And one sibling gets the pink sash...

I cheated a bit yesterday. The Challa cover with the appliqued leaves was not quite completed. It was still not backed and was missing it's border. As I looked at it during the evening, I realized that it needed some floral matter in addition to the appliqued foliage.

Sometimes I purchase fabric because I have a specific project in mind for it. Sometimes I purchase fabric because it simply appeals to me. The crinkle purple iridescent poly I used for the flowers appealed to me on a purely irrational basis. I found it in a curtain store on 37th street. it was a magpie purchase. "Shiny! Crinkled! Iridescent! Must own!" At $5/yard two yards was not a bad deal.

I tore off a three inch strip and serged the long ends together. Then I snipped off 3-5 inch lengths of the strip , sewed them into bagels and then gathered the serged edge.. Then I gathered the open end and sewed the flower like purple lumps onto the challa cover. Several of these flowers have a bead sewn into the center.

As, I worked the text of a needlework book I had read during the 1970's kept running through my head. The author was very critical of exactly this sort of sculptural applique so beloved by Victorian needle women. I could see how too much of this sort of work can certainly go too far. But I was thinking "Tough noogies!" Yes, this is a little goofy, but just this side of tasteful.

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מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...

Connecting with the past

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sarah in nyc

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