My dear Hebraists, and I know there are at least three of you out there (ahem, Shaun, Thora and Avram, ahem), I recently acquired this object:
I meet with the women of the Doha branch who summer in Utah last week and one of them had this for me. It is from my in-laws, purchased on their recent trip to Jerusalem and environs. I have no desire to be completely gauche, so if anyone can tell me if I have got it facing the right way and also what it means, I would be very indebted.
To my dear quilters, my participation in my RS quilting club has not been very good. I came late to the first cutting and sewing meeting (because of a wedding reception for a girl in the ward) and they weren't too pleased. I hadn't brought my sewing machine because Matt put in a sewing cabinet. It was just as well because I just got my pieces cut when they decided they had had enough and threw us amateur quilters out.
Well, I forgot about the second meeting until I was home from work late and it was nearly half over. So instead of going, I decided to just sew the first block on my own at home. Great idea, except I hadn't sewn with my sewing machine before and couldn't get it to thread right (very amateur seamstress). Matt, the part-time tailor, finally came home and fixed it. So I sewed this block on Friday:
I don't think its too bad. Its only less than a quarter of an inch too small on one of the sides. And it made me a bit cocky so I cut and sewed the second block on Saturday:
Less of a success, not very square at all. So if anyone has any advice on how to a Dutchman's puzzle more square, I'm interested to know.
And finally for my musically inclined friends, a story. On Saturday Matt and I were at the local church-run charity shop looking through the records, when I stumbled upon this:
Now, gentle reader, you will surely know that this recording by Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony was the first ever made of all of Mahler's symphonies. A historic recording at the bargain price of $3, what more could we ask for? Well, we decided we could ask for a complete set with no scratches, so we opened it up and discovered this written in the front cover:
At that point I didn't really care if all of the records were there, but they were and unscratched. I was very excited to find this (and surprised no one else had) but also sad that it had ended up at a thrift store in Provo.
Our luck didn't hold when we found a recording of the nine Beethoven symphonies by Karl Boehm and the Vienna Philharmonic. The records were all there and in good condition, but it wasn't signed by the conductor even though they were also charging $3 for it.
Consequently, dear friends, you are invited to come listen to Mahler or Beethoven while deciphering Hebrew and unpicking the seams of my quilt block.
