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It’s Spring

After a long and difficult winter, it is finally spring, not just by the calendar but by the weather as well.

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The street trees have begun to bloom.

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I am also doing the spring time task of catching up on ironing all of the table cloths I used during Passover. Well, I actually haven’t gotten through all of the cloths.  I have done about half of them.

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I also ironed most of the napkins we used for the two Seders. Unlike my mother who was a big believer in using matching napkins at a meal, I use a mix of similar napkins. Some in the stack are from my mother, others I inherited from other people.  All of them are roughly the same size and are ivory linen with taupe cutwork. I think that like the various people at the table, they can get along even if they are not identical.SAM_4112

 

I also began constructing the stripes for two very different tallitot for two very different people. This black gold and blue tallit is for Jean.SAM_4110

 

She had taken a  tallit workshop I had taught last spring. jean is a deliberate thinker and wasn’t ready to make her tallit at that point. She needed a longer time to mull over what she really wanted. The base of her tallit is a truly delicious ribbed black silk. She chose a complex striped silk that is a mix of chiffon and tightly woven satin brocade. Like Jean herself, it’s deceptively simple. What you see here is actually the lining of the tallit. this is a tallit that will look good  both on the inside and on the outside.

 

I have also begun working on a tallit for my friend Howard. We had begun discussions about this tallit more than a decade ago.But he recently said that he was ready to go ahead  with his tallit.

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What you are seeing is striped Italian tie silk that has been cut apart and re-stitched together. I love having two such different projects going on at the same time.

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