Done done done done done!

This out of my usual wheel house project is now done. T-shirt quilts are pretty ubiquitous in the world of quilting. Usually they are of the stuff in a grid format. If you look at any sewing or quilting catalog you can buy directions for a t- shirt quilt.

I had begun my sewing life by making quilts. I have done more than my share of class quilts for my kids’ various schools. For several years I had also made chuppot made out of squares of stuff donated by family members. I have made lots of quilts that are things arranged in a grid. I hit my limit and resolved to never do another grid based quilt.

I constructed this throw in three long strips. Each strip was a different shirting fabric backed with a layer of cotton flannel. getting all of the shirt bits to work together was a fun challenge. I had to make the rhythm of each strip work both on it’s own as well as in relation to it’s two neighbors. Each of the t-shirt bits was sewn with a wide zig zag stitch. I liked the idea of a t-shirt quilt made on a shirting base.

After I finished each strip I added the backing fabric and then served up the outer perimeter of each long strip. I stitched the three strips together with the raw seams turned to the face of the quilt. I had to figure out how to cover the raw ends. I purchased a shirting online and once it arrived hated how it looked with the quilt. I then sewed strips of the shirtings together made a long( 9 yard) bias strip about 3 inches wide.

I used the striped bias strip to cover the seams. I then top stitched with a a red multi-part zig zag stitch. A really large number of the t-shirts were red. This subtle detail made the piece hang together better.

My last problem was finding the right fabric for the binding. I had thought that a blue and white seersucker would be perfect. unfortunately, I wasn’t ale to find any that I liked in the garment district. this is where having a fabric stash comes in handy. I had purchased a heavy weight cotton plaid from www.fabricmartfabrics.com on a whim. I had thought I would make a sleeveless sheath dress out of it.

The plaid had all of the colors in the shirtings I had used in the quilt.

Making bias bindings used to terrify me. But sometimes I can just get into a groove and turn into a wild bias binding maker.

The heavy weight plaid cotton was nice to work with. it had a nice weighty hand. The fact that it is such a durable fabric makes it perfect for the area of the quilt that will get the most wear.

This quilt was heavy. I had to take frequent breaks to rest my arms.

It was nice revisiting the sort of project I haven’t done in a long , long time.

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...

A Passover loss

My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin. You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...

sarah in nyc

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