Spring Cat Cross Stitch Completed!

When I wasn't working on Firefly cross stitches this is the major project that has been keeping me busy for the past few months. It is called Spring Cat and was designed by Sherrie Stepp-Aweau. I started working on this in February and managed to get it finished by June. Not a bad stretch of time I would say.

It's a birthday/Christmas gift for my Mom which we were able to give to her on the weekend. I did all the stitching and the boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, helped cover the costs of getting it professionally stretched and framed. Needless to say my Mom was very happy with it. Her cat, who happens to look like the kitty in the picture, was also intrigued. He stared into it's eyes for a good solid minute, started to quiver and even frizzed his tail at it. Once it's hung on the wall I'm sure my Mom's either going to encounter him meowing at it and trying to make friends or hissing and spitting at it.

I stitched this on a black 18 count aida cloth, and thankfully most of the black space in the picture is just the fabric showing through, which cuts down the number of stitches I had to make. The border with its many open spaces was truly a lot of fun as it seemed to go by very quickly...Look I'm done one side...Look I'm done another. There's also a minimum amount of backstitching which makes me very happy. The finishing off backstitching always makes a picture pop and look wonderful, but it's my least favourite part of any design.

I have the pattern in a leaflet from Cross My Heart that also includes the Summer Cat. Unfortunately I'm fairly certain the pattern is out of print now, even though you can find a couple of the designer's other cat patterns at PatternsOnline. I managed to snag the last copy from my local cross stitch store and all the supplies I needed to make this, only a few months before it went out of business.