Sunday 31 January 2021

Saturday 30 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Animal Crossing Logo - update #2

The letters are going to take me forever to complete.  I started tonight and this is all I have done in a few hours.  I’m stitching with all 3 colours at the same time to make sure my counting is correct because it is so hard to remove the quarter stitches if I make a mistake.






Friday 29 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Animal Crossing Logo - update #1

I completed the border around the logo. I also stitched the tag showing a tiny island and palm tree. I started to work on the yellow letters that say Animal Crossing, but stopped because I don’t like how they are charted. Stewart designed them in yellow with some yellow backstitching to create the 2D look. A few other stitchers tried to backstitch around the letters in a dark brown, which I think looks better and makes it easier to read.  Unfortunately, the yellow backstitch doesn’t go around the letters, it goes on top of them. I spent the afternoon re-charting them with back stitching all around each letter, because before it looked like when you colour outside the lines.  I will start stitching them tomorrow.



Thursday 28 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Animal Crossing Logo

Last night I decided to start the game’s logo.  A lot of the stitchers on the Facebook group complained about this part having so many fractional stitches to create the words. I haven’t got to that part of the logo yet, so not sure how hard it will be.  I already had to frog some because I was watching TV and miscounted of course.  I fixed the mistake, then thought I should go to bed and continue today. 
This is what the logo looks like.







Wednesday 27 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Switch Frame - update #8

Last night I didn’t feel like counting, so I worked on filling in the green joy con controller.
Before (photo taken at night)

After (photo taken this morning)



Tuesday 26 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #13

I didn’t get time to stitch last night, we were working on a jigsaw puzzle (which we completed earlier this evening).  Tonight I finished crossing all of the X’s for the water around the island.

It is still early, so I’ll stitch some more before bed.

Monday 25 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #12

Last night I did half stitches all around the island (waters edge) and then I started going back and crossing all of the X’s.  I should be able to finish these tonight.


Still deciding what part to do next.  I have the Animal Crossing logo for the top right corner of the Switch screen, the black rectangle screen (so I can outline the blue Joy Con controller), or filling in some of the green Joy Con controller.  It is nice to have choices.

Sunday 24 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #11

I finally completed all of the green grass.  

I think next I will continue adding stitches all around the island to create the waters edge.  I am using 1 strand of 3766 + 1 strand of B5200 to represent the white foam in the water at the edge of the sandy beach as seen in the game image below (found online).  You can see this above near the river mouths (top left and bottom right) where I started doing this on my project.








Saturday 23 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Switch Frame - update #7

Last night I used black to complete the joystick (large black round circle) on the green joy con controller and then filled in the black at the bottom of the Switch screen.  I would like to finish the green grass today and/or tomorrow.  Not much left to do.  Just up the right side and then cross the X’s on the 2 strips of green on both sides of the honey bag (bottom middle).



Friday 22 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #10

Yesterday, I realized that I had designed my island map with the Animal Crossing logo attached at the top of the island like Stewart’s original design.  Then I decided to separate the logo from my island, but forgot to add all of the extra rocks at the top of the island.  I designed the rocks and then stitched them last night.  It was still early, so I stitched the white airplane to represent the airport and then continued crossing all of the X’s on the green grass.  It will take a few more nights to complete all of the green.  I’m really happy with how it looks with the extra rocks.



Thursday 21 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #9

Last night I finished stitching the motifs.  I will add a little more back stitching to them (original design didn’t have much).
The top middle motif is a leaf with a bite out of it.  It is has been in every Animal Crossing game.
The bottom middle is a money bag (currency in the game is called “bells”).


Motif in the bottom right corner is a tool box.  This is to represent a tool (shovel, axe, fishing rod, bug net or slingshot) you have crafted or when you drop it on the ground.  

I’m also continuing to cross the X’s on the green grass.











