skater43 stitches non-Zelda things

[skater43]

Still have a ways to go, but progress is being made. 18 hours in now, including today's work. Filling the rest of the block we're working on will take another 4 or 5 hours prolly, And still have filling the left side of the two bottom blocks. Plus the question block and breakable block up top. And the text. So I'm still saying mid-March is a reasonable goal at this point. Mario and the fireball are both done, though, so we have checked off a couple of things. In fact, I'm done using both the white and red thread for this picture. Last time I used a Mario screenshot (SGDQ 2020), I used a little darker light blue piece of cloth and I think I like that more, but what we have here works. Not quite as bright as the actual game, but I doubt anyone is going to complain. And we did successfully set ourselves up to do fill work last weekend and I was able to get some stitch time in. Computer has been acting up a little lately, so thinking about taking it in this week. May be without it for a little bit, but again, planned for this in getting the boundary of this current block at least established so we can just spend most of this week mindlessly filling. But pleased with how things have been going so far, glad you guys have something definite to look at and we'll se how the next couple of weeks go.

[skater43]

Last update. Next pic will be of the completed picture (stitched. Then another pic once we get it framed). 33 hours in now, including today's work and we're getting close to the end. Filling in the rest of the block will likely take all of stitch time tomorrow and Wednesday. Possible I'll finish in less than an hour on Wednesday, so we can get started on the text. Text will likely take a week and a half or so. Because The Artery is closed Sundays, my goal is to finish on/by the 15th, which might require a little extra stitch time each day next week. We'll see how things go the rest of this week/this weekend. Think I counted 60 letters to stitch and doing 5 or 6 letters a day is a pretty good pace for me, so we likely won't need to do much extra work to finish by that date. End up coming in around 47, 48 hours, which isn't too bad.

Once we finish, though, we aren't actually going to jump right into our AGDQ prize. Got an idea for another project that has a stricter timeline, so want to do it first. Frankly, it comes up before SGDQ, too, but A) I was already over halfway done with that when I thought of this new idea and B) still need to design said idea. Once I know what exactly I'm going to do/have it designed, I'll share more info with you guys. But I'm anticipating that not being a very big project, so something I can bust out in two or three weeks. May try to push things a little as I'd like to have it framed and back by early May. So that'll be next project. And then we'll bust out AGDQ 2026 in prolly two weeks, get that wrapped up and then back to Spirit Tracks, which will likely be our sole focus for the rest of this year/early next year until it is finished. Long way out, so we'll see where we are next January/February and whether we want to push to finish it, then take our usual GDQ break, or realize we still have a fair amount to do, so just take our usual break and then finish at our normal/comfortable pace. But that's months from now, cross that bridge down the road. Focus for now is wrapping up stitching SGDQ 2025 by next Saturday.

[Firehawke]

It's looking so good!!! Have to ask...did you work on it yesterday for Mar10 day??? Hope you're having tons of fun working on this!

[skater43]

You think it looked good a couple of weeks ago, you should see the finished product. I worked on it every day, but did point out to a friend that while I didn't have much time to do anything to celebrate Mar10 Day, I did work on this project, so I think that counts. But anyway, Project 1 complete. 45 hours total and we did put in a few extra hours this week, just to finish early (that and main computer issues. Had it checked and the harddrive is failing. Has served me well for several years, but price of a new laptop was about the same as putting in a new harddrive in this one, so new computer ordered this morning, expected this weekend). Without the extra work, we would likely have finished Saturday as planned, but this gets it turned in a couple of days sooner. Which means tomorrow we start Project 2. But I'm pleased with how this one turned out. I did make one mistake that I left in. The lower block, the one with the fireball in it. The darker yellow/brown on the bottom that's on the right side of the fireball was supposed to continue along the left side as well. Didn't notice this until I was down to the last couple of columns filling in the yellow. Because I had been doing columns, I would have had to take out basically the whole left side of yellow. And then re-stitched everything. That would have been at least 3-4 hours extra work. Which I decided not to do. Zelda project? Yeah, prolly would have undone it. Donation project? Eh, not so much. However, because the fireball breaks things up, it isn't noticeable and other than you guys you saw the original pattern, no one's going to notice or care. But overall, happy to do this project, to not only have the quip, but have it be a true statement and be able to show what I depicted is legit.

