Paper and Threads

This is my only sketch from an entire 3 day weekend!  But I have a great excuse!  Our Family went to Philadelphia this past weekend for a very special wedding.  

Even though the groom is the grandson of my husband's first cousin, they are the family who we spend major holidays with, including all Thanksgivings since 1989!  The wedding couple both graduated from medical school on Friday afternoon and that evening was the start of a weekend full of celebratory activities.  Ari will begin his internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago next month - the program that I trained at beginning in 1969!

Our children were there and we took advantage of the occasion to get a family photo.  It is rare to have everyone together without our grandchildren, and dressed up.  They are very close to the groom and his older brother - and we adore both of their wives.  And, both families were thrilled - making it a joyous event. 

Only one of our grandchildren was there, and my husband and I took care of him Saturday AM.  Since they live in DC, this was a fabulous babysitting gig for us!  Here is William gazing at his giant new giraffe. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

None of my current "threads" projects are close to being done.  I have 2 wedding quilts and one baby quilt in the process of being quilted or pieced.  And I'm hand piecing a Liberty of London quilt during this year of London travel to have a wonderful textile memory to go along with my travel sketchbooks. 

I just learned that many visitors to this blog find it because they search on images of chuppahs (as I once did when I started thinking about this project when my first child was married).  The images previously posted all show them suspended at the wedding ceremonies of my 3 children.  Here are photos of all 3 showing the actual design.  They are all 6 feet square and made from hand-dyed crepe de chine that I made using procion MX dyes.  They are hand quilted using silk thread.  The yellow/pink chuppah was made using a wax resist.  The blue chuppah is machine appliqued using many individually dyed fabrics, and the autumn leaves chuppah was drawn with a commercial silk resist from Prochem and painted with dyes using watercolor methods.  

Posted by Shirley at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This is the first wedding chuppah that I made (Puck Building, Soho July 1999).  While wandering through the Jewish Museum design shop in New York City, right after my daughter was engaged, I saw a painted silk chuppah that could be commisioned by a local artist.  At that time I was learning how to use procion MX dyes to "paint silk" using 16 mummi white silk crepe de chine and wax resist.  I immediately realized that I could make one if my daughter planned a chuppah for their wedding.  These colors were mixed from the 3 primary color dyes to match the flower colors that my daughter selected for her wedding.  The streamers at all 4 corners are made from tubes of the same color dyed silk.  The piece was quilted using silk thread.  The design was created from small bits and pieces from multiple illustrations in a Dover publication.

To see the other two chuppahs that I made for my children's weddings click on "Threads" in the sidebar to the right and bypass all paper entries.  Thank goodness I don't have a 4th child!  Each one of these took me approximately 6 months to make because I had a full time job and could only devote small blocks of time to the project. 

My newest daughter-in-law just made me a large framed photo with each couple standing under their chuppah taking their wedding vows and a beautifully written piece entitled "What is a Chuppah" that she used as a reading at their wedding.  It makes me ecstatic to have this composite visual memory of 3 of the happiest days of our lives. 

Posted by Shirley at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is the wedding chuppah that I made for my oldest son's wedding which took place outdoors in July 2004.  The bride asked for turquoise and shades of pink and chose this traditional applique design which was adapted from a commercial pattern by Nancy Pearson.  The silk crepe de chine was dyed with procion MX dyes and then the flower heart wreath was created with machine applique.  Every petal was a different color and the machine thread had to be changed for each!!  The white border on the top was part of the florist's canopy and I was unable to attach the 6 foot silk quilt any other way.  The streamers were all tubes of silk fabric that were dyed with the dyes that I mixed for the quilt. 

Posted by Shirley at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I began sewing in 7th grade and began quilting 25 years ago.  Traditional quilting was followed by explorations in surface design using cotton or silk fabric and procion MX dyes.  As each of my children got married I made them a dyed, quilted, crepe de chine chuppah for their wedding ceremony.   

For my son's autumn wedding in October 2005,  I used silk resist from Prochem to draw the leaves and then painted them with dyes that were mixed from the primary colors.  The only mixed dye that I purchased was brown and it quickly separated into purple and green as it moved through the fabric creating some interesting effects!  As I was working on this piece, my interest in sketching and watercolor painting resurged and I joined the Everyday Matters Group to improve my sketching and painting on paper.

Posted by Shirley at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)