Canvas of the Day: Hula Cat

Today's canvas of the day is a Hawaiian cat from Patt and Lee Designs dancing the hula. This tickles me since none of the cats I'm familiar with would be caught dead in that getup. And they do NOT dance. LOL
http://www.busyneedle.com/Whatsnew/newnc2009Oct.htm

This canvas is 14 count but I think you can also buy it on 16 or 18 count canvas via the designer's website.
http://www.pattandleedesigns.com/cat_inspired_designs

This canvas comes with a stitch guide but that's not going to stop me from coming up with more ideas for her!  The first thing I'd do (after making a color copy of the unstitched canvas which I will use to place stitches on areas stitched over and then will destroy) is pick nice fuzzy black, white and gray threads for the fur and stitch the entire cat except for the pink inner ears, the eyes, the nose and the pink open mouth in tent stitches.  This includes the gray lines dividing areas of the body.  Once you are done, take a brush of some sort and brush-brush-brush the stitches to give the cat fur.  You'll want to do the fur first and then brush it before doing anything else as you wouldn't want to accidentally brush the eyes or other non-fuzzy parts.

Now go back and stitch the inner ears in silk perle (Trebizond, perhaps?), the green and black eyes in something with a bit of shine (maybe Flair? with a white stitch for the accent in a metallic thread), and the pink nose and inner mouth in pinks using something like Very Velvet that will give a velvety look.  All are in tent stitch, you understand.

Now using your white fur thread, stem stitch the whiskers on top of the black face fur.  Use your color copy to see exactly where to put them.

Now it is time to stitch the bra.  I think the bra is the perfect place for Burden Stitch.  Choose a green thread for the main vetical stitches and either a matching or contrasting metallic for the horizontal threads.  Feel free to change the color of the bra from green if you like as Burden Stitch will completely cover the canvas.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2004/jan.php

I suggest you consider Thread Gatherer's Sea Grass for the cat's grass skirt.  This thread looks like dried reeds for baskets.  I think it would look great here.  Mix several shades of greens and browns in stem stitch for the grass skirt.  The bottom rows could be attached on the back and come up and go back down in a big loop that could be secured on the back and then cut to give the skirt loose ends at the bottom.  Don't worry about matching the threads to the painted colors exactly.  They'll cover the background and it won't matter if you put brown where green is painted.
http://www.threadgatherer.com/sea%20grass%20page.htm

I think I'd run wild with silk ribbon embroidery flowers for her lei and do a large ribbon flower over her ear, but you could just do the silk ribbon flower for her hair and try turkeywork for the lei.  If turkeywork appeals to you, work it after all the other parts of the canvas are stitched and trim it slowly with your sharpest scissors.  It'll make a mess but you can cover the non-turkeywork parts of the design with paper to keep the mess from landing on them.  Here's an easy version of turkeywork from Kathy Fenchel.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2006/aug.php

Choose colors that coordinate with your bra and the flower behind one ear for the lei whether you are doing silk ribbon embroidery or turkeywork.  There are a lot of styles of flowers you can do with silk ribbon embroidery but I would try to do small orchids I think since this is Hawaii and the leis there are often made of small, fragrant orchids.

Now the background.  I would find a stitch that looks like a flower and do a wavy line in the background that runs roughly from the upper right toward the lower left so that the cat appears to have flowers following her swaying.  Do the flowers in a thread matching the background color.  Here is Brenda Hart's Medallions stitch.  Don't do this in rows, just scatter a few of the floral motifs in the background.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2007/sep.php

If leaving the rest of the background blank bothers you, consider using David McCaskill's water stitch.  If you use a metallic as one of the threads and work this stitch up to 2-3 threads of the background flower motifs, it will seem like blue ocean, which is something all of us would like to dance in front of on a summer's day.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2003/mar.php

This is a charming canvas and something that will put a lot of summer smiles into your fall and winter stitching.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
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