Some Finishes...Finally

I was ahead of my original goal on getting ornaments made, but then I sort of derailed last week on getting the finishes done.  But I got second daughter's family's set done last night and put them out in the mail today.

I had such a hard time with this... they kept wanting to go crooked on the backing board (wasn't until the third time I thought to hold it steady with some pins... I am so bad and finishing ornaments!), but I really like the way they came out in the end!

I'd done the parents' ornament early on, using a neat pattern from For the Love of Cross Stitch, Nov 2001.  It's worked on plastic canvas in two parts (each section is actually a square with four square corner tabs - the second one is only stitched in the tabs).  The two pieces are hooked together by the tabs, and then I used red foam cut to cover the whole thing to back the ornament.  The tabs are not glued down, so they turn up slightly like petals.

When I went to do the kid's ornaments I wanted to coordinate the first one, but not by direct copying - so I used red and green aida to match the colors of the first, along with a common size and checkerboard border, but then I personalized each one to the kid's preferences.

 Anthony is in 1st grade, and he just got a dog this year - he also has a favorite stuffed toy dog that is blue and white.  I'm pretty sure this dog is neither of those breeds - but it is cute and I enjoyed stitching it!
The pattern is Comedy Dog by Clair Compton, a free download from The Chart Shop.  I changed the greys in the pattern to blues - and realized I'd gone off by a couple stitched in figuring out what size to make the border.  Luckily, he looks just fine overlapping the border a wee bit on the bottom.

I am just not getting a good picture of the ones on green fabric, so some of the color is washed out here.  Anastasia is four years old, and this year she played on a soccer team for the first time, and enjoyed it a lot.  The team was called the Bunnies, so I wanted to do something to commemorate that.  I'm frustrated with the crediting on this - once I figure it out, I will come back and list sources.  The bunny came from a freebie Easter graph from somewhere (I can't even find the graph now) and I changed the bow from pastel to Christmasy red.  The little soccer ball motif came from a separate source, lifted from a larger soccer related chart - from Stony Creek, I think.  I had recharted them in order to set placement - and now I can't remember the original sources.  Document, document, document, Lynda!

The color is a bit off on this picture - the green of the dinosaur is a vibrant crayon green.  The graph comes from Leisure Art's "More Designs For Little People".  David is 3 and is all about all things dinosaur right now.  I really like how the colors on this one are so nice and bright - it was fun to do and fast to stitch up.

Finally, baby Charlie - seven months old, and a cuddly, chubby fellow dubbed "Charlie Bear" by his parents.  So a bear pattern made sense.  And ARGH, I'm flaking now on the source for this as well... it came from one of the million graph books or magazines I have on hand.  Here again, once I remember what it was from, I'll post it.   And I promise I'll keep better records from here one out - I just can't trust my memory at all anymore.

So, now I have two more finishes for Daughter #3, then to finish stitching, and make up Deanna's ornament... then a bit of stitching for Michael's family (needn't have those done til Christmas Eve, though), and Deanna's baby blanket to finish.  It's all coming along!

(shared with Sunday Showcase Party,  Amaze Me Monday, Making the World Cuter Monday, Craftastic Monday, Craft-O-Maniac Monday, Motivate Monday, Made By You Monday, Mad Skills Monday, Mixed Bag Monday, Making Monday Marvelous, DIY Project Parade, Homemaker Monday, Market Yourself Monday, and Your So Very Creative)