Getting towards the finish line

Rachel had wanted a black and white checked border next to the wave. I tried. I just couldn’t make it work. Instead, she got a black and white pieced bias stripe border. to make up for the lack of checkerboard I added a row of stitching in a nifty checkerboard stitch in gold.

The outer edge of the stripe is made up of black middy braid to which I added the wave stitch. Unlike most pieced tallitot/prayer shawls the design is on the underside of the tallit as well. this tallit is particularly small, but Rachel is a small kid. She would look silly in a tallit that was much bigger.

The bag was fun to make. I first fused black shantung to needle punch interfacing.Then I stitched waves freehand using a chartreuse rayon thread. I added more delicate waves with a multicolored metallic thread. I used a chunk of dressmaker’s chalk ( thank you Anne!) to sketch out the letters for Rachel’s name. I went over the chalk line with a wide satin stitch in gold. The letters needed a bit more---more, so I added peacock colored iridescent large seed beads. I have been doing lots of hand beading lately.

I lined the bag by serging the periwinkle blue shantung lining to the black embroidered outside of the bag. I covered al of the edges with grosgrain ribbon and stitched the wave motif to hold it all into place.

I have already pieced three of the corners, I still have to do the fourth, add the lettering and then get those corners into place. each corner will be pieced black and white silk. I like the visual fun of different corners. I also think that it is a good visual reminder that there are many ways to approach the divine.

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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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Food friday - your grandmother's food processor

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sarah in nyc

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