APRIL Stitch-a-Long - Patterns and Prep!

[blackmageheart]

I know it's still March, and the minimalism challenge is on-going but I wanted to get this set up now. Mostly so that you lot have a chance to design some bands!
Now, these have to be fairly small and simple, so please keep that in mind when coming up with your designs.

Sampler bands will be 90 x 25, most of this should be unstitched so don't panic about having to do thousands of stitches per band! Please pick any game you wish, design as many bands as you like and submit them in this thread by 25th March (that's two weeks from now).

Things to decide while you design bands:
- would you like a vote on the bands to choose the four, or would you like me to random them out of my Hat?
- do you want to put your samplers together the same way (all do bands A, B, C, D) or however you want (person 1 does B, A, D, C and person 2 does D, C, B A and so on)
- do you want to be able to add your own touches to the sampler, such as different threads or coloured aida, etc? Things that would make your piece individual, even though working from the same pattern as the others

Please feel free to discuss things and if you have questions I will do my best to answer
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UPDATE 20/3/13: As requested, made a list of games that have had one or more bands made. There are so many that I've had to list them like this rather than post the pictures for now.

UPDATE 22/3/13: Updated list with new games.

samplers.txt

(1.02 KiB) Downloaded 338 times

[m4pl3g1rl]

I think we should vote on our top 4. (Though all of them should go to the SS pattern wiki for future reference yes?)
I think we should all do A, B, C, D. (Maybe make it a bit of a mini-swap? Possible idea.)
I think the optional threads and colored aida is a brilliant idea. Then it's the same but not the same and we can tweak it to where we like it.

As a suggestion, I think we should include the SS logo, our names (real or SS name), and the year - kinda like real samplers.

[blackmageheart]

I think we should include the SS logo, our names (real or SS name), and the year - kinda like real samplers.

Definitely. I'll see if I can make some font patterns and mini-logos for this!

(Though all of them should go to the SS pattern wiki for future reference yes?)

Yes, or in case people wanted to make a bigger version of the sampler, or whatever

[RMDC]

I'd be fine with random selection. Goddess knows we do enough voting around here. I kinda feel like all the bog standard games will automatically win the voting - Mario, Zelda, etc. - so I wouldn't mind seeing something unusual make the draft.

I agree for the moment that we should all be doing the same order on bands. I am a mercurial beast, however.

I think we can individualize this without stepping on the coloring book SAL later. I'm looking forward to it.

[MeiTow]

I'd be fine with random selection. Goddess knows we do enough voting around here. I kinda feel like all the bog standard games will automatically win the voting - Mario, Zelda, etc. - so I wouldn't mind seeing something unusual make the draft.

This is my fear as well. I'd rather have things randomized.

As a poor girl, I would rather like to use colors I already have or only have to buy a few colors if needed. So I think maybe saying what the basic color of each icon would be and let us work with that (sky is blue but let us pick what blue. Shirt is red and let us pick which shade of red, etc.).

The sampler idea is for everyone to do the same thing at the same time, but I'm not adverse to people putting the bands how they want.

As an aside, I really need to work on my other things so I can do this when it's time.

[LinkIsMyHomeboy]

The more I thought about and looked into this idea, the more interested I became. I may design and/or stitch some up for this. I'm still liking the coloring book SAL idea more, but I think I judged the sampler bands idea too quickly/harshly.

As for BMH's queries:
I'd much prefer random for this. As RMDC pointed out, Zelda, Mario and a few others would likely take over this SAL and though I do love them, it would be nice to see some other games in there.
I would want everyone to be doing the same pattern in the same week. I know we're going to be doing the same four patterns in the same month, but it would unify us more to be doing the same order.
I do think we should be able to add our own touches as far as thread or cloth are concerned. Like MeiTow, I'm not exactly wealthy and able to buy specific colors for each challenge, so if I'm a shade off on a green, I don't think it would be a travesty to the pattern. Also, if I like a pattern, I may want to keep it and hang it up somewhere and should be able to make it my own, within reason.

Question of my own...would these all be on one piece of cloth or individual cloths for each band?

[m4pl3g1rl]

A sampler is traditionally on one piece of fabric. I went and got a few library books out on samplers (the stitching section of my library still sucks tho), and got a little brushed up on the history of samplers. I'm fascinated by what I learned. I'm getting excited since this is sort of honoring the history of stitching but using modern subjects.

[Aggie Tsubi]

I don't know if this is quite what you all are looking for, but I threw together a band for consideration.

Your classic lineup of Castlevania sub-weapons:



And an alternate version with a row of small hearts, which you'll need to use all those weapons.



Edit: Ran them through KG Stitch to make them easier to see.

[SofaraStarfyre]

Here are 2 of my bands. I know it's been said that Mario and Link/Zelda would probably dominate this challenge, but I made a band for each anyway, with objects that are usually not stitched as often.

Super Mario Bros. 3 Items:

Mario.png (16.82 KiB) Viewed 8329 times

Ocarina of Time Items:

Zelda.png (28.34 KiB) Viewed 8329 times

[LinkIsMyHomeboy]

I know a sampler is traditionally one piece, but since we'll be doing four different games, I didn't know if that changed how we'd be doing it.