22x100 stitch bookmark on 14ct aida. This return to stitching also had some "Firsts" for me:
1) First attempt picking all my own colors although I had some guidance by looking through other patterns of Nintendo game screens (frustratingly, they all seem to use different colors and I've not found a definitive collection of DMC colors that match the Nintendo color palette)
2) First time importing a screenshot of a video game screen into various stitching/pattern programs, again attempting to perfect the colors. I toyed with PCStitch 10, Cstitch 0.9.6 and the website at http://www.theoryandwings.com/software/pixelcraft/.
3) First time railroading all my top stitches (and some bottom stitches as well). I really think this helps and I'm glad I finally learned the technique.
4) Will be the first time I attempt to wash a finished project. I want to try washing gently and ironing dry to hopefully "fluff up" the stitches a bit. I used 2 strands of floss on 14ct for convenience sake and would like more of a 3-thread full look, especially with the dark green and black... I see a lot of white showing through there.
5) First time making a bookmark so I get to learn the best way to finish up by trimming a little excess material and folding the sides behind. I am not leaving any frills or extra material on the edges. The bookmark will end up just being the size of the stitched front. I can't wait to scour the forum again for ideas and decide whether to just fold the aida back and secure it or maybe include a little felt inside.
All the energy I spent trying to nail the colors perfectly, I know a couple are off from what I see on the video game screen. I think my next little project will be the same as this one only on 16ct aida and with a couple color tweaks or maybe on 14ct again using 3 strands of floss with the color changes.
Thanks to the forum for being so awesome and I can't wait to show off the finished piece and my future works! Any advice, tips, critique and commentary is always appreciated.
Finally, this was NOT my design. I do intend on creating original designs using some photoshop, sprites and screenshots of video games in the future but I totally stole this one from a picture I saw on a different forum and manually created the pattern to follow using a spreadsheet.
