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skater43 stitches Zelda games

Video game craft projects made with thread and needles...
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Firehawke
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Firehawke »

Ooooh...it's looking so good!!! Can't wait to see what you are thinking about for AGDQ 2023!
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skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Thank you. :) Yeah, things are really coming together, we've got most of the main stuff done, so just filing in some of the details and background and such. As expected, things aren't going quite as fast, with more color changes and fewer patches of one color, but we're getting there. Tentative goal is finish this hoop by next Wednesday or Thursday, going for that two week hoop pace, but we'll see. I think this and the next hoop down are going to have the most to stitch still as lower down, I already did more, but we'll see.

For AGDQ, we'll be keeping with the tradition of a classic bad NES line/translation. Short line, but the picture/background has a lot to it, so that's why I expect it'll take longer than usual to do. Also have a great pattern done up for SGDQ 2023. Combining a few games there, had to do a little cutting and pasting and putting things together. So looking forward to those after this and work begins on the next Zelda project.

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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Firehawke »

Good luck with all of those color changes!!!
"May we maintain the courage to defy the consensus. May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong." - President Thomas S. Monson

skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Thank you. :) Put in an extra 15 minutes or so today, just because I wanted to finish up all the little single stitches here and there in this part. I've got 10-12 stitches in a patch of black we'll do first thing tomorrow, and after that, we'll have finished the top 35 rows of the picture. And while the hoop isn't finished yet, I'm planning on moving it down because we're working our way down/it'll just make things easier. Two weeks on this column so far, so we're right on schedule. 101 rows to go of varying lengths, which means about 17 rows a week to finish by the start of October. Which seems like a lot, but we just did 35+ in two weeks, so it's doable. And I think this top part has the longest rows left to do, so further down, the rows may not take as long. So pretty much everything is going smoothly and according to plan. Only minor concern is I'm running low on a couple of colors. Was out and about Tuesday and stopped by Michael's and got two "nice to have" colors, but they were out of the one I really wanted. I still have a smidge left and I'm not sure how much I'll still need it (at least two more stitches), but we do have some time left to check in with them every so often to see if they've gotten more of that color. And I was looking for one other nice to have color they were also out of, so we'll have to keep that in mind, too. And worst case scenario, I have a couple of stitching sites I've ordered supplies from before, I can order the colors there if needed. Seems a little silly to pay $3, 4 for $0.70ish worth of thread, but I can start looking at my AGDQ prize and maybe see some colors there I'll want/need to order. But still have plenty to stitch in the meantime, no need to panic yet, but something I do have to keep in mind.

skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

A day later than usual, but I was out of town this weekend. This does include today's stitching, so that kind of makes up for it. And I'm sure along the way, we've done a few extra minutes here and there to keep up our average of an hour a day. I'll also point out that my first WIP pic was dated 9-5-21, so we're just past the one year mark of working on this. Couple of breaks in there, of course, but reasonably certain this is our longest project to date. Would have to say the most hours. I know The Adventure of Link took quite a while, and think that was just over a year from start to finish, but think there were a couple more breaks or longer breaks in there. That was a bigger picture, but had open space that I didn't have to stitch. As noted, this one is completely stitched. Which came up today as Mom was looking at it. She asked where I was going to sign it. Hadn't thought of that. All previous projects have had objects on some sort of solid background, so picking a spot to do my initials and date wasn't a problem. Going to be a little more of an issue here. She was suggesting I stitch my initials/date into the pattern. Which could work, but would be a lot of trouble. Basically, I'd stitch my signature, then work around that, figuring out what stitches in the pattern I won't be doing any more. Big thing with this project has been A) keeping track of what color I'm doing and B) keeping track of where I am. So taking things out of the pattern would make both of those much more difficult. Depending on the surrounding colors, the very bottom right corner might work, which would at least make it easier to keep track of where I am. More than likely, though, we'll just backstitch over the pattern somewhere. The upper left corner is relatively light, so I think black would show up there. And what we have left in the lower right corner might work, too. We'll see as we get there.

But we are moving along and finishing the end of September is definitely in the plan. We've done everything above row 45 or so, but as you can see, most of the rest of the hoop is done, too. The bottom right most stitch that you can see done is row 80, so we finish this hoop, which will happen this week, likely Thursday, we'll jump from above row 45 being done, to above row 80 being done. Which leaves us with just 55 rows to go. And while it's not obvious because of all my hanging threads in the way, the last 55 rows aren't very long. So they'll go fairly quickly. 15 rows a week, we're finishing right at October 1. So depending on how the next couple of weeks go, this is likely the last WIP picture until we are completely done. Which is exciting. As I've said, have enjoyed working on this, it's been a bit of a challenge at times and we've had some hiccups, but looking forward to wrapping it up and onto the next thing.

