Category: Uncategorized

You know the old saying, when life gives you lemons – make lemonade

So life gave me a year long Sew along that I didn’t like. Last year I really enjoyed Jacobs’ sew along, but apparently he really got ripped off so this years it’s a secret, each month revealing the next phase.

Turns out I don’t particularly like Fresland samplers. So I about 3 months and said – no more. I’ve already used some of the fabric and thread for Which Witch. but I had to do something with the work I did on this one.

Following Vonna Pfeiffer’s instructions, I am making a drum. Her You Tube videos really are the best. I am also making a bag, and the written instructions are horrible, the You Tube videos help – but only so much

The drum is taller than I’d like, simply because I wanted this whole tree, crown and border in place.

There are instructions to use interfacing, polyfil and crushed walnut shells. It stands up nicely

I have two pairs of the spies returning to Moses with the grapes from the Holy Land. Of course Jacob, despite his name doesn’t like thing biblical so he did give an option for something other than grapes. I think that was one of the things that soured me on this – old samplers are religious and biblical – don’t like that, don’t make them

The crown, the border. These days with the Crown of England moving from Elizabeth to Charles – that is pretty significant.

I could have added more filling so the top would be rounder, I found a different solution.

Vonna, once again with a great tutorial on making cord. I have done it before with yarn, not thread – her instructions are great!

I need more practice to get the cord tighter, but this is just fine

Here is my solution for the top a cute bead and shred the thread.

Yes I do like the minute detail I get with my macro lens.

Leah

So the house across the street is cleared of its’ vagrant, the owners put in an alarm and are fixing it up. If they can get the price right, it will sell, problem is, everyone is pricing their houses like they would have a year ago – since then we have inflation and higher interest rates. so house don’t move that fast.

Then we find out that the Democrat running for Mayor – the one who wants to deny the rest of us the ability to be armed had two guns stolen from her house. No money, no jewelry – just TWO guns. I smell a rat, a big one. But hey, that is politics these days.

I added more fruit to the towel.

Done, but I’ve yet to use it, maybe because it is so bright and white.

Progress.

A lot of progress, my program tells me I’m at 75%, I think its’ more, I thought I erased a lot of the background, but I think some of it is still being counted in the stitch count. I don’t care about those kind of details, it’s fun but not important. I’ll let you know when I finish where it thinks I am.

In one of my alphabet books I saw a design with one initial only. Love that idea, I may add my surname initial or maybe my name, but right now, my one color project will have a lot of Ls’.

I’m loving working with only one color. Oh and it’s silk, what’s not to love about red silk.

Shiras’ mom gave her her great grandmothers pearls, and the necklace promptly broke – even silk thread ages and breaks. So I pulled out my tools and restrung the pearls. I was trying to follow instructions on YouTube. I wanted to ream the holes larger in a few pearls, didn’t work, I actually broke the reamer in one of the pearls. So I found a different solution, using two silver beads to try and hide the ends. Btw, these are lovely pearls – they are large and very irregular – not the kind you buy today. I hope Shira takes good care of them.

These two are back at school, Second grade and first grade. Now all grandkids are back. I hope they learn good things and not the garbage that our ‘educators’ feel like they must impart to the children of America.

Leah

The big weekend finally arrived, we were all excited and nervous.

Not sure why this picture is so small, didn’t take to many pictures on Friday. Here we are out front, having our Friday night service, yes is was very hot. Then we moved to the back and had a lovely dinner. So glad I redid the yard. As for Aytan, he checked out, he wasn’t involved in anything – which was a little disconcerting – was this an omen for Monday?

Shira in her dress with brand new shoes! Yes, she looks adorable.

The Bar Mitzvah boy looks great! He actually smiled a lot – which is rare. He wouldn’t wear a suit – and he wanted a bright red shirt – he it’s his day!

There were 90 people here, cousins, and few more kids who are family friends. Aytan had about 12 kids come from his special needs soccer and Religious school. I have to say, it was wonderful seeing these kids happy and participating with Aytan. So often these kids are completely invisible.

On to the service, here he has been given his Tallit, the prayer shawl.

