sarah in nyc

 Tonight we have in-person guests, an old friend of my husband's and his family. We will be eating-- Chicken with za'atar and lots of lemon and lime, and potatoes cooked with red peppers and paprika. Not pictured is the cooked eggplant and zucchini. My husband will be making a green salad. More work is being done on tallitot and atarot. Ribbon is being embroidered to edge the atarot. This one needs another layer of embroidery. I think this one is complete but will be stitched down with bronze thread to add an extra bit of wonderful. This where it goes-- The combination makes my eyes happy. And we are eating cake for dessert. A faked blueberry citrus cake--meaning made without a recipe. Aside from the blueberries, the cake is flavored with lots of lemon and lime peel, ginger, some fresh lemon juice, limoncello, and orange juice. I prepared the bunt pan with coconut oil and sugar so it has a crunchy crust. And now I go take a pre-dinner nap. Shabbat Shalom!

 I probably shouldn't take the time to post today I am hard up against three(!) deadlines. I didn't want all of you to think that I had abandoned you so here goes this post---typed quickly. Todd's tallit is moving right along. I bound the edges with strips of bias-cut linen, no photos but you just have to believe me. כְּתַפּ֙וּחַ֙ בַּעֲצֵ֣י הַיַּ֔עַר כֵּ֥ן דּוֹדִ֖י בֵּ֣ין הַבָּנִ֑ים בְּצִלּוֹ֙ חִמַּ֣דְתִּי וְיָשַׁ֔בְתִּי וּפִרְי֖וֹ מָת֥וֹק לְחִכִּֽי׃ Like an apple tree among trees of the forest These pinot are affixed to the corners of his tallit and three of the four eyelets have been cut and embroidered. The text for Ale's pinot is: כְּשֽׁוֹשַׁנָּה֙ בֵּ֣ין הַחוֹחִ֔ים  Like a lily among thorns   As I had mentioned ( I think in my last post) Ale had chosen to have  שֽׁוֹשַׁנָּה represented by an Egyptian water lily rather than a lily (how the text is usually translated into English) or as a rose which is how the word is used in Hebrew but the more botanically correc...

 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 am so chuffed about this. I paint the text freehand. I am not painting the text while paying close attention to a ruler. This nearly per...

Usually when I finish a piece, all I can focus on is all of the little ways it is imperfect. Eventually, with a enough time and distance, I can re focus on what makes the piece good. Elan's atara seems to be an exception to that quirk of mine. I love this atara. I love how it works with this particular tallit. I chose the blue and white checked ribbon because it echos the weave of the tallit. The colors are a bit too strong so I toned the strong blue down with the silver scallop stitch and i went a bit further by using a silvery grey embroidery thread to stitch the atara to the tallit. I LOVE how the silver scallop stitch over the checkerboard feels like sun glinting off of water when the sun is a bit low on the horizon. A Jewish ritual object unlike a painting on the wall, has to work  both close up as well as from a distance. This atara will be experienced by Elan when he holds the tallit close up to his face before donning it. It will be also experie...

One of the things that experience has taught me is that the best order for doing work is not always  the instinctive one. I am working on an atara that includes the following text אִלּוּ פִינוּ מָלֵא שִׁירָה כַּיָּם, וּלְשׁוֹנֵנוּ רִנָּה כֲּהַמוֹן גַּלָּיו, וְשִׂפְתוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁבַח כְּמֶרְחֲבֵי רָקִיעַ, Even if our mouths could fill with song as water fills the sea, You can listen to a musical setting of the text while you read the rest of this post I had already dyed the strips of silk that would be layered to become the sea. Here you see them both separately  and layered.  I dyed the velvet that would become the sky. You see it both wet, and dry Years ago with less experience doing these things, I would have built the sea and then added the lettering. I want the letters to sit inside the sea, partially submerged and partially above the water the way a body is in and above the water when swimming.  That...

Despite not having posted in several days, it doesn't mean that I haven't been busy. I re-covered a set of dining room chairs for  my dear friend known in this family as Tanta Marcia. The  Queen Anne dining set had come into Marcia's life through marriage. I had to marry the traditional style of the dining chairs with the contemporary couch and the rustic Oriental rugs and get all of the colors in the room to play nicely. A couple of weeks ago I helped Marcia select the fabric from one of my favorite internet home-dec retailers ( fancy stuff at cheap prices!!!). I do admit that I was a little bit bossy but clearly this was a good choice for the room.   I came over after dinner earlier in the week armed with my fabric shears, a screwdriver and my staple gun. By the end of the evening all of the chairs were covered.  (Ignore the passive voice, I covered all of the chairs)  I have also been working away on the sparks of divine light tallit. Once ...