Sara's Reflection

I really enjoyed this theme and initially thought of the wonderful image of trees reflected in a pond. However, I always try to do something that does not occur to me first so before starting to work I mulled on the topic. Then I saw the opening of the Olympics in Brazil and was captivated on how each culture that influenced Brazil left an mark in a patchwork motif. Soon after I was at a gathering at my girlfriend's house where we were encouraged to meditate on the words of the Shema (an important prayer or declaration in Judaism) and create a "torn paper midrash" (basically a construction paper collage story) to illustrate the prayer. It was during a walk where I came upon merging the two inspirations for this quilt. Since meditation requires sitting still, a skill I sorely lack, I am more likely to be inspired during walking or sewing! This got rather theological/philosophical. I'm sure there are multiple understandings of the prayer.

The blue hebrew letters were stencilled using a commercial stencil (Pitome Publishing) and Shiva paint sticks. It is the beginning word "Shema"  of "Shema,Yisroel  hashem  eloheynu, hashem echod " which translates " Hear O Israel -(Listen Up), The Lord is our God, the Lord is One." (Here Hashem is The Name substituting for the name that is said only in worship). (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shema_Yisrael ) . This always brings to my mind how all of us are bound together as being made in God's image and how all of creation is part of the essence of the one Infinite creator. The "world" in my quilt is imaged by a freeform piecing of fabric which was cut and fused and sewn onto the cloth. It was quilted using lines for longitude and latitude. The Infinitiy signs were inked on (I imagined it as looping around the earth into an infinity sign.) Background quilting is in spirals as an homage to the primordial wind in the beginning of the Bible,