A Fresh Craft Project Update – Part 2

As I mentioned during my last blog post, there has been a flurry of new crafting activity in our hose hold of late. For me, this has involved a lot of new skills in relation to framing. But I haven’t let that detract from my cross stitching.

As you can probably tell from my last post, I’ve completed a lot of projects. In truth, I never thought I’d stick with cross stitch this long. Some of those patterns were just fantasies I hoped to one day have time for – now they’re finished and awaiting shipping to their final owners.

It turned out, moving to patterns instead of kits opened a whole new world of potential for me. Suddenly, I didn’t need to be married to the colors indicated by the pattern or to the exact placement of something on the canvas. I learned that if I wanted to switch things up a bit, it wasn’t that hard.

And this awakened a desire to create my own totally custom patterns. I have not fully reached this stage just yet, but I am close – and more excited about it than ever!

Here’s a look at my currently in-progress patterns that didn’t fit in last week’s update.

Gengar-ception

The Glizzy Guy pattern I mentioned last time was great – but it was also small. Since many of my other projects have been larger, I wanted to give my friend Joe an equal amount of effort. I asked him about his favorite Pokémon and he told me Gengar.

There are actually a ton of Gengar-related patterns on Etsy. But most of them felt either too cutesy, too simple or too centered around Gengar’s other forms (Ghastly and Haunter). I wanted something that would encompass the idea of Gengar.

The pattern I chose was, in retrospect, probably not the best pattern. I chose it because it evoked the idea of Gengar’s other forms roaming through a forest – that formed the shape of a Gengar. But when I actually sat down to craft it, I realized pretty quickly that the pattern was not going to live up to my vision.

I had already purchased the pattern and set aside the thread for it. Theoretically, I could have changed tact, but I really liked the idea that was in my head. So I decided to modify the pattern on the fly so that it would look the way I wanted.

I don’t think I’ll ever try something like this again. Modifying a pattern is fine; but I think I’ll do it before starting to stitch next time. Deciding what to stitch day by day was challenging in a way that wasn’t entirely fun. But the results are spectacular. This ended up looking exactly how I imagined. And now it’s unique. There’s not another like it.

I’m planning to add a few more details to this pattern, so it’s not in the finished pile yet. But I’m not entirely sure which details I’m going to add yet either, so stay tuned!

Celestial Tea Octopus

The story behind this pattern is so detailed, it could probably get its own post. The long and short of it is that I found pictures of this completed pattern on Reddit. But try as I did, I couldn’t find anywhere to buy the pattern. I scoured the internet but, it had been removed from Etsy. All I could find were pictures people had posted of their completed projects.

I wanted this octopus on my wall so badly, I grew desperate. So I decided to do something that had never occurred to me before. I decided to make the pattern based off of the pictures I found.

I knew nothing about making my own pattern at the time. It was something I wanted to do, but I had no idea how to go about it. Having a guide felt like a good way to start. I tried to make myself a guide in phothoshop, but I quickly realized I didn’t know how to use the tools properly. So I settled for excel.

I spent hours staring at pictures of this pattern, trying to determine which colors to put where. I very quickly had to give up on the idea of a perfect replication. And I cannot copy the original artist anyway, I can only pay tribute. So I tried to make a pattern that is similar, but mine in its own way.

I have only just started stitching this particular project, but I already love it. I agonized over the placement of every potential stitch and every color I intended to put on it. But I think it’s going to look spectacular when it’s done, so I expect it to be well worth the effort.

The Gay Music Heart

This pattern is for my friend Karly. She’s a music major. So a heart formed from music symbols seemed perfect. The first pattern I found also colored the symbols so that they were a rainbow. But when I looked into purchasing that pattern, I discovered it was made by AI.

I don’t really want to buy an AI generated pattern when there are lots of human designers out there pouring time, sweat and energy into their patterns. So I found a similar pattern that appeared to be made by a human and decided to change the pattern.

Having learned my lesson after the Gengar situation, I opened the pattern in photoshop and painted over it. Using the original concept as a guide, I painted over each of the symbols in the color that I wanted to use instead. But again, mindful of the fact that I’m not trying to replicate someone else’s design, I also added some details to make it my own.

In this case, I paid particular attention to the blending of the colors and the pattern I wanted to use as I moved through the rainbow. This one is going to be a big project, but I’m excited to start stitching it!

It just so happened that I also discovered, around this same time, that Karly loves frogs. So I have a pair of mini frogs on tap to make for her as well. Though I won’t be modifying those patterns.

Macross City

We have finally arrived at my most recent project. And it’s probably the one I’m most excited about. When my husband got back into modeling, one of the first things he built for me was a book nook. I instantly knew that I wanted to repay the favor with a cross stitch. But when it comes to giant mechs, it isn’t easy to find a pattern that will suit.

I had been tossing around the idea of a custom pattern for months. Especially after I finished practicing with the octopus. So when I failed to find a pattern I started looking at screenshots of technical specs. And I found a beautiful scene from the anime.

This shot depicts the SDF (that’s Super Dimensional Fortress) Macross defending the city that will one day become known as Macross City during a massive fire fight. It’s a night scene, with the Macross in its humanoid form surrounded by laser beams and looming over a city highlighted by its lights.

The perfect scene for stitching against a dark canvas backdrop.

Since I already had the tools, I went straight to work with a brand new excel spreadsheet. The hardest part was trying to figure out how many rows and columns the pattern would ultimately be. And trying to make sure the finished project won’t take up an entire wall.

But after many days of carefully shifting colored squares, I am pleased to have finished the city layout. There were several places I had to simplify or compress the design in order to make the sizing work. And there are still a few places that will need attention to differentiate between shapes. But some of that will also happen during back stitching.

I love how this looks so far. I can’t wait to stitch it. And even more exciting, my husband loves it as well!

I’ve got a few more projects in the pipeline that I’m excited to start. But since I haven’t yet, I think we’ll leave this update here. And I’ll try to check back in the summer instead of waiting a year between updates!