Bringing out the Torah, he LOVES the Torah. he started singing ‘Torah Torah’. At first Becky didn’t know where he learned that, then the light bulb goes off – he goes to a Chabad camp – religious and they sing a lot of religious songs. I’m sure he can also recite – Mashiach now.

Erez giving him a wonderful speech – I had to turn and look at Yishai, at his Bar Mitzvah, all I said is: we have high expectations from you. Yeah, we both remember and laugh about that. At least he over fulfilled any expectation I had.

Here ae the grandparents – saying the blessing before the Torah reading.

Yishai read that section, it was about when Israelites go to war – if a man sees a woman he wants – he has to jump through crazy hoops before he can have sex with her – the Bibles way of trying to minimize rape on the battle field. Anyway, as he finished I said to him: a very unusual section for you to read, him being gay. The cantor- with the mask looked at me and said that is strange. Why? Because my son and I are very comfortable with jokes? She clearly isn’t with her mask and all.

The aunts and uncles also said the blessing. Oh, since this is a Monday and not a Saturday, men are supposed to wear Teffilin- that little box and wrapping on the arm. It has the Shema prayer in it. Elk was the only guy there in a full suit.

Becky reading the section that Aytan would have. He did say a few of the prayers – it was about him being comfortable, not forcing him to do something that made him uncomfortable.

Because of the guitar, I’m guessing that this is where the cantor sings the priestly blessing, can I reiterate how much I hate that mask????

Goofing with cousins!

And just because – she is so cute.

Leah

So the vagrants are now moving into the empty houses across the street. this is what happens when no one cares. The city, the state have been making money off this problem for years – now they are simply taking over the empty houses that either have or don’t have for sale sign. I know that 2020 was the beginning was something very bad, I was right, and unfortunately, it is only going to get worse.

So in order to keep sane, I stitch a lot. We have also signed up for an expensive home security system. Sign of the times. Government will do nothing, the police will do nothing. I had to laugh when the security company said that if there is a breach – it will go directly to the police. I laughed – yes, but will they come? Probably not- but maybe just the loud alarm will scare them off. Who knows?

Oops, I can hear the nags yelling at me – you aren’t allowed to put any part of a chart online, someone will steal it! Needless to say I don’t care. Btw, for those of you who may have been following me on IG- I used to post every day. Now, hardly ever, they only want either reels or it’s all advertising. The few people who used to like my content probably aren’t seeing it, so why bother. I know few people see me here, but this is my own vanity project.

Anyway, this is what is becoming. I had bought some of these towels at Joanns’ a while ago, and I try to use what I purchase. Of course I have a stash of stuff, but not as much as people would think.

I had to add some fabric to Shira’s dress. It’s on the side, no one can see it. The dress came out adorable!

Back view

Both sides, you probably can’t really see the additions, and if you can, so what, the dress fits her now. I told her, next time I make a dress, we have to really spend time with the measurements. My bad

We had two pancake breakfasts, I tried for fancy omelets on Sunday morning – no go, it was more pancakes.

A selfie, right after a hair cut!

Leah

The adults got into the fun. btw, my SIL Roberta who is 70 gave it a try! this is not her, I didn’t get a picture. But Good for her! This is Yishai, at the halfway point

Yoch got past the halfway point, but there were some wobbly holds – so down he came

Mandy did really well!

Always stylin’ no matter what she does.

Elk was like a spider – or a gecko, scaling up the wall.

Victory wave!

And swinging down.

Of course, he went up the hard side, not a problem for him.

made it to the first window, on the hard side.

Another victory wave!

Yishai made it to the first cut out.

He managed to wave to us.

And down he comes!

Here we are, the cheering section at the bottom of the wall.

Yes, a wonderful activity.

Leah

A huge activity and success that we had at the reunion was the climbing wall. We went to The AJU campus in Simi Valley, this used to be the Brandies Bardin Institute. My MIL went there for a program almost 70 years ago, since then my husband and brothers have gone there for camp, my kids went there for summer camp and now my granddaughter Shira goes there.

We hired two climbing professionals and off the kids went. There is Shira on the left, she had recently been at camp – so she is a pro.

