Storybook Mouse

Ouida was showing me one of the original Carolyn DeAngelis catalogs and we noticed there was a picture of a pattern we didn't have called Amanda:

I figured that would be easy enough to draw a pattern from, so I saved the image.  When it came time for my mom's annual mouse ornament, I remembered this drawing and knew it would be very easy to just stick a mouse head and tail on it.  It was!

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.  

Richmond

I make mice ornaments each year for Allyson and my mom.  I don't always do it this way, but this year I did a double.  Here's the thing about doing doubles . . . . it seems like such a good idea in terms of efficiency.  If you have a short attention span like me, though, this gets maddening quick.  The cutting-out phase goes well.  That's my least favorite part of the process and doing two at the same time always makes me feel like I've really accomplished something.  (It doesn't take much.)  Then I start stitching them side-by-side.  Head on this one . . . head on that one . . . ears on this one . . . ears on that one . . . you get the picture.  About halfway through, I get impatient and completely finish one and then go back and completely finish the other one.  Every time.  I'm nothing if not predictable.

This was another one of Carolyn DeAngelis' bear patterns that I put a mouse head on.  It turned out really cute.  I gave my mother hers at Thanksgiving and she loved it!

 

Beary Christmas Special . . . With a Twist

As you know, I make a different mouse for my mom every year.  I did this year what I did last year: modified a bear pattern.  This is actually one of the Beary Christmas Special patterns.  I borrowed a mouse head and tail from one of the mice patterns and it worked great!  The candy cane is super cute and this one looks great on the tree. 

Here is a REALLY lousy shot of my mom's Christmas tree with all her mouse ornaments.  She sent this photo in an email in such a way that I could not figure out how to download it or save it.  I finally gave up and just took a picture of my computer screen!

Frizbee

Since it's August and I have completed a whole TWO ornaments this year, I finally decided it was time to get down to serious business.  And by serious business, I mean it's time to see what patterns I can whip up the quickest for the people I make ornaments for every year.  First up:  my friend Rachel's three kids.  Angels for Audrey, mice for Allyson, and boys for Reid.  Nothing in the mouse department grabbed me right away when I looked through my patterns, so I defaulted to plan B:  look through the bear patterns.  Frizbee looked like a likely candidate!

I'll be the first to admit that this isn't the most exciting ornament I've ever made.  Sometimes the pattern looks a little boring, but the finished product surprises you.  No big surprises here!  But it was quick and that just had to be my focus for this year.  I added the little bow because it was pretty plain and I thought that might help a little.  I also used white glitter felt for the sheet, though you can't tell from my less-than-stellar photo.  If you need to whip one up quickly, give this pattern a try!

Winzit

Time for Allyson's mouse!  Between Allyson and my mom, I feel like I've already made a lot of the mouse patterns.  This is a total exaggeration, though, because, in reality, I've only made half of them.  But some of them just don't appeal to me at all.  Mouse sleeping under a mushroom -- no.  Mouse with a mushroom house -- no.  Pretty much anything involving a mushroom is on my "do not stitch" list.  I decided to do the Winzit pattern, but that stocking is just completely uninspired.  BORING!

I had some ornaments saved on Pinterest and one was a cute elf stocking.  I went looking for directions and a pattern for it and step one went something like this:  "Draw a stocking shape that you like."  No can do!  I Googled "elf stocking" and found something I liked.  I got it to a similar size as the one of the pattern and used it instead.  It's still a pretty basic design, though, and not too exciting.  Then I remembered the cool polka dot felt Ouida sent me and it was perfect for this project!  Very simple, very quick, and very cute!

Now that I think about it . . . I don't know why a mouse is sleeping next to an elf stocking.  Do you???

Berry X-mas Special with Tree

Spring has finally sprung in northeast Ohio!  We are knee-deep in weeds, mulch, and pool chemicals.  We have our first weenie roast of the season scheduled in just a few weeks.  We are ready for summer!

I wanted to do my mother's mouse ornament, but just wasn't feeling it the day I looked through my patterns.  I had joked with Ouida that when I ran out of mouse patterns, I was going to move on to the bear patterns and just replace their heads.  Annnnd . . . that's what I did.  According to Carolyn DeAngelis, this is actually the "Beary X-mas Special Bear with X-mas Tree."  I don't know what to call it now.  "Beary X-mas Special Bear with X-mas Tree and Mouse Head from Claude Pattern" really doesn't have much of a ring to it.  Here's the Claude ornament I made her a few years ago:

It was pretty easy to swipe his head and put it on the bear pattern, which gave me this:

And now I'm looking at these pictures and seeing the obvious omission that I hadn't noticed until this very second:  THIS MOUSE HAS NO TAIL!    I have no words for the shame.  Despite the number of pieces, this one really didn't take terribly long.  I used sequins and beads for the Christmas tree.  Get out your magnifying glass for that teddy bear, because that arm and ear are tiny!

I did want to take a moment to talk about hanger placement.  Sometimes, a finished ornament is very symmetrical and it's obvious where to tack the hanger to the back so it hangs straight.  Then you have ones like this.  When I get an ornament finished, I always stick a straight pin through where I think the center is like this:

Then I hold the pin between my thumb and middle finger and let it hang loose:

That'll show me how it would hang if I tacked the hanger there.  In this case, we're leaning a little to the right.  Move the pin and try again:

Now we're too far to the left.  One more try:

JUST RIGHT!

