IHSW May

Wow, can’t believe it’s been a month since the last one! Time sure has been moving swiftly these past few weeks.
Well…I was all set for May’s IHSW, had all my stuff lined up…but I’ve been unwell over the weekend with a sudden and mysterious cold! So, I actually did more coughing than stitching…!

But I did get some stitching in and here is the proof. I mean the pictures!

Firstly, I did some work to the Elder Scrolls thing I was working on a while ago (but put it away due to working on other things – not sure if I ever posted pictures of it though).

It’s from the Shivering Isles box and when complete it will say “there is no genius without a touch of madness”. It is a version of an ancient quote from Seneca the Younger,  a Roman philosopher (among  other things). I really like the quote, and I feel like it kinda suits me!
Anyway, I just completed the “without” (think it was mostly the “out” part!), and next will be the “a” – should be simple enough!

Next,  I dug out my old Phantasy Star II title screen thing. It’s the one project of mine that really haunts me, so I did a little work in DMC 823:

There’s quite a lot of this colour dotted all over the picture, so I really need to do this when it’s daytime (and preferably bright!) to get it completed.
Also, since I started this piece so long ago, I can see how my stitching has improved over the years. It’s really interesting to look at!

Last of all, a quick non-game piece I whipped up for a friend’s birthday:

He’s a child of the 70s, and seems to have this thing for orange VW campers. I was googling stuff and came across the pattern at http://hancockshouseofhappy.blogspot.co.uk/ . They have some really nice free patterns that are super quick to stitch!
The VW will be going in either a flexi-hoop or a circular frame (haven’t decided yet!). Hope my friend likes it!

So, apart from a little bit of work on my secret swap gifts, that’s all I really managed to do. Hopefully next month I won’t be so full of cold, so I should be able to more!

 

Sprite Stitch Quilt Finished~!

tnitnetny really pulled out all the stops on this one. It only took her a couple of days to complete our quilt, and here it is:

She also embroidered the Sprite Stitch and Child’s Play squares!
I love how it turned out, and I want to thank everyone who got involved
Our plan now is to get organised and send it to the Penny Arcade / Child’s Play dinner where it will be auctioned off. Hopefully someone there will love it as much as we do, and give lots of money!

Some other news now.
I haven’t been posting anything I’ve made lately because I’m working on a set of gifts in the current Sprite Stitch mini-swap. When my partner receives them, I’ll be able to post about them here. What I can say is the first one (that I’m working on now) is turning out really nice!

Also, someone on deviantArt told me that Game Arts tweeted about my Justin and Feena stitchings on their Twitter! I have thanked GA, of course, and they told me they were “very impressed” ! That made me happy
Many thanks go to all the people who found me because of that tweet, fav’d my work, and added my stuff to their dA group, #Icarians!

Back soon with more stuff!

Two Phantasy Star Pieces

Very different, but both very much Phantasy Star pieces!
The first is the party from Phantasy Star (Master System) – from left to right we have Myau (JP:Myau ~ ミャウ), Odin (JP: Tylon ~ タイロン), Noah (JP: Lutz ~ ルツ) and Alis (JP: Alisa ~ アリサ). I actually started this piece months ago and put it aside until this week.

Second piece is from Phantasy Star Online – one of my all-time favourite games! It is a Section ID called “WHITILL”, one of ten such ID’s from the game – each ID governs the types of items that the enemies drop. WHITILL is my favourite as I have spent the last ten years playing as a character with that ID!

I’m really happy with how both stitchings turned out. I’m in the process of framing the party but the ID is proving to be a little more difficult, as I want something that really suits it!

Sprite Stitch Squares!

Alliteration aside, those of you who follow what I do here will already know that I’ve completed five squares for the Sprite Stitch charity project.
Today, I cleaned and stretched them all and got a few snaps of them before I send them off to tnitnetny!

Here they are, almost dry, on a bath towel

People keep asking me if I’m sad to see them go…and in a way I am, because I put a lot of work into these squares. But I’m also happy that they are going off to be part of something special
Also, I tried to come up with patterns that I liked but wouldn’t necessarily make for myself – for example I love Shiva, but if I was making one for myself, I would choose a different image of her. Same for the rest of the images I used. Also, I have ideas for similar projects but different enough that these squares are all one of a kind items (or I hope they are, anyway!)

I hope that whoever ends up with our finished project takes good care of it, remembers all the hard work we put into it, and ultimately what we did it for

Lots of thanks go to:
my best friend Nick – for his encouragement and all-round awesomeness
my crazy family – for their support and help with the little things
everyone who commented here on the blog and on deviantArt – your feedback means a great deal to me
and the awesome people of Sprite Stitch!

Well, almost at the end of this project…but of course I have many more lined up, as always

Squares update

Back on to the squares this week! The Alis square is finished and the Shining Force square is progressing nicely.

Hopefully the SF square will be done this week, as I really need to increase my work rate.

In other news…

My Shining Force parcel got to Moogie of SFC this week, and she will be sending it on to Camelot with all the other gifts and letters very soon. I hope they like it!

At Sprite Stitch there is some talk of a Pokemon quilt – with sale proceeds going to a charity that is helping out with the situation in Japan. I can’t take on anymore stitching at the minute, but I have offered to help out with any web support they need – such as managing a blog etc. More news to come on that project, I’m sure.

