BubbeWisdom

The 72 Names of G-D

The quilt shown above was my first try at the 72 to Names.

“And the angel of G‑d who had been going ahead of the camp of Israel now moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud went from in front of them and stood behind them. Thus [the pillar of cloud] came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel, making it cloud and darkness [to the Egyptians], but it gave light by night [to the Jews], so that the one came not near the other all the night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and G‑d drove the sea back with a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land; thus the waters were divided.” (Ex. 14:14)

The 72 Names comes from these three lines of Torah when Moses and the Israelites need the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea. It is a formula of 72 combinations of 3 Hebrew letters each formed from a recombination or the 3 sentences.

Each three letter combination is an angelic energetic entity. They are not words or number combinations and cannot be pronounced; just felt & understood. Take together, capable of parting a sea and saving a nation.

WE DID IT- The Portuguese Way

I couldn’t be more proud of us. As I reported in the last blog, the last 2 weeks of April, my family and I walked over 70 miles from Valenca, Portugal to Santiago, Spain. It was a glorious mix of urban & rural environments, a comfortable selection of accommodations & sustenance, and a fascinating glimpse of the vastness of human nature- all in one little walk.

It’s hard to understand until you do it yourself, but I picked the above picture, to give you a glimpse of the trail. All you have to do is watch for the Camino Markers. Some times there is a choice and then you look to the locals or the others on the trail for guidance. People are incredibly helpful and friendly. There are lots of places to stop for a bathroom and/or a coffee, so a typical day contains of 3 or 4 segments of 3 to 5 mile walks with rest stops in-between. The group tries to stay close, but also to respect each others pace and so there is a constant shifting of relationships to accommodate each person’s needs.

Because I did this once before, I took it upon myself to organize all of the accommodations and the luggage transfer. Everything about this worked out. Porto is a beautiful city to both start and end. If you have the time you can walk from there, but we did not-and for us, starting at Valenca, an old fortress town was magical.

I can’t say enough about the value of the experience. Character building in real time and experience. BUEN CAMINO!!!

The Way- Part II

The PORTUGUESE CAMINO- from Porto to Santiago

In 2019, three of us walked the El Camino, going from France to Santiago.

Today, back by popular demand, eight of us, leave to experience The Way’s second most popular path, beginning from the south in Portugal and walking north to Santiago. Having done it once with the help of a tour company; I stepped forward to make all of the arrangements independently. Time will tell!?!?!? See you in two weeks!

¡Buen Camino!

Dayneu Quilts: The Zen Circle

A year plus ago, I made the commitment to a 10 Year plan which helped me to zero in on the need to have a one person show- as a kind of summation of My Patchwork Life. This, my seventh one person exhibition, including fourteen quilts following its chapters, will occur in the fall of 2024 right here on the Southside at the BrewHouse. The exhibition, entitled DAYNEU. is taken from the Hebrew word meaning IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH.

The first quilt in this series is about A. TRUTH and based on quilts with circles. In Zen practice the circle, ensō, Ensō (円相) is a universal expression of wholeness, our true and innermost self in a myriad of things from reality to enlightenment.

Creating circles in patchwork is particularly challenging. Making clothing, I learned to set-in sleeves. In my early days of piecing, I applied these sewing principles to traditional drunkard paths and double wedding rings. Working with tee shirts, I got the innovative idea to take advantage of the stretch of the fabric to create free-form circles without patterns. This became the key technique to create many of my angels.

To start the quilt, my biggest problem was what materials to use. Go to my favorite online quilt shop? Half price day at the Salvation Army or The Goodwill bins? Then it hit me to go to my closet and voila- a perfect palette of greens and browns.

Zen Circles is composed of: Zen Center Robe, April Cornell Dress, EB Pepper Shirt, Fancy Tee, CP Shades Pants, J Jill Jacket, Panache tops and pants, Hemp Jacket, CP Shades Embroidery Jacket, MaryAnn’s Batiks, Heath’s custom Indian shirt, Naomi’s Bubbe Bed Sheet, Extra saved pieces of J Jill and CP Shades Tops, Sadye’s linen napkins.

As I make these DAYNEU Quilts, I determined that after the main quilt is completed, I will use up the leftovers-a kind of completion of the project. For this one, I settled on a traditional quilt pattern that I always loved because it looks like circles in the way it is pieced, even though the seams are straight.

You Too Can Make A Big Bag

Since 2013 Sarah and I have been collaborating as SILKDENIM on the production of recycled Denim. Today, most of our sales come through our ETSY STORE when one our original and best selling products is OUR BIG BAG. Here is the info from our store:

Originally inspired by the idea of making the reusable grocery bag cool and versatile, the Big Bag is more enduring and has endless uses. It can function as a grocery bag, an overnight bag, an athletic bag, an audition bag, a carry-all-day bag … and it really is big.

Made from 100% recycled denim in Pittsburgh upon order. Each bag includes a pocket, and it might even include two. All items are one-of-a-kind, unique, and vary. The photos shown here are just examples.

Because all SilkDenim items are handmade to order, we can personalize them by making them from your own recycled clothing or materials, take color requests, or add hand-embroidery or patches. Contact us for special requests.

Email us if you would like to buy a bundle of big bags for a discount

17”H X 14”W X 7”D; 13” hang from shoulder

About SilkDenim:
Louise and Sarah Silk are a mother-daughter duo making Art-You-Can-Use as a response to unsustainable ‘fast fashion’. They deconstruct worn clothing and re-fashion the fiber into one-of-a-kind garments, bags, quilts, and home goods. They do it all by hand themselves in their Pittsburgh, PA studio. Through this process, they not only save the environment of excess material, but they also celebrate the beauty and authentic details of worn fabric. Inspired by the rust belt’s history and Louise Silk’s long time practice of making memory quilts, they transform discarded fiber into objects of value, practical use, beauty, and meaning.