So, one Project done, we begin the next. Some of you already know Dad is retiring the end of this month. Nearly 50 years in forensics, he's hanging up the magnifying glass. Taking inspiration from Mom who stitched something for her father when he retired from CPAing, I decided to do something for Dad. Other stuff going and when it occurred to me to do something, I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it and have it framed before he actually retires (the fact that April 1, April Fool's Day, is the first day of retirement is neither an accident nor a coincidence). However, as luck would have it, I'll be up the start of May for our annual baseball game. 4 days after his birthday. So we'll get this all stitched up, already told the framer we'd have a second project coming soon that was more pressed for time, and we'll take it up with us in May. Not a huge pattern and fairly simple, so I will have this done by the end of the month. 2 1/2 weeks, see little issue and we have to do some extra work some days, so be it. Finish the end of the month, that still gives the framer just over a month (heading up May 10) to get it framed. So tomorrow, we begin. Credit to my sister and a friend for help with the fingerprint: ideas, suggestions, feedback. Originally started with a series of concentric ovals, thinking it would be easier to modify those to get the design we wanted. Turns out, not so much. But starting with an oval outline, I then freehanded all the swirls and lines. I then added in the "retired". Originally had it completely interposed with the swirls and lines, but it was a little hard to read, so I chose to white out any black spots within the text. Makes the text easier to read and you can still see how the lines connect up and such.

[skater43]

Forgot to list my colors for Mario. And guess while I'm thinking of it, we'll list the colors for Dad's project, too, though they shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

SGDQ 2025:
text: 310
yellow fill for the blocks: 742
darker yellow/brown for outline shading of blocks: 3826
red of Mario and fireball: 816
white of fireball: BLANC
flesh of Mario, and pink of question block and brick: 819

Dad's picture
text and fingerprint: 310
"retired": 816

Due to computer issues, haven't started Dad's project yet, but new computer in hand, we begin today.

[skater43]

Things went quicker than expected, though I did a little extra work this week to get things finished sooner. Framer isn't at the store Sundays and the shop is closed Mondays, so I pushed a little this morning to get it done so I could get it to them today. As I said, I'm heading up to the Bay Area May 10, so this isn't a rush job, but we have a deadline and the sooner I got it turned in, the sooner they could start work on it. Also, didn't have a chance to take a picture of it before I left, so had them snap one when I dropped it off, so it's a little fancier and more professional than the usual fare. All told, we finished this in about 10 hours, so quick and easy, but I think Dad will appreciate it. Went with a little different frame, one with a bit of texture, to fit in with the look of the fingerprint. Limited colors to work with and match, but simple doesn't have to be boring. So, we'll see what the final product looks like.

And with that done, we begin our next quick project. Don't think this'll be just a week/another 10 hours, but I doubt it'll be more than a couple of weeks. Text is from beating the Japanese version of Gradius for the first time. You can see all the various endings at https://www.vgmuseum.com/end/nes/a/gradiusj.htm I then added Vic Viper, the spaceship, just to give a little context and have something besides text to look at. What is going to be interesting to stitch is the blue and orange stars. Usually, I have a little bit of a tail when I start stitching a new color/section and tie it down essentially with subsequent stitches. Only have a single stitch here for these stars, so we'll see how we secure things. Good news is the black cloth will likely hide things a little if our tails are a little long. Otherwise, text isn't that complicated and the ship will be less than a day easy. So this will be our donation prize for AGDQ 2026, so we'll have that all lined up and ready to go. And in a couple of weeks, we jump back to Spirit Tracks and see if we can finish that up before we take next year's pause.