Life of Sarah--Challah Cover in progress!

`Yitchak` and `Rifka`, on blue and on pink, `Sarah` and `Avraham` on white above, challah cover in progress on the tatami

Above, `Sarah` in gold colored embroidery thread, below:  sewing the letters for `Avraham` in the center, and the outline for `Sarah` completed.  In progress, still thinking about whether to fill in the letters, or leave them as outlines. 

Now Sarah`s life was 127 years --- the years of Sarah`s life.

---Genesis 23:1

The Life of Sarah parsha (Torah Portion) tells us in the first lines that Sarah lived to the age of 127.
After that in this Torah Portion, we read that she died in Hebron, and the parsha talks about Abraham purchasing the burial place for Sarah and the transaction is described.  After this, a main
part of the portion is about Abraham sending his trusted servant to Canaan to find a wife for Isaac, who we know will be Rebecca.  There is a eulogy and Abraham weeps over Sarah, but none of the parsha actually talks about Sarah`s life, as you might expect from the title.  And yet it is called the Life of Sarah.

When I delved into the pages I thought, hmmm, what kind of challah can I make to express something about this parsha and about Sarah.
Then I got the idea to make a Challah Cover! At first I thought it like a gift, a Mazel Tov (congratulations) to Isaac and Rebecca.  But as I meditated about how to make it, I started to see back to the title this Parsha.  We know this is about the LIFE of Sarah, even though it doesn`t plainly talk of her life.  The words the life of Sarah is even repeated again at the top of the parsha.

So I realized that Sarah`s name would be at the top and centered of the challah cover.

As I practiced writing all the names in Hebrew--- Izchak, Rifka, Sarah, Avraham, I started to layer them in cloth to express that Sarah lives on through her descendants, and through the great woman, mother---from Sarah came Jacob, and the twelve tribes of Israel--, prophet, and wife that she was.  And is as she lives on through the Torah and in our lives.

It is my first Challah Cover!! It is so exciting to learn to write the Hebrew names of my ancestors using thread as I make it.  There is something so beautiful to see each letter as it emerges on the cloth, and to think about Sarah as the mother, Matriarch of the Jewish people and of all the Seed of Abraham!!

Stay tuned, I still have a day before Shabbat and will hopefully have the challah cover ready.

Many blessings and Shalom!!♡

Shayndel