Ark Curtain Installation

Today was an exhilarating and glorious day.  Today the silk dupioni ark curtain, "Enlightenment" was installed at Temple B'Nai Israel in Easton MD.  My heart swelled with pride as I hung it in the ark - where the torahs are kept.  It is such an honor to have my work as the centerpiece for this synagogue's most precious possessions.

The ark with the doors closed

This is the original ark curtain that is 60 years old.  It is navy velvet with lots of stitching with metallic thread.  The fringe is also metallic.  The handwork is amazing.

The new ark curtain, "Enlightenment".

Almost Finished

The ark curtain is almost finished.  The last step will be to do a "fitting". Yesterday, I worked on my favorite part.  I added the donor..

 I cut out fusible letters from silk dupioni and finished them using a blanket stitch with Sulky thread.

I just love doing the blanket stitch with my machine.  It is very gratifying.

Ark Curtain Part II

Many of you have been asking me how the ark curtain is coming. For a while I could not answer that question.  Now,  I am happy to say that it is coming along well.  I finished the right half today and put the 2 sides together.

 Ta Da! 

I am thrilled with how it has turned out, so far.  The silk has such a beautiful sheen.

It measures 75" high x 64" wide

 I really needed my deodorant as I squared up each side before I put them together.  I could not have done it without these pattern maker weights.

I don't remember who gave me to me, but I had two.  I knew one day they would come in handy for something.  They are deceptively heavy and they did not budge as I pulled and tugged the curtain.

I made the decision to give it to my friend,  Barb Persing for quilting.  She is an award winning long arm quilter.  I think this piece deserves the type of creative quilting that she can do.

Stressful Sewing

I have spent the last month working on an ark curtain for a synagogue.  When people ask you how long it takes to make a quilt, it is not a simple question to answer.  First I spent a week coming up with designs and doing my best to draw them on paper with colored pencils.  I have to say that my artistry with fabric far exceeds my drawing talent.  I warn clients from the get go.  Fortunately the people choosing the design were familiar with my work.  I made torah covers for them last year. You can see them here.

I spent a day in NYC in the garment district and came home with $300 of dupioni silk.  I love this silk.  It's got shimmer and it's got texture.  It is just plain gorgeous.

Then I spent 2 weeks deciding how I was going to construct this curtain that measures 60"Wx77"H.  I realized that it was so much easier to make colored pencil lines and not so easy to figure out how I was going to sew 1 1/2" strips of silk into radiating lines.  After a few false starts, I decided to construct it on a foundation of lightweight interfacing in 2 pieces that would be joined before quilting.

Then I spent 1 1/2 weeks constructing half the curtain.  I never perspired so much before during a quilting project, and it wasn't because the A/C was broken.  I was sweating because I was so worried and nervous.  Choosing lightweight interfacing as a foundation was not a good choice.  It stretched and distorted as I added the strips. I couldn't see the faint lines I drew as my pattern after I finished my first section.  And if you are wondering if you would ever use a protractor again after HS Geometry, guess what I used to draw my rays?  You can actually download one from the internet.

So I am not going to sugarcoat this.  I finished the left side and it will need serious blocking and squaring up.  This is what it looks like now.

Am I looking forward to making the right side?  Hell no!  Mirror image?  I don't think so.  But I will try my best.  I will keep you posted.

Dupioni Silk

I love dupioni silk.  It is made in India and has the most beautiful sheen.  It also has slubs that give it a wonderful texture. It is a little tricky to work with.  One of the keys is a new, sharp rotary cutter blade.  Sometimes it needs to be stabilized with  a woven iron- on interfacing, but this is not always necessary.

I have been commissioned to make an ark curtain (parochet) for Temple B'Nai Israel in Easton, MD.  (The ark is where the torahs are kept.) The design was just approved.  It is my summer project.  The curtain will be made completely from dupioni silk.  So the first step for me was to head to the garment district in NYC to buy my palette of silk.   The curtain is 5' wide and over 70" high, so I need lots of it.  I ended up buying 23 colors.  Doesn't it look yummy?

My next mission was to have a slice of NYC pizza.  I grew up on Long Island, NY. Because my Mother kept a Kosher home, I had never tried pizza until I went out to eat with friends in high school.  What kid doesn't like pizza?  I loved it.  So to me, NY pizza is the best pizza anywhere.  I haven't had a slice in a really long time.  Although I was tempted by a "designer" pizza, I chose to stick with real pizza! ( Forgive the exposure please - it was dark.)  It did not disappoint.  I wish you could smell it.  I am drooling as I write.

It's often intimidating to start a new project, especially one of this size and importance.  So today I finally prepared the fabric foundation and started cutting the red silk into strips. There are 4 different colors.  It looks like tagliatelle to me. 

Stay tuned to watch this project come together.

The Summer of My Jewishness

Summer has arrived in Pennsylvania.  Only a few more weeks until the official start of summer.  But it is really summer for me.  I sent off the manuscript for my next book.  I can't reveal yet the topic of the book, but let's say it will be more of a technique book than a project book.  I spent the last 3 months writing and creating practically 7 days a week.  So now that it is winging its way to Washington state, I am free!  Actually free to start on my next project. 

It is interesting that this coincides with the airing of my episode on The Quilt Show.  One of the segments was about Jewish ritual textiles and my Oy Vey! patterns.  I received quite a few e-mails that showed an interest in learning more.  Let me say it right here that my knowledge of Judaism is more through tradition than study.  Anything I write about is from my point of view.  My challenge when working on a piece of Judaica is to find inspiration.  Sometimes that's from a story, a symbol or a ritual.  In the past the inspiration has come from such Jewish tenants as "healing the world", the "tree of life"  and "from generation to generation". 

My next project is an ark curtain for a synagogue in Easton, MD.  I have already made 3 torah covers for B'nai Israel.   They must like my work because they have invited me to make the "parochet", the ark curtain.  The ark is the place in a temple where the torah(s) is kept.  Traditionally the ark has this curtain covering the opening.  Sometimes the curtain is behind wooden doors and sometimes in front of wooden doors and sometimes there are no doors.  Basically there are no rules.  The ark is often the centerpiece and focus of the synagogue and you can imagine that it should be majestic because it holds the scrolls with our story.

So I am making this the summer of my Jewishness. I want to immerse myself in learning about the stories that make Judaism such a rich and ritualistic religion.   I want to soak in all of the Judaic art that I can.  I need to design and create an amazing ark curtain.  So I need to read and study to develop my inspiration.  I will share this journey.  And in the process I hope to make an ark curtain worthy of gracing the ark of B'nai Israel.