Progress . . . Tapestry Cat

So this is absolutely my oldest WIP, I have learned some secrets over the years and she seems to be coming together faster now.  I may yet finish this little kitty.  The designer site had some great tips for stitching her designs, some of which I wish I had read before starting the project.  But the number one help was pre-threading a bunch of needles in the colors for the next section.  This pattern has you changing colors every few stitches and I felt like I spent more time threading needles than stitching.  But I thread up all 15 colors for that flower and stitch the entire flower and then thread another 15 or so for the next section.  Then I tried another idea from the blog and took an old piece of aida cloth and put masking tape around the edges and then in rows down it with space in between.  On the masking tape I drew the symbols and then put the threaded needles underneath.  I bought oodles of needles and it may take me several hours to thread them, although I if I did it with the TV off it would go faster, however stitching is flying now.

It looks like a tangled mess doesn't it?  But honestly I have never had a tangle, I have had a couple come unthreaded and with so many colors just a shade off from each other I have wasted that thread rather than stitch wrong.  It isn't practical for all pieces but for all the changes on this one it is wonderful.