Steffi Aronson Karp
Esai Eynai
This is a whole cloth hand-dyed piece, where the quilting emphasizes the mountain range images in the back. Mickey Lawler created the center in hand-dyed blues and oranges, greens, and browns. I created the bindings, setting off the mountain/ sunset concept with multiple borders. The minute I saw the center, I thought of our blessing, Esa Eynai, translated as I Lift Up Mine Eyes. The blessing reads, “I lift up mine eyes to the mountains. From where does my help come?
My help comes from G-d/Godliness, Maker of heaven and earth.
Reach for the Moon
Even If You Fall, You’ll Land Among the Stars. This quilt was created with the same Strips & Curves technique that I used for the Dorshei Tzedek Torah covers, employing bright sunshine and spring sky colors. The phrase “Reach for the Moon” is stitched throughout the quilt, which is how I titled it. I love the idea of reaching beyond ourselves. Even if we fall, we will be among the stars, because we have attempted to stretch our boundaries.
Detail image
Down the Drain
Circles on circles play together—ending end with a fish - a Karp! - on the bottom right. This is a practical piece: a rectangle sized and designed to hide a bit of plumbing in a house in the Berkshires. Why use wallboard when you can use colorful cottons? The borders encompass all of the colors in the circular cutouts. I often insert fish as a design feature, and signature.
hear from the artist
Detail images
Mask Scraps - front
Detail Images
As a quilter, I never know when I might need a bit of a color. Very little goes to waste. I save greens and blues, and the entire rainbow, because I might need them for another piece, some other day. Thus, when the pandemic hit, I was prepared for the call for masks. I opened my stash and went to work. More than 375 masks later, I was left with colorful scraps. I present these scraps here, repurposed as a quilt of memories from projects past. The back of this piece is constructed from t-shirts from our travels, from Limmud conferences around the world as well as other learning opportunities, and from various political campaigns. One of these fabrics comes from the very first dress I ever made, more than 50 years ago.
I call this quilt “Mask Scraps.”
Mask Scraps - back
