The HeatherCat shoes - Part 3, The CATerpillar

For those who missed the first two parts - which you can find here and here - and those who don't know the HeatherCats yet, here's a little explanation.
"Heather is a friend of mine, a painter from New Zealand. I met her on deviantART and got to know the Essencestudios. I couldn't even tell you in what group it was, but among her talents Heather has a talent for bright, whimsical paintings, many of which are cats, so how could I not be fascinated the moment I saw the first one?" This is from the first blog post I wrote about the HeatherCats and in which you will find the whole story how it started.

As you know if you follow this blog, I had taken a break after the first shoe was finished. I often have to do that after a big project to regather motivation and to give my hands some rest, so I did my bauble project instead. I also sneaked in the wire fairy mouse which was nice as this year has been very much about beads and a bead embroidered snowman ornament for a gift.
On the 11th I officially announced the start on the first side of the second shoe, though, and I finished it last night around 2 am. Two weeks, that's not too bad. Now, however, my hands definitely need a bit of rest, my left wrist is hurting, and I decided I really have to look for a thimble for my right hand. The last small section of the shoe tested my patience and my fingers big time!

For the motif I had chosen one of my absolute favorites of Heather's cats. The original gouache is on my wall looking down on me. It's the CATerpillar. I have never asked Heather where she got the idea for this one, I'll just imagine New Zealand has brightly colored caterpillars with little cat heads ;-)

One of the difficulties was to fit him onto the shoe without the holes cutting into him. I'm actually quite proud of myself for fitting the head and antennae so neatly between those holes.
I'll let the picture speak for itself and hope you are going to stay around for side #4. The pattern is chosen, but not transferred to the shoe yet, also one important bead color is on backorder, so my hands will get their little break ... if I can't think of anything else to do, that is ...