Lilo and Stitch

As I said earlier, Penny gets a Disney Princess and her sister, June, is getting princess sidekicks.  For June's first Christmas, they got Elsa and Olaf.  This year, they're getting Lilo and Stitch.  I used Carolyn Deangelis' pattern for Leiloni, the Hawaiian girl, and I added some details to make her look more like Lilo.  I've done Leiloni before: 

This is an example of the head being attached to the body in one piece.  Not my favorite look.  There's no chin and she just winds up looking like she's eaten too much Spam. I Googled for images of Lilo and decided this was the direction I wanted to go:

And here's my final product:

I just freehand cut all those little green leaves and individually glued them on.  I know -- the horror.  But they were just too tiny.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  Next, it was on to Stitch.  I simply Googled him and found tons of images.  I looked for the one that was the simplest and would lend itself well to an ornament.  Here is my final product:

And here's a little lesson on perspective and sizing.  If these two ornaments were going to stay together forever, I would've made Stitch substantially smaller than Lilo, like he is in the movie.  But when Penny and June grow up, their ornaments will be on separate trees and I didn't want June to be stuck with a bunch of tiny ornaments.  For that reason, I am making all her ornaments full-size.  Here's what they look like together:

 

Dutch Couple

I haven't done any international people in a while and I decided I wanted to add to that collection.  I like the idea of little groupings within my collection.  I'll make it easier for my kids to divide up the ornaments when I die.  "You get the international people and I get the Peanuts characters."  LOL!

So far, this is what my group includes:

 

Most of those are DeAngelis Patterns -- all except the Thai people and I did them myself.  And once again, I didn't put noses on some of these and I don't know why.  It makes the Thai people look like aliens.  My stitching details have evolved over time.  Anyhoo . . . I was perusing patterns one day looking for something simple and decided to whip up the Dutch Couple:  Dutch Uncle and Della From Delft.  Once again, I drew inspiration from Clif and Ouida.

Clif's Pair

Ouida's Della

You can see that Ouida used the original hair pattern, while I went with an actual braid like I used on the Anna and Elsa Frozen ornaments.  I did a little little Googling and decided to add a white shirt to my Dutch Uncle.  I kinda like Clif's hat with the brim.  Different stitchers add their own unique details!  

Sparkle Angel

I make an angel every year for Audrey.  I've about run through all the DeAngelis angels.  (All the ones I like, anyway.)  I knew I was going to have to design something.  In the meantime, I ordered some new felt from National Nonwovens and they had some new glitter felt.  It's kind of interesting.  The dots are random sizes and sort of scattered irregularly.  I had red, white, and green and I thought it would be perfect for a Christmas angel.  I headed over to Etsy and bought a piece of clipart.  Etsy is my go-to place for clipart because I can't draw.  I thought this was perfect for what I wanted:

I think the sparkles on her dress made me think of the glitter on my felt.  I made a change to the hair for engineering purposes.   I think she turned out great!

DISCLAIMERS:

In case anyone happens by and thinks I've stolen someone else's work or thinks I'm profiting from it:

• I purchased the clip-art.  I did not do a "right click/save as."
• I am not selling a pattern made from this clip-art.  I'm not even giving away a pattern made from this clip-art.  
• I am not selling ornaments made from this clip-art.  

Birthday Party Cake and Moonbeam

A treasured friend of mine has a daughter turning one next week.  Lorraine really treasures the handmade gifts I've made Millie -- like a whole wardrobe of baby doll clothes -- and she has always loved my ornaments.  Two Christmases ago, when Lorraine announced she was having a girl, I made her the Blessed Event ornament:

To be fair, this isn't actually the one I made for Millie.  I had to wait until they arrived with a gender reveal gift and then I quickly wrapped the felt baby in a pink blanket and glued it together right there in front of them . . . aaaaaand forgot to take a picture.  Suffice it to say it looks just like this one but with a pink blanket.  

This past Christmas, I made this ornament for Millie:

In case that looks a little familiar, here's why:

It's actually the Moonbeam mouse ornament.  There's so much you can do with mixing and matching pieces parts of existing patterns.  

