Look who's back! Advent Animals! I haven't finished one of these since May. Wow. So with this finish, I'm only behind by five.
This one took me a little longer than usual because I made lots of changes, the most obvious of which is that she's not a Holstein, she's a Jersey! I love Jerseys, so I stitched her in DMC 435.
Other changes I made: larger eyes (and brown instead of blue) and smaller eyebrows, changed the shape of the nose and mouth, changed the bodice of the apron and backstitched the pocket in green instead of black, stitched the tray in pink instead of blue, backstitched the glass in grey instead of white, and stitched the cookies in 437.
I'm sooo far behind with my projects, but I finally have a little finish. With as little stitching as I've been getting done, I'm surprised I'm not further behind with this series, but I'm hanging in there. Fifteen have been released, #16 should be out next week.
Changes on this guy... I omitted the Christmas lights along the top of the birdhouse (I think those are lights) and added a few more snowflakes to fill in the space left empty by doing that. I gave him a brown eye instead of blue, backstitched his head in 321 instead of the two colors suggested, and backstitched his beak in one strand of 310 instead of two.
If you'd like to see all my other finishes in this series, along with the changes I made, just click on the Advent Animals label.
Happy Stitching!
Still waiting for a fox...
Critters 1-6:
Critters 7-12:
The whole gang (so far):
Just a few changes to this guy. I wanted a slightly different expression on the face, so I changed the eye slits and also moved the nostrils down and made them French knots instead of full cross stitches. I also changed the blue band on the top hat to grey.
Just a few changes on this one: changed the blue on her hat to pink, changed the blue knitting needle ends to pink, omitted the eyeshadow, used 815 for the backstitching on the chair instead of black, and used the lighter shade of green for the ball of yarn.
Still two behind... but only two behind! Happy Stitching!
Lots of changes to this guy! As charted, he's in the sun and sand with his sunscreen and his drink, but I wanted him to look a little more like the other animals in the set so I changed the sun sparkles to snowflakes and the sand to snow. I also substituted a candy cane for the sunscreen in the stocking, and substituted a gift for the drink. I changed the color of his sunglasses so they would stand out a bit more, and I also changed the blue on the stocking to red. Here he is!
At last! A finish! Here's Advent Animal #8, Pearly Pig. The only change I made, as with the others, was to give her brown eyes instead of blue.
If you're just joining us and don't know about these, they're free and can be found here.
Caught. Up. I'm caught up! Cookies for everyone!
Lots of changes on this little guy. I changed his eyes, eyebrows, and mouth; raised his left wing so he could hold the mistletoe (since I'm not stitching the borders on these--more on that later); fiddled with his bow tie because I had raised his wing; omitted the drinks; added a random snowflake where the mistletoe would have been. I think that's it. Here's my version:
And here are the first six all together. As cute as each of these are individually, I think they're actually cuter when grouped together. You get a good idea of the color palette she's using.
Now about the border. When I stitched #1, I wasn't too sure I loved the border so I stitched the next couple without and thought I liked them better without. Then Mr. Wonderful commented that the ones without the border looked more "free" so that settled it. No border. When I get a chance, I'm going to pull out the border on #1 and see how it leaves the fabric. I may need to re-stitch it, but I'm not going to bother with that just now. I'm just happy to be caught up!
Another brown-eyed girl! The only change I made to this one was to tone her make-up down just a bit and give her brown eyes.
My needle is smokin'. One more to go and I'm all caught up.
Look at this cute face! The design has blue eyes, but I made her a brown-eyed girl.
I was so close to being caught up, and then #7 was released yesterday. But I'm determined to whip out the last two as quickly as possible so I can move on to some other projects that are calling me.
Here's Mr. Duncan! Just a slight change to his eye--instead of blue, I stitched it over one in brown and then added a little white french knot to the center.
I have two more to stitch to be caught up, but #7 should be out this week, sooo...
Hope to get a good start on Hattie Hedgehog today. So far, I think she's my favorite. She has a teacup on her head, so how could she not be? But of course, y'all know what I'm really waiting for. A fox!
Happy Stitching!
I'm gaining on them! Here's #3, Mary Mouse. Just a few little changes on her: black whiskers changed to white, black tail changed to pink, black waistline on tutu changed to white. Just wanted a little softer look.
These are fun, quick stitches. I see from the comments (thank you!) that some of you are collecting these and saving them for later. I think this is going to be a ridiculously adorable series... one of those series that, seeing one or two, you think, "Oh, those are cute!" but then when you see all 25 of them together, you're just completely blown over! I can tell you that already, just with my three finishes lying on the table together, the cuteness factor increases the more you have done!
Now to Duncan (#4)!
What?! Ten posts in one month? That's crazy talk. It kinda makes me look way more productive than I've actually been, stitchy-wise. My current obsession is to catch up on the Brooke's Books Advent Animal freebie series. I was all proud of myself that I finally finished #2 in the series, and the very next day she posted #6--which, if you haven't seen it, will crack you up.
Here's Peter Polar Bear, with a slightly re-designed sweater.
I'm working on Mary Mouse (#3) today and hope to have her finished soon. It's August tomorrow, and that's when the Halloween stitching bug really gets me, so hopefully I'll be moving on to some of that soon. Meanwhile, it's funny little Christmas animal stitching for me.
Anyone doing the Brooke Nolan Advent Animal freebie series? It began in March and runs until October 2015 and the first three animals are available at the link. Here's the first one, Katie Kitty. I am determined--determined I tell you!--not to fall hopelessly behind in stitching this series. I'm stitching them on 28 ct. Blue Whisper with DMC. I did make a few changes to the eyes, nose, and mouth, but the rest is stitched according to the design. I plan to finish these as flat ornaments and hang them on a garland.
And while we're on the subject of kitties, it's been a while since we've had a Tiger Lily beauty shot. When I took this, she was listening to the birds outside.
