Designing my own Crash Bandicoot sampler

Of all the fandoms that have had inspired needlework patterns - you can't move for Doctor Who or Star Wars ones, for example, and there's even some Sailor Moon ones if you know where to look - there's not a great deal for Crash yet. As a lifelong fan of the orange marsupial who married another lifelong fan of the orange marsupial, I took matters into my own embroidery hoop.

You know how you see traditional samplers involving a depiction of a house, and motifs such as an alphabet or an idiom, and small lucky charms (I'm compelled to point out I don't mean the cereal)? I wanted to go for that feel for this piece. I looked into small Crash B. items that could translate easily into stitch, and sketched them out - the layout looked as below:

 

(click to enlarge)

The Wumpa, the Aku Aku mask, the crates and the crystals worked well - the well and the relic did not, I felt they made the layout look a bit unbalanced especially given the symmetry of the house, and they were discarded in the final stitching.

Now I really do need to invest in a proper cross-stitching software (as well as a new domain, you've probably noticed the watermark - but more on that later) however in the meantime I draw any designs I have out on graph paper and then go straight onto fabric from there. For numbers I do end up doing some of my own calculations, but this generator from Yarntree is grand when it comes to working out size.

I have a lot of thread colours so I do tend to pick ones out from my stash before I begin - I'm not pernickety over brand, I've used and owned DMC, Anchor and 'offbrand'. I don't mind offbrand, the colours can be quite good providing it's for decorative wall art (never used it to embellish clothes), but you're going to get a good strong thread with DMC and Anchor so if one can afford it, go for it. This sampler was done in a mix of DMC and offbrand, mostly DMC.

I ordered light-blue DMC aida for this project for a nice summery feel.

 

In-progress shot!

I do love when a piece starts taking shape, there's a stage when you think 'oh no, is this going to work??' and it's not unique to sewing - it pretty much happens when I draw and paint as well. I got that feeling a lot when working on the house but overall I was fairly happy with how it turned out. In retrospect a bit of shading work wouldn't go amiss but as the final sampler is fairly simple, childlike and colourful, it does lend itself to the overall vibe.

The sand at the bottom was a last-minute addition - the house and fence needed something. I thought full cross-stitch would be a bit overpowering, so I opted for half-cross stitch in two strands.

Second in-progress shot, just after I decided to add clouds. This was especially last minute, and only came about after I noticed that the gap between gem/crystal and border looked far too bare.

One of my favourite bits about the sampler is the French-knot 'glints' on the gems.

And finally, all framed up and ready for the wall! A few 'sparkles' added with metallic thread and I was very happy with it. It's so bright and bold, and very fun to work on with no monotonous bits (even the larger parts stitch up fast). I'm looking forward to my next Crash stitch, whether it's one I design, or if another stitcher designs one - I'm looking at you, Etsy.