Whimsical and Wise

A little embroidery here, a little stuffing and stitching there, and I had a parliament of owls! It all began with our Christmas decorating. Every year, we devote a small Christmas tree on our greenhouse to a theme. My daughter is enraptured with all things Harry Potter, so the Harry Pottah! Christmas tree was born. Now we had to be creative to make it look like an HP Christmas--and NOT a Halloween tree (so no spiders or witch hats).

It's pretty easy to draw your own owl pattern, and I love embroidering on felt, so each owl has its own distinctive markings! After stitching on the owl face in lighter colors, white and ecru and even light pink for example to a brown body, I chose a palette of DMC flosses to create the eyes, nose and a bouquet of flowers on each owl--all whimsical and unique. 

 



Each owl also has a little tail embroidered on the back side too.


 






The owl body is then simply blanket-stitched together, stuffed, and finished.

Now, on to the task of planning the rest of the HP Tree! My daughter is knitting a long Harry Potter-style scarf to wrap around it, and we have made little quidditch brooms and Harry Potter wire-frame glasses to hang around, along with Molly Weasley's magical knitting needles, glittering ball ornaments in silver and plum, and an actual Hallmark Harry Potter ornament. We'll have a big owl topper for the whole tree--and hopefully I'll be posting a picture soon! Now, what did I do with those chocolate frogs!

Happy stitching!