More cushions ... but this time not for me

Its a busy time of the year for us. Jewish New Year begins tomorrow night and we are hosting a dinner for 26 people. Among those 26 are my niece and nephew who each have birthdays this week.

For my niece, who is turning 40, I asked her to chose a colour scheme and she chose "dark red and burnt orange".

 

I couldn't resist throwing in a touch of pink. (I just can't help myself). 

 

 

 

And for her 'little' brother who is taller than both of us ... 

 

He's just moved into his own place for the first time and is rather car crazy (to put it mildly). 

"Shana Tova"  to those of you celebrating this week. And a happy new year to all! 

May the coming year be sweet, healthy and peaceful.

Andi xx

For Zaida

A new commission given as a gift for a 70 year old Zaida ('Grandpa' in yiddish)

A challah cover with photos of his gorgeous grandchildren

Shabbat shalom.
Andi xxx

Mmmmmm .... cheesecake

Next week will be a Jewish festival called Shavuot. At this time of year, it is traditional to eat dairy foods. So I have re-named this festival "The Cheesecake Festival".

Last night my family and I shared a cheesecake I had baked. It was delicious!!
The recipe is from a book that belonged to my grandmother, first published in 1951, called Jewish Cookery by Leah Leonard.

I've been making this cake for many years with consistently great feedback.
I don't usually include recipes on this blog but this one is so amazingly good, I have decided to share it with you ....

Ingredients

Crust
1 packet Marie biscuits
1/4 cup sugar
135 grams softened butter

Cheese filling
125 grams cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
125 grams fresh ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
Pinch of salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method

To make the crust:
- Put Marie biscuits into a food processor and break down into largish crumbs
- Add the sugar and mix well
- Work in the softened butter until well mixed
- Prepare a spring-form cake tin using baking paper and butter.
- Tip the crumb mix into the cake tin and spread out evenly, pressing the mixture down to a flat smooth crust.

To make the cheese filling:
- Add each ingredient (in the order listed above) slowly into a kitchen mixer, allowing for mixing time in between each one.
- You will end up with a very loose batter.

Pour the batter carefully into the crumb-lined tin.
Bake at 180 degrees C for an hour.
After an hour, turn off the oven but leave the cake in there for another hour to cool.
Once it is out of the oven, it really benefits from a couple of hours in the fridge.

This cake doesn't usually come out looking so great so I often sprinkle some icing sugar over the top to make it look a bit better. Once you cut into it though, it looks (and tastes) divine.

Serve on its own or with some cream or vanilla ice cream.

YUMMMMM!!!!

Andi xx

My creative space

I'm hoping this has a Moroccan feel.

 

What do you think?
 

The back really shows the quilting!!

More spaces over at Madame Koo's. Go check 'em out!

I hope your space is creative today.

Andi xx

A very special quilt

A while back, I gave you a peek at a commission I was working on using printed text.

Well, I couldn't show you much more than that, as the piece was destined to be used as a chuppah at a wedding and I didn't think it was right to show you the quilt before it was seen by the wedding party and guests.

That time has passed now, so I can reveal all.

The idea behind this chuppah was to create a communal piece with input from many of the wedding guests.
Guests were asked to send in a message for the bride and groom. I then formatted the messages in a variety of fonts and printed them onto printable fabric sheets.
As well as messages, a selection of black and white wedding photos of the couple's parents and grandparents were included.

These sheets needed to be soaked to set the image.

 

Once they were dry, they could be pieced together.

I was nervous about pin basting this quilt as the printable fabric is very tightly woven and the pins really do leave little holes in the fabric. So I compromised and spray basted the central part of the quilt and pinned the regular white cotton of the border.

Then I quilted and quilted and quilted. Straight line quilting in the central part and stippling in the border.

You can really see the quilting with the light behind the chuppah.

Around the border of the quilt are appliqued words in hebrew that roughly translate as:
Song of joy and gladness, song of bride and groom.

Bound in black satin:

 

Finished and folded:

And here it is in use.

Mazal tov Len and Davina.
Thank you for allowing me to play a part in your special day.

Andi x

Textual

Text on fabric.
A commissioned work in progress ...

Andi :-)

EDIT: This is NOT my handwriting. This is a printed font!!! 
Sorry for any misconceptions and confusions.

Good Lord!!

I'm not a particularly religious person but I'm a big fan of culture, tradition and community.
I think these are wonderful elements to incorporate into one's family life and for us, that means bringing our children up within the Jewish community.

