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skater43 stitches Zelda games

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

Post by skater43 »

Thank you. :) Pleased with how it came out myself. Did have the one mistake we had to correct where we did too many bricks, but we were able to get that corrected and no other real mishaps or issues. Because I took a couple of breaks to work on other projects, I'm sure exactly how long it took, but 100+ hours is prolly a conservative estimate. Quite a contrast to my current quickie project which I'll either finish up tomorrow or Saturday, which is faster than I was expecting. But that means next week we can get rolling on Twilight Princess.

And glad you found the info useful and/or interesting. Had this project in mind for a while and after going through some of the trials of last year, it seemed like a good time finally do it. I'll admit I don't have many verses memorized, but that one has stuck with me and definitely a good reminder for myself (and others).

skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Picked up my personal project yesterday, so here we go. Mom and I had to take the picture ourselves, so you'll have to contend with some reflection/glare; neither of us are professional or even amateur photographers. But once again, I'm pleased with the final result. Pick up some of the grey with the matte, but have the red there, too, to give it some color and pop. Not surprisingly with all these projects I've done for myself, the question has come up about available wall space and yes, I still have some. While this one is long, it is fairly short, so I have a few options: above my closet, above my door, or above a window. As for upcoming Zelda projects, Twilight Princes is going to be fairly big I think, so that we might have to get a little creative to find a place for it. Wind Waker is tall but skinny, so I think I've got a couple of options for that. Minish Cap is another long, short one, so no problem there. And 2023ish, once I finish those, then we'll see about patterns for Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks and a place for those, but we've got time to worry about those. Meanwhile, looking forward to getting back to Twilight Princess and the challenge it brings.
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personal project framed IMG_20210817_164206247.jpg

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Firehawke
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Firehawke »

It looks great! And yay for having some space on the wall for it!
"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 »

Gee, skater43, that looks like a jumbled up mess of colors. Which is good, because that's exactly what I'm stitching. I've included page 1 of the pattern (of 16, though not all are full size) so you can see exactly what I'm doing. Some connections, but generally, it's a blotch of one color here, then another over there, couple stitches here and there, very little cohesiveness. But, this is looking at things close up/small scale, rather than the whole picture. Can't see the forest through the trees and all that. So what we have doesn't look like much in itself, but will lend to the overall picture.

The more I stitch, the longer I think this is going to take. Three weeks in, we've got most of a corner done, but we're roughly 20% across the top and about 25% down the side (and not all of that is filled in). So with a couple of pauses for GDQ stuff the end of 2022 looks like a real possibility. But we'll see. I knew going in this was going to be more challenging than previous pieces and that is certainly holding true. Keeping track of where I am and where I'm trying to get to is a big part of that challenge. And I don't have objects/outlines to guide me, just colors here and there. Colors are also part of the challenge. Pattern calls for 35 colors. 19 of those are "grey". You see in the picture some threads with tags on them. Those colors that continue into the next hoop, so didn't want to cut them off, but the colors are so similar, there was no way I was going to remember which was which without marking them. I mean, the pattern calls for "black", "ebony" and "pepper black". Good luck telling those apart. But in the grand scheme of things, the various shades will stand out and add subtle shadowing and effects and such. But does make for relatively slow going and starting/stopping as we change colors and such. But one stitch at a time, just keep plugging away, filling in spots here and there and eventually, we'll a nice picture to look at (though a couple have said they don't like this one as much as some of my other works).
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twilight princess wip 9-5-21 IMG_20210905_092514236_MP.jpg
twilight princess page 1.jpg

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Firehawke
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Firehawke »

It's looking great! And I can totally see having trouble keeping track of where you are! Question...have you tried the Pattern Keeper app and if so, is this pattern PK compatible (sadly, not all are!)? If it is, that may be a huge help!
Good luck...and 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 Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

Haven't tried that app, but I''ll keep it in mind. Pattern is a pdf, but if needbe, I could copy/paste pages into Paint and save them as jpegs or whatever. I see the bigger issue being keeping track of where I am on the project itself, rather than the pattern, but we're managing so far. Moved the hoop down, so we've moved past the corner and are chugging along (slowly but surely, one stitch at a time). My plan is to go around the edge first, so that I have at least one side to easily count from and then worry about the middle later. Much like finding the edge pieces first on a puzzle. Honestly, I have no idea how I'll the middle parts, but the good news is I'm a few months away from having to worry about that, still. :) But, I knew this was going to be a challenge and push me some, so it's a good thing. And what I learn here will likely be used in future projects, so nothing's lost or wasted.

skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

For those hoping for frequent updates, I'm sorry to say you'll be disappointed. My plan is to get a new pic out every 3-4 weeks, just so some real change can be seen between them. As I've said, this is a marathon, not a sprint, so we're in it for the long haul. Depending on breaks/other projects, the end of 2022 is not outside the realm of possibilities, though I'm hoping for a little sooner than that. But, one stitch at a time, one day at a time, we'll keep plugging away. This past week was a mix of good and bad. Good part was a rather large chunk of one color, so I was able to stitch fairly quickly since I wasn't having to change colors or take the time to figure out where I needed to skip to and such. Bad news is I learned there are two symbols for this pattern that are very similar, but very different colors. And I chose the wrong one for a significant amount of work. So that was about 2 hours undoing what I had done. Good news is it was a rather distinct color, so easy see/tell from the surrounding colors, so easy to pick out. So that was about four days wasted (one day stitching the wrong color, two days to take it out, one day to restitch the correct color). But, it needed to be fixed, we had the means/opportunity to fix it, noticed it before it became a bigger headache, etc. So we say thank you, Lord, for that and press on.

Still not much to look at, but in a couple of weeks, we ought to be hitting the snout of the wolf, so that'll at least be something hopefully recognizable. Sticking with the plan of going around the edges and that seems to be working/being a good idea thus far. Middle section could be a real bugger to keep track of where I am on the canvas, but we'll worry about that next summer or so when we get there. Plenty of work to do in the meantime.

In related news, I heard from the game shop owner last week. Been busy, so that's why he hadn't gotten back to me sooner. I let him know that the Castlevania picture is in the hands of The Artery and should be done soon. Obviously, can't put a timeline on these things due to supply issues, other projects they've got, etc., but it has been a little over a month since I dropped it off, so I expect to hear it's done some time this week (they're closed Mondays, so it would be Tuesday at the earliest). Once I pick it up, we can take it over to the gaming shop, get it hung, set a price and see where things go from there.
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twilight princess wip 9-26-21 IMG_20210926_093628858.jpg

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Firehawke
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by Firehawke »

It's looking great! Bummer about the symbol issue (been there, done that...probably will again), but glad to hear that the stitches were easy to identify and take care of!
"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 »

Yeah, that was definitely a setback and a bummer. But, at least it wasn't as bad as it good have been, I noticed before I got too far in, was able to fairly easily see what needed to be taken out, etc. And, in the grand scheme of this project, 4 days lost is not going to make that big a difference. Recently passed the halfway mark going down, so we've got some idea of where we are and maybe a better idea of how long this'll take. About 8 weeks in, so figure about 4 months to do one hoop width down. Picture is longer than it is tall, so at least 5 hoops across, maybe 6, so we're now looking at 20-24 months total? I keep stitching, but the length of time this'll take also seems to keep getting longer. :) So summer, 2023 since we'll at least have a few GDQ project breaks in there. But as I said, we just keep on keeping on, one stitch at a time. Plan to get an update pic next Sunday and hope to have some of the wolf snout done, just so we've got some sort of recognizable object. Have done the right ear, but it's just kinda out there, a black splotch in the middle of nothing, so you wouldn't really know what it was without looking at the whole picture (this was certainly the case for me).

skater43
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Re: skater43 stitches Zelda games

Post by skater43 »

So, roughly 8, 9 weeks in, here's where we currently are. Moved the hoop down again yesterday, so another month or so filling this in, then we'll move things down again and that should get us to the lower left corner of the project. We'll then work our way across the bottom, around the edge and then fill in the middle. Likely. Just now, I was thinking I may actually just do columns, work my way up or down one hoop at a time. I've gotten better at using other colors and such to keep track of where I am, less so than the edge, so going through the middle of the project is less daunting than I previously thought. But we're looking at at least three months before we need to decide, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Meanwhile, I was hoping to have a little more of the wolf done so we've got something definite to look at, some sort of recognizable object, but that will have to wait for the next WIP picture. We do have the wolf's right ear, the black patch just above (and partially blocked from view by) the hoop, but without context, it's hard to tell that's what that is. I think with our current hoop location, we can finish the wolf's nose, so that will give us something to orient off of. Otherwise, just plugging away.

Current plan is to work on this another two weeks. Get us to the end of the month, good time to take another WIP picture and all that. Starting November 1, plan to jump into this year's AGDQ project. Have something in mind, just need to double-check that I've got the colors needed (will be chasing around Tuesday anyway, so I need to grab a color, I can stop by Michael's as long as I'm out and about). Rather simple project, only 4 colors and mostly text, so should only take a couple of weeks at most to do. So we'll get that done and turned into The Artery so they have time to frame it up before the marathon the first part of January. We'll then continue on with Twilight Princess until April or so when we'll pause for our SGDQ prize and so on. My Castlevania picture happens to sell or something happens with that, then we'll see about getting a new picture done to sell or whatever. But again, we'll worry about that if/when anything happens. Got this project to work on the next couple of weeks, quick one lined up for the start of November and we'll go from there.
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twilight princess wip 10-17-21 IMG_20211017_093533703.jpg

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