Lets’ follow her up the wall shall we? This was early on, the guides had put some animals up as a goal. that stoped quickly as most climbers surpassed the stuffs.

Proudly waving it to the crowd!

Waving the trophy!

Elk has a drone, so this angle is very cool, West and Shira racing to the top. Both of them went up multiple times.

Westley went up many times. Here he is with his mother on the other side. Go Mandy! She did very well.

No surprise that he is quite the climber – he always has been. He’s been climbing these kind of walls since he was four. He loves climbing trees, so yes, he probably went up more than anyone else.

The previous image had Shira ahead, but not for long, there he goes!

the angle from a drone is very different isn’t it?

He made it to the top! Actually he did so more than once.

Initially they were only going to use the front side of the wall, but seeing how good these climbers were, a few went up the back side. Yup, Westley was right there. This is as far as he got, still very impressive.

Coming down!

Aytan went up once, he did quite well. He doesn’t go to this camp. Camp Ramah has a program for kids with special needs – he had an amazing time there this summer.

There he goes! Higher and higher!

Next, I will share some of the adults – all of whom deserve a lot of credit for the adventure.

Leah

My mother in law is turning 90, and is in good health, so it was a good reason to get tougher with all the kids, grandkids and great grandkids.

Birthday girl with granddaughter, Betsy, yes she is responsible for making these adorable bags. Betsys’ outfit is from Rent the runway. She has great taste, and every time she wears something different and fun.

With Joel and our middle son Elkana.

With our son and son in law. Love Yoch’s shirt with tigers, he found it at a Goodwill store!

Niece and her boyfriend.

More nieces

Group picture of most of us going on a hike. It is impossible to get everyone in the picture. Yes, some people were upset about that, oh well.

Oldest son Erez and his cousin Aaron.

Jason and Mai who graced us with their presence. These two Jetset the world, so it’s nice to see them here.

Shira and her favorite person in the whole wide world – uncle Yoch.

With her favorite aunt Mandy

New mom Kate with her baby boy!!

This cool dude is always being silly

OK, I think I got all the grandkids, mine at any rate.

Kids getting ready for art project.

Ready set run!

Yes, of course there was a kids table at meals!

There will be another post about the climbing wall. Meanwhile, a great farewell. We hope to do this again in the next year or two.

Leah

OK, I need to have a single color project on hand. I can take it outside, it is so much more portable.

The fun thing about the skirt is that it has these quaker designs.

I made a few changes, didn’t put in a full date, just the year, and then, my initials.

I am very particular about Halloween decorations. I tend to go with generic fall, and yet this one is so whimsical and fun.

Making the spider!

Almost done!

I tried to follow Vonna Pfeiffer’s tutorial about making a flat fold. It was a little long, so instead of lacing this, I glued it, lacing would have been better, but this is perfectly fine.

I respect Vonna, she does finishing work professionally and I really appreciate how meticulous she is – but you know what. I love the results, next time will be even better, but I’m sure she herself would tell me that I did a great job.

Side view.

The ribbon is what holds the folding board from collapsing. I love this, instead of a frame.

And now, details, I love the witch. I love the cat.

There are mice.

Another mouse. Also, in looking for the fabric for the background, I love the purple and the shiny rickrack. It adds a whole other dimension to the work.

Now, on to another one color project, I am thinking of putting together a work of my Monogram. I have the books, I have the red the thread – so will it be on a white background or on color?

Leah

I was very busy this weekend, wonderfully so and with no pictures to share. I am enjoying life with real people and not recording every second. So as I share images from last week, I’ll be talking about my weekend, not the actual quilts. they are beautiful – so enjoy.

Bright and colorful!

On Friday afternoon we drove through traffic to Palos Verde. This is a lovely hilltop area – outside of LA City. the big problem is that at the best of times, it takes at least 20 minutes to get there from the freeway.

The full quilt.

We have been making new friends at our Saturday service and it was so worth our while to make the drive to these new friends. Btw, they have an incredible view! They see all the way from the harbor across downtown to the Hollywood sign. It wasn’t very clear – so I couldn’t see the Hollywood sign, but I did see the huge cranes and that bit of ocean in the harbor.

