If you have spent any time at all reading this blog you will know that I work best when I have several bits of projects going on at the same time. I have three big projects all due on the same day (just under two weeks from today). I am attacking each of these projects from a variety of directions. When the dust settles all of them will be completed.
Friday I sewed Ale's tallit together. In terms of actual tasks, I folded it in half the wrong side out, sewed the raw edges together being sure that the stripes aligned as I stitched. I then unpicked some of the stitches and then turned the tallit right-side out through the small hole made by the un-done stitches. I then carefully pressed the tallit and topstitched all the way around.
Much to my delight...
You can read the text straight across each stripe --from one side of the tallit to the other.
I paint the text freehand. I am not painting the text while paying close attention to a ruler. This nearly perfect alignment ( which is also true on the INSIDE of the tallit) feels like some sort of a small-scale miracle.
Today I began working on the pinot /corner pieces and Ale's atara/ neckband.
I have lots of off-cuts of the colored linen that I had used to make the stripes. I had spoken to Ale and Todd about using most of the colors in the tallitot in the pinot. I decided to do a version of the log-cabin quilt block for the corner pieces.
Many old quilt patterns have an almost midrashic meaning attributed to them. A log cabin quilt is constructed out of strips built around a central square or rectangle. Each color layer is added in an L around the central bit. The center of the block is said to represent the hearth/heart of the home.
I love this block partially because of its ease of construction and partially because the log cabin block can look modern and not fusty depending on your fabric choices.
I have loved working with Todd and Ale. They are both so incredibly thoughtful about each aspect of their tallitot. These tallitot are their wedding tallitot. Both tallitot joined together will make up their chuppah. They wanted each tallit to also serve as a message of love for the other.
Ale's tallit will have the first three words of this verse on her pinot.
כְּשֽׁוֹשַׁנָּה֙ בֵּ֣ין הַחוֹחִ֔ים כֵּ֥ן רַעְיָתִ֖י בֵּ֥ין הַבָּנֽוֹת׃
Like a lily among thorns, So is my darling among the maidens.
Todd's tallit will have the first three words of the next verse on his pinot.
כְּתַפּ֙וּחַ֙ בַּעֲצֵ֣י הַיַּ֔עַר כֵּ֥ן דּוֹדִ֖י בֵּ֣ין הַבָּנִ֑ים בְּצִלּוֹ֙ חִמַּ֣דְתִּי וְיָשַׁ֔בְתִּי וּפִרְי֖וֹ מָת֥וֹק לְחִכִּֽי׃
Like an apple tree among trees of the forest, So is my beloved among the youths. I delight to sit in his shade, And his fruit is sweet to my mouth.
Each of the corners will have one word. the fourth corner will have an illustration of either the שֽׁוֹשַׁנָּה or the תַפּ֙וּחַ. I have deliberately not translated the Hebrew here.
I decided to do a little Google Image research on שֽׁוֹשַׁנָּה so I could find an example that I could copy. The translation often reads as lily..." As a lily among the thorns". The lily images I found just looked too much like Easter lilies.
I then looked up the flower on some "flowers of Israel" sites. No luck. I then looked up the Hebrew שֽׁוֹשַׁנָּה on Google Image and got---roses. the old-fashioned word for Rose in Hebrew is שֽׁוֹשַׁנָּה.
That led me to a site that described the difficultly of identifying what exactly the flower is in the verse and suggests ( based on a comparative text reading)
Nymphaea lotus-- the white Egyptian water lily. I gave Ale the choice of all three and this was what she wanted. I have ideas about how to execute this nymphaea lotus.
While I have painted the text for Todd's pinot I have pieced Ale's atara.
This sweet couple has chosen beautiful romantic texts for one another. I will share their text choices in the next couple of days.
The work of the past couple of days has required lots of ironing. My usual ironing board is my kitchen table. I will usually iron a tablecloth that is washed but needs a pressing as the base for work-related ironing. I don't know how other people organize their work, but it is what works for me.
In addition to some less interesting table cloths I wanted to share this cross-stitched cloth. It is new to me and had belonged to Sharri the mother of my dear friend Alix. Sharri died just before the pandemic and Alix and her sisters have had the task of taking apart her mother's beautiful home.
I was the lucky recipient of many wonderful textiles including this cloth.
What stands out to me is how tiny the stitches are
and the tidiness of the work.
This is the reverse of the piece. Amazing, no?
The yellow/golden medallions look dimensional because of the well-placed straight stitches.
Sarah, I love that you maintain a Shabbat Table and use fine things to make the time and the occasion more special. As a "Low" Christian we have so few High Holidays to celebrate; Christmas is probably the biggest and even when we were down poverty street and had little I'd pull out my best china and linens for our meal; Somewhere I have a picture of a 6 year old James doing his best with a Full size Dinner/Table Knife and Fork; because of course the smaller ones were in use for bread and for dessert! Now he and his wife have that cutlery and that china; Minton no less, while my daughter has her Grandmother's cutlery and a set of china that my father's mother had; so they both can and do set a proper table on very rare occasions. Liz, steaming hot up here above Lake Superior, and thunder about to do it's usual trick and skim just north of us due to a range of hills that split approaching storms to go north of the city or out over the lake!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all the weather for the past few days has been beastly---it has felt like I was breathing through a sodden washcloth.
ReplyDeleteAs for your first point--I probably would be setting my table with nondescript wash and wear cloths if so many wonderful old table cloths didn't start showing up in my life. They don't do anyone any good at all unused. We don't use fancy china or silver but we have a wardrobe of tablecloths and napery. I kind of love mixing the high and the low---the delicate hand embroidery topping an Ikea cloth. It makes all of the finery more accessible and much more present in our lives.
My mother was the queen of the proper table...at first she was a little bit put off by my more casual approach to table setting but eventually she came around and began to appreciate my less by the rule books approach.