Garden of L. Eden Completed and Sold on Commission

In November 2009 I received an email from a woman in NY inquiring about the possibility of commissioning me to make an art quilt for her daughter on the occasion of her Bat Mitzvah.

176 emails, five months later , after many ideas shared, fabrics sent, 100s of hours spent sewing by machine and by hand both sitting and standing, embroidering, beading, quilting, I finally sent off the completed quilt last week and it was received by S. in NY yesterday. She loves it. I am so pleased. Her daughters name is L. Eden. I chose to do a theme called

Garden of L. Eden.

This is written in Hebrew at the bottom of the quilt.

Pomagrantes in her hair (on thread painting portrait) represent the fruit of knowledge

in the Garden of Eden.

Her face is a garden of felted wooly bits and beads for flowers and leaves.

The quilt traces her life from birth to teen. The "Hand of Miriam" or Hamsa contains

the Hebrew Letter Chet, which means life, and sounds like "Hi"...holding the cell phone.

I spent many hours standing to hand quilt this 4' X 3' art quilt.

S. supplied much of the fabric including linens, and silks from India.


I made this "Dolly" from a photo S. sent me of the childs favorite childhood doll she called "Dolly". The blue jean shirt was also worn by her as a baby.

Here she is peeking out of the shirt she once wore.

The other pieces around the central parts are squares with parents,

both sets of grandparents, 3 brothers and 2 family dogs, making this a true

memory quilt.

Also represented by squares of fruits and wheat/barley are the

Seven Spieces of Israel (Shivat Haminim in Hebrew). Other squares represents

her love of her summer camp, the torah portion she will read at her Bat Mitzvah

ceremony in September; and a picture of her and her mother

lighting the Sabbath candles.

The back of the quilt features her baby kimono turned into a pouch

to hold written sentiments by family and friends on this occassion.

This is surrounded by more photos of family and friends.

I added a letter from the artist about the making of this quilt, a

quilted butterfly representing her metamophis from infancy to teenhood.

It was such a pleasure making this piece of art

and then having it received with such love and appreciation.


You can see more detailed photos of the quilt front and back

on my flickr photostream by clicking here.