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skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

Video game craft projects made with thread and needles...
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skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

Post by skater43 »

So, with Twilight Princess done, we turn our attention to our next project: a prize donation for AGDQ 2023. This year's prize is taken from the NES game Metal Gear. Once again, we have another classic Engrish line. As you can see, we modified it slightly to bring the dialogue box down so we cut out some of the extra stuff. This is about as big as my Mega Man 2 project, but looks like it'll have more to stitch. Going with the black background, so that'll cut out some, but still have a lot for the ground and trees. So I'm glad I have a little more time than I originally thought, so we'll have time to get it done and have enough time for The Artery to get it framed and back. After TP, this will be a bit of a change of pace, little easier/less involved, but not as easy as some of my other projects. As I said in the other email, once I pick up the cloth, we'll have all we need to get started, so no reason not to get started tomorrow and see how things go.
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agdq 2023 metal gear.png
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Firehawke
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Re: skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

Post by Firehawke »

Nice! Happy stitching!
"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 non-Zelda things

Post by skater43 »

Thank you. Couple of days in, so things are looking a bit daunting with little stitched but lots of black cloth, but that's to be expected of course. Should have most/all the ground to the left of the jeep done by the end of the week and hopefully some of the foliage. The bottom 2/3 is almost entirely stitched, so that's definitely going to take most of our time. Setting mid-November as my goal/deadline, so we'll see how the first month or so goes and whether an hour a day is sufficient to finish in time, or we need to kick things up a notch. We aren't going to need to go hardcore/full time, but we may have to go to an hour and a half a day or so to finish by my goal. But we'll see. Did start off on the wrong foot though Sunday. Normally for my projects, I use two strands. Fills things in nicely, easy to use, it works. TP, though, called for three strands. Prolly could have used two, but we were trying to follow the pattern completely. So, we used three. Old habits die hard and I start this project and start stitching with three strands. Prolly would have worked, but we are using a higher count cloth here and two is easier to thread the needle. Got 30 or so stitches in on Sunday when I realized what was going on. And did think about just continuing and doing everything with three strands, but figured two would be better. So, we had to undo everything and start anew. So that was basically a day wasted. But, we're back in the two strands mentality, have yesterday and today under our belts as full hours of stitching, so we're back on the right track. And better to get the hiccup out of the way the first day so we've got smooth sailing the rest of the way.

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Firehawke
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Re: skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

Post by Firehawke »

At least you figured out what was up before you got much further in! And it's not a day wasted...think of it as a day trying something out and reflecting on why you don't normally stitch with 3 strands!
"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 non-Zelda things

Post by skater43 »

An opportunity to learn and grow. :) Yeah, figuring that out 30+ stitches in was definitely better than a couple of days. No issues since, so we're rolling. Have put in a little extra time each day this week, mostly just a few extra minutes, but today we stitched for an hour and a half. Broken it up into sections and I'm concerned about running out of time. I've got the ground to the left of the jeep done and most of the dark green. To stay on task/time, i need to finish the dark green on this part of the picture, do all the light green over here and all the brown among the foliage when we finish Saturday. And actually, that would put me on pace to do all the non-text box stuff in 8 weeks, and I'd still have to do the text box (which is likely a week, or at least a few days). This is definitely easier than TP, but not just solid lines; there's gaps and jumping around, so lot of paying attention to where exactly we are and where we're trying to get to. So we'll see where we stand the end of this week and see if we need to adjust our stitching time. Jeep/soldier should go fairly quickly and will save us some time, but the ground and leaves are taking a bit longer than I first anticipated.

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Firehawke
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Re: skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

Post by Firehawke »

Hope it's all going smoothly and faster than anticipated!
"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 non-Zelda things

Post by skater43 »

Wouldn't say faster than expected, but we're getting it done. Most days I've been doing a little over an hour of stitching and for several days last week, I was doing about an hour and a half. I figure if I do a little extra work on it now, it'll be easier to back off later, rather than trying to ramp things up to finish by mid-Novemeber.

