skater43 stitches Zelda games

[skater43]

Here's where we currently are. As you can see, we've made quite a bit of progress on the border and objects around said border. Halfway done and we're starting our way down the third side. Ballparking things, I'm seeing about the end of September to do not only the borders/objects along them, but also the cluster of objects on the bottom in the middle of the picture. No idea, but rough guessing a couple of weeks to finish up the music, which has us completing this the middle of October or so. Which should give me enough time to finish next projects for Christmas and GDQ. Already planning out my next Zelda project, actually putting two games together into one (because the Oracles themselves are linked, I want to put them together into one project. Have the patterns to combine and I'm talking with my sister to see about how best to present them). Won't be starting that until January likely, but figure we can at least start getting things planned and worked out.

Picked up my ALttP picture yesterday, but there was an issue with the glass when it was exposed to the sun trying to take a picture of it. Took it back to the framers (don't know how many of you are in California and near the Central Coast, but I can give them a plug and maybe they can help some of you guys out via their website/ship stuff to you https://www.the1artery.com/ As you can see from the current mural on the side of their building, I'm not the only Zelda fan that is connected with them ) and they were happy to correct the issue, so I'll go back today to pick it up again. So should have a picture of that to send out today or tomorrow.

And just a reminder/shameless plug: SGDQ begins tomorrow morning. https://gamesdonequick.com/schedule They had my prize down as available Wednesday morning, but looks like they're going to change that. As I've said, not a good enough gamer/don't have the inclination to run a game at these events, but can still donate a prize and spread the word. Even if you can't donate, let people know about the event and maybe they can. Sure Doctors Without Borders has been extra busy these past few months dealing with the COVID issues on top of their usual stuff. Be a little different this go around being all online, but they've done a couple of smaller marathons that way, so the concept isn't completely new/foreign to them. As usual, many of the games I want to watch are while I'm at work or asleep, but that's what the VODs are for, right?

[skater43]

Got my picture back and still looks great. The Artery took it out in the sun and it held up, though I don't have plans of doing the same/having it outside. Wall space could be an issue, but I'll figure something out. Bit bigger than I was expecting once they added the mattes and all, but I'm definitely pleased with how it came out and look forward to hanging it/adding it to the Zelda collection.

And see my GDQ prize is available Tuesday evening. See several other cross-stitch pieces and other craft items. People are amazed/appreciate the work I do, but I'm just as amazed at what others do. As I said, spread the word about the event. Little different this go around since there won't be a live audience, but the event and the cause are the important things.

[skater43]

And we're moving right along. Actually did a little extra work today and finished up the owl there in the lower right corner, so that makes three of the sides done. Tomorrow or maybe Tuesday, I'll finish off the green border. And then it's decision time. Option 1 is jump into the music and start putting some of our recently acquired backstitching and French knotting knowledge to use. Option 2 is to do the mermaid and other objects in the middle lower section of the picture. Obviously both options will be done at some point, just a question of which I decide to do first. Leaning toward Option 1, just to see how the music goes. Figure about 10-14 days to do the mermaid/objects, no idea how quickly the music will go. Will need to do a few more practice French knots before we do some for real, but there's only a handful of those and I can do most/all the music itself and go back and fill those in as needed. But we'll worry about that come Tuesday or Wednesday, once we get our border completed.

[Firehawke]

You're making great progress on Ballad of the Wind Fish...it's looking great!!!

[skater43]

Thank you.

So, we ended up going with Option 2 after all. Done all the tricky stuff with the outlines and all, so just a matter of coloring in the mermaid and the last few objects. Did some yesterday and will finish either today or tomorrow. Got a set of smaller needles from Mom the other day as the one I normally use I think is too big for some of the half stitches I'll have to do for the music. Been a while since I've done my backstitching practice, so I'll likely take some time Thursday or Friday to get a feel for things again before we jump into the real deal. Quite a bit to do and I have no idea how long it'll take, but I can't see it taking me into October. If nothing else, I've already signed it with this year's date, so I have to finish this year.

[Firehawke]

You are zooming through this! It looks great!

[skater43]

Thank you. Did some backstitching practice yesterday and decided to jump into the music itself as well. Think I'm going to do all the staves first, then go back and do all the notes and notations and such. In places, this will put the actually music over top the staves and I think it will look better/have that be the emphasis. I'll have a better idea today when I do a full usual time of stitching (about an hour) of doing the staves to see how long they'll take, but I'm guessing a week or so. A lot to the music itself, so figure prolly another couple of weeks to do all that. Still fully expect to be done by the end of this month, but we'll see.

[skater43]

Got the "easy" stuff done, have our musical staves in place, time to start work on the notes themselves. This is definitely the most difficult stuff I've stitched. Many of the notes and musical notations are in between squares, so you really have to watch what you're doing and such. The note heads are all four full stitches in the space of one square, so things get tight. Finishing by the end of the month may be a bit ambitious at this point. However, I finished three notes yesterday and that was with having to undone part of one as I had it a half step off. So doing 3-4 notes a day is doable, which will have me finishing up if not the end of September, the start of October. I do plan to make a couple of changes to the pattern playing off my years of band/musical know how. Second line in particular needs a couple of changes. First line starting with a pick up measure (an incomplete measure, a note or a few leading into the piece, for those that aren't musically inclined) is fine. But the second line also starts with one and you can't do that. Fortunately, that is easily fixed by just shifting the bar lines to create full measures. The whole note at the end of the second line will then become a half note, or two half notes tied together, as I need to do something with the blank measure at the end of the second line. A measure with no sound is fine, but you need a rest in there, you can't just have an empty measure. So I'll likely put in the second aforementioned half note and then a half rest. Other possibility is a half note tied to a whole note. But we'll worry about that once we get up to that part of the picture. Looking now, too, I see the eighth rests at the start of the first and second lines should actually be sixteenth rests. Easy enough to do, just an extra flag, but something I'll have to remember to do. One mistake I didn't catch until it was too late/I'd stitch part of it was the fact that the meter (how many beats per measure/which type of note gets the beat) is shown at the start of each line, whereas it should only be at the start of the piece (and then throughout if things change). But I already stitched two of those before catching that mistake, so we'll leave them (I was thankfully able to undo/redo the note head from yesterday getting it in the right spot, but with these small stitches, undoing things is basically impossible). I am focusing on stitching the notes at this point, but will do the French knots in this area before moving the hoop, so I'll need to brush up/get better at those, but we'll worry about them down the line.

[skater43]

Remind me never to do a project requiring French knots again. Man, these things are a hassle. Funny part, of course, is you watch the videos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Cq24d5-8s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCVtXBU7wlk and they bust them out like no big thang. Several of my practice attempts ended with the thread just going through without even forming a knot. Sort of have things down now, enough to have three done, but I'll be glad to move back to actual stitching. Good news is, if I can survive this (current hoop location), seven of the ten French knots I have to do for this project will be done. Still eyeballing the end of next week to finish this project. Have most of the bottom three lines of music done, and the top two should go a little quicker since there's only one line of notes, rather than a divided part.

[Firehawke]

The staves look SO cool! Good luck finishing your French knots!

(French knots and I are not friends! I'm working on an SAL that has a couple of them on each part. I did the 1st 2 myself...the rest have been done by my mom, who even with her MS eyes and hands can do them with very little problem...me, not so much)