We went away on a weekend retreat with our local synagogue community last year and I (perhaps stupidly) volunteered to run a "quilting workshop".

Well, that turned into a massively popular workshop where participants (young and old) used various materials to make blocks to be incorporated into a Bimah cover (and made by me).

I gave the theme "nature" so as to give some direction to those who would struggle with a totally open slate.

Materials / techniques used included:

• Fabric markers
• Applique using fusible webbing (and in some cases ... basic craft glue)
• Machine piecing (some people learned to make pinwheels)

It was a challenge to bring more than 40 blocks together in some sort of harmonious way but I think I managed OK ...

The blocks became part of 4 panels hanging down from the table / Bimah with a plain fabric on the top so as not to distract from the reading of the Torah.

Here are some details of the many and varied blocks I had to work with:

When I said earlier that volunteering for this project may have been stupid, I don't think I really knew how much time and effort would go into putting it all together.

It has been such a challenge that it has sat untouched for months at a time in my WIP pile, as I have been too daunted to get stuck into it.

The final nudge came from a friend who's daughter is having her Bat-Mitzvah next week and asked if it could be ready for her ceremony. That was exactly the nudge I needed.

I think it will be well loved by the community.

Personally, I think it's wonderful but I'll be VERY glad to hand it over and not have to worry about it any more!!


Andi :-)

Are you getting sick of these yet?

It seems that the majority of current orders (business-wise) are for smaller pieces like this matzah cover for passover (which starts next week).

This one is actually for my dentist (bless her) who has a neutral coloured dining room with moss green chairs. Her table is usually set with white and silver. I hope this combination works for her.

The back has some extra pockets built in to hold 3 pieces of matzah.

And if you look closely, you'll see one of my new labels.
Here's a better shot ...

And here are the 5 colour ways I've chosen to have printed:

Happy passover / easter / whatever you are celebrating this month.

Andi :-)

A wedding gift

Commissioned by a friend ....

 

Incorporating photos of the bridal couple ...

... and a personalised label on the back.

Such a personal gift!

Andi :-)

I need your advice please!!!

Late last year, I showed some of my work to the local Jewish Museum Shop.

They are interested in having some of my Challah Covers in the shop but were concerned that the fabrics were too garish.

They requested some more conservative looking pieces.

I agreed to make them 6 covers and here's what I came up with.
(Left side is the front. Right side, the back)

Click on the image to see it larger.

They are each about 20" x 16".

I know, not all of them are so conservative looking, but I just had to be true to myself (and my fabric stash).

Tell me, especially those of you from Jewish backgrounds:

• Which would you buy for your homes?
• Which would you buy for your mothers?
• Which would your mothers buy for themselves?
• Would you buy one for a wedding gift? A Bat-Mitzvah?
  

Any assistance greatly appreciated.

 

Andi :-)

Can't stop me

More challah covers:

These are approx 18 inches x 25 inches each.

Let's hope their new owners like them!!

Andi :-)

Catching moments

Catching Jake reading himself a book ...


Catching Ella's nectarine love heart ...


Catching a shared moment at Kinder ....


Have a great weekend.

Andi :-)

Meet Pearl

When I was a young girl, I was totally into dressing up, fabulous thrifted outfits and making stuff.
Surprise, surprise!!

So when I turned 12 (my Bat-Mitzvah year), my siblings wanted to get me a special gift.
The thing I wanted more than anything in the world was a mannequin to show off the girly stuff in my room.

So, I got Pearl (so named because of her earliest accessory choices).

Here she is modelling a fabulous selection of necklaces (including my favourite pasta necklace made by Jake) and a bag I just made for my neice who is currently into wearing "olive".


And here's the other side of the bag ...


and the inside pocket ...


complete with a 'patchandi' label.

For those of you interested in how I do my labels, check out this great tutorial.

Have a stitchin' Thursday.

Andi :-)

PS Don't forget to enter my giveaway!!

Kinder Quilt

It's finished .... finally!!!


I don't know why I left it unfinished for so long!


I'm really looking forward to giving it to the Junior Class tomorrow.


I can't wait to see them all searching for their own little faces in the balloons.


It will be a gift in honour of Jewish New Year (beginning officially tomorrow night).


Wishing you all a sweet and creative (Jewish) new year.

Shana Tova

Andi :-)