Tabby

Tabby is another small 12″ by 9″ (about 30cm by 23cm) thread painted collage on botanical dyed fabric. It is based on a very old photograph of one of my first tabby cats. Her name was Acorn but this oculd be anyone’s tabby cat.

For my background fabric I chose a small test piece from one of my many experiments with botanical dyeing. The fabric has a looser weave than I can stitch on without a hoop so I added a piece of fusible stabilizer to the back to prevent stretch and give it some body. I then drew the main features of the image onto the fabric from a line drawing based on the original photograph. As in making Gorilla One, I didn’t know where the fabric and stitching was going to end so I started with a minimum amount and then stitched the eyes in.

Things progressed fairly rapidly after that. I have a piece of cardstock cut into a 9″ by 12″ frame to help me decide where to end the stitching. I used scrap thread ends to blend the neck and top of the head into the background.

This is the front and back of the final piece.

I stapled this over a 9 by 12 stretched canvas to finish. Tabby sold at her first showing in my local gallery! I am so happy she has a new home!