But as you can see, we are making good progress. I initially planned to take a picture last Sunday, but held off because I was about to start the jeep and wanted you guys to have something concrete to look at. Fortunately, the project is short enough/the bottom half is short enough to fit in one hoop, so the highest greens stitched are as high as we need to go. So the left quarter of the picture, other than the text box, is done. The right side of the jeep is about the two thirds mark, so my hope is to do most of the greenery to that point this week. I do have a few stitches here and there to do of brown among the leaves above the jeep, but we'll get those after we do the greens. Getting that much done this week is prolly too ambitious, but we'll see. Week+ to get to the two thirds mark, two+ weeks to do the last third, then a week to do the text box. Lot to do still, but we're getting there.
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agdq 2023 wip 10-9-22 IMG_20221009_142350.jpg

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Firehawke
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Re: skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

Post by Firehawke »

It's looking fantastic!!! :clapping:
"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
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
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Re: skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

Post by skater43 »

Thank you. :) We are moving right along this week, making some great progress. Everything (on the bottom/excluding the text box) is done up to column 72 and all that's missing to column 80/85 is some dark green. Moved the hoop today, so we're on the last third essentially. Haven't stitched the exact bottom right corner, only because the couple of squares there are actually black, plus a little green, but we've basically mapped out our far right edge. Currently working on the dirt to the right of the jeep. Tomorrow marks the end of week five, if I can finish all the dirt/leaves/soldier on this third by the end of week six, which seems rather doable, then we'll have two weeks to do the text box, which means we'll likely finish ahead of schedule. Backed off my stitching some this week, only doing hour/hour fifteen a day as opposed to hour and a half some days last week, but things are still in great shape.

skater43
Rank 6 - Tanooki Mario
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Re: skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

Post by skater43 »

Another three weeks in and we're nearing the end. Despite what it may look like, we're not quite finished with the bottom section. Still have some dark leaves to do in the upper right corner, found 3 stitches of light green I missed near the soldier, have a dozen or so brown spots to do among the leaves and the Z's. Possible to finish tomorrow, but I see Tuesday as the more likely outcome. Which is still ahead of my original estimate of 7 weeks, plus a week for the text box. Which means we're likely finishing middle of next week, unless we go really fast/put in some extra work this week to finish on Saturday. Text box will be easy, but will take time, so we'll see how the next couple of days go and adjust from there.

Of course, we'd already be done with the bottom part if not for a major setback last week. Was doing the dirt down the right side of the soldier, Got to the last row or two and noticed things weren't lining up. Sure enough, up at the top, I'd started a line too high. So there was a couple of hours down the drain. Not only that, but it was a good hour+ to undo it. And then a couple more hours to redo everything. So there was a good three or so days wasted. Unfortunate, but it happens and we did want it to be right. Did have to fix another mistake among the leaves, but that was only 20 or so stitches, so a much lesser issue to fix, though still time not spent moving forward. But otherwise, these past three weeks have gone fairly well. Because I've spent some extra time some days, it's harder to estimate time spent on this, but we'll say 47ish hours over the course of 6 weeks.

And with this winding down, we're looking ahead to our next project. Decided to do Wind Waker as our next Zelda project, so we'll get that underway here in a couple of weeks. Had a dentist appointment last week and stopped by a Michael's down that way to see what threads I could get there. Got almost all of them except three. After church today, stopped by the Michael's closer to my place/one I usually shop at and got two of the three I was missing. Job transferred me to a new store a week and a half ago and I now literally drive by that Michael's on my way to work, so I'll maybe try them another time or two this week before we see about ordering online. Don't need any more cloth currently, so I may look at my SGDQ 2023 prize picture, which I've already got planned/designed (that's going to be a fun one, looking forward to showing that off), and see about ordering threads for that at the same time, just to make it a little more worth my while (do want two skeins of the color I'm missing for Wind Waker, but paying $3.50 or whatever to ship $1.30 worth of goods seems a bit off). So we'll see how that develops this week, too.
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agdq 2023 wip 10-30-22 IMG_20221030_123404.jpg

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