Ornaments Xmas 2012

So I've been thinking.  Dangerous I know.  What I've been thinking about is the Chinese Zodiac projects I've been stitching up.  I'm pretty sure that some of the guys (okay probably all of them) will not be that enthusiastic about getting 'em for Xmas presents.  I thought about what would make this better so I was thinking about things I got for xmas.

One of those things was each year I had a Grandmother who would buy an ornament and tape it to the outside of our gifts.  When we opened the gift we could put our new ornament on the tree.  She always tried to find something that we were interested in.  One brother got a lot of drum ornaments because he played.  I got a lot of dance stuff.  Another brother got a lot of music stuff.  Nothing really exciting but when we looked at the tree it was nice to know some of those ornaments were yours.

One year, as we were taking down the ornaments my mom started sorting them in different boxes.  We were to get all our own ornaments to hang on our own tree.  We were all moved out of the house so we could have our own tree.  It was nice to get a shoebox full of ornaments that I could shift through.  I don't remember what gifts I got with each ornament but sometimes I could remember what ornaments my siblings got just by looking at mine.  And every ornament was a memory of my grandmother.

So . . . I decided to stitch up ornaments for everybody and stitch their name and year on the back.  They might not like those any better than the Chinese Zodiac, but maybe many years down the line when they have a shoebox full of ornaments (if my parents or my siblings decide to take up the tradition) they might have a memory of me to hang on their tree each year.  "Oh this one!  My Aunt Gwenn made it for me."

I got this idea right at the end of June and thought for sure that someone would have a "Christmas in July" sale.  Sure enough 123stitch.com did.  I moved a bunch of ornament books to my cart but ended up getting some of them at the local store (full price for everything I got was still cheaper than the sale with shipping).  I didn't get all the books but maybe I'll pick up more later.  I did have 12 xmas patterns that someone in college had given me.  These first 4 designs are from that collection.

So while I only have 3 more Chinese Zodiacs to stitch I now have 18 more ornaments to do.  And, yes, I'll be doing one for myself as well.  I want something to remind me of this crazy year.  I got waste canvas to stitch their names on felt for the backing and it will be my first time using that but I'm looking forward to it.

Here's what I've done so far: