I’m excited to share with all of you my new patterns for October. I’ll spread this out over three blog posts, but if you are both curious and impatient you can head to my Etsy store to see them all. I just love sharing back stories, when they exist, and this blog is one of the ways to do so.
First up are my two Hanukkah designs – Hanukkah Star and Menorah Duo.
Hanukkah Star
Menorah in Blackwork
Menorah in Cross Stitch
Christmas patterns are plentiful and for good reason – it is a time of year when many decorate their homes and their trees. Ornaments are a very popular finish and many are proud of their hand stitched items that come out from storage during this time of year.
As someone who grew up Jewish, I’m well aware that there aren’t that many cross stitch patterns to play with. While Hanukkah is not as big of a holiday as Christmas, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t stitchers out there looking for patterns at this time of year. So, as I did last year, I created two…well three.
Hanukkah star shows off my love of geometry in designs. A meandering path that might look like it goes around back to the beginning, but really is made up of three different paths. I stitched the model for this using DMC Etoile thread for an extra bit of sparkle.
As for Menorah Duo, it started with the idea of making a blackwork pattern of a menorah. The easiest way for me to do this was to chart out the basic outline of a cross stitch menorah and then convert those outlines into the straight stitches of blackwork. Along the way, I began thinking…”why not make two of them?” It takes into account those who love to stick with cross stitch only as well as those who like to explore and do something different. For both of these, I used the same Gentle Arts threads (Blueberry and Gold Leaf) and Mill Hill beads for the candle flames. Both patterns are packaged together as Menorah Duo.d
I finished all three of these as little pillows, as dough bowls for display are quite popular these days. But, so much can be done with smalls like this. I know there are some out there that have a Hanukkah “bush” – some sort of way to display Jewish ornaments.
However you chose to use them, I hope they bring a smile to your face!
Hanukkah Star as a paper pattern can be found here
Hanukkah Star as a pdf download can be found here
Menorah Duo as a paper pattern can be found here
Menorah Duo as a pdf download can be found here
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