sarah in nyc

Not quite 20 years ago my friend Marcia wanted me to make a tallit bag for her. She didn't quite know what she wanted it to look like but she knew that she wanted it to include  the crochet arba kanfot her grandmother had made as an engagement gift for Marcia's grandfather. Amazon.com Widgets That evening Marcia came to my house she also brought along a bag filled with tallit bags that had belonged to men who meant a great deal to her. All of the men were no longer living, her father, her husband and her son. Marcia hoped that I could figure out a way to include all of these pieces into her bag. I did. I pieced all of the velvet bags with some additional silks ad created a bag that wore the old arba kanfot. Earlier this week Marcia asked me to do some repairs on her tallit. The bag needed a bit of attention as well. The velvet on the buttons I had covered had worn away. I also noticed that the arba kanfot were soiled. I washed the   arba kanfot a...

My late father-in-law's family came from Tulchin, a town at the edges of the Ukraine. Despite the fact that my father-in-law insisted that his family lived in Russia they came from just a few miles east from the home towns of both of my maternal grandparents. When they lived in Tulchin the family name was Krupnik, and were millers (krupnik means barley or barley soup). I am part of a few different online genealogy groups and yesterday I got a notice that an archive of oral histories from Tulchin was now available. I went through the list and found the name of  Arkady Krupnik .  I don't read Russian but we live in the age of Google translate, so I cut and pasted chunks of Arkady's testimony into the translate box and heard the voice and words of my husband's cousin. It's a whole lot to read, nearly 100 pages.  I was charmed by his descriptions of making matza before the Nazi's (and the Communists) fully came to power. When Jews were able to th...

It took a while, actually a long while to get this tallit completed. It also took a while for Jean's schedule to coordinate with mine so she could come tie her tzitzit. Yesterday was the day Jean would see her completed tallit for the first time. I loved her tallit. I thought it was great. I had worked hard to listen to all of Jean's spoken and unspoken desires for this tallit. Never the less, i am always a bit anxious when a client sees a piece completed for the first time. What If my instincts are off? What if Jean hates the tallit? When jean walked in to my dining room and saw her tallit on my dressmaking form she said, "I'm stunned". It took me a few moments to figure out if this was bad stunned or good stunned. She was good stunned.  Next it was time for Jean to tie her tzitzit. Jean is a worrier. I assured her that even if she totally messed up no children or cute little animals would be hurt. I showed her how one of the great things about tzitzit i...

I just wanted to share two other pieces that both blow me away from the sheer amount of work invested in each one. I included my can of spray starch just so you get a sense of size. This piece was made by first folding a piece of linen into quarters and then cutting it like the  paper snowflakes we used to make in grade school. Then the cut linen was glued with a flour and water paste to a piece of netting. All of the cut edges were bordered with chain stitching which serves both a decorative and a structural purpose. More chain stitching is added to complete the design. At some point I may base a bit of netting behind the worn spots. I am both awed by the amount of work it took to make this piece as I wonder if it is even worth all of the effort that went into it. The next piece is a cloth I use as a center piece on my table layering it over a larger table cloth. Perhaps it was made to fit a particular round side table. At first glance t...

Today I was ironing. in addition to the tablecloths shirts and dresses that are part of my weekly ironing, this week I had a batch of doily's to iron. The sainted woman who cleans my house artistically covers various tables and dressers with some of the many bits of old linens in my collection. She changes them as they get dusty. I dutifully wash and iron them so she can put out a new fresh batch. Most of these come from from my friend Vivian. All of these pieces are small. None is bigger than about 8 inches across.   The round eyelet doily probably came from Mary, Uncle Irving's long time girlfriend. She and the rest of her family were heavy smokers. Nearly every piece I inherited from her has at least one cigarette burn  The eyelet design on the doily below isn't all that interesting but the quality of the work is pretty spectacular. I don't know if you can see the teeny French knots at the center of each quadrant. I think this is a bread tray liner. Ama...

After a month of feeling draggy, sort of edge of sick but not sick enough to just say in bed I finally went to the doctor. I am sick . Amazon.com Widgets The super strength Sudafed has me all sped up which is fun after weeks of feeling like a pile of dirty laundry. But I am still sick enough to be all loopy in the head. It's an interesting combination fast and stupid and probably a good thing that I am not driving. Hopefully the super strength antibiotics will do their thing. My doctor is on the second floor of an East Side building and I just loved the view from the steps.

It's hot out. Amazon.com Widgets I made chicken using some of the Tsere I had bought a couple of years ago. Tsere is an African mixture of hot peppers and peanuts that packs a punch. It gets hot in Africa,they know how to make food for this weather. It will be perfect for tonight. While the chicken was roasting I roasted some tomatoes that will go into tonight's salad. Since you asked nicely I will tell you that I sprinkled them with Zaatar. Tonight's dessert is Creamsicle flavored parev ice cream.Here is a pot with a hefty tablespoon of flour, but I could have used corn or potato starch instead, a cup of sugar and the grated rind of an orange. I cut the orange  and then used my fancy orange juicing tool to get out every bit of juice. yes, i squeezed the orange right over the pot. Who needs to was extra dishes? I added some commercial orange juice and some water  and a bit of olive oil, and set the pot to simmer. When the mixture came to ...