Sigh:: The Week Ends

I'm torn. I really love the busy week. I love filling my days with things accomplished and planning for things yet to be done. But most weeks I come to the end feeling more than a little grateful for the opportunity to take a day or two off. Every Friday night we as a family light candles, have a nice meal and wish each other a Shabbat Shalom. That literally means a peaceful Sabbath. It's not something that's exclusive to my family. Jews all over the world greet each other with these same two words. They might not speak any other Hebrew, but most know what that means and why we say it. I think the feeling that comes with that phrase is so ingrained in me that even as I write this I sense that I'm breathing more deeply. That's good I guess, but I haven't even made dinner yet.
I have, however, finished this project:


A challah cover for a friend. On Shabbat it's traditional to eat challah, an incredibly tasty egg-based bread. The table is laid out and the challah is usually covered until a blessing is said. Thus the need for a challah cover. In case you don't read Hebrew, it says, from right to left, top to bottom, Shabbat Shalom.
I've made several of these before and I always enjoy improvisationally piecing the letters. It's fun to play around with the scale of each letter and to add and delete bits of fabric so they'll fit together.
This week I was particulary inspired to sew up some aleph-bet letters after I saw this wonderful wordplay quilt .
You might take a moment this weekend to check it out.