Phoenix Wright cross stitch

This one took me a full year to to complete. Not a full year’s worth of work, but from conception to finished product an entire year passed.

I mentioned briefly in the Contra sampler post that I had wanted a cross stitch of my very own. I had made a great big pile of cross stitches and given them all away as Xmas presents. I wanted something on my wall, and I wanted it to be magnificent. I wanted something I hadn’t seen before. I’d done NES stitches, and I was starting to see more and more of them pop up.

So, I decided to try my hand at Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This was January of 2007 and the second game, Justice for All, was going to be released soon. This stitch was going to fill the expectant void before the release of the second game. By the time I finished it, there would be a total of four Ace Attorney games.

So, in January, I began the stitching vast quantities of 336 – Navy Blue. It soon became apparent that this was going to be a much greater undertaking than I had expected. Never having attempted anything more complex than a simple 8-bit sprite I was unprepared for the sheer size of a higher resolution DS image. At several points I put it down and didn’t pick it up for weeks.

I remember the timing distinctly because I had just returned from an ill-fated trip to Seattle hoping to secure a job. It was April of 2007, and I realized I had completely screwed up. I was making serious progress. Working on the iconic pointing figure I reached for the next bit of floss to discover that I did not have it. I had neglected to purchase one color, had made an assumption, and had stitched the entire outline — over 1,500 stitches — in the wrong color. Devastated, I abandoned the idea entirely.

Fast forward several months. Having just moved to Chicago and awaiting word on several interviews I had some serious free time on my hands. Deciding to make the best of it, I turned once again to my abandoned project. Spurred by my sense of utter failure I was able to make considerable progress. I think I did most of the stitching in a month’s time. And then, it sat. It sat while I awaited a paycheck so I might purchase the necessary framing elements and it sat while I awaited a two-month site redesign.

And now, finally, after over a year’s wait, I give you Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney.

The completed project measures 12″ × 16″ on 18-count Aida.

Colors used (DMC)

336 – Navy Blue
402 – Very Light Mahogany
501 – Dark Blue Green
502 – Blue Green
600 – Very Dark Cranberry
827 – Very Light Blue
841 – Light Beige Brown
844 – Ultra Dark Beaver Gray
934 – Black Avocado Green
3774 – Very Light Desert Sand
3805 – Cyclamen Pink
3807 – Cornflower Blue
3856 – Ultra Very Light Mahogany