For Millie's first birthday, I made her a toddler quilt:

And I also made her this ornament.  It's the Birthday Party Cake pattern.  Just perfect for a 1st birthday gift!  I plan to tie it to the bow on the quilt package.  

And here is sweet Millie with my husband, Scott.  Her party is this Sunday and it's a fiesta theme.  Millie is turning UNO!  Because babies and tacos . . . it's a thing.  

Good Cheers

I do a mouse every year for my mom and I've about run through them all.  And then I started converting bear patterns to mice patterns simply by changing the head.  I Googled, "Christmas mouse" and found an image of a caroling mouse in a top hat.  That immediately made me think of the Carolyn DeAngelis pattern called Good Cheers:

All I had to do was change the head and add some ears and I was in business!  The shape of my house head was actually round like the original pattern.  Something about attaching that hat pulls the sides in right there where they come together.  I'll have to monkey around with that on future patterns.  I know my mom will love him.  

Lucy

I don't know what it is about these Peanuts patterns, but they seem to be kicking my butt.  First, there was the Charlie Brown fiasco where my facial features turned out so bad, I had to take the whole head off and redo it:

Yikes.  I still cringe when I look at that first one.  Snoopy and Woodstock turned out great.  But then I had an issue with Lucy's skirt.  Here was the first round.  

Seriously -- what is wrong with me?  And it looked even worse from the back.  She looked like she was in a gang with her pants sagging.  I wound up taking the whole skirt off and then I had to glue it back on.  GLUE!!!  Oh, the shame.  I can live with it, though, because she looks so much better:

Here's a side-by-side comparison:

Much better!  We'll see if it can get it in gear when I do the rest of the characters in this series.

PLEASE NOTE:  I have never personally communicated with the pattern designer other than to order the pattern.  I didn't receive a free pattern for this post and I'm sure she doesn't even know this blog exists.  I just saw these photos on Pinterest and followed the link.  

Elsa and Frozen

Back in 2015, I started a set of Frozen characters.  I did Anna and Olaf:

Can someone explain why I didn't put a nose on Anna????  I'm gonna have to fix that.  I meant to get to Elsa in 2016, but somehow that didn't happen.  I make a Disney princess each year for my friend's little girl, Penny.  Penny had a baby sister last October and I asked Naomi, their mom, what she'd like me to make for June each year.  She thought princess sidekicks would be good.  That took me back to Elsa.  I made an Olaf for June and then I finally designed an Elsa for Penny and actually made two so Mariah would have one for her set.  I think next year, I'll make Anna for Penny and then get around to designing that pesky reindeer.  What's his name?  Sven?  Something like that.

Since I sort of cobbled this one together from several different patterns, I'm happy to share it with you:  

Betsy Bubbles

My daughter is really into anything spa-related.  If anyone needs a bath bomb -- or six -- I feel sure we can hook you up.  I had seen both Clif and Ouida's version of the Betsy Bubbles ornament and always liked it:

Clif's ornament

Ouida's ornament

I asked Mariah for her color choices.  They weren't exactly what I would've picked, but she was VERY specific.  

It's always cool to see how different the ornaments look depending on who stitches them.  You can tell we all used the same pattern, but each one is unique.  

Father Christmas

My oldest nephew, Alex, is twenty and he's kind of at a stage in life where there aren't any specific ornaments that relate to where he is right now.  I've already done one of his college mascot and made Pierre to represent his study abroad trip to France.  He's not an athlete and doesn't really have any hobbies because all he does is study.  I decided to go a little generic and just do a Christmas-related ornament.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to do one I haven't made before, so I settled on Father Christmas.  This went together relatively quickly and I think he looks great.  I'll definitely be making this one again!

Penny

I made this ornament years and years ago -- before I started taking pictures of my completed projects.  It is supposed to be a girl with hair like this:

Both times I've made it, though, I've made it for a boy.  I just took the decoration off the hat cuff and rounded out the hair so it doesn't have that feminine flip.  There are so many ways to tweak these patterns to suit your needs.  It looks just great for Reid's collection of miscellaneous boys!  

