Here he is, stepping out of the forest and right off the canvas!  I’m convinced he is a 90 ft. cat.

Here’s what I can tell you about how I stitched the cat.

He is one cat so all the stitches needed to work together. The stitches needed to relate to each other.  If each area of the cat were a different stitch it would look too much like a sampler. Not like a real cat.

At the same time if the entire cat were one stitch it would not be fun to stitch!

So we start with the front leg, stitching it in vertical rows of balloon stitch.  That’s the starting point.

From this point on everything needs to coordinate.

The sides of the cat are Diagonal Scotch, it looks like a small version of the Balloon Stitch and it goes back in space causing the sides of the cat to look like they go back in space from the front leg.  Each side goes in the opposite direction.

The paws are Tent Stitch, they needed to be simple.

Now for his head, hmmmmm.  It needs to be a bigger version of what we already have going on.  Large stitches come forward.  Small stitches recede.  His head is Balloon Stitch just like his front leg but a larger version and the direction of the stitch changed from vertical rows to horizontal rows.

The finishing touch is his muzzle.  Long stitches over layers of felt padding give it just the lift it needs.

I think he is quite cute.  His face is softer now than in the painted canvas original.  He seems more kitten-like to me.  I even named him with the help of a friend.  We call him Shamus.