Outer Wilds solar system embroidery

December 28, 2025

My partner and I played a lot of Outer Wilds during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's probably no surprise that I fell in love with its charming characters and expansive universe. I decided to celebrate the game by embroidering its solar system.

Since Outer Wilds fans are especially touchy about spoilers, I should note that this project has them everywhere, I should probably note that you should read no further if you don't want any hints of what may come later in the game if you haven't already completed it and its DLC!

The solar system from the main story in Outer Wilds is stitched on a black linen evenweave background and placed in a wooden hoop. The sun is in the center, and each planet and the Interloper surround it and have their orbits marked with fine linen thread. Each orbit is stitched in stem stitch, first in white, then in a light grey, then in darker greys, until it burns out to being just black on black. Each planet is stitched in detail in a unique style that represents the planet. Stars and supernovas are scattered throughout the solar system in French knots.

I based my Outer Wilds solar system design on where the planets are at about 9 minutes and 48 seconds into the loop, but everything is re-scaled - while maintaining the vibes of the original proportions - so the planets and background supernovas in the dying universe aren't tiny. I realize now that I have a pattern of adding hundreds of additional (and arguably unnecessary) French knots to my embroidery projects - I am non-sarcastically shocked that I made this choice right after doing thousands upon thousands of French knots for the Milky Way in my Northern Sky & Southern Sky quilts.

Since the Eye of the Universe and the Owlk's home both aren't in Hatchling's solar system, I did each in a separate hoop, too. I chose to represent the Eye with a blend of the symbols used by the Nomai and the Stranger's inhabitants, and I opted to represent the Owlk's home moon and the planet it orbits before they raided it to build the Stranger.

The symbol of the Eye of the Universe is embroidered in tight stitches of a slightly multitonal lavender linen thread on a black linen background that's placed in a small, wooden circular hoop. All the stitches are oriented towards the center of the Eye, so some sections are knobby while others look more like satin stitch. Most of the Eye's symbol has the angular nature of the Nomai's symbol for the Eye of the Universe, but the section between about 12 o'clock and 4 o'clock on an analog clock uses the branchier represenation of the Eye that the inhabitants of the Stranger use. In the center, the Eye's coordinates are stitched in a thin black thread that matches the black linen background.
The Owlk's home moon and the planet that moon orbits is embroidered in many shades of teal, green, blue, and yellow on a black linen background that's placed in an even smaller wooden circular hoop. The Owlk's home moon and the body of the ringed planet it orbits are done in gradients of very short stitches of these colors, and the home moon is a bit darker and deeper overall, while the planet it orbits is brighter and has a lot more yellow stitches. The rings around the planet are done in tight back stitches: bands of bright blue lie in the center and near the edges and various shades of aquas and teals are in between. There are many bright stars in this universe that are represented by French knots in whites and light greys in the background.

Each of the planets has a slightly different feel due to the stitches I chose. Here are some detail shots of the main hoop:

The center of the Outer Wilds solar system embroidery on a black linen background: the Sun is embroidered in a gradient of colors from a bright yellow to oranges to reds with bright red scars and coronal loops at the edges. The gradient is in long and shorts, and the scars, outline, and coronal loops are in stem stitch in varying directions. A small Sun Station circles the Sun at roughly the 8 o'clock position on a clock in subtle gold hues. Orbital paths for the Hourglass Twins and Timber Hearth can be seen in a gradient from white to black following the planets. Timber Hearth itself is out of view here, and part of the Interloper's orbit can be seen. The Hourglass Twins are orbiting the Sun at about the 4 o'clock position. Burnt reds and browns make up the canyons of the Ember Twin with dense, small stitches. Light tan stitches flow between the two Twins representing the sand, and part of the Ash Twin's machinery is visible, also all done in small dense stitches in various tans. Small French knots in whites and greys of varying thread thicknesses make up the starfield in the background.
Timber Hearth in Outer Wilds solar system embroidery on a black linen background. Orbital paths for the Hourglass Twins, Timber Hearth, and Brittle Hollow can be seen in a gradient from white to black following the planets. Part of the Interloper's orbit can be seen. Timber Hearth is a gradient of greens in stem stitches from deep green at the top, farthest from the sun, to a bright lime at the bottom. Many trees in deeper greens dot the planet, as well as dirt patches in soft sand tones to deep browns in the settlement area. Blue rivers in chain stitch run down the planet. Rocky geysers are done in a variety of tight grey backstitch, and one is erupting with soft blue dots coming out into space. The Attlerock is a variety of tight grey stitches. It has the characteristic 'bite out of the apple' shape, and campfire smoke stitches can be seen floating away from the moon. Small French knots in whites and greys of varying thread thicknesses make up the starfield in the background.

