I have always loved making Challah Covers. The only reason I know we cover the bread on Friday night is so that when we first bless the wine the challah’s don’t get upset. But of course there is a real explanation! The cover represents the layer of dew that enclosed the manna and kept it fresh during the Exodus! There we go…..
I make them as they are uniquely Jewish and textile based and I have to say most of the commercial ones are rather dull!
Tania is one of the most generous people I know. I have stayed at her house in Hove with my family and friends. It is truly delightful and very interestingly and tastefully decorated. It is such a treat. I wanted to make her a challah cover and beach huts seemed like a good theme. I dyed the white cloth I had blue and used some blue strips of cloth to make the beach huts. Some even have mezuzahs!
Betsy, my good ,friend who had a batmitzvah with me late June 2023, requested a nature themed challah. So I painted the other half of the white cloth green and entrapped some lavender and other plants I had collected from Sukhat Shalom Shul in Wanstead by sewing it in and trapping it under silver organza.
Lucy had a beautiful piece of drawn thread embroidery she had had for decades in the USA. We felt it could be turned into a challah cover and I backed it with a gold lame fabric and tassels made from cotton, gold thread and mohair. Such a lovely project to be part of!
I went round to Gabby and Osho with his mother and grandmother for a wonderful Friday Night Dinner and they didn’t have cloth napkins or a challah cover – so I rectified that – using a curtain my neighbour Ada gave me!
Caroline FC was the whole reason I started on the purple journey and although I had made her lots of purple things with dogs this is the first challah cover! It is a dreamcatcher with keyrings to represent her, Adam, Joshua, Arieh and Eli in order of age (from left to right or right to left!).
Using fabric from Senegal, I made Justyn a challah cover not long after he was divorced. The cover itself was pretty simple but the tassels, which I made, were a nice and chunky navy chenille thread with silver for the tassel heads.
I gave Ollie a choice of challah covers and they wanted one with the fabric I bought from Senegal with white tassels. This is for their engagement party! Mazel Tov……
I made a purple challah cover for my lovely friend Rebecca who is almost my twin and has hosted me to have meals and stay and lend an ear for more years than I can remember. This challah cover has bound multicoloured yarn, chenille, wooden flowers and felt hearts. The lilac ribbon hides my label.
This is a challah cover I made for friends Caroline and Marc. They use it every Friday night and I have repaired it also over the years. I couched chenille yarn to make the central shape.
There was a very nifty weaving studio in Hackney I went to with Tracy – my sister in law once. Tracy forgot her glasses and couldn’t really see what she was making. You could also book a slot and do some free style weaving at other times and this is my own weaving with purple yarn for my sister in law Marian which I took to Israel in Spring 2019. The studio was run by Francesca Kletz who was recently on the BBCs Interior Design Masters 2024. Here is some https://www.thejc.com/news/features/interior-design-masters-francesca-kletz-wants-to-be-the-joan-rivers-of-decorating-kput32yg
Continuing the purple theme in Spring 2019, I went for a number of meals with Susan accompanied by my son. This challah cover has lots of flowers, looped yarn and some spirals of chenille yarn. The back was woven and you can see it poking out on the front.
In a bright pink phase, I made this challah cover for Beattie using fabric I painted and used heart shaped prints, and sewn on motifs from India.
This is the challah cover I made for the community in Pune during my sabbatical early 2020. I painted the fabric, quilted it and it had a single tassel as well as saying Shabbat Shalom in Puff Paint. Here is the link to this challah cover in my original sabbatical blog. https://howtimegoesfasterasyougetolder.blog/the-pressure-is-on-must-get-as-many-projects-completed-as-possible/
This challah cover was for Lior and Yoni. It is made from fabric that Lior gave me from a collection of a Holocaust survivor who loved to collect fabrics. She died of old age. In this I have entombed a huge number of Bougainvillea petals which may well fade over time. One tassel has a bell. The card said not to wash it but for the stains to tell as story over time.
I made this challah cover for the Valmans. I went there for Friday Night Dinner in Ra’anana and I found out Persha loved lighthouses and shells. So I used the fabric that Lior had given me and ensnared some shells and the lighthouse.
I made this slightly mad purple collection of ribbons with a gold painted centre for Deborah’s 60th.
This was made for Devorah for her engagement using purple fabric and flowers from India.
This challah cover for Natalie was for her 50th. It has prints, wooden flowers, glass beads and a little bag as well as paint puff decoration.
This was a rather dark challah cover wedding present for Jonny and Jessica!
Using up lots of stripes of fabric, I made this as an engagement present for Jade and Adam.
This was a very special challah cover for Ayala and Ben and their kids. They gave me my cat Bobbin. There are all sorts of things trapped under the organza such as beads, earrings, cat broaches, hearts, stones as well as sumptuous silver tassels.
This is a challah duvet. I made it years ago. Not sure for whom!
The journey is to be continued. There is a blog to come soon about the challah cover I made for my son, Harry, for his engagement to Gemma.