I am in the process of updating my pattern collection, and also making the list of Littlemojo’s Pokemon pdfs – the patterns area will be revised very soon!

And that’s about it for this week!

Stitching for charity!

Over at Sprite Stitch recently was a discussion on possible charitable projects. Eventually, it was decided that we would make a quilt, with each of us submitting squares to be stitched together. We got a lot of people signing up, so that quilt then became three – a Zelda quilt, a Final Fantasy quilt and a miscellaneous one.

We’re well past the ideas stage and I think that most people have got their patterns sorted – some of us have started work on the squares. Now, I put down ideas for nine squares, that’s three for each quilt:

Top row (misc quilt): Alis from Phantasy Star, Shining Force and Super Metroid;
Middle row (FF quilt): FFX Shiva, FFVIII Rinoa and Cactuar;
Bottom row (Zelda quilt): Golden Goddesses, OoT Great Fairy and LTTP Fairies.

I thought it would be hard to get images to fit the size we all need, which is 96×96 stitches, but by chance I had a lot of good pics that size or similar on my PC – I just had to choose some! I also tried to pick games and pictures that meant something to me personally

Still not too sure about the third column there, and I do have more images ready to be made into squares. I’ll see how it goes! On to progress!!

Damn those energy-saving bulbs! It actually looks a lot brighter than this in daylight. Ah well. This Alis square is going really well, but I can’t finish it until my new stock of colours arrive. So, before I run out of black, I thought I’d make a start on my next one:

Not much to see here, but there’s the beginnings of the Shining Force square.

Work is ongoing, of course, so I hope to update very soon with more on this great collaboration For more infos on the project, please check out the thread on Sprite Stitch to see how we’re progressing!

The Craft Swap – Part Two b!

As promised – the final part of my craft swap adventures!! Here are pictures of the items at their new homes:

The Pikachu was painted in acrylic on canvas for Turqoizyoshi, and the PSIV Demi keyholder was cross stitched on 14ct aida (the frame, mount and hooks I made myself ^^) for Bamiyan.

I had a lot of fun making these, Turqoiz and Bamiyan seem to be happy so it’s been a win for everyone

So…now I think I can finally say the craft swap is over for me. I think it’s been a success, and I look forward to September’s mini swap, as well as future big swaps ^^

BMH has been working!! Oh yes.

Ahhh, nothing like a cross stitch to convey how you *really* feel There’s a whole site for this on teh interwebs, www.subversivecrossstitch.com, run by a smashing laydee called Julie Jackson. She has a book of patterns, surprisingly called “Subversive Cross Stitch” – this pattern is from that book. I made a few little changes here and there but the spirit of it’s essentially the same. It’s also serving as my msn display pic – I leave it up to individuals to interpret its meaning for themselves I’m gonna frame it and keep it around my desk area (once I make space for it). If you’re looking for something a bit different and quirky, and completely stuffed to the brim with irony, please do check out the site and the book!

So…that out the way I come to the main event. Yes, the title is correct – I have been working. And yeah, you’ve probably seen more work on a sick note.

But look – it’s the Phantasy Star II piece, no less!! Finally felt like dragging it out and working on it, totally for teh lulz of course. That and I want it finished

Apologies for the bad pics, couldn’t be bothered to go ask my sis to borrow her camera, so used my phone >_<

I’ve done some work on the right lady, mostly on her hair and dress – running out of DMC 3777 now though! – and also some on the lettering. I’ve also been eyeballing some extra colours in preparation for finishing the planets and doing the blues in the background.

I’m feeling really motivated to do more on this one so expect updates soon.

Finally, I must add that the next challenge on Sprite Stitch has begun, it’s an alphabet type thing. I have a couple of ideas but need to start em, will post about those soon (hopefully with pics!).

Til next time!! ^^

Game-based art (while I’m working on new stuff!)

Good day! Sorry it has been a while, I’ve had an unreal amount of stuff to do. I’m still hard at work on the craft swap… and as much as I’d like to be able to post about it here I can’t – but I can tell you I’m making good progress and should have it sent off in the next couple of weeks. When my partner receives it then I can freely post about it.

While I was sorting through some of my stuff, I took some pictures of the pieces I did for the art courses I took at college. I was very lucky to have a tutor that pretty much gave me free rein to do video game based stuff – as long as it fit into the assignment. Thanks Olwyn – you helped me produce some decent work that I’m actually pretty proud of.

So, while you lot wait for the craft swap to be over, I thought you’d like to have a peek at my past works! Most are game based pictures but there’s a couple that aren’t. There’s quite a few images here so today it’s in a gallery format – click the thumbnails for larger images.

Enjoy!

Phantasy Star II title screen WIP

As well as being a Shining Force nut, I’m also a Phantasy Star nut and ages ago I decided I wanted to do the PSII title screen, it’s a nice image and there’s not too many colours.

I’ve been working on this one on and off for over a year and I really need to get it finished. I figured posting the WIP might get me motivated to work on it again

I chose not to stitch the entire background but instead use a dark aida (at the time seemed like a good idea).

The right lady needs finishing, as do the words and planets. I also have a boatload of odd pixels in the background to add but that shouldn’t be too hard