#20 of 25 Motif Challenge

Early this year Jane did a TIAS ("tat it and see"... the pattern is dished out pieces at a time and you tat it as the pieces come out not knowing what it is until the end), which I started but life got busy so I didn't take the time to finish it. What it ended up being was a hippopotamus. I'm not sure who it was but someone in our tatting world had mentioned the hippo in relationship to the song "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, only a hippopotamus will do........" etc. I thought that was a hillarious idea.

I make my Christmas cards every year and last year I made them all as fabric postcards, each one being different. (I've been kicking myself ever since because I didn't take a photo of one of them!)

Earlier in the year, when I went on a business trip one of the ladies asked me if I was going to do fabric postcards this year for our Christmas card. I laughed and said no way, never again, it was WAY to much work. Then I told her about the hippopotamus and his Christmas song, but that it would be even more work to make 35 of them, so it was unrealistic. Gary, the only male in our group that trip, instantly started harrassing me about hippos and it's been an on going thing all year long. When we went on our trip in September I'd printed out the words and lovingly sang him the whole song ( he was in a confinded space and couldn't get away but still........ LOL ). Another trip he was pretty sick so I found a very small hippo to "cheer" him up with.

As you can see it's an ongoing joke for us.

Here's where the tatting comes in.

I've been working on tatting Jane's hippo for a week or so now. And I completed it on Tuesday. Last night I put the finishing touches on making it into a fabric post card. It is going to go out to my friend, Gary today. (I do hope that the Christmas Hippo song gets stuck in his head like the Disney World's "It's A Small World" song is.... insert evil laugh.)

I almost forgot he is tatted in Sherry's size 20 Coffee and Cream.

I did have a blast making him and I know that Gary is going to laugh for many days over this. So it was worth all the time it took. But honestly I had so much fun that I have to make another one and send it to our daughter, Holly, she will get a big kick out of it too.

Merry Christmas, Gary! :-)