When you look through your patterns, don't forget to imagine what they'd look like with a different head.  It's easy to switch genders, turn bears into mice, people into animals, etc.  This really opens up a lot of possibilities for stretching your pattern collection and making more personalized ornaments for your friends and family!

Hickory

Here's my 2014 mouse for my mom's collection.  I used small sequins for the hours on the clock and a large sequin in the middle.  I'll say one thing for this ornament:  IT'S BIG!

Snoozer

Welcome to 2014!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas . . . and if you made ornaments for gifts, I hope they were as well received as mine were!  Luke loved his drummer, Alex said Grumpy Cat was his favorite ornament yet, Mariah was excited with her penguin.  

Funny story . . . you probably remember earlier when I had made two of the Touchdown Tommy patterns in Ohio State colors.  One was for a family who are friends of ours, and the other was specifically for just the husband half of our best friends.  Well . . . Mr. Husband decided to abruptly leave his wife (after 35 years) in June.  (It's a long story that you really don't want to hear on a felt ornament blog!)  When it got to Christmas time and I started unpacking my completed ornaments and get them wrapped, there was OSU Tommy.  I looked at him and actually said aloud, "Oh -- there is NO WAY I'm giving you to him!"  Our church has a bazaar each Christmas for a cancer compassion fund and I put the ornament for sale there.  They thought I was nuts when I told them to put $15 on him, but I explained that he was completely hand-stitched and represented hours of my life.  He sold right away to a family from our church whose three children went to OSU.

Now it's on to 2014!  I always start with the ornaments I know for sure I'm going to make:  Audrey's angel and mice for Allyson and my mom.  Allyson was the first one up.  She's getting Snoozer this year.

He was relative quick and easy.  You can't see them too well, but I added some 1/8" hole-punched felt buttons on his tummy.  The trickiest part of this one was getting the hanging loop placed so he'd hang straight!

Ornaments from Susan and Kathy

I've said before that one of my favorite things is when blog readers get the patterns, make some ornaments, and then share their photos!  Kathy has been a faithful stitcher -- AND sharer.  Her work is just beautiful.  She handed her book of patterns to her husband and told him to pick one and he chose Cheezy Claus.  Isn't he adorable??

I had posted some of Susan's ornaments in a previous post. She emailed me again later to tell me that she shared the patterns with her aunt, who got right to work!  Here are some of her ornaments that Susan shared.

Cupcakes

(I'm not sure if this is a Carolyn DeAngelis pattern or not.  They sure are cute!)

Galloping Tortoise

Humphrey Dumphrey III

Snug Bug

Calico Hospitality

Thank you so much, Kathy and Susan, for sharing your work!  I haven't stitched ANY of these particular patterns before and it's always so nice to see a new one finished.

Ornaments from Others

I love, love, LOVE when blog readers get the patterns, make ornaments, and then send me pictures of them!  In the past couple of weeks, there have been about 6 people who have contacted me about patterns.  I can't WAIT to see what they do with them.  Sometimes, they tell me they have Carolyn DeAngelis ornaments from their childhood.  If YOU do . . . please remember to take pictures of them when you decorate your tree this year!

Ouida sent me pictures of two of her latest.  This is Goldilocks and B.B. Bear.

Kathy has been stitching like crazy this year and her ornaments are bee-yoo-tee-ful!!!  Here's her African Rubber Neck.

The mice are some of my favorites.  Here's Claude.

This is Claudette.

 Meet Missus Mouse!

Kathy and I realized that we stitched our Percivals at exactly the same time!

Don't forget to send me pictures of YOUR finished ornaments!!  It's always fun to see the spin each individual stitcher puts on a pattern.  Sometimes I don't even find the paper pattern appealing and then I see someone else's completed piece and I LOVE it and want to stitch it myself.  Clif about killed me when he first sent me pictures of all his ornaments.  I immediately fell in love with several of his and made them shortly thereafter.  He made my ornament to-do list muuuuch longer!

Claudette

This is the 2013 ornament for Allyson, my friend's little girl.  The pattern showed the mouse holding a hot water bottle.  LOL!  Does anyone even use those anymore?  I opted for a pipe cleaner candy cane instead.

Roquefort

Each year, I do a mouse for my mother.  This is the 2013 addition to her collection.  I think the mice are my favorite of Carolyn's ornaments.  This little guy is REALLY cute with his paper clip ice skates.  I think my mom will love him!

New Ornament Friends

I am so very excited that not one, but FOUR, Carolyn DeAngelis fans have found this blog and contacted me in the past month!  I wonder what the explanation for THAT happy coincidence is???  Whatever the reason, I'm so excited that our little community has expanded . . . okay, TRIPLED!

Kathy, a new friend who is, ironically, located not all that far from me has some CDA ornaments that her aunt made for her family when she was young.  She would like to start making them herself, so she did a little searching and found the blog.  She was gracious enough to share photos of her aunt's ornaments and I thank her for allowing me to share them here so we can all enjoy them!

Al Pine

Angelica

Carol Singer

Anyone know the name of this one?  I don't have him in my pattern collection!

Claude

Elf Himself the XII

Gogassett

Hop A Bit

Karl Singer

Lollipop Linda

Mom Hopper

Octavius

Sandy

Smart Cookie

Snow Bird

Snug Bug

Sunbonnet Sally

Tootsie

 Traffic Stopper