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Trying to make things right

If you know anything about my work making Jewish ritual objects you know that I love Jewish texts and incorporating them into my work. I was delighted while I was away to get an email from a potential new client who also loved Jewish texts.

She had purchased this lovely tallit made out of hand dyed burnout silk/rayon velvet with a pretty but simple atara.

 My potential client felt that there wasn't quite enough to make this piece feel not just like a gorgeous scarf but to make it feel more like a tallit.


Lisa came over a couple of nights ago. We discussed a few different options about how to proceed. Clearly, I loved the idea of text on the atara. I am a little nervous about removing the current atara from the delicate burnout velvet. It's a beautiful fabric but is a little delicate and persnickety. Every needle hole will remain in the fabric. I am also worried about damaging the velvet while removing the atara.

I thought that perhaps I could paint the text onto a ribbon that I then would stitch down onto the existing atara. I pulled out various ribbons and we discussed the relative merits of each one.

My rolls of ribbons mostly live in several round glass vases. I pulled out a stack of ribbons and one machine embroidered ribbon looked perfect.
While it didn't allow for the addition of text, visually it was a perfect match.

I stitched it on by hand.
I still have not done the final pressing but it's perfect.  Lisa still wants text on the tallit. The text may appear on the corner pieces instead. Neither one of us expected this to be the solution but it is.

And now dispatches from other corners of my life.

The post-Thanksgiving ironing is complete. I realize as the years go by that ironing these linen napkins always ends up feeling like a visit with my mother.  As I iron I see myself as a little kid hanging out as my mother ironed in the kitchen and chatted with us or we watched TV together...

Everything can be improved by being baked in a bundt pan, including this loaf mixed by my youngest and formed by me. ( We have been tag teaming a LOT of bread.)

A trio of baby dresses.

This one is for my great-niece whose mother loves grey. This is a sturdy comfortable knit.
Color-blocked for my other great niece. The sleeves still need to be hemmed.


This last dress is for a new baby. The baby's great-grandmother was a dear friend. The baby's grandmother and I had our babies at the same time. We have a long relationship.

Our families have celebrated together and mourned together for more than thirty years. I suppose after a while one just becomes family. The fabric is a soft, soft velour.

These peasant -type tunics were big in the early 1970's for little children. They somehow just seem right again
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