Butterflies

REMEMBER US, FOR WE WERE THE CHILDREN WHOSE DREAMS AND LIVES WERE STOLEN AWAY. BARBARA SONEK

I watched the ZooKeeper’s Wife last night. In this touching story, one of the holocaust victims is represented and then remembered by a Butterfly pin that she gives to the ZooKeeper’s Wife as she is leaving her to escape. Butterflies are a powerful symbol of transformation, delicate and beautiful but fragile and short lived.

The Butterfly Project opening today at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh uses that same image. Inspired by the poem “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by Pavel Friedmann, a young Czech living in the Terezin Concentration Camp, the Project is a tribute to the lives of the young people lost in the Holocaust. Over 300 children painted individual butterflies learning about the children lost and invisioning a future using the lessons learned from the Holocaust to create a free, tolerant world.

My artist job was to integrate the butterflies into a meaningful, warm-hearted exhibit. I used red ribbons to attach the butterflies to the quilts. Red ribbons ward off the evil eye, fooling the evil, who is attracted to the red and away from the butterfly. I placed the butterflies in a beautiful landscaped environment and I offer them the blessing we bestow on our children every Shabbat.

The Butterfly Project Pittsburgh Exhibit is on view through December: Mondays,Wednesdays,and Fridays 10:00 a.m.– 2:00 p.m. Let me know what you think!

Pussies Of America Finds A Home

To: Women and Girls Foundation
100 W. Station Square Drive; Suite 315
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

It is my pleasure to gift you: Pussies Of America; 42”H X 54”H; Recycled denim, tee-shirt knits, Perle Cotton; Hand Embroidery, Hand Appliqué, Machine Piecing; $1200.00; 2017.

Pussies of America was one of over 500 quilts made in response to an open call entitled Threads Of Resistance. Pussies of America references a quilt I made in 1991 as part of The Great American Quilt Festival sponsored by the Museum of American Folk Art. My quilt, Stars of America, featured fifty stars arranged as stars on a flag and highlighted fifty unique American items such as MICKEY MOUSE, ROUTE 66, APPLE PIE, and LEVI JEANS. It is now archived at the Heinz History Center.

For Pussies of America, I replaced the stars with fifty individual pussy hats, representing the handmade pink hats made to provide a unique collective visual statement of support and solidarity for women’s rights, first used during the Women’s March on Washington on November 23, 2016 and now as a continuing sign of protest.

On each hat is a hand-embroidered protest statement taken from the signs held at the march including such statements as: NOT MY PRESIDENT, I AM A WOMAN. WHAT’S YOUR SUPERPOWER?, PUSSIES AND RIGHTS ARE NOT UP FOR GRABS, THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE, I’VE SEEN SMARTER CABINETS AT IKEA, OUR BODY OUR MINDS OUR POWER, and THE WORLD IS WATCHING.

The Power of Seventy

Seventy is made of two perfect numbers, seven- representing perfection and ten- representing the ten commandments and the completeness of The Holy One’s law, symbolizing perfect spiritual order carried out with all power.

Midrash: The Holy One, Who has seventy Names, gave the Torah, which has seventy names, to Israel, which has seventy names (Numbers 11:16), and which originated from seventy people who went down to Egypt with Jacob (Genesis 46:8-27), and was chosen from among seventy nations (Genesis chapter 10), to celebrate seventy holy days in the year (52 Sabbaths and 18 festivals, including the Intermediate Days between Passover and Succot). The Torah was transmitted to seventy elders (Midrash Yelamdeinu), and safeguarded by the Sanhedrin of seventy Sages (Numbers 11:16) … There are seventy facets to the Torah (Zohar, Genesis 36), which was translated into seventy languages to make it understandable to the seventy nations (Sotah 32a), and was engraved on seventy stones after Israel crossed the Jordan (Deuteronomy 27:8) on their way to the Holy Land. Jerusalem, which has seventy names, built the Temple with seventy pillars. On Succot, seventy sacrifices were offered (Numbers 29:13-34) for the sake of the seventy nations of the world who have seventy representatives among the heavenly angels.

Judah Loew ben Bezalel, The Maharal of Prague: The number seven represents the entirety of this natural world, which was created in seven days (six days of creation, completed on the Sabbath). Any number times ten represents its expanded full potential – seventy of something represents all the potential facets of that thing in the natural world.

Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, the son of the late Moshe Feinstein: The seventy languages used by Moses parallel the seventy facets of Torah; each speaks to one of the seventy characteristics with which G-d has populated the world. The number seventy symbolizes that every national trait can be harnessed for holy purposes.

Mark Twain on his seventieth birthday: It is the time of life when you arrive at a new and awful dignity; when you may throw aside the decent reserves which have oppressed you for a generation, and stand unafraid and unabashed upon your seven-terraced summit and look down and teach – unrebuked. You can tell the world how you got there. It is what they all do. I have been anxious to explain my own system this long time, and now at last I have the right.

