Sprite Stitch Board!

Hello Everyone! I started cross stitching about 2 years ago when I found the SpriteStitch website. After looking at some the amazing works of art that people have posted I decided that I wanted in on the fun.

My first project was to do sprites for Mega Man characters. I figured if I enjoyed working on them, I would have lots of material to work with to keep myself inspired.

My first completed project was Mega Man 1 - Fire Man
I learned much on this first project. How to thread a needle, how to have patience with knots, how not to poke myself. I still had a long way to go and much, much more to learn. I kept going.

Mega Man 1, Ice Man Here I learned to not pull the floss as tight when I made my stitches. Every stitch I have to flip the frame over to thread the needle back into the cloth.

Mega Man 1, Bomb Man Mega Man 1, Guts Man This is where I starting having doubts in KG Charts Color Matching. I do not like how light the block turned out.

Mega Man 1 - Elec Man I finished the Mega Man 1 series with my best one. I used brand new aida for that crisp white background. It is my favorite of the bunch. I am still excited about cross stitching so I keep going with Mega Man 2.

Mega Man 2 - Heat Man Mega Man 2 - Metal Man Mega Man 2 - Quick Man I can get one done in about 3 hours. I am letting my fiancé pick the order that I do them. She thinks it is cute.

Mega Man 2 - Flash Man

Mega Man 2 - Bubble Man My wedding is only a few months away now. I am using cross stitching as a way to calm the nerves.

Mega Man 2 - Air Man I really like how this guy turned out. I also realized that that I need to make my stiches in the same directions otherwise I get a wavy pattern in solid blocks of color (see his legs).

Mega Man 2 - Crash Man I am getting better at hand picking color replacements for KG Chart. I really like how this guy turned out.

Mega Man 2 - Wood Man This is my favorite so far. I hand picked the colors and absolutely love how he turned out. Mega Man 2 was my first mega man game as a kid and Wood Man was the first Robot Master I beat. It was fitting I left him to last.

The wedding is less than a week away. Everything is crazy now. I decide to start on Mega Man 3 Characters.

Mega Man 3 - Magnet Man It's the night of the wedding, I am a nervous wreck. Keep forgetting the vows. Need to focus. I do one last guy to calm the nerves.

Mega Man 3 - Hard Man

I decide to take a break from the Mega Man series and want to make my wife something for our first Christmas together. I final register on this forum and as for ideas. She loves My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, so wanted to make her something Dr. Hooves & Derpy. I find the pattern I want (Thank you for all who replied) but realize there is no way I can finish it by Christmas (less than a month away). I instead decide to make her versions of her two favorite characters. These are much bigger than anything I have made before, so I wasn't sure how long they would take.

MLP - Princess Luna I finished this one a week before Christmas.

MLP - Princess Celestia I spent every hour I could spare without her knowing to finish this before Christmas. I finished this one about 3 days after.

For Christmas I got some large rolling frames. I had spent a lot of time before Christmas looking for a Dr. Hooves & Derpy picture, resized it, cleaned up the colors and now with my new frames I could finally start working on it. My goal was to have it done by Valentines day. I had never done anything this big before, and had no real gauge as to how quickly I could get it done. I now have mastered feeding from the back without having to flip the frame over, and was doing about 100 stitches per hours. What I didn't realize was when I started was that the completed pattern had over 35,000 stitches. Let's just say I was WAY off on the time commitment for this project. I spent every lunch break, extra hours after work, staying up until 2-3 am in the morning, every extra hour I could in secret to get it done. My wife knew I was making something, but she had no clue what it was. Valentines comes too quickly and I am only 75% done. I've put in almost 300 hours so far, I am completely burnt out. I am exhausted and disappointed that I wasn't able to complete it on time. I wrap what I have along with a print out of what I want it to look like when I am done. She opens it up and absolutely loves it. I have to take a break for a while before I can come back to it. It takes about 450 hours to finish and measures 18" x 14".
I love how the colors on Dr. Hooves turned out. Not so much with Derpy. Should have went with a lighter grey for the body. The dress I left for last and had to eyeball it the best I could. The gradient is made from four different blues. I would do a few rows of blue 1, then take a string of blue 1 and blue 2 together and stitch a few rows, then just blue 2, then blue 2 and 3, etc. It was a new technique I wanted to try. I loved the results.

Well it's another Valentines day, and this time I decided to make her another cross stitch gift. I finish with 2 days to spare. She loves it.

I Taco Fluffle Puff Before this I had spent hours cleaning up images I resized for patterns. The "Taco" I spent a good 3 hours on. Fluffle I decided to just let it go and see how it turned out. I liked it. I thinked the blurred edges makes her look extra fluffy. I did realize though that pink thread + 4 cats is a struggle. There are definetly spots where the cats added something extra. Anyone have any tips for keeping cat hair out of the way. Other than stitching shirtless, I really don't know what else I can do.

These are all excellent! I enjoyed the commentary detailing your learning process. You know, I've been stitching for about five years now and still have to flip the fabric over for every stitch. Please keep updating as you start new projects!

Looks great. And I loved the commentary. Almost makes me wish I could remember how I learned and picked up tips and tricks.

As for cat hair, I just keep him away from my projects (they're either in plastic zip-up bags or in a filing cabinet). For the hair that is in the air/on me/on the couch/everywhere, I just have to keep an eye on it as I'm stitching. Fortunately, he's a long-hair black and white cat, so I notice pretty quickly if something has entered my piece. Though I have been known to sew my own hair into a piece (while it's still attached to my head!)

Lucradan wrote:Anyone have any tips for keeping cat hair out of the way.

I think one day I should write a book called "Nice Things I Could Have If I Didn't Have Cats." Finished cross stitch pieces sans cat hair is now added to that list.

My cats love to cuddle while I'm stitching, so I have embraced the fact that there will be cat hair mixed in. Mom always said to pick and choose your battles! That one I know I've lost.