Happy almost-over Chanukah 2015! Lovely as it has been for my family, it may never again be as delightful as 2013, when it fell on the same day as Thanksgiving, compelling craftsy persons to create poultry-themed Judaica, and linguists to coin new words, like "Thanksgivvukah" (for the holiday), and "Turkorah" and "Menurkey," for turkey menorahs.
For the occasion, I made this festive banner, which, even more importantly, used up a lot of my excess dreidel fabric:
It's overseen by an unimpressed bird:
(Originally blogged
here.) Thanksgivvukah also inspired me to crochet a flock of turkey menorahs, and now I don't know what to do with my extras. (Free pattern
on the bottom of this page.)
With steely resolve, I am striving make a clean break from Thanksgivvukah, since this coincidence won't happen again for 77,000 years. So this year, I hung this totally turkey-free Chanukah quilt I concocted shortly after I began quilting. I called it
Semi-Amish Dreidels, because of the color scheme.
I wish I remembered how I made it! It involved a lot of solids, strip sets, prairie points, and, of course, totally non-Amish buttons.
Another golden oldie: This quilt is called "Nine of Anything," because I used nine things cut from novelty fabrics to make custom menorahs (aka hanukiot).
Including a gummi bear menorah....
Tools:
Desert...
And, of course, an Elvis menorah, memorializing his little-known but bona fide Jewish heritage.
A couple of hand stitches with blue embroidery thread at the bottom of each candle flame creates a little realism. The words to "Rock of Ages" are freemotion stitched into the background.
These are fun to make, and don't take long if you just want to make a single menorah. Pick a novelty fabric, put fusible web on the back, cut out nine things, arrange them artistically on a background, press, then zig-zag all the way around everything! And try not to think about turkeys. Whoops, I'm sorry I said that.
Great job!!
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