Yoshi's Island Biscornu

One of my favourite memories of gaming is the first time I hit the yellow question block and hatched a Yoshi in World 1-3 of Super Mario World. ♥ From then on, Yoshi was my favourite Mario character and still is. I have to play as him in Mario Party, Mario Kart, etc. But I haven't really immortalized him in cross stitch, except for one tiny magnet. I've been wanting to do a biscornu upon discovering them in various cross stitch blogs. I decided to use Yoshi's Island sprites for my first one. I hope to make many more. =]

I decided to have Yoshi, some eggs and a Huffin' Puffin on one side. Baby Mario is unbelievably adorable. He has to be because he is so damn annoying if you take damage. =P

I knew I wanted to have enemies on the opposite side and took a lot of time choosing which ones to stitch. I had to have a Grinder (the monkey) and a Bandit (the blue guy) because they are the most diabolic enemies in the game, always spitting watermelon seeds or kidnapping the baby. I went with Fly Guy and Koopa Troopa because they are 16-bit renditions of classic enemies.

Yoshi's Island Biscornu

Started: January 17, 2011

Finished: January 28, 2011

Fabric: 16 count white aida

Size: 2790 stitches

Colours: 33

So there you have it, my first biscornu. This one measures 4.5", a bit on the larger side. I wanted to get the sewing part down before making smaller ones. I used green fabric to reinforce the aida.  For next time  I'll try to have less white area around the middle.

Tetris Attack: Froggy

This is my fiftieth post and Froggy is the ninth entry in my Tetris Attack bead sprite set. He is apparently a frog pirate in Yoshi's Island. And Prince Froggy in said game is a very interesting boss. He swallows Yoshi  who then escapes through Froggy's intestines. o_0 About as weird as Yoshi's digestion/reproductive system anyway. Eat enemies -> make eggs?

And speaking of frogs, I have been doing a lot of that on my Hogwarts Crest. I keep making counting errors which I can't say happens very often. Frustrating. I think it's because Slytherin truly is evil...I hope to have an update early February. Also, I finished the stitching aspect of the biscornu I've been working on. I will teach myself the sewing part tonight and share the result here soon.

Tetris Attack: Kamek

Finally getting on with my goal of finishing my Tetris Attack set this year. Only five left after this! I'm almost done after more than a year. I have beading attention deficit disorder.

Kamek is the Big Bad of Yoshi's Island and frankly, I love him. He's adorable. In Tetris Attack, he curses Yoshi's Island and now we, the players, must beat one of the best puzzle games ever to set the world right. We owe a lot to Kamek the Magikoopa.

Super Mario Bros. Bead Sprites

I've been stitching in the hand lately and that has resulted in some wrist pain. =[ I've taken a pause from stitching and  busted out the tweezers and pegboards. I received a bead order a few months ago and started on a large bead project. But it was constantly trampled on by a certain cat whose door-opening stat is maxed. And I had made a counting error somewhere and it was very much ruined. I may attempt it again some day.

Anyway, I have not done much 8-bit art, barring my Bowser Valentine. Also from Super Mario Bros. on the NES are these sprites, made into magnets for a birthday present. I think if I were to open an Etsy store or something similar, I would make these sorts of items.

In the centre, of course, is Mario. Clockwise from the top left, Cheep-Cheep, Lakitu Cloud, Bullet Bill, Spiny, Koopa Shell, and Goomba.

Dark Toon Link by Abysswolf

Link is all washed and ironed after finishing him late last night. He's my first finish of the year and I quite like him despite my issues with the fabric. The original pattern is slightly longer width-wise and the final piece is much longer length-wise. =P I was impressed with how linen irons out though. I usually let it sit  for a bit after washing but this time I ironed straight out of the water.

 

Dark Toon Link

Sprite by Abysswolf 

Started: January 7, 2011

Finished: January 15, 2011

Fabric: 32 count natural linen

Size: 4049

Colours: 34

I will continue to stitch my Hogwarts Crest next. Slytherin is calling in Parseltongue.

Dark Toon Link Update II

Link's Master Sword is stitched. And his little body. I've been stitching like mad lately. I feel like I set some pretty ambitious goals for the year. It's only January and I feel like I'm running out of time. =P Only his shield remains.

And I officially hate this linen now. I guess it's just the brand I picked because I've seen some lovely work on linen before. The stitches are noticeably skewed vertically, making everything much more elongated and just, off... Live and learn, I guess. Only Link's adorable boots keep me from going into an adamantium rage.

Patterns for Child's Play

Some members of the forums at Sprite Stitch, including myself, are stitching squares which will be made into quilts. 26 people are participating so far with one quilter bringing it all together. The finished products will be auctioned off at the annual Child's Play charity. Or so we are planning. I made up my patterns and wanted to share them here. All three will be made into 96x96 squares on 16 count white aida.

Link from The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

Balthier and Fran from Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings

Naval Piranha from Yoshi's Island

A New Work in Progress: Dark Toon Link

Dark Toon Link! So cute! So evil! And one of my main characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This lovely sprite is by Abysswolf, of course. This will be my sixth stitched Abysswolf sprite. This stitching is on 32 count natural linen. I was a linen virgin, I should note. So far so good and I quite like the look of the fabric. =] The only issue is that the fabric warps every now and then and distends some of the stitches. I plan to keep to evenweave in the future.

By Gryffindor, the bravest were prized far beyond the rest

Continuing clockwise, the Gryffindor lion is complete. I changed a couple things on this section. One, there was a random red dot on his mouth that I made silver instead. Two, I filled in the middle tail section silver instead of red. Those two items bothered me a bit. Slytherin is up next but not for awhile as I just began my January start and will finish that first.

 Also, when I was making my list of goals for January, I omitted a couple items. One is a stitch from the old cartoon "The Snowman". The other is to finish three quilting squares for Child's Play charity. They need to be 96x96 stitches on 16 count white fabric. As of now, I plan on doing a square each of Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda and Yoshi's Island.

Skein count: 2 black (#310), 1 medium topaz (#783)

January 2011 TUSAL

Last year I bought a collector's issue of Nintendo Power devoted to the Legend of Zelda. It came with ten lovely posters of my favourite games. ♥ I plan to use them as backdrops for pictures of my Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long entries.  More information on this little endeavour can be found here. There is also a handy list of all the new moons this year. I hope I didn't cheat by having some ends from 2010 in there. >_>

TUSAL jar contents: Hogwarts Crest, Psylocke

TUSAL backdrop: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Happy 2011! ♥

I just made my first pattern of the year and picked out my colours for it. It's another Abysswolf sprite. This character was actually my main in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, along with Diddy Kong and Yoshi. I just wanted to start out the year all cute and evil.

Goals I wanted to achieve this year stitching-wise and bead-wise in no particular order:

# Finish Hogwarts Crest

# Finish January start pictured above

# Stitch Valefor by Abysswolf

# Stitch Pokemon Trainer by Abysswolf
# Stitch "The Snowman" by Christmas
# Stitch three quilting squares for Child's Play by August (Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, Yoshi's Island)

# Finish my Tetris Attack bead sprite set

# Finish Yoshi's Island themed biscornu

The above are mostly pretty large projects, especially Pokemon Trainer. I may do a couple more X-Men or Batman portraits as well so I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

To recap 2010, I started and finished 16 projects. They can all be viewed here. They were all small to medium sized pieces so I expect to not have as many finishes in 2011.