Bobby

In all my perusing of circus clipart, I saw a bear standing on top of a ball.  "That looks easy enough," I thought.  I went to my Carolyn Deangelis bear patterns to see if I had a bear the right shape that I could adapt and, lo and behold, there was Bobby riding a unicycle!  It was like Carolyn had designed the circus herself!!

Panda

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I make each of my nephews an ornament each year.  My oldest nephew is graduating high school in May, so that means I'll be making another blasted Graduate ornament this year.  Another one that turns out great, but makes me hate it through the entire stitching process!  I was sort of stumped as to what ornament I'd make for him this past Christmas.

Then I recalled his love of pandas when he was little.  So deep was his love that he once wanted to be a panda vet when he grew up.  Not just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill vet -- a PANDA vet!  This fact is at the root of the great panda/pop-tart incident.  My brother-in-law does not allow food in his car.  Ever.  When Alex was in grade school, he fooled around one morning and didn't get breakfast before it was time to leave for school.  He begged to eat a pop-tart in the car and his father wouldn't let him and was hoping to teach him a lesson about procrastination and parents meaning what they say.  Alex had a flair for the dramatic and pitched quite the fit.  "If I don't eat breakfast, then I won't be able to concentrate!  If I can't concentrate, then I won't do well on my test!  Then that will wreck my GPA!  AND IT WILL DESTROY MY DREAM OF BECOMING A PANDA VET!!!!!"  

Sigh.  Good times.  

I'm not a huge fan of Carolyn DeAngelis' original panda pattern, so I decided to make some modifications to her Christmas bear pattern:

I liked the general shape of the body and the changes to the face seemed easy enough.  I had seen another panda ornament on the web that was clutching a bamboo stalk, so I sort of made something up.  I just rolled up a piece of felt and tied it with thread.  I cut some small leaves and glued those on.  It turned out well and Alex enjoyed the stroll down memory lane!

Marching Band Bear Drum Major

This is my final member of Kelly's marching band.  (sniffle, sniffle)  She was a sweet little five year-old when I met her and she'll graduate next year.  Seems hard to believe!  But next year, I'll be thinking of new ornaments to make her!  A college mascot, perhaps??

Marching Band Bear #3

I said it was my turn to get an ornament, but we were ready to start a movie and I didn't have one cut out. I cut out all four of these when I started them two years ago so I could make sure all the colors matched. For convenience, I decided to go ahead and do this one.

Here's Bear #1

Here's Bear #2

So here is Kelly's third member of her personal marching band. His hat is missing its pom pom because those are at home in Ohio. I accidentally got my drum mallet a little long -- OOPS!




I've known Kelly since she was in kindergarten and I can't believe I've just completed the ornament for her junior year. Only one more to go!

Marching Band Bear #2

Kelly is now a sophomore, so this is bear #2 to add to her marching band. She's still honking away on her clarinet and is still loving band! Nothing exotic here. Stuck straight to the pattern.

Marching Band Bear

Our friends' daughter, Kelly is starting high school this year and is in marching band. We decided to do a 4-piece band for her, adding one member each year. There are only 3 DeAngelis patterns, so I had to get creative since Kelly plays a clarinet. I made mine from felt with silver sequins on it. You could also paint a wooden golf tee black and put silver dots on it. It's the perfect size.

Some of Ouida's Ornaments

Ouida sent me pictures of only some of her felt ornaments. These are ones she did just recently.

The 3 Little Pigs:

She used a pipecleaner for the broom handle and a real ribbon for the bow tie on the pig on the left. The middle pig has a felt hoe handle that's stuffed with a pipe cleaner. The pig on the right has real buttons on his vest and a pompom on his hat. She stitched all the tails and stuffed them with pipe cleaners so they'd be 3D. Ouida uses real pipecleaners made for pipes, and not craft store pipecleaners. The real ones aren't as fuzzy and the wire is stiffer. Gotta get some of those!



Bearry Special Christmas:

Again, this one has a real ribbon bow at the neck.

Mother Goose:

Those look like pipecleaner legs to me . . . . but knowing Ouida, they're probably stitched from felt and stuffed with a pipecleaner!