10 Happy Things: The Awesome Possum Edition

Appliqued, painted, felted, engraved, crocheted - so many adorable opossums!

Apr 15, 2024

This was previously only available as part of the Woodland Critters pattern, but now you can get it all on its own - for those who want to make an all-opossum quilt or a pillow or tote bag. 😁

Whenever I draw an animal, I spend quite a bit of time doing research about it. That means looking at a ton of photographs, but I also like to watch videos to see them in motion - and I love to see how other artists have interpreted them!

This week I thought I’d share some of what I found when I went down that rabbit hole to draw my opossum.

Opossums are the only marsupial that lives in North America - and Virginia Opossums (the American kind) are totally unrelated to the opossums found in Australia and New Guinea. I used to think opossums are really cute, but then we got chickens and the local opossums would get into their coop to eat their food and send the chickens into a blind panic. (Because they’re chickens and afraid of everything.) When I’d try to shoo the opossum out, it would hiss at me and bare its very sharp teeth - and I stopped thinking they were very cute. Now we no longer have chickens and I’m back to thinking opossums are adorable. I mean, come on! How can you resist this?
When baby opossums are born, they’re about the size of a honeybee! That’s crazy! I didn’t include any babies with my sample - but don’t forget there’s a tutorial here showing how to add a baby animal to any block. You could make several baby opossums and arrange them to be peeking out from behind their mother’s back.
Opossums do have a prehensile tail and they can hang from it, but only for a short amount of time. But that doesn’t stop artists from showing them in that pose all the time. It’s just so dang cute! I especially love this little guy. Look at the detail in the paws! They even got the weird little splayed toes right!
My friend Mollie made brilliant use of that hanging-from-their-tail ability in her book Stitch Love. She designed a little opossum sachet that hangs from its tail on a hanger in your closet. So cute! (I reviewed Mollie’s book here and showed a photo of that cute opossum project.)
Yuliia Nevdakha makes adorable tiny felted animals, including little felted opossums! I especially like this one all dressed up for a birthday party - but you already know I’m a sucker for animals in party hats.
Charley Harper is my favorite painter of animals and nature. Before I draw any animal I always do a search to see what he did with it. Here’s his gorgeous mama and baby opossums.
This little sticker is awfully cute. Opossums are so often neglected in collections of woodland animals. Raccoons and foxes get all the love!
I learned that girl opossums are called Jills, boy opossums are called Jacks, and baby opossums are called Joeys. I love this! So with three cute names like that to choose from, why is my opossum named Ollie? I always name my patterns alliteratively to make them easier to find in my shop! I’ve got a lot of individual block patterns, and by naming each of them with the same starting letter as the animal, you can find what you’re looking for without having to use the search bar. 🥰
I love this gorgeous quilt made by Hana with the Woodland Critters applique pattern - including the opossum, which she placed front and center. She used different kinds of fleece for some of the applique to make it extra touchable! (There’s a free tutorial here showing how to applique with fleece.)
My daughter has crocheted this opossum pattern dozens of times. She’s made itty bitty versions with 8 wt. perle cotton, and giant versions with chunky yarn. She’s added top hats, party hats, and cowboy hats. I think it’s safe to say that it’s her very favorite crochet pattern - and I didn’t design it. 😂

If you know someone who’d like to read this, please share! 🥰

House update: Painting is finished, but we’re still waiting on all our stuff. The latest word is that it will be here tomorrow?

Here’s a look at the colors. . .

Just about everything is the soft gray you see, but all the closets are that warm golden yellow, and I have one big purple wall. Augie Dog wonders where all the soft rugs are. 😁

All the doors are just primed because I’m going to do some decorative painting on them. The plan is to paint each door with colorful flowers on dark backgrounds, like these prints. I’ve never done anything like that before (except on my tablet), so I’m a little nervous - but I think it’s going to be really pretty!

Have a fabulous week!

Best,
Wendi

PS - One more awesome possum from my friend Stacey Lane - a fabulous jeweler who loves opossums. This particular piece has already sold, but all the engraved pendants she’s been making are terrific. You can follow her here to see new work as she makes it. This pimento cheese pendant is especially fun, and I LOVE this pigeon. 🥰