sarah in nyc

My husband and I leave town next week for a few days to visit his sister and her family. There was work that I just had to get done before I left.  (Suppose the plane crashes?) Today I finished appliqueing all of the celestial elements onto the blue base. I thought that it would be a nice touch to line the pillowcase. Aside from giving the whole thing a bit more structure, it would also hide the wrong side of the appliques. It wasn't terrible looking but it isn't something you would want to show company. I wanted to use a fine smooth cotton. I found some red cotton batiste in my stash. I thought it was perfect. ( there are verses in the Brit Milah ceremony that reference blood as a symbol of life). You can see a bit of the lining peeking out from the edges before I sewed up the pillowcase and added the hem edge.  I realized today that all of the pillowcases I have been making in spurts over the years to amuse myself was actually a good use of time. You never know w...

Oddly enough I am working away on two pieces in similar colors that are really different from one another.  The brit milah pillow is coming along. You can see how the appliques celestial elements will look against the text filled heavens. I was worried that the lettering was too dull but once I put the celestial elements against the background everything fell into balance. I am having a blast with this piece. The tallit now has stripes--but at this point only stripes. Beloved cousins are joining us for dinner. I think that Trader Joe's had ordered kosher brisket for the wrong week I am guessing that they didn't quite get when Passover was -so I was able to get some for a song. Here it is with a coffee and spice rub waiting for our oven to preheat. After cooking and a time to hang out and cool in the fridge it was ready to slice.  I topped it with a homemade barbecue sauce. What was in it you ask???  I made it with a mix of sweet and sa...

 Over the past several days I finished dyeing the cotton for the brit milah pillow. I had wanted the text to be in the cosmos and the cosmos populated with a few heavenly bodies. This is my sketch for the project ( in case you don't commit every word I type to your long term memory).  One of the things I have learned with years of experience doing this sort of work is how to plan how to attack the various tasks needed to complete the job and in what order. I cut the fabric to pillowcase  size and pressed it to be sure that it is colorfast. I then sketched out a moon, a couple of stars and a something that is either a planet or the sun onto a white linen men's handkerchief. I have a bag full of beautiful ones in my stash and I thought that the finely woven white linen would be perfect for the job. After I sketched out the shapes and the text to go inside I went over my pencil line in gold paint and then floated color inside of the gold lines. Then I t...