Percival

I don't want to over-share personal information when you're really here to read about felt ornaments!  Suffice it to say that my husband and I are in the process of adopting a 12 year-old girl from foster care and she's a big fan of penguins.  I have ridiculously high reasonable expectations about her level of excitement for all things Christmas -- particularly ornaments.  It seemed obvious to a) start her a collection of felt ornaments and b) make her first one a penguin.  Percival it is!

Definitely not the most exciting of the Carolyn DeAngelis patterns, but still pretty darn cute!  I think Mariah will like him . . . . especially the earmuffs, done in her favorite shade of turquoise.

Grumpy Cat

My oldest nephew is a big fan of Grumpy Cat.  For those of you unfamiliar with him, Grumpy Cat is a real pet with a perpetual frown who frequently appears in online memes:

Alex is a fan of cats in general, but Grumpy Cat really appeals to him and he's pretty stoked that there's going to be a full-length feature filmed with him.  I decided that this needed to be the subject of Alex's 2013 ornament.

You've heard me say before that I CANNOT draw.  I really can't!  I had a picture of a felt cat ornament that I snagged somewhere online.  (I have no idea where.)  I'm not super fond of any of the Carolyn DeAngelis cat patterns and since this one was pretty basic, I saved it for future inspiration.  Since it's pretty generic and since I changed the colors and, of course, the face, I hope I won't get my butt sued off if the original owner of the photo happens to see this.  (And if you are the original owner of the original cat ornament photo and you're thinking about suing me, please know that I do NOT -- under any circumstances -- ever sell my ornaments or profit off them in any way.)

At any rate, I came up with a pattern and tracked down some cat whiskers from my local craft store.  They really make him look fabulous.  So . . . . here he is . . . Grumpy Cat immortalized in felt!

Beauties from Kathy

Kathy has been a very busy stitcher!  I always get excited when she makes an ornament that I've never made before.  It's always nice to see a new pattern worked up!

This is Father Christmas and he's just beautiful.  I particularly like the deep red color Kathy used for his coat.  He's definitely going on my must-stitch list!

 

This little guy is Good Cheers.

This is Kane.  It's always cool to see one I've done before.  I like to see the personal twist each stitcher puts on the ornaments.  Here's my version of Kane.  I particularly like Kathy's candy cane.  She didn't take the cheater's way out and use pipe cleaners like I did!

There are several cute patterns for cars and I haven't done any of them.  I'm holding out for when my oldest nephew turns 16 next year.  This is Rolling Roadster and it's a really cute pattern!

Here's Kathy's version of Soldier Boy.  I like it SOOOO much better than mine!  This is a good example of how color choice can really make or break an ornament.  My neck turned out weird, too.  I'll have to put Kathy's and mine side-by-side and see what I can do differently the next time.

Thanks so much, Kathy, for taking photos of your ornaments and sharing them with the rest of us!  I hope all you other stitchers out there will do the same!