fall is coming and I have lots of speaking engagements coming up.  Check the tabs above for the dates.  It is also a wonderful time to be outside riding.  Hmmmmm.

Quadruplets!

The Jewish High Holidays(HH) mark the end of summer for me.  They will be here soon and I will be sad that the summer will disappear. Three years ago, I made two HH covers for my synagogue, Temple Sholom, in Broomall.

This year I was asked to make 2 more companion covers for the other 2 Torahs  that we have in our possession. The clergy loved the pomegranate quilting so much that they wanted that included in the new covers.  We decided to continue with the panels in the bottom center and chose 2 more holiday themes.

The new ones were the Torah

And for the second one Ithey chose the Etrog and Lulav, symbolic of the holiday, Sukkot.

I started making the Torah covers as a wrap around quilt.  The Rabbi and I came up with this idea as a collaboration.

with a wooden top

The tops for these covers were handcrafted by a fellow congregant named Richard Wagner.  He did a beautiful job and carved the edges:

The lip has Velcro and so does the cover.  It makes it easy on and easy off.  This facilitates storage and cleaning, since these covers are only used for less than a month.

It will be a joy to see these in use this year.  I feel like a Mother Hen when I sit among the other congregants and watch the clergy open the ark and take out the Torah with "my" cover on it.

Torah Cover Project

The Torah Cover Project

 Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Jewish New Year and commemorates the anniversary of the creation of the world.  Yom Kippur begins Tuesday night. These are the 2 holiest days of the Jewish calendar. During this time the covers for the torahs are changed.  These covers or mantles are traditionally plain (ish)- white/ivory/cream colored. As with many Jewish traditions, there are many different explanations for this.

 

My project for the summer was to make 2 covers for my synagogue,

Temple Sholom in Broomall, PA. 

This is what they look like.

 

They are relatively identical except for the front panels. 

One depicts a shofar and the other the "Book of Life".  The shofar is a ram's horn that is blown and sounds like a trumpet, several times during the High Holidays.  On Rosh Hashanah, God is said to inscribe the fate of every person for the upcoming year in the Book of Life.

 

Silk dupioni was used to make the covers. 

 Each top section was quilted with pomegranates. 

Then I quilted the background and appliqued the motifs for each cover.

 

 

 

The covers were then constructed like a quilt with a final dimension of 47" Wx 27"H.

 

 

 

They are then attached to the top of the cover or shoulder like a wrap around skirt

 with the flap in the back..

 

 

In the past the cover was attached to the shoulder 

encasing the wood inbetween layers of fabric and attaching the "quilt".

 

This time I tried  a very unique approach.   I used tops that were custom made of cherry for me by a very skilled local woodworker.

 

 

Then I used Velcro (c)to attach the cover to the wooden top.

 

These covers are only used for about 3 weeks and then stored the rest of the year.  The Velcro method of attachment makes storage and cleaning so much easier.

 

I made fabric slipcovers to store the wooden tops

 

 

and provided Temple Sholom with an acid free archival box for storage.

 

As we say in Hebrew, L'Shana Tova -

May you have a sweet and happy New Year.

 

 

Wednesday's Wanderings #31 - Torah Covers

I have been spending the week working on a commission for my local synagogue, Temple Sholom.  It's for 2 torah covers for the Jewish High Holidays, that start with Rosh Hashanah and end with Yom Kippur.  Traditionally these white, plainish covers are put on the torahs for these most sacred days. 

 In our synagogue they adorn the torahs for about 3 weeks.  They are put away for the rest of the year.

I often have a little chuckle because without fail this is the scenario:

1.A few weeks before the covers are needed, the synagogue search begins to find them, especially if someone new is involved in trying to find where those covers were put at the end of the High Holidays the year before.

2.Then the question is  how to clean them.  (Remember they are white and are handled more than usual  by many different people during the services.)

3. It would be so nice to have new covers because most of them have been around a long time.   They are not a high priority in terms of expenditures.  Maybe next year.

4.  The covers are put away and forgotten.

5.  See step #1.

So I am excited and honored to be a part of this tradition.  I sat with the clergy and we designed the covers together.  Even though they are predominately white, they do not have to be plain.  They loved my pomegranate themed torah cover and wanted pomegranates to be visible in the background.

 

This week I designed, auditioned and practiced the quilting for the background of the design. It's interesting that the discussion these past few blog posts have been about contrast.  My goal for the background quilting was for it to be subtle, but I still wanted it to be visible.

The fabric is dupioni silk, an elegant and rich fabric.  The thread is a variegated gold rayon.

Here is my work in progress:

My initial sketch

I used Solvy, a water soluble transparent film as my quilting guide.  I traced my drawing onto the solvy with a thin tip marker that was similar in color to my thread. The film tears off pretty easily. Silk dupioni does not like water.  It loses its sheen and lovely texture if it gets wet.  I used the clear film and the similarly colored marker so if  any of the film remained behind, it wouldn't be readily visible.

I layered my backing, low loft batting, silk and Solvey and secured them with a few pins.

And free motion quilted it.  It's a little hard to see the transparent film.

The pomegranate

Finished sample, aka Wednesday Wandering