My Current Project: Sewing Felt Christmas Ornaments

I've spent my spare crafty time this summer sewing Christmas ornaments!

These charming designs are by Alicia Paulson - I've long been a fan of her blog, Posie Gets Cozy, and bought a whole bunch of her felt ornament kits back in 2012 & 2013. I've resolved to "finally make these in time for Christmas" several times since then, but with very little to show for it... until now!

I'm on a mission this year to finish up lots of my UFOs (UnFinished Objects), those personal crafty projects that have been hanging around in the back of cupboards and under beds for far too long.

I finished the Christmas quilt I was sewing for my sister (which I started in 2014) and the patchwork blanket I've been slowly making with leftover yarn (started in 2011), and my scrappy cross stitch project (started in 2014) is nearly finished, too. I've even finally started quilting the patchwork quilt I began way back when I was a teen almost two decades ago.

During our unexpectedly hot summer (it's been ridiculously hot) I definitely didn't want to spend my time curled up under a cosy quilt... but I also didn't want to lose my Finishing All The Things momentum. It was the perfect time to dig out these long-neglected Christmas ornament kits!

I adore these ornaments but they've ended up being put on the back-burner because my personal projects usually get squeezed into evenings when I'm too tired to focus on this kind of detailed work or to follow instructions (this is why I tend to do a lot of simple crafts in my spare time, like knitting basic blanket squares - I don't have the brainpower to manage anything else!).

I'm now determined to devote the time and focused attention to these ornaments that they deserve and finally get them all finished "in time for Christmas". 

I've completed seven of the ornaments so far (after a frankly embarrasing number of years) and have another eight still to go. The remaining ornaments are all in various stages of completion as I've been stitching a bit here and a bit there depending on what I've felt like working on. Here's a peek at some in progress:

It's been a really interesting experience working on these. They're similar to my own work in that they're ornaments made from felt (which is something I've made a lot of over the years) but they're also very different... and I'm really not used to following someone else's patterns, instructions and methods instead of just finding my own way with a project!

Weirdly I think I'm more proud of how they're turning out than I am of my own designs - maybe because I can love them wholeheartedly instead of having all the usual complicated feelings about my own work getting in the way? I'm loving making them, anyway.

Here's a closer look at the Little Deer and Snowy Tree ornaments. If you're thinking I probably started with these because they're the simplest: you'd be right!

The ornaments are double-sided, so you do all the steps twice but mirrored. It's double the work but you get a doubly lovely end result.

Here's the Cozy Cottage, New-Fallen Snowflake, and Polar Bear.

 

The polar bear is a bit different to these others, as his back is the actual back of the bear instead of a mirror of the front. I love his little knitted scarf - it's definitely the smallest thing I've ever knitted!

I keep changing my mind about which ornaments are my favourites, but I particularly love the Red Wool Coat and the Norwegian Selbu Mitten.

The coat with its tiny mittens is just completely adorable, and is making me daydream about buying a red coat of my own this winter (I do need to buy a new coat...). The Norwegian mitten is gorgeously detailed, and was my first introduction to using waste canvas to cross stitch on felt/fabric. It was so easy and fun to work it (and so satisfying pulling out the canvas threads at the end to reveal the finished pattern), I must try and design something of my own using it. 

Like the polar bear, these two ornaments aren't mirrored but have a different design on the back. Aren't they lovely?

I'll hopefully have some more snaps of finished ornaments to share with you guys soon... I wonder how many I'll manage to make by Christmas?

Want to stitch these ornaments yourself? Click here for Alicia's ornament patterns!