I have been using the bag since we began, and I can report that every clerk who comments on the bag and says, “I should make one of those!”. So for all of you who want to make one, I have put instructions on my UTUBE CHANNEL.

This is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fdoEh4LIyM&t=5s and this is the the QR code to get you there with your phone:

Let me know how it goes!!

France 2022

Memories of a lifetime with my daughter, Sarah, my granddaughters, Maya & Naomi.

We started in Nice, stopped in Eze and spent two nights in Monaco.

We rented a car in Monaco and drove through Provence.

We ended with a train and four days in Paris. Our favorites, hands down, were people watching, shopping, and eating!

Great Advice From A New Role Model

Rachel Maddow is by far my favorite news analyst. I happily planned my evening around her regular 9:00 broadcast. And so with good reason, I have been quite sad and even a little lost that she has pulled back to work on other projects and will only be on air Monday evenings.

It created quite the crater in my life and then I heard a fabulous interview with Symone Sanders and wouldn’t you know, she is hosting a new show on MSNBC. at the end of the interview she gave women three pieces of advice: 1 Ask for the things that you want and have worked for- people might tell you no- but you will be pleasantly surprised to sometimes get to yes. 2. Do the work, read, research, execute- you must be able to perform and back up what you say. 3. Be your authentic self. You are okay exactly as you are and it is the world’s responsibility to accommodate to you.

I was so excited to hear Symone, I looked her up and saw the title of her latest book: No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America. What a title!!! It seems like I could have found a Rachel replacement!!

Opening Pandora’s Box

some thoughts from Charlotte Joko Beck

Now one of the illusions we may have about our practice is that practice will make things more comfortable, clearer, easier, more peaceful, and so on. Nothing could be further from the truth.

All of us feel we are separate from life; we feel as if we have a wall around us. As long as we feel separate from life, we feel the wall…..We may be anxious, we may have disturbing thoughts, but our wall keeps us unaware of that.

Pandora’s box is all of our self-centered activities and the corresponding emotions that they create. Opening Pandora’s box is breaking down the wall. So Pandora’s box, that which upsets and disturbs us, is the emergence of that which we have not been aware of before: our anger toward life. It has to boil our sooner or later. This is our ego, that life is not the way we want it to be. It is our fury when the people or events in our lives simply don’t give us what we demand.

As our practice becomes more sophisticated we begin to sense our tremendous deficiencies, our tremendous cruelty. We see the things we hate and the things we just can’t stand. There is grief in that.

As we get more sensitive to our life and what it truly is, we can’t run from it. So I want you to appreciate your practice and your life. That’s all this is about. Nothing fancy. Zen is action itself.

March 2022 AAP Featured Artist

“Living during these difficult times, hope continually peeks through with my elevated awareness of the sacred within the mundane exposed while exploring the transformational stitching of ordinary repurposed clothing and textiles.“

Ways To Connect:

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Retail & Wholesale
SilkDenim – Etsy
SilkQuilt – Etsy
Faire

Online Instruction
Skillshare
YouTube

Video of Louise’s process for making piece #6 Self-Portrait 2021 (shown above)

Additional information on Louise:
During the pandemic she published an autobiography A Patchwork Life: The Hands On Guide To Living Piece By Piece. It can be purchased in book form or read in segments on her blog.SilkDenim is a collaboration project with her daughter, Sarah Silk. Together, we re-make 100% recycled materials into individually crafted objects. We’re particularly attracted to denim because of its rugged practicality and its unique ability to improve with age. Using recycled materials requires us to work with authentic details & create every piece anew, providing a unique one-of-a-kind object that emphasizes the craft & beauty of re-using over discarding. Louise is in the second year of Ten Year Plan to bring together the totality of her work by her eightieth birthday. Two of her goals:To gather, organize and enter my paper and slide archives into the Heinz History Center.To create 14 new pieces for a one-woman exhibition, along with a book of accompanying essays.

Video catalog of Louise Silk’s one-person exhibition: ReNew which was on view from January 28, 2020 – February 15, 2021, in the BNY Mellon Satellite Gallery of Contemporary Craft.

About the Featured Artist ProgramEvery month the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Featured Artist will be chosen by the Exhibition Committee. The Committee pulls nominees from the most recent exhibition applications. The Featured Artist will be highlighted in an email newsletter, announced on our social media, and posted to aapgh.org!

Writing vs Quilting

I’ve been very negligent when it comes to any form of writing, so I decided to just own up to it here and see if that changes my committment. It’s so easy to post on instagram and then simultaneously load it to Facebook and Twitter– really it’s way too easy! Maybe Each pictures may be worth a thousand words, but really, they just might not be right!

For example, I got together this very sophisticated palette of 5 shades each of 8 hues of tee-shirt materials to make an updated Tree of Life Quilt.

My first attempt with the fabrics produced this quilt:

I knew I could take it further by layering the quilts pieces on top of each other and made this one:

I accomplished my goal but now was left with lots of leftovers. What should I do with them? The range of colors reminded me of this quilt that was featured in this poster, made over 30 years ago:

Envisioning and updated version, I came up with these 12- 8 pointed stars:

And with still enough leftovers for another top, I looked back to another star variation I know works no matter the remaining colors, this sunburst:

Have I made my point? A post on social media does not begin to explore my process, like a blog post. It takes more thought but well worth the effort. Enjoy!!