This quilt is a simple square pattern of eight different prints in a 8x9 grid. The prints are all Jewish-themed, with stars of David, Hebrew letters, and menorahs. The solid colors are metallic in white, bronze, silver, and gold. These I got as two fat quarter bundles from a specialty store online that only sells Judaica fabrics. The border and binding is a solid white cotton sheet. The backing is a solid baby blue cotton sheet.
The quilting simply follows the grid on 1/4 of an inch of the side of the piecing seam with a white thread.
This quilt was made as a dedication expressly to God, not to be used by any of us, but as an offering or sort-of tithe. This post describes the blessings of giving a portion of your work to God. As you can see, this quilt is hanging on a rod in our living room, where we keep our Bibles, Torahs, and biblical-inspired books. We also keep all of our instruments in this room which can be used to worship God. The verse for this quilt is:
"If the firstfruit is holy, so is the whole batch of dough; and if the root is holy, so are the branches." (Romans 11:16 TLV)
Paul is illustrating a Jewish concept here called taking challah. Challah is a special Jewish braided egg-bread that we eat at Shabbat meal. When making the challah, you take a piece of the challah dough and offer it to God, like we do with firstfruits. In the time of the temple, you gave it to the kohen and his family so they could make their own bread. Now, we separate it for God and either burn it or discard it. Paul is referencing this, that taking challah is the firstfruits of the batch of dough. By consecrating the small lump, the entire batch of dough is blessed.
I practiced this concept with this quilt. By dedicating a quilt for God, I am ensuring that the blessings that fall on the dedicated quilt fall on the quilts that will be used. This is also the same principle as tithing, but it's not limited to money. I practiced this here, with my embroidery, and even with my piano. I'll have posts concerning those topics coming up soon.
Just as God says concerning tithing, test Him in this too. If you dedicate a portion of the work of your hands to be wholly God's, see how He blesses the rest. After creating this quilt, we suddenly met someone who gave me their entire fabric stash and notions, for free. We started getting packages of fabric from Amazon who claimed they didn't send us anything. I found the antique sewing machine of my dreams to quilt on. Test God in this!