More pre-wedding

All the preparation and the wedding is over.  I will be sharing many pictures, this next set is the hours right before the guests arrive and the festivities start. The center piecesHere is how all those flowers ended up. The Dads have a wonderful succulent garden. Three months ago they planted 22 pots, which gave them time to get established. Yoch found these jars at Michaels’ and as you can see, what a great way of marking the table number. Candles wrapped in burlap and rocks, each with a saying or image on them.Place setting cards, rocksEveryone got their own rock with their name and table no.  At the end of the evening most were left behind. They will end up recycled into the landscape  at camp.Proud parentsHere we are in all our finery. No I did not make the dress!  I bought it at a vintage store, Playclothes in Burbank. That stretch of Magnolia Blvd has some excellent stores. I have never seen anything this green! It’s from the 1960s’ and is some kind of polyester. IMG_3645 - Version 2I love the shawl collar and the pin!  Such a simple vintage piece.IMG_3656Last year’s wedding couple already have a baby bump! 20140526-071533Nice thing about having a wedding at camp, who doesn’t love a swing?IMG_3658Grandkids put on their fancy clothes. Aytan didn’t take the bow tie off all evening, Shira lost the flower quickly.image_7Signing the Ketubah, Jewish marriage contract.imageWalking the groom down the aisle. Yes, grandson with Spiderman were part of the procession.image_2Under the ChuppahimageThey are married!image_5

With some of the girlfriends.

We will get professional pictures soon, but I so excited. Had to share what we have right away!

Leah

It works! Chuppah trial run

Yesterday the boys went to visit the Dads in the OC and put the Chuppah together.                             First they ordered 8′ birch poles.Chuppah polesHere are the poles leaning up against the side of the house. Sturdy and tall enough for a lot of people to stand under.Sturdy eye hooks on birch polesThese are what I call massive eye hooks. No problem of the chuppah falling off of these, even if it was twice as heavy. Lucky for us Paul has some massive tools, so this was not a problem for him to drill and glue the hooks in place.The Chuppah, trial runAnd here it is, luckily Paul has long arms so he is holding two poles while Yoch is taking the picture, I have no idea if there was a decision to coordinate the orange shirts. Yup, that’s my boy Yishai with a big grin on his face.

This really was a group effort. Yoch came up with the design idea and pieced the top and bottom. I pieced the corners, quilted and bound it. As well as came up with the sturdy ties.

Paul and Darryl bought the poles and affixed the eye hooks and are the first to give it it’s first trial run. 35 days from now, the four brothers will be proudly holding up the chuppah while Yish and Yoch stand under it to get married. I’m getting all verkelmpt, so I’ll stop here.

 

Leah

The Chuppah part 2

It is finished!!!  All sewn and ready to be attached to the poles. Finished ChuppahThe quilting and binding is finished. If this were just a quilt then all that would remain would be the label.Back of ChuppahThe backing used up all the leftover fabric and then some. I had to go buy more fabric for the binding.

I have some very clear ideas about how to affix the ties, but first, it was show off time!Yoch explaining chuppahYoch and I are both member of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild and our monthly meeting is held the first Monday of the month. This month was special, a photographer from the LA Times was there to document our quilts. Since we are the first modern quilt guild – we will are part of an article on the whole movement.  We were asked to bring our most modern quilt.  What better than this joint project.  Yoch is describing his color choices and design.chuppah back at guildEven the back is impressive and the guy blocking me? That is the photographer. He later asked for my name, so I am really hoping that this quilt will be in the article. One can hope right?

Next stage, putting ties in the corners so it can be attached to the poles.  I knew it had to be strong, this is one heavy chuppah. Most are not  this large or quilted.reinforcing the tiesI cut eight strips, 45″ x 2″,  found the middle and ironed in a strong piece of interfacing, then folded  it in half and ironed.  Next I positioned the reinforced portion on both front and back of quilt in the corner, sewed in place with an x through the middle for extra strength.The tiesAs you can see here, I sewed the strips across the corner, at this point it looks like there are 4 strips.back view of tiesView from the back, at this point I sewed the two strips of fabric together, so it is stronger and easier to tie.

Now for the test, will they hold the weight of the chuppah?Chuppah hangingYes!! It works beautifully. I hung it from my pergola and it’s holding strong. Which means for the duration of the ceremony, it should be fine. Yes, I have some pity on the brothers (my two other sons and Yoch’s two brothers) who will be holding this up.  They are strong young men, they should be fine.

Next time I show images will most probably be after the wedding, when I can share this as part of a wonderful celebration.

 

Leah

The Chuppah, Part 1

The wedding fast approaches, less than two months away.   A very important element in a Jewish wedding is the Chuppah – the wedding canopy. It symbolizes the home the couple will build together. It is supposed to be a temporary structure under the open sky.Elk and Mandy ChuppahThis is from my son and daughter in laws’ wedding last year. When you get married on the beach in the Dominican Republic, it is light and airy with an unbelievable backdrop of blue ocean and paraglider thrown in for free.

Yoch knew he was going to quilt his own chuppah long before Yish popped the question. There was going to be green, green, green! His favorite color balanced with black white and grey.  So a year ago, when the candy ring was offered (that is a different story, a real ring was produced eventually, but the proposal happened with a candy ring), Yoch set to work on piecing the chuppah.

This design is completely his own, although it is one that should be copied.Finished pieced chuppahI am so impressed with this design, simple use of the triangle, the offsetting of the center motif and how it grows. The use of light and dark – perfection.

Yoch welcomed my contribution to the corners. I’ve been paper piecing lately and yes, these corner pieces are a little busier than the overall quilt. But hey,  let’s spice things up a bit.

I was also given the task of quilting this. Yay for new sewing machine! This is the first large project I have quilted on the Juki and I am so pleased with the results.basting the chuppahLuckily I have a large living room and have the space to lay this all out. Talk about large!  78″ x 85″.  Yoch pieced the back out of all the leftover fabric. This one is pin basted.  I’m thinking I should have used more pins.

directional quiltingThe quilting has to be simple. First of all the design speaks for itself, second, fancy quilting would get lost. So The green got Horizontal lines and the black got vertical. Yes, I did this free hand, no walking foot here, since I was changing directions – going back and forth within the long strips of color. I used Aurifil thread, grey for the black/grey areas and green for the green.practicing the sprialThe one area where a quilting design would shine was the border. I took my time and followed the good advice of FMQ, practice first on paper, get the hand used to the motion.Marking the quiltI marked the circles, I’m not looking for perfection, but some guildlines are a good help. At the recent quilt show I bought a wonderful new tool, the Bohin Chalk Pencil.  What a difference it makes! quilting the spiralsAnd here they are, on the quilt.  Not perfect but a good start. I would like to get better and that will happen with time and practice.

That’s it for part one, more work to do and I will share more of this Chuppah.

 

 

Leah