Another Hanukkah Craft

One of the things I enjoy designing and making are candle mats. Last year I created a Hanukkah themed candle mat  from wool fabric, with stenciled letters and sequins.

I tried to iron this after I sewed the sequins on. A word of advise...DON'T. Sequins and heat don't mix. I thought I was far enough away from the sequins with my iron...wrong! I had just enough sequins to complete my project and really had to scramble to find enough to repair my mistake.

Only two more weeks until Hanakkah!

A Hanukkah Pin For Cross Stitchers

The past two weeks have been a wild ride for me. After dealing with a relative's health issues and my own bad cold, I really appreciate having a couple of backup projects to share. Both projects are Hanakkah themed and were created last year before I started this blog. I'll share one of them with this post and the other at another time.

I enjoy designing various pins and when my daughter purchased a Menorah charm for me at a going-out-of-business beading store, it was the perfect embellishment to use on a pin.

This measured just under 1 square inch.

To make this pin I used a 2 inch by 3 inch piece of 18 count cross stitch fabric for a base. I stitched a very simple pattern on it to simulate a tallit and straight stitches for the wording. Blue cross thread and silver metallic thread was used.  The Menorah was attached with stitching and gold beads were stitched on to simulate candle flames. Then felt was glued on the back and the edges were finished with blanket stitch. The bottom was fringed and strands of beads were added at the bottom corners. Lastly a pin was sewn onto the back.

After I finished I realized that maybe Hanukah wasn't spelled right. What to do? I looked it up on the internet and found at least 16 or more different ways to spell it and this was included. Whew! I had visions of having to take it apart and redo it. I was glad not to have to.

Hopefully life will settle down to a roar very soon. I want to do much on this blog to make it more interesting to my viewers. Maybe more instructions, links and ideas to run with.

Hugs! Roxanne