New Applique Pattern: Chloe at Christmas

Meet Chloe, one of my black and white tuxedo cats.  Here she is after being caught in the act of taking off with a Christmas ornament.  Tuxedo cats (IMHO) seem to possess the remarkable ability to portray several oxymoron-like facial expressions all at the same time.  When caught in the act of something they know you don't approve of, they somehow manage to look innocent/guilty, meek/rebellious, penitent/defiant all at once.  I've tried to portray that in this applique pattern, which is free on my website until Dec. 15, 2019.

Although tuxedo cats are perhaps best known for their black and white coats, they come in white with gray, silver, orange or tortoiseshell, too.  So don't hesitate to work up Chloe in the colors of your choice.  You can even go a little crazy and use colors not seen in nature, likke the blue and red illustrations below.

You might remember Chloe from Sunny's Fifth Christmas, one of my patterns that came out about 10 years ago.  There was something about Chloe's white muzzle that seemed to make her look like she was always up to something.  And in fact, she was the most mischievous of my cats.

New Critter Redux: Cirrus the Turkey

I just uploaded a new pattern for Cirrus the Sundrop Turkey to my website: http://sundropdesigns.net/ .  Cirrus will be free through Thanksgiving Day.

Cirrus is one of the original Sundrop Critters that I created in 2001-2002.  Here's what he originally looked like:

In 2005, I redesigned him to look like this:

While I'm quite happy with this 2005 version, I really wanted a pattern for a fairly simple turkey in profile.  You can blame Missouri Star Quilt Company's Thankful Wall Hanging (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI8HFbhlcCk&t=1316s) for that!  I love that wall hanging and hope to make one someday.  But, instead of making three 6" Dresden turkeys, I want to make three 6" Sundrop turkeys that all look different.  So now I have three different Sundrop turkeys to use under the 10" Dresden turkey that Jenny Doan shows in the video.

Sundrop Critter Redux: Splash the Beaver

Splash the Beaver just had a gentle make-over and the pattern is free on my website (sundropdesigns.net) until October 15.  I have to admit that I didn't do more than tweak a few things. Even if you were great at solving the Find the Differences puzzles in Highlights magazine, you might not find the four little changes that I made to Splash.

Perhaps the most obvious change is that I made his (or her) teeth bigger.  A beaver's teeth continually grow, so it's only proper that after 17 years that Splash should have bigger teeth!  I also made the nose a bit bigger, moved the nose and eyes a little higher up on the face, and moved the tail a smidgen closer to the body so there's no longer a tiny gap between the two.  And there are two changes that you can't really see from the pictures: I shortened the pattern piece for the foreleg that's in the background (i.e., Splash's right foreleg), and I made the pattern lines thicker and easier to see.  I hope you have fun incorporating Splash into a special project.