 

Wednesday 20 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #8

Last night I finished the sandy beach all around the island.  I was completing the X’s in the black circle at the bottom for the airport and realized I forgot to stitch the airplane, so I had to frog all of the black.  I then replaced only the black around the airplane shape (which will be filled with white).  I wasn’t tired yet and decided to do some small motifs that are inside the green circles on the green grass map.  

The first motif is a DIY card, which looks like this in the game.

Underneath this motif is a Nook Miles Ticket, which looks like these in the game.


I started the motif in the top right circle, but still need to finish it with the blue floss.  This is a fossil, which looks like this in the game.


I will complete the 6 motifs before going back to complete the green grass map.




Tuesday 19 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #7

Last night I worked along the bottom.  I stitched the dock, the river mouth, sandy beach, rocks and airport dock.  I also worked on the left side with a large rock and more of the sandy beach.






Monday 18 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #6

Yesterday, I had lots of time to stitch.  I completed all of the stitches on the right side of the sandy beach and started working on the left side.  My son Jaspar thought the beach looked good with half stitches, but I didn’t like it because I could see the blue in between the stitches.  I love seeing my island come to life.  It is nice to finally see one section completely finished.



Sunday 17 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #5

I finished the grass map (inside area) with half stitches. Not sure which area to stitch next ... green grass, sandy beach, black screen (right side), airport (bottom), river mouth (bottom), dock (bottom right corner).

Here is the whole thing so far.




Saturday 16 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #4

I know I said I was going to finish the bottom beach, but when I got around to stitching last night, I changed my mind and started stitching the green grass on the right side.  I will continue stitching the green grass. 



Friday 15 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #3

I went back to working on the left side of the island last night.  I will try and work on the bottom tonight, hopefully get the whole shape connected.



Thursday 14 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island - update #2

I started stitching down the right side of the sandy beach.  It was going great at first, but half way through I kept screwing up, I think I frogged and restitched this side at least 4 times before it was correct.

The first special character (Timmy & Tommy) was released this evening.  I won’t be able to start them yet because I don’t have the green grass area completed yet.


Wednesday 13 January 2021

Animal Crossing - My Island

I continued working on the rocks at the back of my island until I reached the end.  I am also doing the grass island map as I go.  Now that I have reached the right side I can stitch the sandy beach on both sides and hope they join at the bottom.  













Stewart designed the grass island map to have 12 equal sized openings for the special characters each month.  They will not be stitched in order, he changed the order to make it more interesting. There are 3 rows of 4.  

The first special character will be released on Friday, January 15.  I'm waiting to see the character designs before deciding if I want to fill in their background with a different colours.

Tuesday 12 January 2021

Animal Crossing - JewelBeach & Jade - Happy Dance

Sunday, I finished Jade's head (that's all I designed) and then backstitched my island name JewelBeach. I love how these turned out.  I did change the eyes a bit as I was stitching them.  I tried blending a green and brown strand of floss for hazel eyes, but didn't like the way they looked, so I stitched green around the outside of eyeball and brown on the inside.  I like it much better this way.







I started stitching on my island. I stitched one of the rocks to get my count correct.  I will alternate between doing the rocks along the top (back of my island), the sandy beach around the outside of the island (left, front and right sides), and the green grass map area on the inside of the island.  Hopefully if I do little areas, I will be able to count and less frogging.  

Here is a closeup of my island start.  I changed the colour of the rocks from 452 (beige) to 413 (dark grey).




This is a closeup of how the grass looks like in the Animal Crossing game.  There are 3 different colours.  Stewart also designed the grass map area with 3 different colours.  Main green (704), lighter triangles (471) and darker triangles (310).  I am already doing so much more stitching on this project, that I decided to make my life easier and blend 2 greens together 1 strand of 704 + 1 strand of 471 to make the grass pattern.  Personally, I think the black is too much of a contrast to the greens.

Here is a closeup of Jade standing on the sandy beach in the game.  Stewart’s design uses 3855 (yellow gold colour).  I am also going to try blending  1 strand of 3855 + 1 strand of 437 (light brown).  We’ll see how I like it after I cross the half stitches I did on the top portion of the beach area.










