Title: Pokemon Blue PCB
Date Completed: March 2024
Design: Lord Libidan
Count: 18
Canvas: Navy
Colors: 9
Pop Culture: Pokemon, Gameboy, Electronics
This cross stitch has been bubbling in the back of my head for a while! Summer 2021 if I remember correctly!
I’ve always thought that the idea of “cross stitch” really limits which cross stitch we see in the wild. In reality, every language has its own term for the hobby. So I regularly search on the likes of Instagram for terms like point de croix, Kreuzstich and クロスステッチ. And it was on one of these journeys that I found @chikiko3, a Japanese embroiderer that is quickly becoming one of my favorite cross stitchers!
And it was in June 2021 that he posted a brilliant PCB cross stitch of the Super Mario Land game.
Well, I fell in love!
I knew that I had to do something similar, and I even had a game in mind. However, I never got a chance to put a thread to the fabric!
But with the newest Xstitch Magazine being themed “Future” I just couldn’t get out of my head the importance that the PCB has had on our world, and what new improvements will result in its future!
So I finally settled on stitching it up!
My first idea was to stitch it all on plastic canvas, with a realistic size, but the scale was just not going to work on 14 count. So I instead started to develop the pattern for 18-count fabric, on a bright navy blue to replicate the cartridge color.
Have you guessed the game yet? It’s Pokemon Blue!
And with that, came the next challenge; finding a real cartridge to use as the source of the pattern! It turns out there are a lot of fake GBC games out there, and Pokemon is one of the most copied. so I ended up digging out my original cartridge and taking it apart to use as a model!
And after stitching all the green, I had a wonderful idea; make the microchips 3D!
I apparently like giving myself a headache! Whilst finding some felt to bump up the microchips wasn’t too hard, I struggled with how to deal with the battery. Whilst it did stick out of the PCB, when I started stitching it pushed out; it took all the attention away from the rest of the PCB! So I unstitched it all and made it flat.
I personally think it looks ace without it though!
What’s you’re favorite GBC game? I could be tempted to make more…
Happy stitching!
Lord Libidan
Look through the back catalog of Lord Libidan’s Cross Stitch