sarah in nyc

When Hannah and I first met it took a little while for us to speak the same language design -wise. She was very clear about what she didn't like and had a harder time explaining what she did want.  After our initial meeting, she went home and emailed  lots of images to me. That was incredibly helpful. Once I understood what she wanted I could go about making it happen. I have friends in the sewing world who detest sewing for others. Some of them complain bitterly about having to take direction from prom girls or from brides. I could see why some people might find it annoying to be taking direction from an almost twelve year old. I actually find the process of collaborating with a kid to be a blast. i like helping them think about what they want and don't want and figuring out how to express ideas that might be difficult to put into words. Hannah is a deeply thoughtful person. When she walked into my dining room and saw her  completed tallit for the first time s...

As of Friday, Hannah's tallit looked like this. Amazon.com Widgets Hannah wanted the bottom of the tallit to look like a planet being born. I suppose I could have just stopped painting on Friday but I knew I could make the tallit look more like outer space with more layers of paint. I flicked lots of color onto the tallit with a tooth brush for a big chunk of the day yesterday. By evening I constructed the tallit. Yes this silk did start out nearly white. The atara is edged with striped blue ribbon and gold cording. Tomorrow evening Hannah and her family come by to tie the tzitzit. After my last post two of my wise friends suggested that I ought to have used iron away stabilizer. My friends are right. I am picking away at the tissue paper and tracing paper that I had used to stabilize the tallit. It is picky messy work. I have already vacuumed once today and will probably vacuum again before I go to sleep. I actually am making pro...

This has been something of an extra crazy week. There was a whole lot of cooking going on.In addition to our usual Shabbat dinner I also made a fancy dinner for Sunday evening. Amazon.com Widgets I also finally figured out the secret to making really good bagels. A fairly long boil,   say, 5-7 minutes in water with a few table spoons of brown sugar  creates a really crispy  outer crust. I went to Costco this morning and also did some shopping for a friend there. Bringing home my friend's meat order I was really aware of how limited our fridge and freezer space is.  With only a limited amount of cursing I was able to fit everything into our fridge. My older son made the carb and roasted some vegetables for tonight. I made these two chickens.  Actually they are still cooking as I type this. They look cute but those chicken legs are still not cooked to the wobble stage.  I also made a non dairy ice cream for tonight. It is a gi...

This was my view as I began my workout this morning. It is mornings like this that make you understand why Hopper painted the way he did.  It wasn't just that he was lonely and depressed and was married to a difficult woman, he was also just painting what he saw. It's Friday so there is lots to cook, but I also have lots of work to get done. I have been working away on Linda's tallit.  Linda is celebrating a birthday of significance. she sent out lengths of ribbons to friends and to family and asked them to write greetings to her on the ribbons. My job is to turn the ribbons into a tallit. Linda is a math teacher and is precise and gives excellent directions. unfortunately, not all of the people who love Linda share these qualities.  I am at the point of working on this tallit where I have to make the wonky -not look wonky. I had to add an extra bit of ribbon to the panels, because what what looked equal on paper did not work out that way in real life...