Designing our own Crash Bandicoot sampler, wedding edition (part 1)

So, this has been a long time coming! Ever since The Wonderful Smaz and I started making serious plans for our wedding ceremony, I knew I wanted to sew my own sampler to commemorate it (like how a Poundland 'wedding plate' is rolled out for every Royal wedding - except, y'know, far better). However, I didn't really know where to start - I knew I wanted it to be Crash-themed, but that was really about it.

Designing this one first really helped, especially when it turned out better than I pictured. Forever a cheapskate, I am still using graph paper, and my resulting designs have become very dog eared, crumpled, and liable to change at any moment. At my day job, they call this a 'living document'.

There are so many elements about my first sampler that I really like but the iconic items (crystals, gems, crates) were particularly fun to work on, so I used that idea of iconic as a starting point:

The top four panels are based off the wall textures from the levels Sunset Vista and The Lost City in the first ever Crash game. Smaz and I have always loved the aesthetic of these levels, and the music's pretty damned catchy too.

 

And below, our names worked in backstitch, the classic Crash icon on the left (again, introduced in the first game although you can see it in the N-Sane Trilogy edition too), Aku Aku on the right, and the Wumpa fruit with clear gems in the middle space - all four of these, can't get much more iconic than that!

I picked ecru aida as I really love the look of unbleached fabric; I get why if you're not a fan, but to me there's a beauty in no two similar pieces. It adds a lot of texture and interest to my needlework and in the case of bright colours (see Aku) it really makes the design pop.

Stay tuned for part 2 ...

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.

Steven Universe mini cross-stitch: Amethyst

 "I will fight for the world I was made in! The Earth is everything I've ever known!"

Yo, how's about that new Steven Universe season, huh?! Here's a finished pattern of Amethyst to celebrate! This chart is simple in colours, but a lot of fun in backstitch - you can always mash it uuuup by adding some silver metallics to the Gem backstitch in the corners. She measures around 1.75" x 1.75" on 14-count Aida, so she's similar in size to Peridot. You can omit the French knot 'glint' in her eye if you like; I think it looks great either way but I chose to leave it out in the example stitching.

Click on the chart below, if you need for it to be bigger:

Steven Universe mini cross-stitch: Peridot

 

 "You may have won the war, but the battle isn't over, Crystal Clods!"

I'm sorry these are taking a while - I've had quite a lot of projects on the go (and I've sworn to myself that I'll get them all done). Here is Peridot - I don't think she'd be big into sewing, but there's some fun fractional stitches and backstitch in different colours to keep even the pickiest Gem interested.

A bit bigger than Steven, Peri measures just under 1.8" x 1.8" on 14-count Aida (including her pointy hairdo). If you want to really give her a boost, replace the 3823 (her hair, the backstitch on the background) with a couple of strands of DMC's glow in the dark thread!

 

Happy stitching ... clods. Nyeheheh ...

Steven Universe mini cross stitch: Steven

"I will fight to be everything that everybody wants me to be when I'm grown!"

Here's the first little SU cross stitch design I've been beavering away on! I just need to finish test-stitching my Peridot, Amethyst and Pearl designs - and then I'll get out the graph pad for a Garnet pattern (Garnet is my favourite Gem in the series, so I want to do her justice!)

 Steven measures just under 1.5" x 1.5" on 14-count Aida, making him perfect for mini projects like a patch on a greetings card, a fridge magnet, or even a keyring if you've got some plastic canvas and felt spare.

The photograph of the finished stitching does show the DMC colours written on the chart, but if you have similar colours from another brand, go for it.

There are some fractional stitches and French knots in the pattern, but this chart can be easily done in whole stitches. If you have any small white beads, they'd also work for Steven's eye-sparkles if you're not a fan of French knots.

Happy stitching!

Mum's Sampler

 

 

 

 

I designed my very first sampler this year for my Mum's 50th birthday earlier this month! This book was a great help for layouts, and many of the motifs inside are also really useful for your general stitching needs. My favourite one on the sampler has to be the Welsh flag (which I drew out myself on the graph paper), although getting the dragon to look just right was a bit of a challenge!

The full sampler was around 8 by 5 inches, so it fit perfectly into a 8x10 frame. Even though the sampler was so colourful I did want a touch of folksiness to it, so I used ecru aida and a wooden frame to complement the autumnal border - I think it worked really well and my Mum thinks it's top too (which is the main thing).

Yarn Along: Spring is here!

... well, maybe that's a bit optimistic. It's still very cold here although there's just a hint of sunset on my way home from work.

Here's a blanket I'm working on.

I'm using the 'join as you go' method for these mini crochet-squares - it's fun to learn a new technique and thankfully I don't have to stitch them all together!

Joining in with Ginny.

Radio silence

Oh wow. June already and I last updated in ... February.

Admittedly I do have my reasons. Some very good news is that The Wonderful Smaz and I are now settled into our first house! It's a little old property in a small village, with plenty room enough for my stash of art equipment, and his stash of video games and Doctor Who DVDs.

Then my laptop packed up.

It still works technically - I just have to keep it disconnected from the internet, or else everything freezes. It's doing me some good; I now get much less distracted with the web and have a lot of time to get other things done (knitting!! sewing!! oh my), but at some point I will be getting myself a replacement as I'm currently updating on Smaz's laptop!

