Dear Friends and Serendipity

  My grandparents didn't know their exact birthdays. My grandfather knew that he was born in the year of the "groisse shturm", or 1888. As we keep living through the pandemic my own sense of time has gotten a little wobbly. My feisty friend Yocheved died early in the last crop of deaths that claimed five friends in about four weeks.

Yocheved's nieces now have the awesomely difficult job of emptying out Yocheved's apartment which was filled with books and more books, giant African sculptures, pottery from the Middle East, Judaica, books, textiles, tons of needlework made by Yocheved and books.

Earlier this week I had lunch with my dear friend Esther. We usually end our visits with a look around the thrift store. While I was waiting to pay for my purchase,  there was Yocheved's niece Martha asking after her lost glasses. I greeted Martha and she asked if I wanted to choose things to take from Yocheved's apartment. Yocheved's wish was that anything that hadn't been promised to family and dearest friends should be just given to the people who loved Yocheved.

A little while later my husband and I walked into the familiar apartment. Another niece, Laura was there working on packing things up. She asked me if there was anything I would be interested in and of course, I answered textiles. Laura said that she wanted to show me something. She said, " I love this and I'm not giving this to you but I want you to see it." She handed me the tallit bag that I was commissioned to make Yocheved for I think her 70th birthday.

Laura had no idea that I had made it. Yocheved was 95 when she died and the bag has had hard wear.

The silk lining has shredded.  I asked if I could take the bag home and repair it using some of the textiles that Yocheved collected.

The tallit bag was a gift from a group of friends.  It was a surprise for Yocheved.  I had known Yocheved long enough to know exactly the colors and the look for the bag I made for her.

You can see the bag nestled among some of Yocheved's textiles. The needlepoint was made by Yocheved.

The red piece at the bottom of the photo is the bodice of an Arab dress. The greenish piece in the center was probably once black but the dyes were unstable. I plan to reinforce the bag with pieces of this work.

A closeup of the greenish piece.

I love the color combinations on this piece. The base of the embroidery is made up of two layers. A loosely woven even-weave cotton serves as the lop layer, easy for counting to establish the pattern.

You can see that it is backed with a sturdier plaid woven cotton.

Here is the dress bodice.

I took close-ups so you can see how the embroidery was done.

 It is a tightly packed cross stitch. Usually, a main line of the design is counted off and stitched then the details are added in.

 I believe that the white twisted couched work is wool.

When I went to Israel in 1970 one commonly saw Arab women wearing dresses embellished with this kind of embroidery Although traditional  Arab women in Israel still wear long dresses, these days they are more commonly made out of synthetic knits in dark colors.

When I made the bag it expressed something about my friend Yocheved. Now that Yocheved is no longer alive  I hope to repair the bag so Laura can carry memories of her beloved aunt with her for many years as she used this tallit bag.