SilkQuilt

Community Quilting

The sisterhood of a local congregation, Tree of Life Or L’Simcha, enlisted my help to create a quilt for the entrance of their building. We began with a first meeting where everyone brought meaningful pieces of cloth and I presented a PowerPoint talk giving an overview of quilts made with meaning and memory and aContinue reading “Community Quilting”

Every Day Zen

If someone asks me about Zen, I inevitably refer to the book, Everyday Zen by Charlotte Joko Beck. The late Charlotte Joko Beck and her dharma heirs operate The Ordinary Mind School a non-hierarchical organization that uses an adapted Zen practice free from traditional patriarchal trappings with elements of vipassana meditation and the conscious engagementContinue reading “Every Day Zen”

What Do You Buy For The Runner Turning Seventy Who has Everything?

A Quilt A Week

Speaking to a group last week, the question came up, “How long does it take you to make a quilt?” To which I answered, “I make about a quilt a week.” This led to gasps in the audience, so I thought about it for a second or two and said, “Maybe that’s a bit ofContinue reading “A Quilt A Week”

The French Knot

Embroidery always appealed to me and when I wanted to make this memory piece shown above of my Dad and me, I found the French Knot as my vehicle for interesting texture, scale and color variation. The knots are formed with two different colors of regular sewing thread wrapped three times around a #8 embroideryContinue reading “The French Knot”

Classic Quilting

Way back in the seventies when I started quilting, there were no special fabric manufacturers for quilt fabrics. Alexander Henry a cotton print textile design house saw a new market and began producing beautiful cutting-edge, original prints for quilters. One of their very best was this peacock feather print. I used the fabric many timesContinue reading “Classic Quilting”

The Personal Is Still Political

Don’t wait for a Gandhi, don’t wait for a King, and don’t wait for a Mandela. You are your own Mandela, you are your own Gandhi and you are your own King. Leymah Gbowee The personal is political was popularized in the late 60s by Robin Morgan in her classic book Sisterhood is Powerful. BeforeContinue reading “The Personal Is Still Political”

The New UTube

I have my own SilkQuilt channel on UTube where I have shared such memorable birthdays as my eighth, my 60th birthday schlep and my granddaughter’s first with all of my family and friends. Under the administration of Google, who has owned it since 2007, UTube recently received a very smart update. Every user has aContinue reading “The New UTube”

Fabrics Included = Many Memories

Directions:Sew together four half-square 5″ triangles for each finished 6″ block. Make 120 blocks, ten blocks times twelve blocks, for a 60″ X 80″ quilt top. Fabrics included:Rayon print vest, two JJill hemp pants suits, Heath’s pin-whale corduroy shirt, Dad’s golf hankie, Billy Siegal’s mola remnants, Slave Boy remnants, Sun Dog Shirt, Mom’s 75th cremeContinue reading “Fabrics Included = Many Memories”

Free Bubbe, Mandela, and the 99%

My almost four-year-old granddaughter is constantly asking questions about jail. In an effort to change her focus from people who are imprisoned for doing bad things, my son, Eli, informed her that her Bubbe had spent time in jail. That’s right, I, Louise Silk, Bubbe of Maya Elizabeth Silk, made the front page of theContinue reading “Free Bubbe, Mandela, and the 99%”