Happy Thanksgiving! Nostalgic for Thanksgivvukah!

Remember Thanksgivvukah? It seems so long ago, 2013 to be exact, when a once-in-77,000 year coincidence brought Thanksgiving to the same night as Chanukah. To celebrate, I used up many Chanukah fabrics to make this unbatted banner....

...with a turkey doing oversight....

...and a million Judaic prints.

I also frantically crocheted flocks of turkey menorahs...

AKA "turkorahs" or "menurkeys," with lightable tails....

And the occasional ethnic headgear..

Every night, I crocheted an additional flame.

For non-Hanukah Thanksgivings, it can be adapted to be a non-menorah, like this peacock turkey. 

The pattern for the crochet turkey/peacock with menorah option is available - email me for a free copy (cathy dot perlmutter at gmail dot com). My blog posts with more details about all of the above are here, here and here. Wishing you and your family a happy, healthy Thanksgiving!

Chanukah Quilt and Craft Projects Past

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.

Last Minute Gift (& Gift Wrap) Idea to Sew, Just in Time for Chanukah!

Happy Chanukah 2015! It starts tonight, and continues for 7 more nights. So even if it's 4 in the afternoon, that's still enough time to make stitched Chanukah presents (or Christmas, for that matter), especially the ones I'm showing you here.

These drawstring gift bags are probably the most useful Chanukah items I've ever sewn. I made them years ago, and they have brought our family's wrapping paper trash and expense waaaayyy down. A pack of different-sized bags is the perfect meta-gift for an environmentalist and/or hard-to-shop-for person.

For some of my bags, I used wide ribbon to cinch, for dramatic effect. But in hindsight, this was a mistake, because the ribbon has to be pressed before reuse every year, on a low temperature, so as not to melt the acrylic. Choose a nice cord, or a very thin grosgrain ribbon instead, especially if you're giving the bags to someone who doesn't know much about ironing.

The purple bag below may have been my first gift bag, before I discovered Judaic novelty fabrics. Instead of a drawstring casing, it has a velcro closure at the top center, and a grosgrain ribbon stitched  through its center on the right side, so it can be tied.  I can't believe I used sparkly glitter glue! (Real quilters sneer at sparkly glitter glue!) 

Here's a bag cut from menorah fabric. 

This one is from a more elegant print:

To punch up the excitement, I made each bag a little brooch. I cut star motifs from novelty fabric, mounted them on stiff interfacing, quilted them, overstitched the edges, then decorated with fancy buttons and beads. The diamond-studden button on the left is missing a few of its priceless stones, but who's going to notice?

 Here's the back. (I cannot explain why I painted the back petals in such an eccentric fashion.)

The giftee can wear it, or leave it on the bag.
Oh wait, there's one more. For this third brooch, I went nuts with the eyelash yarn, and the beads spell "holiday." I know, it's kooky, but keep in mind that I was trying to impress young children!

Here are two of my bags from birthday themed fabrics:

Want to make your own? Google "How to Make a Drawstring Bag" and you'll find eleventy million tutorials. Want to buy a set instead of making them? On etsy, here's one of many sellers who make lovely bag sets from Christmas and other novelty fabrics. (No financial affiliation!)

Wishing all a joyous and colorful holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Seems like only last year that Thanksgiving and Chanukah were the same holiday! Here's a quilt I made for both!

Blogged here. You still have time to make one for Chanukah!

(Crocheted turkey pattern is free, here. Scroll to the bottom.)

Serendipity, and a Thanksgivvukah Quilt in a Day

A Thanksgivukkah* quilt in a day? If I can do it, you can too! But you have to take tomorrow off, no time to cook or travel, and you must have a large stash of Judaic fabric, plus one small fabric turkey.

I personally had no intention of making a Chanukah/Thanksgiving quilt, (crochet is enough) right up until two nights ago. That's when - rifling through a pile of fusible-backed scraps for a totally different project - I came across this eons-old cut-out, maybe 3" high.

He came from one of those tacky preprinted fabric panels that has all the pieces you need to cut out, stitch and stuff a toy. Specifically, this: 

A 100% vegetarian, fully stuffed turkey, about 14" high. Since assembling him two decades ago, we've displayed him at every Thanksgiving dinner - which wildly entertains the whole family (we're easily amused). 

So, when I came across the mini-version (which was an illustration from the directions) in my scrap box Sunday night, I realized that this week might be his last best chance to fulfill a truly remarkable destiny - to star in the rare, 1-in-77,000 years cosmic convergence of Chanukah with Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 28, 2013. So, yesterday morning, I sprang into action.

It used to be difficult to find a Judaic fabric that didn't have blue-and-white dreidels and menorahs on it. So I have a lot.  The first thing I did was cut 7" x 40" strips from those fabrics. I stitched them together, from dark to light.

I also have a new, beautiful pile of  assorted 7" squares of Jewish holiday fabric - that I received  at the recent Pomegranate Guild conference. A stack was donated to all the attendees by the generous Lauree of www.1-800-dreidel.com, one of the world's best sources of Judaic novelty fabric.

So I added the 7" x 7" squares in descending value order, to the left of the bars. I fused the turkey to the topmost fabric (which is a subtle white-dreidels-on-white fabric - if you examine the first picture in this post you might be able to detect the design). 

