After I finished my Flannel Flowers tapestry, I returned to a tapestry that I had bought in 2003.The cat tapestry is a classic charted Paternayan wool kit. I had purchased it from a shop in Belconnen that is now long gone. At that stage, I had two cats, Aldo and Madonna, and they had moved with me from Paddington to Marion St, Leichardt, Rofe St, Leichardt, Mosman, Griffith, Higgins (where Aldo left us) and then Latham (where Madonna left us). They'd been with me through job changes, life changes, marriage, children, buying and selling houses and so when I found the tapestry of two cats, one of which looked just like Aldo and the other, though black in the pattern, could easily be converted to look like Madonna, I thought "yes". At this stage of my tapestry career, I had finished one tapestry Christmas stocking, then I bought this and started it. I found it quite hard going with lots and lots of colour changes on quite small canvas. So, I put it aside, met the creative tapestry ladies at the Canberra Craft Fair in 2004 and started the Flannel Flowers.
So, seven years passed and I returned to the cat tapestry. This time around I knew it was easier if you put your tapestry on a floor frame so you could have both hands free. And I had also found this book by Dominique Sieger-Lathrop, The Secrets of Needlepoint, which taught me to have multiple needles going at once. I know it looks like a mess but it really is much easier.
Here's a view of where I was up to in May 2010.
Here's a close up.
I have the chart on a stand and keep a set of needles all threaded up ready to go.
Note - ever present empty wine glass - must be evening work. Hmm dental floss - that's a bit weird. In the lounge room. Must relate to this. Must. Try not to think about it and move along.
Now a shot from February 2011. Compare and contrast. I was about half way down Madonna's ear in May 2010. Now...top of the cheek...progress. 
From the picture on the stand, you'll notice that I've converted Madonna from a black cat to the true colours. When I get down to Aldo's tail I'll have to "unfluff" it becuase, while the cats in the tapestry picture are clearly long-haired, my two chums were short-haired. Aldo wasn't quite as orangy-tortoiseshell as the picture but its a good enough memento-mori.