Leo

This is another one of those patterns that's a little deceiving.  It is SUPER unappealing on paper.  I wanted to do a lion, the Alpha Delta Pi mascot, for Kelly's ornament this year.  Every time I went to cut out a new ornament, I'd look at this pattern and think, "Yuck.  I'll design something better than that."  Push came to shove time-wise and there just wasn't time to design something from scratch.  I decided to do my best to make this one look presentable.  

Here's the picture from the original pattern:

See what I mean?  Snoozefest.  The more I looked at it, the more I realized that what was bugging me was that the mane and body were one piece.  That just didn't even make sense to me.  I figured if I could make them separate pieces, that would probably help in terms of color.  Here is the Alpha Delta Pi lion logo:

I looked at several images and they were all the same: two-tone lions in light blue and a darker blue.  Easy peasy.  A simple drawn line, an additional piece and abra cadabra:

Doesn't he look great?  And don't let that stitching scare you away.  I was too lazy to walk downstairs to get embroidery floss, so that's just two strands of plain old thread.  He went together pretty quickly, so if you're in a pinch, stitch up this one!  I can't wait to give him to Kelly . . . she'll love him!

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!