I looked at what I'd stitched for a while, and then I had a hunch. Count the strips, the voice of serendipity whispered. Could it be? Yes it was! NINE strips! NINE!!!

Why the excitement? Nine of ANYTHING makes a menorah! That inspired me to add the yellow stripe, in gradations, moving to the darkest and richest color at the top. 

The yellow rectangles are candle flames! See, if you hang this thing sideways, it's a menorah! 

OMG! I'm going to play with that idea. I expect to get rich on it. (You're free to adapt the idea, of course.)

I cut 3 1/2" off the right edge, and brought it over to the left edge, hanging it from light to dark. So here's the finished product: 

I did a pillowcase finish, no batting - I'm thinking it's a tablecloth or a banner, but not a quilt.  

One more detail: I love this candle-box fabric. 

I put an all-Jewish holiday fabric on the back, so it can be used for other occasions.

Here's a closeup of the back. This is one of the best Judaic fabrics ever made! 

Underneath the turkey, I'm going to stencil or applique 'Thanksgivukkah 2013'.

Wishing you and your family a happy, healthy, holiday season!

* I've been informed that Thanksgivukkah should have two "v"s and one "k". I did the opposite in the headline, but have corrected it throughout the article. (I can't change the headline for a while, or it will mess up people trying to find this page!)

Interactive Crocheted Turkey Menorah for Thanksgivukkah!

Is it a bird? Sort of. Is it a peacock? Almost.

But wait, of course! It's an Thanksgivukkah menorah!

Are you looking at me quizzically? Or are you nodding knowingly? Sometimes it's hard to tell.

If you've chatted with Jewish people lately, are one yourself, or you watch Colbert, you may be aware that Thanksgiving this year falls on the first day (second night) of Hanukkah, causing a clever person to dub it 'Thanksgivukkah.'

Alternatively, one of my favorite machine embroiderers, Sue Warshell of Stitches by Sue, is calling it Thanukah, which is definitely less of a mouthful for a holiday that's all about eating. (What about Hanugiving? Or Thank-u-kkah?)

Whatever you call it, the calendrical coincidence only happens once every 77,000 years (if ever), so it is a sort of a big deal. Happily, it has generated waves of creativity, not just linguistically, but also with fusion foods (pumpkin challah! pumpkin kugel!), crafts, decor, (many at Buzzfeed), and even fine art.

There are also amalgamations of the respective holidays' major symbols, turkeys and menorahs. For example, there is the menurkey, designed by a 9-year-old and funded on Kickstarter; a turkorah, by a wood artist; and a nameless candelabra made by arranging a flock of identical ceramic turkii (back at that Buzzfeed page), which could perhaps be dubbed a Turk-o-flock-o-Hanukkah-thanks.

I've been pondering this unique holiday in the midst of my personal crocheting jag. So, the other night, I was moved to make the following thing, complete with removable Pilgrim/Hasid hat and "lightable" tail candles.

Before lighting:

I suggest permanently lighting the middle candle, the shammes. Then, to light the nightly candles, while sitting at the festive table, simply pull out your handy Hanukah crochet hook (also good for spearing latkes) and hook a picot in yellow yarn. Here's the shammes and the first night only lit up (far lower right):

 The third night:

 The fourth:

 The sixth:

The final night:

Note the blue star on the removable Pilgrim hat/yarmulke (Pilgrims: Lost tribe?) It also has a tiny ball of yellow yarn as a fashion accessory.

For my second Thanksgivvukah menorah, I stitched a pocket on the back of the tail, to hold the beginning and ending yarn balls, as you chain stitch through the holiday (and for storage).

When the holiday's over, simply pull out all stitches, roll the yarn back into a ball, and put it in the the pocket, and bury it in a platinum time capsule until the year 79,811.

How did I make it? I can't give you an exact pattern, but I can give you a somewhat detailed strategy. Download the free 4-page sheet here.

To work with my strategy, you must understand working in rounds in crochet, and know how to increase and decrease. If you are experienced at crochet, especially amigurumi, this pattern will be a breeze. (My favorite amigurumi learning and pattern site is www.planetjune.com.)

Since I did this project this rather quickly, it has NOT been tested. That's why the strategy sheet is free! If you give it a shot, I would welcome comment and suggestions, and maybe a picture or two wouldn't hurt, to cathy (dot) perlmutter (at) gmail (dot) com.

So Happy Thanksgivukkah, or whatever you call it! And don't forget to cook a turdonut! (I just made that up. It's sufganyot/jelly donut stuffing for the turkey! The jelly inside the donuts inside the turkey makes it a triple cardiac threat, just like a turducken!)

I'll try to stop now. 

UPDATE: I can't stop. Pumpkin Latkes = Plotzkes.

UPDATE: Many more mashups are here. 

UPDATE: The holiday is also a social justice opportunity: http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/eight-giving-rituals-for-your-family-making-the-most-of-thanksgivukkah/

UPDATE: Not all Thanksgivvukah things are kitschy! Extraordinary artist/illustrator Flora Rosefsky has made four gorgeous art prints to celebrate the festive table (the last four prints on this page.) Use the contact form to purchase inexpensive 8" x 10" or 11" x 14" prints. 

UPDATE: 11-16-13 A sequel to the Turkey Menorah saga is here.