Brittle Hollow, Hollow's Lantern, the Interloper, the white hole, and White Hole Station stitched on a black linen background: Brittle Hollow primarily features short stitches in pinks, purples, blues, and white. The cracking surface of the planet is made up of hexagons in erraticly oriented satin stitch in bright purples, deep purples, navy, and some nearly grey toned purples and blues, too. Beneath them, blue crystaline shards in long straight stitches point towards the center, and small clusters of stitches in varying shades of pinks make up some of the insides of the planet. The very center is done in small black stitches in a spiral pattern with stem stitch in shades of purple encircling it which is in turn encircled by a circle of stem stitches in shades of pink. The upper right section of the planet encased in ice is represented by short stitches in varying shades of white and very light aqua with a deep purple crack stitched across it. Hollow's Lantern's volcanoes are done in small stitches of medium greys, and the lava is done in three shades of orange. Three lava balls are each made of a short stitch in a bright orange that is split by another short stitch in a redder orange. The Interloper's rocky surface is made in short back stitches of grey tones with white and light aqua stitches on its snowy surface. The two tails of the comet are in gradients stitched in long and shorts of varying blues. The white hole is a very large colonial knot of three strands of white linen thread, and very small French knots in grey and burnt orange are nearby to represent the comets and debris that came through the white hole. White Hole Station is made stitched in fine linen threads in two coppery gold tones on top of swoosh in stem stitch with pale blue thread to represent the ice. A very small supernova of just a single white French knot surrounded by a ring of smaller French knots in finer teal and aqua threads is nearby Brittle Hollow.

Giant's Deep and the probe launcher embroidered on a black linen background: Giant's Deep is embroidered in overlapping swirls of tight chain stitch in shades of teal and green with white swirls near the poles. Some of the swirls are just wavy, while others end in loops to evoke the cyclones present on the planet. The probe launcher is stitches in two shades of coppery golds in thin criss-crossed stitches, and it is split in three pieces. Stars and orbits can be seen in the background.
Dark Bramble and the Quantum Moon embroidered on a black linen background: Dark Bramble's spindly wooden body is stitched in what looks like a stem stitch in multiple colors. Each branch is a fake stem stitch in two different shades of browns, some more red, others more grey, and small thorns extend from the body and larger branches as well. There are small pockets of light coming from the bulbous center that are represented by light yellow and white short stitch clusters. The borken icy surface attached to the end of the branches is represented through satin stitches in varying shades of light blue; the surface sections are lighter blues than the underside fragments. The Quantum Moon is orbiting Dark Bramble in my piece, and it's made up of a blend of multiple grey fine linen threads stitched over each other, giving it a fuzzier quality than the Attlerock. An embroidered star going supernova is nearby: it's made of French knots in thin threads in shades of blues, teals, and white, and its center is a French knot in a thicker white surrounded tightly by French Knots in a thicker aquamarine.
An embroidered supernova exploding in the Outer Wild solar system: it's a bunch of different French knots in various blues, teals, and whites on a black linen evenweave background. The center of the supernova is a large white French knot immediately bordered by slightly smaller aquamarine French knots. Other French knots in varying blues and whites spread out from that center. A tiny embroidered Attlerock is closer into the sun than this supernova.
The embroidered Stranger on a background of orbits and small stars: it's black thread on a black linen evenweave background, but the texture makes it visible close up. The Stranger has 5 sets of 2 spines coming out from the center, which are done in whipped wheel stitches.

I've hung the three hoops together on a wall near my desk:

The 10-inch hoop with the main story's primary galaxy is positioned in the upper left, the 4-inch hoop with the symbol of the Eye of the Universe is to its bottom right, and the 3-inch hoop with the Owlk's home moon and the planet it orbits lies to the right of the main story's galaxy and is to the upper right of the Eye hoop. The part of the Eye symbol stitched in the style of the Owlk are the sections closest to the hoop containing the Owlk's home.

All in all, I ended up using 97 different linen threads in this project, including a handful of vintage ones and a highly variegated space-dyed thread that gave me access to 5 different colors and blends between them.

97 colors of linen thread on bobbins are in a bin - every color of the rainbow is represented in multiple shades alongside a lot of blacks, greys, whites, beiges, and browns. 96 of the threads are a single color, though there are slight variations in the dye in some of them, and the last of the threads is a fine thickness space-dyed thread that includes orange, copper, grey, white, teal, and navy tones.

...and just in case that wasn't enough, I actually made this whole project twice, so I could give a copy to the friend who introduced me and my partner to this phenomenal game!

My hand is holding up the second edition of the three Outer Wilds embroidered hoops next to the original set hanging on my wall. They have subtle differences, as is expected with hand embroidered objects.