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Another update of this amazing design and it looks great. You are certainly making progress.

I've finished page 4 at last... Well, I actually finished it on the 14th, but have been rushed off my feet since.


The completed page is as below:

So, that's 7 pages out of 18 done, with 33372 stitches of the 98984 stitches in the project, representing 33.7% complete. I am running about 5 months behind my original schedule... That might make it hard to finish in 2020.

Anyway, the final 300 stitches forming Gryff's back only took a day to do, was pleased to get back to him. In fact, it was nice having more than a few stitches of the same colour to do at a time. Much of the last week or so was with up to 6 stitches to a colour before having to change colour.

Regards,

Richard

I am truly in awe!! What beautiful stitching on a very nice project!! Great update on this!!

I cant help marvelling at your skill of a photographer, let alone stitcher. That cat looks so real that seems to be ready to walk out of the picture or miew. How many photos had you taken before you chose the right/this one, I wonder?

I have already got used to this cat as if he were my good acquaintance, and always look forward to further updates.

Happy stitching!

Looks amazing! Don't worry how long it is taking, as long as you are enjoying it. That's the main thing. Such a gorgeous cat

vanessanjf wrote:Looks amazing! Don't worry how long it is taking, as long as you are enjoying it. That's the main thing. Such a gorgeous cat

I agree!!! Beautiful stitching for an extraordinarily handsome feline!

Carole

You are creating a beautiful piece of Art, Richard. Artists cannot rush. Every stitch will be done perfectly in good time, that is what I think, anyway!
Looking forward to the next update.

Fantastic!

Gryff is looking more beautiful with each update. Keep it up, Richard. He's going to be magnificent.

Great to see more of the lovely puss cat appearing Richard. You really are making progress and beauty takes time to appear.

Thank you all for your comments. It does help increase motivation. I need a break & will have a bash at Luz for a month or so now.

Podolyanka:
I am not a good photographer, just take a lot of snaps and once in a while I get lucky. In the case of this photo, I had missed off the end of Gryff's tail. To be honest getting the photo was pure chance, my daughters and Gryff were out in the snow bouncing around, having huge fun, Gryff stopped for a moment, I took the photo and then off he bounced again. He loved playing 'catch the snowball in flight', and that's what he went off to do seconds after the photo. Not common behaviour for a cat, but I understand many Maine Coons love the snow.

It was Allyn who suggested the oval crop, making a good composition out of the loss of the end of his tail. It would never have looked so good if she'd not suggested the crop shape & position. That was the artistic input needed to make this photo worth stitching, for which I really thank Allyn.
This was the original off centre snap that was greatly improved by the crop:


Gryff loved water & ice as well as snow. So, when he discovered that the fish pond was frozen over, but little wavelets washed over the ice, he spent nearly 30 minutes pouncing on the wavelets:


Regards,

Richard

That description of Gryff's fun in the snow made me smile! Thank goodness that the ice was thick enough to take his weight!! He was one Big Puss-Cat!!

Oh yes, and the progress on the stitching is wonderful! 1/3rd done eh? Not bad!

I love that second photograph, it just gave me a wide grin on my face !

Fabulous update as always Richard. Love the story behind the snap & good for Allyn to suggest oval cropping. This will be great when finished & I do love these updates. Look forward to seeing your progress on your other WIP too.

Thank you for the story behind the design and photo, Richard.

In the first photo he is HM of a cat, while the second shows that we are all human (feline) beings at the end of the day. I love both the photos.

Thank you for the best first post I could read once I got back!!!! Made me smile (as most wonderful cat stories do!). This is definitely one of my favorite pieces and I will be impatiently waiting for it to be back again.

Carole

If the stitching and photo are so beautiful, how handsome has to be the Cat Himself?!

He was a very soft, soppy & regal cat. We adored him. This photo (repeated from page 6 of this thread) was taken less than a month before he died:

For scale, the tiles are 6" (15cm) across, so he was a big cat. The photo I'm stitching was from when he was a kitten, and only about 6.5 months old. Maine Coons keep growing their skeleton until they are 3 (and he was 2 years 10 months in the photo above) but they keep putting on muscle until about 5 years old, so at the time of his photo his skeleton had reached nearly full size, but he was far from his full bulk.

Regards,

Richard.

Thank you for the photo, story and explanations, Richard. I was really sad to learn he is on the rainbow now. The stitching will forever preserve him in his best time. Now I respect your hard work on the picture(from charting to stitching in so much detail) even more.

Happy stitching!

Thank you for the photos. I can understand why you are stitching this project. Griff was truly magnificent!