Cat Topiary Garden: Bricks and Mortar

Progress on dede Odgen's Cat Topiary Garden

I've been working various areas of the cat topiary garden, putting off going back to the topiaries for now since they are wearing on my nerves. (The next time I decide to stitch a piece this large with this much similar background, someone please shoot me.)  The first thing I did after I finished stitching the sleeping cat was to stitch the yellow mortar lines in the brick border. I used a slightly tan thread (Impressions 1115) instead of the bright yellow that is painted since I don't particularly like the yellow color. That took several nights to stitch all around the border. After that, I returned to the cat and stitched the dark brick the cat sleeps on using plain old mosaic stitch and one ply of Gloriana's Lorikeet wool.  Here's mosaic stitch--
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/1999/99-01.php

The next link shows all the colors of Lorikeet.  It's a 9 ply wool that is quite fine--it'll work on congress cloth or 13 count, depending on the number of plies you use. One ply doesn't quite cover but since the color I am using (Rosewood Dark) is a close match to the painted area, I don't need to  completely cover the canvas.
http://www.glorianathreads.com/Lorikeet.html

I've started working on the bricks in the border using two plies of the same Rosewood Dark Lorikeet.  As you can see, I'm filling each rectangle with satin stitches on the diagonal.  I will probably do all the dark brown bricks, then turn my attention to the blue cache pots on either side of the cat.  After that, it's back to the topiaries for poor me!

Tomorrow I'll change the header photo to show the latest progress on cat topiary garden but today you can compare the photo at the top of this Blog entry with the header to see how much (or little) I've accomplished since the last update.


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