Needlepoint

Rotem and Maya got married on March 14, 2020 in Israel.  My entire family, including my (now) almost 101 year old mother had flights booked.  Menachem and I arrived on March 5th and I can't remember now if Inbal, Amit and Doron arrived a day earlier, the same day, the next day...

I saw Menachem packing N95 masks and Lysol wipes and laughed at him for being hysterical.  Who knew?  People had just started talking about Covid.  First, Carmit's flight from Munich was cancelled.  Then my siblings in Canada started  cancelling one by one.  Then the Israeli guests cancelled.  A game of "chicken" was played with the banquet hall to see who would cancel first - if we did, the deposits on the hall stood to be lost.  If they did, they would have to refund the deposits.  In the end, Maya's brother negotiated a compromise.  The wedding celebration was rescheduled for October (the banquet hall wanted August - we balked at having to pay high season flight costs.  In the end, even October was too soon.  The banquet hall cancelled and the deposits were refunded.

Maya Rotem got married in their back garden, with only her parents, brother and sister-in-law, us, Inbal and her kids in attendance.  They exchanged vows under the chuppah I had made years ago ("if you build it, they will come" being my theory at the  time...).  Inbal and her children returned to Canada the next day and we followed about a week later on one of the last flights out.

So where does needlepoint fit into this scenario?  Last year, I missed their first anniversary having totally lost all concept of time.  I vowed that I would not miss their second.  So I started thinking about what I hoped would be a unique gift for a unique couple.

This is the top half of their wedding invitation.  I had it made into this

 

I emailed the "shoe" photo the a company called "Needlepaint" in Colorado and they translated into a needlepoint kit, complete with tapestry yarn, a print-out to follow

and instructions on the method of stitching.

Inbal went to Israel on Thursday and I sent it with her.  My thinking is that they can needlepoint it themselves and then when they come to visit for Pesach, I can have it made into a pillow.  Or if they don't want to needlepoint it, I'll do it myself and send the finished pillow back to them.

So that was our second year anniversary gift.  I'm still working on the first year one and hope to have it ready by the time they come but can't publish anything until they come.  Hopefully, I can get it done.

And speaking of needlepoint, I found an online program to translated pictures to patterns.  I have an old needlepoint canvas and lots of tapestry yarn, so I just may make a pillow for me.