Here's some art-related photographs of what I've been getting up to. I've been really into my cross-stitch recently, so I've taken a few shots of the cards I've put together. Some of these were done a while ago, but I don't think I've uploaded them here.

(click to enlarge)

Yarn Along: Keep Warm

Knitting: Finished some baby blankets and mini matching hats.

Reading: Property lettings!

Joining in with Ginny.

With a needle and thread

My 'summer hobby' - for when the weather is too humid for yarn - is sewing. These small cross-stitching kits from DMC (I've been doing the Flowers range so far and a couple of the Sweets, although those Vintage sets look pretty nice too) are an excellent hobby for lunch-breaks, the hour I get before work, and summer evenings when Smaz is working on his indie game. Weeny little pictures like this are versatile, cute and are completed very quickly, so I plan to do many more before picking up my knitting needles again.

I also bit the bullet a few weeks ago and bought my very own sewing machine, which I took out for a whirl this Monday to make a couple of shiny new book covers for plain notebooks. I've spent many a year being scared of sewing machines, so I'll start small before working up to big projects.

Yarn Along: Feet

The past couple of days I've been crocheting a pair of socks, although it's a surprise who they're for. I can make them up quite quickly now, and the yarn I'm using is a really nice shade of purple. Fittingly, the book I've currently got my nose in is The Girl With Glass Feet, by Ali Shaw. I'm not very far through it yet but so far it's very interesting - it gets the balance of fairytale and realism just right, and I love Shaw's use of description. You can't see it here, but each page is gilt-edged with silver to match that lovely cover design.

I've also almost finished my eleventh Embodiment book. I have a day off tomorrow, so hopefully I can finish the socks and the journal!

(Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along.)

Yarn Along: I must be crazy

Joining in with Ginny (a little late, I'm afraid!).

Now I know nothing about your Avengoids or your Marvel or your Batdude or Cat Lady or any other superfolks*, but this weekend I decided to do something Captain America themed for my nephew as he arrived wearing his onesie. If this project turns out to be a blanket (current plan), I've got plenty of time to finish it for Christmas. However, I'd hate to have to find a replacement yarn for that dark blue if the store sold out of it - I'm completely in love with it.

The pattern to crochet the star can be found here (YouTube). Thanks, Crochet Hooks You!

And here's the cover I finished last week. All I need now is a small bottom panel to help keep the cushion in, which shouldn't take me too long. While I really like how it turned out, I didn't expect it to be ... so loud! Haha.

The 'springtime' and row of bottom buttons was an improvisation as I realised the basket was too off-centre for my liking.

The basket was made up from my head, but you can find the (knitted) flower pattern here at Little Cotton Rabbits. For the bottom three flowers, I did a row of single-crochet in the dark pink yarn around the outside of the petals before sewing them up together.

Overall, a nice productive week on the needles.

(P.S. To those who have commented in previous posts thank you so much for stopping by! <3 p="">

* - Once, Smaz and I were watching the BYBA (marching band) finals. One was a superhero themed show, and one guy - the drum major, I think - was in this entirely blue outfit. I was convinced he was meant to be Bananaman for most of the show until Smaz pointed out he was actually meant to be Captain America. Whoops.

Yarn Along: Spring is here!

Joining in with Ginny today.

I didn't realise until this morning that the book I have with me matches the yarn! It's my Tune-a-Day book for the violin. I used to own the older version of this book back when I played the violin as a kid. Now I've picked the instrument back up, I'm trying to familiarise myself with reading music and how to play certain notes again. 

I've decided to take a break from my main project (the blanket I talked about last week - still trying to find a space big enough to photograph the entire thing) and work on something else with different colours. I had some yellow yarn left, a ball of cream double-knitting I bought by accident, and this lovely leaf green I picked up a few months ago. All of them together really seem to evoke the feeling of 'spring' along with the bright mornings we've been lucky enough to have recently.

This 'something else' eventually became plans for a cushion cover when I realised I may not have enough of the yellow for another blanket. So far, so good. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Yarn Along

I need to get back into reading, and thanks to my friend Florrie I have finally started on The Hunger Games trilogy. I'm about two-thirds of the way through the first book and so far, so good - the story is gripping and the characters are really quite likeable, especially Katniss.

Crochet-wise, I'm still working on a single-bed blanket out of multiple granny squares. It's getting to the point where I could do these in my sleep, but they're enjoyable regardless.

I also had a birthday on Monday, and a graduation ceremony on the same day! I will be sure to upload some pictures when I see them, I had a wonderful time (and looked pretty good in a robe and mortarboard).

(Click here to find out more about the Yarn Along on Ginny's website. I'm really getting into reading homesteading blogs, and picked up on this really nice little feature - as I always have something on a needle, I figured I'd give it a shot!)

Christmas Minion

This little Minion, from the movie Despicable Me, didn't turn out badly given that I made him up as I went along. This one is for my nephew this Christmas (his name is embroidered on the goggle strap). Sadly, no pattern - but I do plan to make more, so I'll be sure to make notes next time!

Also, I now have a full-time job! While it's not in the creative industry and only temporary for the time being, I do get along with my colleagues, enjoy the work, take opportunities for overtime, and finally have a proper income. Things are looking up!