Clif has also done this ornament and here is his version:

See how a little detail like making the sleeve a different color than the shirt makes a big difference?

Ornament Photos From Susan

There is nothing more exciting than getting an email like this:

Hi Amy!

I’m amazed and delighted that I’ve found your blog. I’ve been looking for these patterns on and off for years - years! - for my mom. And for me too, come to think of it!

My mom has a couple dozen of these ornaments, and she has always hoped to find the patterns.  She bought the ornaments ages ago, maybe in the eighties. Maybe even a little earlier. The woman who made them sold them for pin money. My mom has been looking for a book of the patterns for such a long time. However, we never knew the brand name or the designer who made them. I can’t believe I have found you. 

Please help! I would love to get a set of the patterns for my mom and me to share. I’ll be very excited to hear back from you. 

Sincerely,

Susan

I just love thinking about those folks out there who had DeAngelis ornaments on their trees growing up and who still treasure them.  Nothing makes me happier than when someone reaches out because they'd like to continue the tradition for their own kids.  I'm so happy to be able to share patterns with people.  

I've tried -- with zero luck -- to track down members of Carolyn DeAngelis' family.  Don't you think they would love to know that so many of us treasure the legacy left by their mother/grandmother?  I know I would.  And I wonder what THEIR ornament collections look like!  

Susan was kind enough to share some photos of the DeAngelis ornaments she grew up with.  

These photos are a good reminder of just how many DeAngelis patterns there are.  I've made literally HUNDREDS of her ornaments, but I've made very few of the ones Susan shared.  She also shared this story and photo, which I love:

My mom Judy made these little ghosts for her granddaughter Lexy. The ornaments are the very likeness of Lexy’s childhood security plush stuffed ghost. When Lexy first saw them on the Christmas tree, Ghostie in her arms, she was dazzled. Little Ghosties all over the tree! They are a spectacular small version of Lexy’s ghost, down the patch that repaired his worn neck long ago. 

Susan  

Thanks so much to Susan for reaching out and sharing her stories and ornaments.  Please remember to share photos with me of the ornaments YOU make!  

Woodstock

This is another one from the Peanuts series I purchased from Etsy.  This one is quite small.  I want to hang them all together on the tree and I didn't want Woodstock to be as big as the people, so I sized this one down.  He's a little unremarkable on his own, but he looks great hanging with Charlie Brown and Snoopy!

PLEASE NOTE:  I have never personally communicated with the pattern designer other than to order the pattern.  I didn't receive a free pattern for this post and I'm sure she doesn't even know this blog exists.  I just saw these photos on Pinterest and followed the link. 

Charlie Brown -- Part Two

If you remember, I told you about this great set of patterns for Peanuts characters I got from Etsy.  Click here for that post.  You might also remember that my Charlie Brown had some issues. 

Yikes.  I still cringe when I look at it.  His face is just all wrong.  I tried to convince myself that it wasn't a big deal, but I couldn't stand it.  I wound up taking the entire head off and trying again.  Much better results this round:

This just goes to show you:  proportion and placement are everything!  I still think there's too much leg showing, but I think I'll just have to deal with that.  Or maybe I'll fix that this year. 

Violet and Joey

I wanted to do ornaments of both our pets, so I scrounged around on the internet looking at various free images and just sort of cobbled something together.  

Violet is our rescue pug who just generally sits around the house with her tongue hanging out, looking extra smart.   

Joey is a stray that our kids pulled out of a local creek.  We're suckers.  But he's a pretty good cat.  

Last fall, we quite literally inherited another dog from a relative who passed away, so look for a new dog ornament some time this year.  And if Joey has his way, we'll be adding another cat.  He has a friend who comes around regularly to play.  We felt sorry for him, so we put out some food.  Then Mariah named him Whoopie.  It's only a matter of time.  But don't tell Scott I said that!