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...

 I have been working away on Todd's tallit. It was time to begin assembling his beloved, Alejandra's tallit. The linen for her tallit is lighter weight than Todd's tallit. I can only do the dense decorative stitches on the bits that are two layers of linen or more. The tallit is made out of lots of small steps performed over and over again. Press the raw edge of the linen strip with the text under. Select a color and a stitch. Sew the strip to the tallit. use the edge of the text strip as a guide and stitch a row of decorative stitching as a spacer, repeat, and continue until all of the text strips are completed. I took the picture earlier today Since then I added the last bit of text (actually it is the beginning of the poem because it was easier to add the strips from the bottom to the top than the other way around).   Not that you asked, but the embroidery threads I am using on these two tallitot come from  Thread Art . Machine embroidery thread is often finicky s...

 We seem to be transitioning from Zoom dinners to having people actually eat at our table. Several of our usual Friday night gang are off enjoying the holiday weekend. Each week, I remember that our buddy Mike can't join us because he is no longer alive. Every Friday I expect his call just before dinner is to start asking me to resend the Zoom link. We won't be getting those calls anymore. Two of our usual gang are joining us in person. I am so happy. Yesterday during a long chat with a friend she mentioned that she felt that her circle of friends has shrunk during the pandemic. I completely understand what she meant. The social restrictions of the pandemic mean that the lovely encounters one usually has with your wider circle of friends are just gone. You can't visit for a few minutes at kiddush over a plate full of food and catch up with the person whose child was in Hebrew School with yours ten years ago or chat with the sweet elementary school kids who used to sit on my...