skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

[skater43]

Planning ahead pays off as I just picked this up. So we have it in hand and ready to boxed up about 4 months ahead of AGDQ. Which means plenty of time to get it shipped off avoiding the last minute scramble of last marathon. Again, pleased with The Artery's work and how the final product came out. Hard to tell in the picture, but the light pink used for "COMPILE" is there and different from the white in other parts of the text. One of those subtle things that you don't notice except you really do.

Believe it or not, been three weeks since our last WIP pic of Minish Cap, so look for a new one this weekend. Will have to move the hoop up again, but only a bit and we can move it to the right, also, so making progress to the right as well.

Have an idea for a prize for SGDQ, but it'll take some designing. Main sprite I can find, though not sure about scale. But the background will likely all have to be designed by me. So over the next few months, we'll start work on that, little by little, see if we can have a workable pattern by March or so to get that stitched in time. And maybe something better/easier will come to mind before then that we can do for 2024 and save my current idea for 2025 when we have more time to plan/design it. We'll see.

[Firehawke]

Woot! as someone who likes to plan head, I totally get how challenging it can be sometimes...but oh so rewarding!!! It looks fantastic!

[skater43]

Thank you. It did come out nice. Simple design, but the frame and all does add something to it. And yes, does feel good to have this ready to go for December to ship off, rather than scrambling last minute. Once we get to 2024, we'll see how Minish Cap is going and when would be a good spot to break for our SDGQ prize, maybe going a little sooner than the past, just to have that extra time for "just in case". Of course, this means I need to come up with or finalize a pattern sooner, too. Just need to sit down for a couple of hours one day, mess around with my idea, see if we can at least get something started, then we can see about tweaking it and steadily making it better, kinda like we did with this year's SGDQ prize.

[skater43]

Day before the event starts, GDQ is finally assigning prizes to time slots. https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/prizes/AGDQ2024 My prize is available late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning depending on your time zone https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule/46 $20 donation to the Prevent Cancer Foundation will get you a chance to win it.

[skater43]

As mentioned in my other thread, while this is a "Zelda project" in that it was taken from a Zelda game, I'm putting it in this thread to keep it separate from my task of stitching all the Zelda games I've beaten. And this will keep all my GDQ stuff together and in order and all that.

Admittedly, it doesn't look like a whole lot yet, just a bunch of random colors, but progress is being made. We can see the text at the bottom taking shape, though. At this time, I'm still leaning toward leaving the text un-stitched. If nothing else, because so many colors are similar and mottled together, it helps give me reference points to work off of to find my place. We are now 14 hours in (won't have a chance to work on it today: have something in a little bit and then work afterwards. So that's through yesterday) and while we are getting stuff done, I am concerned about finishing by the end of April. That's 10 weeks and I don't think we're 20% done yet. Horizontally, halfway is the left side of the "O" in Go. And vertically, about the "M" in Marriot on the pen for scale. So if that area would be stitched, that would be 25%. Have done stuff outside that area and we aren't to 25% timewise, but my plan is this week to kick things up a notch and stitch about 90 minutes a day, rather than just 60. Have to make up for today obviously, but otherwise, I think that little bit of an increase will get us done in time. And, I start getting ahead, I can either back down back to 60 minutes a day, or just finish early and give The Artery a little extra time to frame it. The marathon is the first week of July, so I do want to finish stitching by the end of April. That'll give The Artery about 6 weeks, until the middle of June or so, to get it framed, which should be enough time allowing for little delays and hitches in the get along.

But I'm excited to see what we get done this week.We'll continue to fill in this corner, but I can also get some of King Zora's legs done. Which, being much different colors than the throne room, will also help give me reference points.

[blackmageheart]

Looking good so far!

[skater43]

Thank you. Mostly just a bunch of random colors currently, but we are seeing the text coming into view at the bottom. And some of my stitching time yesterday was spent starting King Zora's legs, so in two weeks when I post the next update, we'll have something more concrete to look at.

[Firehawke]

What a great start!

[skater43]

Thank you. I was telling a friend of mine today, part of me is seeing things fill in nicely. The other part of me is saying "there is so much white." FIrst part is acknowledging that it's only the start of March, but the other half is saying April isn't that far away. We'll see. I have caught up for Sunday, so we're right where we should be at this point. I plan to continue stitching 90 minutes each day rather than 60 because I think it will take that to finish on time. Looking at things, looks like I can get to about 2/3 the way to the right in this hoop and about 2/3 the way up. So I finish this hoop, I should be about 2/3 done. I finish that by the first week of April, I think that puts me on pace to finish by the end of April. And that seems doable, but just have to stitch and see. The text at the bottom is nearly done. I mean, it's not done because I'm not stitching it, but everything around it is almost all done. I've also done 20 or 30 stitches of King Zora's legs and will likely do more of him this coming week so you guys have something concrete to look at. Things are progressing, just a question of are they progressing fast enough.

[skater43]

38 hours in now, including today's work. Last WIP pic was compared to a QR code and yeah, I can see it. Lot of random dots scattered here and there. As we can see with this pic, though, a lot of those white empty spaces have been filled in. Definitely still feel doing 90 minutes a day instead of 60 is needed to finish on time and even then, having my doubts. We'll see as we get closer to April. I am pleased that we have big chunks completely filled in, along the left side and the bottom. The text is fully outlined, so I'll throw the question out there: should I stitch the text or is it clear/readable/looks fine the way it is un-stitched. Have my thoughts, but like to see what some of you have to say on the matter. Do have most of King Zora's legs done in the upper right corner, so that's at least something definitive to look at/identify amongst all the random splotches.

Current goal is to finish the bottom 25/30ish rows so that I can move the hoop up. As long as I have a color threaded up, I am looking for other spots to use that color, so not as quick/easy as just working my way up, but I figure everything has to be stitched at some point. Using our trusty pen cap, the top is about 25/30 lines up, so that's my target. Left side is done several columns across and the middle is mostly done. Right side is where we still have a fair amount of work. So that's the plan for this week. I don't think I'll finish this week, but the hoop will be moved sometime next week (earlier the better, obviously). Next goal is then to stitch up the left side or otherwise get to the top of the picture so we have some idea of that boundary. There isn't a lot beyond the uppermost part we've stitched. The brown in the upper left corner is row 15 or 16, so there's basically an inch above that to do. I have a lot done, but I'm still seeing a lot of white, but I think learning where my upper boundary is will give me a better idea of how much I still have to do, and how much we actually have done.

Also occurred to me that we prolly ought to start looking at colors for our AGDQ 2025 project. Have an appointment on Wednesday about a half hour south of me, so I'll look through what I have tomorrow, then can stop by Michael's down there after my appointment Wednesday to pick up anything I might still be missing. And then if need be, we can stop by the Michael's a few miles from my house Thursday or so, in case there's anything else I might be missing. Very simple pattern and prolly only 6 or 7 colors or so, so I'm not too worried about not being able to get all I need locally. But on the off chance I do have to order something, we want to make sure it has time to get here before we start stitching.