sarah in nyc

I have been working away on the tallit. And I think it is looking pretty excellent. I made the pinot. Here they are both before and after tidied up and backed.  I loved how pretty the bronze metallic thread looked against the blue. The pinot gave me an idea about how to proceed on the atara.  First I did the same metallic stitching on a strip of the same blue silk. I backed the silk with a bit of plaid flannel to stabelize it ad to give it a bit more body. I then calligraphed the text using a wide brush and black ink onto plain paper. I turned the paper over and outline the letters with a black marker. I decided to work big to make stitching the letters a bit easier. Then I traced the backward letters onto iron-on interfacing. Then I stitched the letters following my backward outlines. I was feeling really pleased with myself. The work was progressing well. But then I put the half done atara onto the tallit. The scale was all...

I have known RuthEllen my entire life. She is the daughter of my mother's dear friend Temi. The reality is, That despite our knowing one another all of my life, we have probably had fewer than a handful of conversations with one another.  She was and still is about ten years older than I am and she was out and about in the universe, going to college, getting married and having a career while I was still a not very interesting little kid living at home.  Ruth Ellen and Loren Ostow masterminded the saving of the Temple Beth El windows and the fact that instead of being condemned to a pile of rubble they are now part of the collection of the museum at HUC in Cincinnati. We spent a day or so together during those festivities. Earlier this year we were in touch so I could visit her mother Temi. Several weeks ago I sent RuthEllen the post I had written about her mother's death.  In response, RuthEllen sent me back a message that had me weeping on the downtown platform...

Earlier in the life of this blog my husband sometimes used to wonder about the wisdom of my not sticking just to matters of sewing. He was concerned that by talking about subjects that on the surface seem disconnected from one another it might be confusing for my readers. Over the years though I have discovered that my readers are not disturbed by the wide range of topics covered here. Ultimately I do think that there is a connection between the designing and sewing and the cooking. I find that I play with color in the same way that I play with flavors. In both colors and flavors, you can combine two elements that don't necessarily play well together by adding several other elements that act as peacemakers. I started a batch of challah covers on a strip of pale buttery yellow silk shantung. The blue and the yellow work together easily. I gave myself a bit more of a challenge with this challah cover. I pulled all of the elements together with the red e...

I don't exactly remember when I started baking bread regularly for our family. I had started baking challah a long time ago, I know that by the time my oldest was in high school I was doing at least some of the during the week bread baking. I have always been intrigued by the idea of sourdough bread. However, whenever I read the directions about how to create a sourdough it just seemed so complicated that it seemed beyond my abilities. I have fallen into a practice that may not be exactly sourdough but uses the leftover old dough as the yeast for new bread.  I thought I would share what I do. Let me know if this works for you. At the beginning of the week, I start a new batch of dough using yeast. I put about 2 cups of water in a bowl, add a tsp of yeast and a Tbs of brown sugar and a bit of flour to the bowl and then let it sit. Usually, I start this as I make my morning coffee and then do the next step after breakfast. In my experience, this sit depending on my schedule a...

My older son threw a New Year's party. There were several liters of soda left. We generally don't buy soda. My youngest suggested sort of halfway as a joke that I cook  Shabbat dinner with the soda. We have been known to do themed Shabbat dinners in this house. Caveman Shabbat (chicken wings and beef ribs) is a perennial favorite. PuPu Shabbat with little bits of tasty bites is also popular. So this week is officially Soda Shabbat, or as the punchline of the old Yeshivish joke might put it ברוך אתה בסדה. The joke is both too dopey and too complicated to translate into English so let this terrible joke be a bonus for my readers who can read Hebrew. We were left with a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi, one of orange soda and one of Mountain Dew. After a bit of discussion and some searching on the internet, we decided that we would make a Pepsi based barbecue sauce and a cake with the Mountain Dew. I made three London broils. I figured that the Pepsi woul...

Well, I am finally feeling productive again. Two of the challah covers I had begun several days ago are now done. The text comes from a liturgical poem that is part of the Friday night service. English translation Transliteration Hebrew Chorus: 1 Let’s go, my beloved, to meet the bride, Lekhah dodi liqrat kallah לכה דודי לקראת כלה ‬ 2 and let us welcome the presence of  Shabbat . p'ne Shabbat neqabelah פני שבת נקבלה ‬ The center medallion had started out life as a scarf that I had made to give as a gift to one of my husband's relatives in Israel. I had unfortunately forgotten to pack it.  It is now the centerpiece of a challah cover.  If you are thinking about how fortunate I am to have found exactly the right ribbon to finish off this piece, you are half right. I embroidered the ribbons that edge this challah cover. I used the same text on the other challah cover that I completed. The ribbon, in this case, is a vintage striped satin ribbo...

One of the charming quirks of living in New York are the pushcarts selling fruits and vegetables on the street corners. There are several in my neighborhood.  I generally buy from the nice Turkish man who sells near the corner of Broadway and 96th street. You never know exactly what will be on sale from day to day. There is something very lovely about selecting a couple of pounds of what you want and handing the money over directly to the same person summer and winter. This morning I went to the stand to buy some vegetables for dinner.  I noticed that the man who runs the pushcart was nowhere to be seen. I began to make my selections. I weighed out a pound of beautiful okra, selected a package of peppers and a heavy pomegranate. As I made my selections several other people stopped by the pushcart and chose their bananas or tomatoes. One would expect that people might have taken their selection without paying. After all, this is New York. After abo...

As of Monday, we are now a household with a working fridge.  We are all very pleased with this development. Today my son made the chicken. I haven't tasted it yet but it smells heavenly. In a minute it goes into our oven to be warmed for Shabbat along with the challot I had baked last week. I realized that my stack of challah covers are getting smaller. It was time to start a new batch. I painted the letters over some silk that I had already block printed. I started another challah cover design. Our ice cream maker was kept busy with a batch of coconut ice cream. Shabbat Shalom!