Monday 11 January 2021

FFG - January 2021

I'd like to thank Rachel at Ten Hour Stitcher for hosting this SAL again this year. You can visit her site to join or for more information about this SAL.

I participated at the beginning of last year, but got busy and didn't finish anything else.

I have 3 Fully Finished Gallery items to share with you today.

Just Nan - Miss Ghostly Pumpkin Mouse












My house is contemporary with more angled walls, so I use black picture frames 95% of the time in each room of the house.  This gives more consistency throughout.  I had this old frame, but it was brown, so I sprayed it with black gloss paint.  I love how it turned out, clean lines and simple.

Peppermint Purple - A Year In Blackwork














SYOA - Letters From Hogwarts














When I started this project I knew exactly where to hang it.  I am lucky enough to have a craft room, now that my youngest son is married and has his own house.  I wanted to hang the SYOA in the hallway outside my craft room, so I can see it every day.  Here is a view from my craft room desk.





Sunday 10 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Jade - update #2

I finished the brown part of Jade’s hair and started working on her face.  I got the glasses and mouth done.  



Saturday 9 January 2021

Animal Crossing - JewelBeach & Jade

I filled in all of the yellow on my island sign. I still need to backstitch the words JewelBeach.  

I continued to the right by starting to stitch my in game character. Her name is Jade. This is the photo I used to create my cross stitch head pattern.

In the new Switch version, I have 4 characters (Jade, Ruby, Opal & Onyx), so I can have more storage space and so I decorate more rooms/houses.

Way back in 2001, my sons & I shared a town in the first Animal Crossing game on the GameCube. They used their own names Jaspar & Jordyn. I chose Jade. I don’t remember why, but it became my name for all video games. Later when I got my own Animal Crossing game(s) I named my town Jewelvil and Jewelville (depending on how many letters allowed in the name) because Jade is a type of jewel. This new game is on an island, so I needed an island/water theme name. I decided on Jewel Beach, but there were too many letters if you use a space in the middle. That’s why the name became one word JewelBeach.

Friday 8 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Switch Frame - update #6

I thought I’d add some new colours to the mix.  There are 2 different yellows in this sign, even though it is hard to tell them apart.  I’m working my way across the inside of the switch screen by doing the sign, then my characters face, then the Animal Crossing Logo before reaching the other side of the screen edge and the blue joy con controller.  I think this will be better, so I don’t miss counting.  I need to make sure my island map will fit inside the switch frame.
In the game if you look at your map, there is a sign above with your island name. This photo shows my island from last year.  I only have 2 of the animals living on my island, the rest have moved.  If anyone plays Animal Crossing they can visit my island anytime by using the Dream Address below.  My island looks the same, but with different animals.  I also have lots of diy cards if anyone needs some.   




Thursday 7 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Switch Frame - update #5

I bought more green floss (DMC 954) to start filling in the green joy con controller.  I’m starting at the top of the controller, this is all I got done in about 4 hours.  It is going to take a long time to fill all of the green.  I’m already dreading that I have to do the same on the other side with blue, but I know I’ll be happy with the finished project.  I think I may take a break from the green and do some more black working towards the blue controller.  I’d like to at least get the whole shape outlined.  Then I can slowly throughout the year fill in the green, blue and black for the Switch.




Wednesday 6 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Switch Frame - update #4

It is finally sunny here, thought I’d show you a photo of my project in the daytime so you can see the beautiful blue fabric.  I have now stitched half of the shape.  It is finally starting to look like my switch.  It is hard stitching black at night time, even with a magnifier and lamp.



Tuesday 5 January 2021

Animal Crossing - Switch Frame - update #3

I finally got the whole outline of the green joy con controller completed including all of the black buttons. I have used almost 1 skein of floss. I will need to order some more, maybe 3 each of the green and the same with the blue for the other side since they are the same size.  
Here is a close up of just the green joy con controller.  There are a lot more stitches than I thought when I designed this.  The way it is going, this might be the only project I get done this year.





Monday 4 January 2021