Gallery: The Legend of Zelda

Character: Link
Series: Legend of Zelda (original)
Bear Type: Premade, about 8"
Clothes & Styling By: Em
Date: 2006 (Tekkoshocon)
Notes: 8-Bit Link was in our first set of bears. Gotta cover the classics, after all.

Notes: A better view of Classic Link's shield.

Character: Link
Series: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Bear Type: Premade, about 12"
Clothes & Styling By: Sarah / sword & shield by Em
Date: 2007 (Tekkoshocon)
Notes: Though Link's sword and shield were made ahead of time, Link's outfit was made the day before the convention. Something like that always seems to happen.

Notes: A shot of (above) Twilight Princess Link's shield and bracer.

Character: Zelda
Series: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Bear Type: Premade, about 12"
Clothes & Styling By: Em
Date: 2007 (Tekkoshocon)
Notes: Zelda in her nifty, vaguely-Egyptian finery. She and Link (above) were made from a particular brand of bear that we never came across after that one batch, which is sort of a bummer.

Character: Link
Series: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Bear Type: Premade, about 8"
Clothes & Styling By: Em
Date: 2008 (Tsubasacon)
Notes: Taking a break from the sworded-and-shielded Links, we have Wind Waker Link with the Wind Waker. A felt Wind Waker was also made at the convention, upon request of the buyer.

Character: Link
Series: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Bear Type: Handmade, about 18"
Clothes & Styling By: Sarah / sword & shield painted by Em
Date: 2008 (commission)
Notes: Link and Midna (below) were part of a commission late in 2008, along with Advent Children Cloud, and they all turned out fabulously. Maybe it's something about being in the off-season. Also, we like commissions. It's nice to not have to guess what people like (everyone in Artists' Alley, can I get an amen?)

Notes: A detail view of (above) Twilight Princess Link's sword, shield, and scabbard.

Character: Midna (humanoid form)
Series: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Bear Type: Handmade, about 18"
Clothes & Styling By: Em
Date: 2008 (commission)
Notes: Midna was one of our particularly custom-built bears, partly blue and partly black (her black left foot is covered in this shot), as well as painted with tattoos. Her elaborate outfit included Sculpey clay, vinyl, felt, satin, and brocade.

Notes: A detail view of the linework on Midna's veil/cloak.

Character: Rupees
Series: Legend of Zelda
Item: Coin purses, about 4" long
Made by: Sarah
Date: 2006 (Tekkoshocon)
Notes: These little canvas coin purses closed in the back with Velcro (as seen on the far left of the photo) and were lined in white.

Character: Various items (Rupees, red potion, heart container, fairy)
Series: Legend of Zelda (original)
Item: Perler magnets
Made by: Jay
Date: 2008 (Tekkoshocon)
Notes: Perler beads - now apparently called Funfusion beads - lend themselves particularly well to 8-bit pixel images, like these magnets based on items from Zelda and Mario games.

Characters: (clockwise from top left) Wizzrobe, Ganon, Zola/Zora, Octorok, Zelda, Link, and Moblin (plus the Triforce, potions, heart containers, rupees, Magical Shield, Magical Sword, flute, fairies, and Hyrule crest)
Source: Legend of Zelda (original...definitely)
Item: Quilt, about 81" by 96"
Made by: Sarah
Date: 2010 (Tekkoshocon)
Notes: Far and away the LARGEST project in Able Sisters history, to date... this was made to fit at least a full-size bed, giving the buyer the option to use it as a display or as a comforter (it's batted and backed like any other quilt). This was our first project made specifically for an Art Auction, and it did sell, apparently to a Zelda collector (yay!). It also garnered two staff awards from Tekkoshocon: Staff Choice and Event Chair's Choice.

The project took about two months to complete, much of which was a fevered rush near the end; the beginning of the project was aided by "Stormageddon" 2010, which essentially trapped us inside for a month. To summarize the end result: the quilt features a set of characters and items from the original 8-bit Zelda, bordered with heart containers and blue rupees, with shields at the corners. (There is also a border at the top, which can't be seen in this shot.) It was machine-quilted with a few more Zelda icons, including two fairies (located to either side of the Triforce's top point) and the Hyrule crest (between Ganon and the Triforce). The quilting is all but impossible to see in this shot; scroll down for more, including craft-nerd details about each section.

Notes: Link and Zelda, at the bottom of the quilt. Like the monsters at the top, these two are appliqued. It may be harder to make out, but there's also a heart quilted between them. The poses are based on the 8-bit "holding up the Triforce" pose, and I promise you that's what Zelda looks like in the NES version. At least, this is my attempt to make sense of her itty-bitty sprite.

Notes: Ganon and two of his cronies - I unfortunately didn't get a closeup shot of Moblin and Octorok, but they were contructed very similarly to these three. Like Link and Zelda, the villains were appliqued. For a bit of a sense of scale, each of the smaller baddies (along with L&Z) are about 8" or 10" square, and Ganon is about 2 feet tall.

Notes: Why blue and not red? Color balance: the edges of the quilt were already red, so I wanted to balance that out a bit. The potions are a combination of piecing and applique, with machine embroidery around the edges and button "bubbles."

Since they're visible enough in the large shot, there aren't closeups of the Triforce, flute, and Magical Sword, so here are their notes: Everything but the flute's holes in these three elements is pieced, and the flute's holes are applique. Also, the heart containers and rupees around the edges are also pieced, and the shields are pieced with applique details. Basically, I threw every technique I could at this project, wherever it happened to fit.

Notes: The good thing about this photo is that you can actually see the Hyrule crest quilting. The bad thing about this photo is that you can also see the chalk used to outline the stitching, which is supposed to wear off. (This is the problem with working right down to the wire!). The fairies can also be seen at the bottom left and right. All of this quilting was meant to stabilize the open spaces of the quilt, in addition to adding a few extra elements from the game. Generally, you try to lay out a quilt without this much open space; this was my first designed-from-scratch, full-size quilt. (I've made designed from scratch but small, and full-size from a pattern.) Live and learn. By the way, all of the quilting on this quilt is machine quilting. I do have limits of endurance.