sarah in nyc

 A couple of posts ago I wrote about restoring  the challah cover I had given to my sister . When I wrote the post I was only partially done. I had cut away the rotted silk, found a good replacement, (the reverse of a red jacquard weave upholstery fabric),  had stitched the center panel with the lettering to the new and stronger fabric, and covered the join with a braid that I had embroidered. My next task was to stitch the Chinese brocade to the upholstery fabric and to cover that raw edge.  One might ask why I didn't just disassemble the whole challah cover. Brocade is incredibly shreddy fabric. If I unpicked the brocade border and tried to reassemble the entire challah cover the process of unpicking would likely leave me with shredded bits of brocade that would have become much smaller during the tedious job of un-sewing. I carefully placed the upholstery fabric into position  (in the photo above it is just slightly skewed). I basted everything into position ...

Earlier in the life of this blog my husband sometimes used to wonder about the wisdom of my not sticking just to matters of sewing. He was concerned that by talking about subjects that on the surface seem disconnected from one another it might be confusing for my readers. Over the years though I have discovered that my readers are not disturbed by the wide range of topics covered here. Ultimately I do think that there is a connection between the designing and sewing and the cooking. I find that I play with color in the same way that I play with flavors. In both colors and flavors, you can combine two elements that don't necessarily play well together by adding several other elements that act as peacemakers. I started a batch of challah covers on a strip of pale buttery yellow silk shantung. The blue and the yellow work together easily. I gave myself a bit more of a challenge with this challah cover. I pulled all of the elements together with the red e...

It has been unseasonably warm. Yesterday and today have been the kind of days that lure you outdoors. It is November and some people are wearing shorts Amazon.com Widgets Yesterday, the call of outside took me to the local thrift store. I picked up a card of wide embroidered ricrac. often I think about my work while I am doing other tasks, like laundry or working out. My mother used to use ironing and vacuuming for her serious thinking time. Today while out getting more stuff for Shabbat dinner I was charmed by the copper cornice on my building against the blue sky.  I love that the Blum brothers who designed my building took the time to even embellish the underside of the cornice. A beautiful touch that is probably ignored most of the time. While doing task driven thinking time I realized that the ricrac would be perfect on one of the red challah covers I had begun a few days ago. Actually, perfect ignores an important intermediate step. The ric...

I know, there are times when it seems like I do nothing but cook. But my hands have not ben involved only with cooking. I removed the border from this challah cover and replaced something that was just OK with African mud cloth from my stash. The mud cloth is a much better choice. I knit a cowl for my daughter. I completed Kyra’s tallit. here are the pinot /corner pieces. This is completed tallit.   The silk is really luscious.  If I ran the universe I would have made an atara/neckband as well. Kyra though seemed really sure of what she wanted. I will see if she changes he mind when she comes this afternoon to tie her tzitzit. OK, a moment about food. last night was the first night of Chanukah.  As I have said before, I am not a big fan of latkes. I was willing to be swayed by the pleading of my family and made a batch.   I also made sweet potato and ricotta cheese latkes. Yes, I made apple sauce. I also made a childhood favorite, cra...