Christmas and Spring Stitching

I finally finished a set of Advent ornaments.  I had stitched them last year, but not gotten them finished because I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish them.  I decided to fringe the edges and then mount them on adhesive mount board with an adhesive hanger.  I purchased a multi-branched table top ornament tree, which turned out to be just the right size.

This pattern is "Advent Calendar and Petite Ornamentals" from JBW Designs.  This is one of those patterns that I ended up purchasing twice.  I was sure I had purchased the pattern, but couldn't find it. So I bought another one and then, of course, I found the first one!

I stitched some other ornaments which I gave as gifts, from a free pattern (Byzantine Christmas) from the Caron Threads website.  These are quick to do and look great in many different colors.  I backed mine with felt.

I then tackled a Mill Hill Sticks piece, "Cozy In," a winter scene outside a cozy room with a fire in the fireplace, wine and tea and a cherry pie on the table.  The kit shows what looks like a footstool with the bottom part of jean-clad legs and feet in slippers.  But the rest of the body is out of view, either behind the table (that would mean the person is lying down, but there are no furniture legs showing for whatever the person is supposedly lying on, or the person's body is out of the picture, which would mean the person is impossibly tall.)  I struggled and struggled trying to figure out what to do, and finally emailed one of my stitching groups for their advice.  I quickly received a number of suggestions, the one I chose was to put a cat in the picture.  So a "fat" cat, looking remarkably like my own cat, is sitting on the footstool.