Phoenix Rises

Continueing the patterns for my firends, We come to the Mon of Clan Phoenix for the card game "Legend of the Five Rings". Orriginally the request had another 3 emblems but they would lose too much in the translation to cross-stitch

A compromise was reached and each of the 5 rings would replace the three emblems.

The Main pattern was extreamly easy to produce. I used http://www.myphotostitch.com/ again, but instead of fiddleing with or refineing the pattern, I stuck with the pattern produced by the site. (.pdf available for personal use) Doing this preserved the Flame effect of the pattern. Each of the Coins were also sent through the site, and solidified by MSPaint Magic.

Coloring the Rings was just a matter of selecting the color to stitch with:
Air: DMC-162                      Earth: DMC-801                      Fire: DMC-321
Void: DMC-E310                 Water: DMC-820

Ill tell you what, The E310 Floss was a Pain to work with. Its one of DMC's "Metalitc" floss and is far more rigid and coarse than the regular floss. I will honistly never use it agian.

Overall, this pattern took about 5 weeks from Pattern completion to last stitch. I'm pleased with how the Phoenix turned out and that the arrangement turned out pretty well.

Thank you to AEG for the Legend of the Five Rings.

Ave Imperator

Haveing run out of ideas for myself, I started takeing requests. First request, The Imperial Creed. The Mario pattern used alot of Black thread on a white background. I really didn't care for how it was easy to see the white fabric through the floss. So I decided to switch this pattern up and use Black Fabric.

Text: I used http://www.stitchpoint.com/eng/tool/alph/cross-stitch-writing-tool.php once again.


Eagle: The same process as before, feeding it through http://www.myphotostitch.com/ resulting in this almost complete but horrifically headed monster.

Useing MSPaint I refined the above so it more closely resembled the original, completly redesigning the head in the process.. Yet, pure black or pure white felt bland and uninteresting. I tried for a stone emblem look. The change in color is ment to show a density change to add more debth to the pattern.

Once planned out, the stitching was pretty easy. Overall, took about 2 weeks.

Thank you to Games Workshop and Black Library for the game and fluff behind it.

Caterpillar Wisdom

Hookah is a wonderful thing. To sit, relax, and enjoy the company of your friends definitely sets a delightful pace to the day. We found this quote and I had to make a pattern. It turns out that there aren't any patterns for hookahs. Here we dive into actually designing my own patterns.  

Luckily I found a great tool on the internet that takes a picture and converts it into a pattern.
Site: http://www.myphotostitch.com/
Simply converting the picture above with this site resulted in... A very blurry version of the picture above. This wasn't quite acceptable. Using my Professional MSPaint Skills, I refined the pattern down to something workable (*taktaktak* Enhance *taktaktak* Enhance)

Now that I had the hookah pattern nailed down, it was time for the Text. Now standard text patterns are usually generated using text charts. Once again we head to the handy-dandy internet.
Site: http://www.stitchpoint.com/eng/tool/alph/cross-stitch-writing-tool.php
Using this tool combined with Good ol' MS Paint I cobbled together a pattern. Slap on a bit of color selection and  the pattern is Complete:

The BackStitch Technique is featured heavily here in the Text and detail of the hose handles. The hose handle embelishment is really just for me, since you dont notice it at any kind of range.

Once the pattern was complete, it took about two weeks to finish.

Special Delivery

Our next pattern comes free once again from the Internet. Looking around the net I managed to find an interesting and stylized Futurama pattern. The folks over at WeeLittleStitches posted one of their patterns for free. I must say I like how the characters are portrayed.

Pattern: http://weelittlestitchescrossstitch.blogspot.com/2012/01/free-pattern-futurama.html

This pattern brought two new types of stitches to the game: The Back-Stitch and the French Knot.

The Back-Stitch is used to form thin straight lines, either for Outlining, detail work, or Lettering. Here it’s used on almost every character to give detail that is not possible with just a regular Cross-Stitch. I added to the pattern to outline Fry's shoes, and Leela’s shirt.

The French Knot is generally used for flowers and such. Here it is used for Lelahs pupil and Benders Antenna. They are definitely interesting, but I’m not really a fan.

This pattern is also where I learned that each Cross-Stitch should start and end the same way across the project. That is, first left to right, then right to left of the X. This gives the pattern a unified and "Seamless" look.

Thank you to WeeLittleStitches for posting this pattern for free. I'm definitely considering purchasing another pattern from their Etsy store.

Mario Across the Ages

The first pattern I tried, and possibly my gateway pattern. I realized it was missing something. The Goomba Boot was left out. Luckily, a quick google search later, it turns out that the same person who designed the main pattern also designed a Goomba boot as well.

Pattern:
Main Pattern: http://www.spritestitch.com/?p=108
Goomba Boot: http://www.spritestitch.com/?p=277

Cloth: 14ct White Aida

Overall, I'd say it was pretty easy pattern to pull off. I was able to put down about one Mario per night. It took about a month total to finish the project. Being proud of my work, I decided to get it custom framed at Michaels. Three weeks and way too much money later it was completed and pictured above.

Thank you to Spritestitch for putting this pattern up for free :D

The Road to Nerd Craft

I got moved to second shift a few months ago. Instead of staring at the internet for hours on end, I took up Cross Stitch. This is a way to share each of the projects I complete. Not only will I post pictures of the finished projects, but I’ll post either the plans, or where you can get the patterns. So there it is, I’ll start posting the projects I already have soon.