Rasiel’s Mantle

Rasiel’s Mantle; 43”H X 63”W X 2” D; Machine Pieced and Hand Quilted Tee-Shirt Remnants, Old Quilt Remnant. 07/2016. $1600.00. Quilt National 2017.

This work is composed of ordinary re-used materials. The archangel, Rasiel, presides over our actions of transforming the knowledge of information and ideas into the wisdom of achieving our deepest levels of understanding. The mantle, like a quilt, serves the practical function of keeping someone warm protecting them from the elements. In this case, it also serves as a symbolic divine representation.

Quilter Extraordinaire

She said she had a lot of t-shirts. I told her I’m okay with that.

I’m used to lots of shirts. I have a well honed system for taking a huge pile of shirts and extracting the logos to condense them into a magnificent, functional, memorable quilt.

Still, she had more shirts than I have ever had presented to me on any previous occasion. I would venture to say representing a huge investment of time and money.

The result, a totally unique solution, one double-sided queen-size quilt for each of the four members of the family.

Life Is The Practice

Do not do a spiritual practice as if your life depended on it. Practice as if it is your life. Let it be empty. Let it be light. Let it be sweet. Let each moment be a mystery that brings you to the next moment.

Empty means without preconception. Without preconception means you are free to follow the natural course of life. The times you feel the most sweetness in your life are those times that are empty: You look at the baby and feel life is wonderful; you watch a dancer and are glad you are human; you learn something new and are completely satisfied by it in and of itself.

Our greatest spiritual practice is not yoga or prayer or meditation. It is life itself. And how we practice life tells us all. If you practice life in order to someday get good enough at it to really live, then you separate yourself from life in a profound way. But if your definition of life is that it has waves of up and down, joy and hardship, ease and discomfort, and if each day you practice empty of preconceptions, ready to wee what life brings, then you will be worthy of the concert stage. The instrument will be your own body, mind, and spirit. The audience will be all of the Buddhas and ordinary people who enjoy watching humans be themselves.

Jason Shulman; The Instruction Manual For Receiving God; page 103

Nest

Every morning I awaken to a heart-warning cacophony of sights in the bedroom portion of our loft. It begins with a good night’s sleep on the great invention of a memory foam mattress and pillow.
Coming to my senses I meander through the family photographs that line the ceiling beams feeling the persistent love and support that surrounds me. As valuable as the photos, is the quilt wall that Steve created where my top dozen quilts shine in the indirect light of day.
To the right of the bed is a recent addition- my desk, computer and files. It’s great for many reasons, like keeping on top of my finances, but number one is accessing videos with my yoga mat enabling increased daily movement and flow.
I’ve mentioned my huge walk-in closet with every stitch of my clothing completely visible. Since I have been working with Sarah at SilkDenim, I have amassed a bounty selection of remade clothing for daily use, making it way more fun to select my clothing.
Across from my bed is my very favorite resting place in the whole loft. I spend hours on this crewel upholstered love seat passed down from my aunt- reading napping, and playing with my phone.
An embarrassment of riches making a reliably meaningful start to the adventures of the day.

Memory Quilt II

The need to cover a kitchen cart creates a desire to gather more meaningful remnants, listed in no particular order:
Kaffe Fassett quilt fabrics
border fabric from Quilting Path Tree Quilt
Alexander Henry fabric for Eli’s Quilt
leftovers from Maya’s and Hailey’s first quilt
MaryAnn’s batik skirt
Ben’s gatkes
Sarah’s ikat
SilkThread batiks
Classic 80s Hoffman border batik
Sunflower produced Shekianu fabric
Leonard’s hand-stitched corduroy shirt
Freda’s Bark Cloth
City Quilt Shop Double Wedding Ring Peter Pan fabric

A Quilt To Get Excited About

All quilts are special but this one gets special marks- a memory quilt for me of the littlest pieces of left-overs I simply found to meaningful to throw away.
Among its many remnants in no particular order:
Maryann’s batiks
Hailey’s pants
Eli and Annie’s quilt
Steve’s sweater
Nana’s afghan
A terrible towel
Jim’s grandma’s quilt
Tina’s dedication
pajama pants from EB Pepper
Black Radish’s curtain
favorite lime green capris described in Tent Of Protection
my dress from Annie’s graduation
Wendy’s curtains
log cabin block from the Quilting Path
challah cover from JAF
favorite turtlenecks
art project with Adrienne
Ben’s quilt
remake shirt pieces
Leslie and Michele fabric
Ben’s thermal shirt
Ann’s ethnic fabric
Alex’s bedspread from Tina
favorite old navy sweat pants
fancy shirt from Banana Republic
embroidered shirt from Sea Dog
Chinese pajamas
Panache ikat
quilt piece from PSC
shehekianu fabric made from spoonflower
material from Amy and Evan’s chuppah
backed in especially beautiful quilter’s batiks from Betty’s collection and SilkThread
being sent to Nettie Yoder for hand quilting