The end of summer and a partial finish

Happy Autumn

In some places, the leaves turn colors because it is that time of the year. But here, in California, most of the trees seem to be very distressed and have been looking a little brown and sad for quite some time. Yet, there are those areas where the trees were taken care of, either with sprinkling of recycled water (or by some of us who decided to water our lawns and endured the high cost of doing so) where the trees will start turning lovely shades or red, orange and gold. 

Hopefully, with the arrival of the new season, the rainy season will start! Maybe we need to do a rain dance to get it started?

Well, this weekend I was doing a small happy dance! Yes, I finished the lettering of my Torah Panel! And here it is:

(Exodus 4:12-15) My Torah Panel for the Torah Stitch by Stitch project

Here are 4 lines of my portion and their translation:

Exodus 4:12 -

 וְעַתָּה, לֵךְ; וְאָנֹכִי אֶהְיֶה עִם-פִּיךָ, וְהוֹרֵיתִיךָ אֲשֶׁר תְּדַבֵּר.

Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt speak.'

Exodus 4:13 - 

 וַיֹּאמֶר, בִּי אֲדֹנָי; שְׁלַח-נָא, בְּיַד-תִּשְׁלָח.

And he said: 'Oh Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send.'

Exodus 4:14 -

 וַיִּחַר-אַף יְהוָה בְּמֹשֶׁה, וַיֹּאמֶר הֲלֹא אַהֲרֹן אָחִיךָ הַלֵּוִי--יָדַעְתִּי, כִּי-דַבֵּר יְדַבֵּר הוּא; וְגַם הִנֵּה-הוּא יֹצֵא לִקְרָאתֶךָ, וְרָאֲךָ וְשָׂמַח בְּלִבּוֹ.

And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: 'Is there not Aaron thy brother the Levite? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

Exodus 4:15 -

וְדִבַּרְתָּ אֵלָיו, וְשַׂמְתָּ אֶת-הַדְּבָרִים בְּפִיו; וְאָנֹכִי, אֶהְיֶה עִם-פִּיךָ וְעִם-פִּיהוּ, וְהוֹרֵיתִי אֶתְכֶם, אֵת אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשׂוּן.

And thou shalt speak unto him, and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.

While I have completed the stitching of the lettering, I am planning to stitch a border around the edges and an illustration in the lower left-hand corner. Because there is some constraints set by the organizer of this international project regarding margins/edges, I have just emailed photos of the completed panel to her to get some directions on how wide my margin should be and what my limitations are on the bottom. They do a good job on responding, so I will wait to hear from them to begin. 

However, since I do have a design in mind for the illustration - which is a burning bush (can't you picture Moses standing in front of the burning bush during this conversation between him and God?)- I have started to stitch a practice piece. I wanted to make sure that the sizing and the color adaption would be right before I stitched it on the panel.

So here is the designs I found:

And here is the beginning of my adaption of the two -

For the Torah Stitch by Stitch project, we are limited to the following colors:

#917-magenta, #816-red, #223-rose, #729-gold, #731-moss, #3810-aqua, and #3750-indigo. So, I have chosen moss, red, rose and gold to stitch the burning bush. I thought moss would be the perfect one for the branches and the trunk of the tree because according to the commentary for this portion, the bush appeared to burn but really wasn't. So, the branches and trunk should stay green. Any way, we will see how the flames turn out. Yellow will definitely be on the top and rose somewhere in the middle. I'll show you what it turns out like when I finish the practice piece.

Well, time to hit the road with the running shoes. Until next time, take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa