sarah in nyc

 The mended tallit was worn this past Shabbat by the mother of the spectacular Bat mitzvah girl. The bat mitzvah girl actually spoke about the mitzvah of wearing a tallit during her d'rash.  Hannah's d'rash sent me on a deep dive into  Fashion in ancient Mesopotamia . You can read more  here . Clearly fringes were a big deal in that particular universe of fashion. This kippah was shipped out and  delivered. David was just incredibly pleased. He wears the kippot I have made him every day. David is one of those guys who tries to do good wherever he goes and the kippah will be on his head during each one of those adventures. Tuesday, Nini arrived to see her tallit in person for the first time and to tie her tzizit. Nini loved how comfortable her tallit was. She also shared more photos from her recent trip to Nova Scotia. She was so happy that I was able to evoke her beloved landscape. I love the peek of the underside of the tallit. I also love how great the tallit...

 It has been hot this week.   How hot was it??? It was sooo hot that the pigeons that normally hang out on the street lamps on 96th street were all huddling in the shade to avoid the sun. Earlier in the week my husband and I visited an antique store. Had I endless room in my apartment I would have purchased this "Sew Mistress" toy sewing machine. It looks like it would actually work, My cousin recently mentioned that our great aunt had purchased such a machine for her. It worked so well that her father,  my Uncle Sol, made a set of kitchen curtains using the crank operated machine. I could see the Sew Mistress tackling such a job without too much trouble. Just in case you were thinking of purchasing a new toy sewing machine for a child. Just don't. The toy sewing machines made today will just make a child feel like a failure because they are so poorly constructed. The other thing I totally was lusting for at the antique store was  the left-most bracelet on this displ...

 In  a recent post I had posted one small photo of Nini's atara. I need to correct that. There was so much work that went into this atara.  First, let's start with the text which is two verse fragments from Chapter 16 of the Book of Chronicles. יִרְעַ֤ם הַיָּם֙ וּמְלוֹא֔וֹ יַעֲלֹ֥ץ הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה וְכׇל־אֲשֶׁר־בּֽוֹ׃         Let the sea and all within it thunder, the fields and everything in them exult; We are using the first half of verse 32 and the first half of the next verse. אָ֥ז יְרַנְּנ֖וּ עֲצֵ֣י הַיָּ֑עַר מִלִּפְנֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּי־בָ֖א לִשְׁפּ֥וֹט אֶת־הָאָֽרֶץ׃         then shall all the trees of the forest shout for joy at the presence of the L ORD , for He is coming to rule the earth  I hand couched the ocean text onto appliqued ocean that I made out of silk that I had dyed. The sky above the ocean was a little excercise in obsession.  I hand couched hand dyed silk embroidery th...

 No,, I am not yet done but I have begun assembling the various and sundry parts. This is the right side of the tallit. From right to left you see hand embroidered fog as well as some oil paint stick fog. Above that is the foresty bit made out of machine embroidered fir trees. The tree stripe is bordered in Nova Scotia tartan. Near the top of the photo you see the "wrong" side of the tallit. Below you see both side by side. Whoever sits behind Nini at services will see  these two stripes of water, the river above and the ocean below.   I love how the river stripe captures the sense of the movement of water. I love seeing both sides of the tallit interacting with one another.  I have on more stripe to add on each side of the tallit. The entire tallit will be bordered in bias cut strips of the  Nova Scotia tartan. I have had a pretty clear idea of what this tallit would look like. At this point, what is going on in my head is becoming visible to those who don't re...