The Fox Tree Project

For years and years, I've been collecting fox Christmas ornaments, but my collection grew very slowly because they were so hard to find. In the last couple of years, foxes have become "trendy" and my collection has grown more in that time than in all the years I've been collecting them. After last Christmas, I decided I finally had enough fox ornaments for them to have their own tree, so I hit the after-Christmas clearance at Hobby Lobby and got a 6' tree for $25. 

I've also been slowly collecting ornament-sized fox cross stitch kits and freebies, and also a few free felt patterns. My project for this year (yes, another one) is to get all of these little fox ornaments made to add to my bought ornaments for my fox tree. I think a mix of store-bought and handmade foxes is going to look charming!

Here's my first ornament finish, a pretty loose interpretation of Country Cottage Needleworks' Snowy Foxes.

Mine is stitched on 32 ct. Wichelt linen, and I obviously whacked off half of the design! I wanted the focus to be on the foxes so I just made a skinny version! The trees are Caron Wildflowers Evergreen, and the foxes are Crescent Colors Colonial Copper (my favorite fox color). I left off a couple of stitches on the sides of the faces, and also left off the whiskers. I changed the color of the legs and tree trunks from DMC 869 to DMC 898. 

These are the kits I'll be working through, in addition to some felt and cross stitch freebies. I'm always on the look-out for more, as they're not exactly easy to find.

I'm looking forward to "Christmas-ing" these... just doing whatever I want with them to make them fun and Christmas-y. 

Happy Stitching!