Hitch Hiker

This is part of my mouse collection that I do for my mom each year. I liked that mouse on the moon that I did for Allyson so much that I decided to do this one. You might think that it's laborious because the pieces are so tiny. It's really not. Both of these little mouse ornaments went together very quickly. It's true -- that little hand and tail are no picnic, but the pieces are so tiny that they don't take long to stitch. I don't even bother trying to stuff that mouse tail. I either use a piece of craft wire, or I trim all the fuzziness off a pipe cleaner and use that.

(Incidentally . . . take the time to go to the tobacco shop to get real pipe cleaners. The wire is stiffer and they're not nearly as fuzzy.)

There's more glue holding this one together than anything else I've done. I couldn't figure out how to engineer it otherwise. Glue or not . . . look how cute he is!



And now that he's done, you know what that means: ONE FOR ME!

Knut the Viking

Okay . . . . Carolyn DeAngelis didn't name her viking Knut. She named him Vic. But I strayed so liberally from her pattern that I felt dishonest calling him Vic. He looks like a Knut to me. Knut it is.

I liked the idea of her viking pattern. I liked the laces on the legs and the horns on the hat. He just looked too childish to me. And short. I wanted my viking to be a little more menacing. I Googled "viking cartoons" and found this image:

This gave me plenty of inspiration. I gravitated to the one on the bottom right. I liked the addition of the trim to the helmet and I liked the crisscross on the chest and the little skirt thing. Carolyn's pattern just had a shield. While that's a great defense, I felt like Knut was the kind of viking who would like to engage in a little marauding, so I wanted him to have a weapon. I liked the spears that these little guys were holding, so I went with that. I really liked the idea of a beard, but I just felt there wasn't room. A bear would've covered up the chest detailing and gotten in the way of the shield. I went with a big mustache instead.

I also had this really cool new felt that I got at JoAnn Fabrics and I was dying to use it:





Some of it is printed and some is embossed. I think the gray will make a really cool elephant and the zebra . . . . . well, duh! A zebra, of course! The black and brown were a relatively small emboss and looked like animal hide. Perfect for Knut's clothes.

While we're talking about felt, look what my husband got me for Christmas:




That's a 72-sheet sampler and every sheet is a different color. The blues and greens are particularly fantastic.

But I digress. I know your curiosity is killing you, so without further ado . . . . meet Knut!



The silver on the helmet, shield, and spear is the same fabric I used for the Wizard of Oz tin man that I made last year. It's not as thick and stiff as vinyl, but more plastic-like than regular fabric. It's perfect for ornaments. It's hard to see in the photo, but there are brown crisscross lace things on his legs. You can see them really well in person. I love him -- he's one of my favorites!

Lucky Larry & Blushing Belinda . . . . Sort Of

Well, these will go down as two of my favorites ever. Our good friends, Dave and Naomi, were married in June in a fabulous barn wedding. You've met Dave & Naomi before . . . . but you know them as the Nurse and the Ninja. They're big ornament fans. In fact, my ornaments made an appearance at the wedding on the cupcake table in lieu of cake toppers.



I knew I wanted to make them a set of ornaments to commemorate their special day. I used Carolyn DeAngelis' bride & groom patterns as a starting point and then worked with actual pictures of the wedding.

Here's Dave.


Here's Dave's boutonniere.


Here's Naomi with her dress and flowers.


And here is my tribute to them in felt.


Naomi's dress isn't too exciting on the front of the ornament.
I put her detail on the back. Here is the back of her wedding dress.


And here is the back of the ornament. I don't know how well you can see it, but I made the corset-type lacing out of white embroidery floss.

I hope they like them as much as I enjoyed making them!

Foxy

I was picking out new ornaments to make while I spend 6 weeks in Florida. I first picked out all the ones I need to make for the people I make an ornament for every year. Next, I chose ones I wanted to make for myself. I decided on a one-for-them, one-for-me routine. I've already completed a one-for-them, but I'm not posting it until I complete its partner.

The first one-for-me is this guy. I have no real reason for wanting to make this particular ornament, other than I could just tell from the pattern that he'd be really cute. He didn't disappoint!



I can't wait to see his bright red coat on my Christmas tree next year!