Wonderful color play.

Then on Saturday we went to our services, where Dennis Prager gave an amazing sermon about faith and belief. Later at lunch I was talking to someone and said that this was one of his best. Another woman butted in and said all of his sermons are excellent. No I disagreed, some are great, some are good and some aren’t. She wasn’t pleased so she backed away from me. It’s ok, I’m making new friends, she needn’t be one of them.

Art Nouveau as inspiration. Yes, taken pretty literally from Klimt, but very well done.

On Sunday afternoon we hosted a lovely gathering in our newly renovated back yard. Most of the people were from our new congregation, there were some old friends as well. A new to me couple – two astronomy professors, proudly shared an image of their daughter meeting Dennis Prayer. she also loves Candice Owens. Thrills me to no end to know that there are plenty of teenagers out there who admire real thinkers – not just rock stars or the latest person on Tic Tok. Actually this girl isn’t allowed on Tic Tok which might explain why she is so smart.

Inspired by Art Deco, but this time a Turkish image

I have to point out that the background is all paper pieced hexagons! How incredible. This may be one of my favorites.

I had ordered food from the Hummus Bar and grill, yes, I ordered too much. What can I say, between being a Jewish mother and having people cancel at the last minute, we have leftovers. Everyone loved the food, the conversation and the wine. The weather was nice, our back yard gets a nice breeze and was mostly shady.

I LOVE Baltimore Albums. the color choices here are fabulous – not traditional, just fabulous.

A different quilt, I think made by the same quilter, I just love this.

In a few weeks it is my grandsons Bar Mitzvah. right now I am busy making my granddaughter a dress. More on that soon.

Leah

One of the lovely things at this show was the large number of antique quilts from the Quilts Inc. collection. Sometimes you see one or two, or at their museum in Texas you can see more. Often quilt museums keep the antiques under wraps – they are very fragile. So this was an extra treat.

How about this log cabin. Very traditional, red center, dark and light areas to create the block, and then a traditional layout.

Look closer, each stripe is about a quarter of an inch. This was made mid 19th century. I think it was before the civil war. Look at all those prints! Printing on fabric was relatively new – well, on an industrial level – so the number of prints is staggering. Yes, there are wovens as well, such as stripes and plaids. Stunning!

A large section was dedicated to blue and white quilts. Most of them were in this condition! And all were 19th c. Some had stains or, the white fabrics used in the background faded and yellowed, but not all, so there would be white and yellow in the background of a quilt.

This one stole my heart. A quilt made to look like a woven blanket – something that was very popular in early America.

This one is dated from around 1876, as in the centennial of America. Along side the amazing piecing is trapunto quilting, where certain areas of the leaves and grapes have extra stuffing to make them pop. This is one of my favorites.

Plenty of civil War era Green, Red and Cheddar Yellow. I’m glad this guy is in the image, gives you and idea of the size. Also, good husband, following his wife to a quilt show.

A close up of that quilt. the red and yellow are very vibrant. It is probably Turkey red that was discovered at the time. The green has probably faded somewhat.

Wonderful applique, sawtooth border and very detailed quilting.

A striped quilt. Look how straight those bands are! Also, the beautiful roses and the incredible quilting.

Somebody was having a lot of fun with this one.

Great Mariners compass. What is very exciting here is seeing larger pieces of the kind of prints that were available back then. For many quilt historians – looking closely at the fabrics will allow them to date the quilt. They always look for the most modern fabric to do so, since we all have large stashes of fabric that we either saved ourselves or even inserted.

Chintz top, it is huge, it isn’t quilted. Chintz fabric mostly came from England, it was very expensive to print. Originally it would have been block printed.

he details of birds and flowers and well as the number of colors – make it quite expensive.

Talking to other quilters. Some of the hexagons are pieced. Waste no fabric!!! some are chintz, others simple prints and others the woven stripes or plaid. Everything was used. Also, I wondered if this was English Paper pieced. Because the hexis are perfect. One quilter said – no, paper was very expensive. But then again, so was chintz and of course one would use the leftover paper. But who knows? either way, this is a masterpiece.

Leah