From UFO pile to WIP - Cleopatra's Cat

I'm making progress on one project from that big UFO pile: a correspondence course from the Embroiderer's Guild of America (EGA)  http://www.egausa.org/.  This one is a needlepoint sampler called Cleopatra's Cat.  The color photo attracted me with its vivid blues and gold.  Was a bit disappointed when I bought the threads, and they were more in the slate blue, almost wedgewood, family.  Sigh.  It isn't the first time a picture hasn't accurately captured the colors.

I started the project in summer 2010, outlining about half the areas with smyrna crosses, and then it sat until last week.  Now, I am "counting-challenged", and I know it.  In the past, I would make mistakes, then work around them, to results that might be less than satisfactory.  Bet you've never done that!.  Now, I'll spend more time evaluating the mistake, and am more likely to correct it.  Doesn't necessarily take more time than working around an error.  Live and learn.

Back to this cat.  I was outlining the head, and it didn't meet correctly.  I spent an hour or two looking for the mistake.  Even had a friend look during a stitch group meeting yesterday.  She couldn't find it either.  I undid most of the head, and the left shoulder.  Today I redid them, and it met correctly.  Hooray!

Oh, back to counting:  rather than doing the full smyrna crosses, I did the X's around an area, and then did a second pass to add the +'s.  The back may not be as neat, and it probably uses a bit more thread, but it's much easier and quicker to undo when I make a mistake.

Notice the tail?  After discovering the error on the head, I decided to start the filling stitches so I could see progress.  Each region is a different pattern.  Most are composite stitches using two or more threads.  Some go quickly, and some take a while.

We're expecting more snow, so I hope to make more progress in the next few days.