And a quick plug for everythingcrossstitch.com. Tried a second time at Michael's to get the colors I needed, they were still out. Another local option didn't come through, so I did order the two colors I needed (one I wasn't sure of, but turns out, I definitely did need) (also got a third color that's running low, just in case, as long as I was placing the order). Placed the order last Wednesday. Items shipped on Thursday. ETA was this Thursday or Friday (September 1 or 2). Package arrived Saturday. Ohio to California in 3 days is pretty good. And meant that I didn't have to delay any stitching or move the hoop down and move it back to pick things I missed or anything. So we should be good to go to finish this bad boy up.
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twilight princess WIP 8-29-22 IMG_20220829_143225397.jpg

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Firehawke
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Firehawke »

Ooooh...you are so close! And yay for being able to get craft supplies in the mail!
Good luck figuring out how/where to sign your project!
"May we maintain the courage to defy the consensus. May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong." - President Thomas S. Monson

skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Thank you. :) Yeah, we're getting there. Did an extra 15-20 minutes today, just because I wanted to finish up some individual stitches here and there as long as I knew where I was/knew what colors I needed. So I just moved the hoop down and starting tomorrow, we'll knock out our second to last hoop. However, last hoop will only be for the final 10 rows or so. Just the nature of a round hoop, we weren't able to get all of the last bit in one. Which is fine. But at this point, everything above row 75 or so is done, so 60ish rows to go. 15 rows a week, I don't see any reason, short of a major hiccup, of not finishing this by the end of September.

Getting the thread as quickly as I did turned out to be more useful than I thought, since this last bit went quicker than expected, and I definitely needed those colors. And no speedy shipping or anything to expedite matters, so less than $5 for the thread and shipping isn't bad.

We'll see what they lower right corner offers as far as colors and such and how feasible a signature there is. Glad Mom said something because it had totally slipped my mind. All previous projects, I've just backstitched my signature somewhere, so incorporating it into the picture would be different. But because the whole picture is stitched here, it may look okay/work better than my usual projects. I need to double-check, but I believe the Minish Cap pattern I have/plan to do is also completely stitched, so whatever we choose here will also be in play for that. Wind Waker has a bunch of un-stitched background, so that will be business as usual. And I still need to get patterns for Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass. The boxart of the Japanese version of Spirit Tracks would be perfect: has Zelda and the train in addition to LInk, a good overview of the game/clearly is identifiable as Spirit Tracks. Just need to get a copy in a resolution that's stitchable. Cropping down to the relevant parts and still being 300x300 or more looks really good as a picture, but that would be huge to stitch and take even longer than this one did. Lower resolution pictures obviously work better for stitching, but get blurry/don't look great pixel by pixel. So may be looking for some help from you guys when we decide to stitch that game. But, we need to finish this up first, then we've got our AGDQ 2023 prize to do, then we'll worry about the next Zelda game we stitch sometime in November or December.

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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Pyper »

So close! Its looking great. Also are those post-its for parking the thread or folded paper?
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skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Thank you. :) We are getting close. In fact, the way things are filling in, I'm thinking I might finish closer to the 24th or so of this month, about a week earlier than my previous predictions. No pressure to finish sooner/not going to push things just to finish, but the current hoop has a fair amount of color blocks, so I'm getting a lot stitched without having to change colors (which is obviously slower). A week to finish this hoop, then a week and a half to do the last 15-20 rows doesn't seem too unreasonable, but we'll see.

Just folded paper paper for marking the threads. I just took scraps and folded them in half or around the thread, then taped them closed, basically a tube around the thread. That seemed a better way of keeping the labels on the threads (which was the point, so I could keep track of what color I was doing/left off on), but without using tape or anything sticky or the like on the thread itself. And several of my tags got re-used as I went along (though some colors got multiple tags: either I left off on the same color in more than one spot, or was unable to find a previous label).

skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Surprised it took this long, or surprised we finished so much earlier than expected, but we are done! By my calculations, we finished right at 48 weeks of stitching time. Average an hour a day, that comes to 336 hours. Don't know exactly how long that compares to Zelda 2 or SMB1, but this was definitely the longest stitching time. Have to look back to see exactly when I started, but it was just over a year ago, so with a couple of breaks in there, I'd file this time under "not bad". Few bumps along the way as far as wrong colors (again, memo to pattern makers: there's 26 letters in the English alphabet, 10 digits and basically an infinite number of symbols. There's no reason to have two arrows pointing right or use the number 9 twice), got off a couple of squares in some spots and had to undo/redo things, but overall, this went rather smoothly. Obviously, it was a bit daunting at first and I had no idea how I'd be keeping track of where I was, but we managed. This one was important to work on daily/consistently so that I could keep track of where I was. Initially, I'd though I'd be using the edges as my guides, and I definitely did do that, but for most of it, you just have to go off of other colors and what you've already stitched. Which can obviously go bad if the color you're using is off, but we didn't have any real issues with that.

Last bit did go much faster than expected. As we were getting down to it, October 1 was my goal, then September 24th. But going into this week, today was looking like a legit possibility. In fact, my plan towards the middle of the week was maybe going extra today/all out to finish today rather than bleed into next week. Turns out, I was able to finish today just a few minutes over my usual hour of stitching, so no problem there. Turns out, The Artery is currently open on Sundays, which I didn't know prior to today, so I could have dropped it off tomorrow, too. But I was going off previous hours of them being closed Sundays and Mondays and seeing if I could finish today or have to wait until Tuesday to turn it in. But, we got it in today, real pleased with how it turned out, looking forward to seeing the final product (matte/frame are a little different this time around, kinda going along with the picture being different than usual: more an art picture than a collection of sprites).

And with that, we'll begin work on our AGDQ 2023 prize. Check my other thread for details on that. Picked up the threads I think I'll need a couple of weeks ago, looks like the cloth was delivered yesterday (so just need to stop by the post office to pick it up), so no reason we can't get rolling on it tomorrow.
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twilight princess done 9-17-22 IMG_0332.jpg

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