"Noah Has Landed" Animals

I just finished making the animals for the first of the Noah's Ark play mats that I am making for twins.  These animals are going with the "Noah Has Landed" mat.  I have also finished appliqueing the things onto the mat, which shows the animals disembarking the ark onto dry land. I still have some hand stitching to do before I can assemble the front and back of the mat together.  I will give a peek preview of the animals for this set.

Tony Tiger looks terrific with his black stripes and green eyes.

Rita Rhinoceros styling her gorgeous horns.

Morris Moose sporting his handsome rack of antlers.

Hilda Hippo giving a little bow.

Oliver Owl looking a little wise.

Wanda Warthog sitting pretty. Yea, I know, she isn't that pretty.  But...what can I say?

Allie Alligator is having a bad day. She looks a little cross to me.

I always like to name my animals.  The people getting these animals will probably not keep these names, but it is what I have named them. I'm a little disappointed that the stuffing shows through on Wanda Warthog and Allie Alligator.  I'm not sure why it does because I used the same type of yarn and the same size of needles for the knitting.  For some reason, they just seemed to stretch more than the others.  My grand daughter, Lexi, thinks Wanda is an elephant instead of a warthog.  I guess she has never seen a warthog before.  She is only two.  Her name for elephant is a "Happy," so that is what she calls her.  Joey thought Allie Alligator looked too mean when he first saw it.  He didn't want to play with it until Lexi picked her up and gave her a big hug.  I got a kick out of the reaction I would get from Joey and Lexi each time I completed an animal.  They both liked them very much and kept playing with them.  I had to hide them so that they would not get them dirty.

I have already started making the first animal to be sewn onto the next play mat for the other twin. I'm calling this mat "The Storm Is Over, But Still At Sea." This mat is like the ones I have done before and everything is totally knitted: the animals sewn to the mat, the toy animals that look just like the ones on the mat, and the mat, itself.  I have also started to knit the mat.  I did that last week end while I was away in Boston. I have about a third of it finished.  I still need to do all seven of the toy animals that go with this set, as well as, the rest of the mat and all of the other animals that go on the mat.  It takes a while to do this set, but I am up and running already.