I Can Haz Grumpy Cat

For a silent auction at my synagogue, I donated the opportunity for me to embroider the winner's favorite quote.  A very nice woman won that item, and explained that she wanted a piece of art that was inspired by her favorite refrigerator magnet.  An embarrassingly long amount of time later, I have finished her piece.  Behold . . . the cutest angry cat you will ever see!

I worked on this during Saturday mornings at Home Ec.  He quickly became a favorite among my friends, especially after I filled in the eyes with satin stitch.  The woman wanted the cat to have calico coloring like her own pet.  I'm not a cat person, so I had to look at a lot of Google images to get something resembling the real thing.  Like the lion on the Torah mantle, I used seed stitch to fill in the color patches.  It's less tedious than using satin stitch, and I like the way it is suggestive of fur without looking photo-real.  That's what I like about embroidery as a medium--using a variety of stitches to create images that are suggestive of real images, yet with a more interpretive and artistic style.

Last Friday, I went to Home Ec and framed the piece in a hoop.  They had a pretty purple flower ribbon that I used to decorate the hoop.

The woman gave me a big hug and told me she loved it, but my favorite reaction was that of my husband's:  "It makes me want to hug and pet the cat until he stops being angry."