a truly stupid idea

I have been working on a batch of challa covers. The text in the center comes from the central poem of the Friday night service. In it we are invited to greet the Sabbat Queen/bride. The challa cover makes a great wedding gift ( a bit of shameless promotion there).

For those of you interested in the technique end of things, I calligraphed the text onto heavy art paper and then cut the letters out with an X-acto knife. I then used that paper with the cut out letters as a stencil on silk shantung, filling the letters in with a Shiva paint stick. Then with a really fine brush I added what I call "hoo-has" the vine and berry pattern , around the letters using a mix of fabric dye acrylic paint and metallic powder. The border fabric is a piece of upholstery fabric that my friend Sara purchased in France.

We have been invited to an engagement party that is taking place on Saturday evening. The groom's parents are good friends. My husband suggested that the challa cover that I had intended to give as a gift for the couple need a bit more something.

I have been doing more hand beading lately. It had seemed ( at the moment) to be a lovely idea to bead a looped fringe all the way around the challa cover to add a bit of light to the edges of the piece. Well, had this been a piece that I was selling, the time I spent beading today would have doubled the price of the challa cover. It's a cute addition, not worth the hours of additional work. Most of all, doing that sort of beading is hugely boring. The only way I could finish the beading is by playing idiotic mind games with myself.

So here it is, a one of a kind I am never doing this ever again piece.