Now try Jewish women quilting. If you draw a blank, you are probably not alone.
Few people are aware that there are Jewish women in Milwaukee who not only sew quilts, but who have made of quilting a new art form, creating vibrant works using such varied media as beads, silks and decorative threads. Move over baby, these aren’t your bubbe’s bedspreads!
Several quilts by Jewish women will be among the 75 or more quilts that will be on display March 16 and 17 at “March Quilting Madness: A Show of Traditional and Contemporary Quilts.” The show, presented by the North Shore Quilter’s Guild and sponsored by Cardinal Stritch University, will take place March 16 and 17 at Stritch’s Fine Arts Building in Glendale.
Marla Morris Kennedy, president of the guild and a member of Congregation Shalom, has been involved with quilting for more than 20 years. While most of her quilts are contemporary wall hangings, she, like a majority of contemporary quilters, uses a sewing machine to create intricately pieced and designed works.
Like most quilters, Morris Kennedy began with traditional hand-sewn quilts, then graduated to the more daring and difficult design possibilities a machine can offer.
Along the way she has created some Jewish quilting work. And two years ago she was one of the volunteers who presented Shalom with a set of five new Torah covers in beautiful “colorwash” quilting. For her son’s bar mitzvah, she created a traditional tallit, decorated with colorful silk blocks (log cabin design) framing an elegant Hebrew appliqued neckband. Along with the tallit, Morris Kennedy will display five quilts in the show.
Another quilter, Laurie Kestelman, is known to be a capable right-hand person, not only as the former administrator of Congregation Sinai, but also the right-hander creatively makes small, but intense quilts.
Kestelman’s interest in quilting began eight years ago when, as a weaver, she was taken to a fabric store for a project and fell in love with the myriad of colors available to quilters. On the spot she signed up for classes in machine quilting and has not stopped taking workshops since.
Kestelman has taught quilting technique courses on the art of making Jewish ceremonial articles such as challah covers, and she has served as co-chair for the friendship quilt produced at a recent community women’s seder. Most of her quilts use a tree motif, as did her “Tree of Life” quilt, which commemorates her daughter’s bat mitzvah. The latest in her tree series, a beaded tree quilt, will be displayed at the Stritch show.
In addition to the regular guild members, a new generation of Jewish quilters will display their first works at the March Madness show. Twelve students from the Milwaukee Jewish Day School who took quilting class as an art elective will debut the quilts they sewed for a tzedakah project.
The 7th and 8th graders learned the skills from scratch that allowed them to get started in simple quilt construction, while enjoying the satisfaction of knowing that the quilts would be donated to the ABC Quilts Project http://www.mv.com/ipusers/abc quilts/ called Aleph Bet Quilts at MJDS. This nationwide project distributes baby quilts in hospitals to high-risk infants, many of them drug-affected or HIV-infected.
March Quilting Madness will be held from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. both days. The show includes quilting vendors, a raffle quilt made by guild members, hands-on demonstrations — some for children — a bake sale and a silent auction. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Sojourner Truth House. Admission is $4 for adults; $1 for students with an ID; free for children 12 and under. For more information, call 414-351-0296.
Nina Edelman is the librarian and quilting teacher at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School and a member of the North Shore Quilter’s Guild. She will have quilts on display at the show.
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