[6]Sheet Music Pt. 1

 Alrighty, I've worked on a few kits so far. This means I'm ready to make my own design, right...?

At an event, I recieved two very nice cloth placemats as largesse. My initial thought was "His and Hers", and I thought for his I could make a personalized scene in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry with Alastar. I looked through the different stitches that are known, bought some books, and drew out an initial sketch. 

Uhh, nope. That's a little bit of a big project to tackle right now. Lots of details and uncertainty, and not confident that I can make it look how I want it to. This is now a Future ProjectTM. (You'll probably see a post about it.... eventually)

That's okay, I can think about what I want mine to be and work on that! And this one doesn't have to be perfect, it can be whatever I want! Plus, I just got this square frame to have the whole fabric available to embroider at once! No need to move a circle hoop around a lot. (Also helpful since I didn't have an iron at this point 🙃).

Once I've put this fabric in the frame, I can't help but think of sheet music! Mundanely, I play the viola, so I thought it would be really cool to have embroidered sheet music that I could actually read and play. (BTW Alto Clef is top tier).

Also, I do recognize the irony in deciding that one project was too detailed and precise to start, just to choose to do a very detailed and precise piece. It's clear to me, but I couldn't stop it 😂

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Planning stage. You need a plan to do something like this, right? Spacing, stitches, thread, ect. 

Okay look, I eyeballed it. I was really excited, okay?

A few clear decisions, black DMC thread, backstitch for the staff at least. Start a lil bit from the top and go on from there. Did I have a specific piece in mind when I started? No. 

Besides, I would have to choose a piece depending on how many lines of music I could fit on here. I can't choose until I know that! Now could I have counted the threads and space to know how many lines it would be? Sure--did I? Also no. 

Let's start! This fabric is relatively even-weave. I started with a backstitch, but since I could clearly see the weave, I decided to make the stitches even. [2strands]. To make the second line, I skipped a line for legibility. Suddenly, there were 5 lines and basically a whole staff!

For the next staff, I looked at a sheet of real music, and determined that there's approximately two heights of the staff between each line. So let's do that!

Now I have the basics of what I'm doing, I can just embroider these lines, focus on making them even, and worry about design later. 

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I've made three staffs, but I think I need to see the vision. I decided to try making the Alto Clef on the first line, to see if this is even feasible with my current skills. I decided to use 3 strands and mostly straight stitches to try to get the right look. 

Maybe a little imprecise, but I like it! Let's go on. 

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Quick note on the back. I've been knotting. I know there's a lot of reasons and techniques that don't use them, but I like the threads secure. I start with a knot and end with one.

 While I was working on this, I decided to leave the threads loose at the ends and figure out an elegant solution later. Spoiler alert: not a good plan. I ended up knotting them later anyway and it was way harder than just doing that from the start. 

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Eventually, I finished the base staffs. Fun fact, this can fit 12 lines of music! I guess eyeballing works! Okay, well, even if I don't have a piece chosen yet, I can just add all the alto clefs to each line. 

Ignore that last line for now. I was having trouble measuring out the right length of thread needed to embroider the whole line without switching. This is probably because I was measuring based on vibes and not actual measurements... Whatever, when I go through with the actual music notes I can finish that line of backstitching.

Now I've gotta pick the piece. There's a few options, I could do a vaguely medieval piece, a viola solo that I've played before, or something nerdy. 

Ultimately, I chose nerdy. For those that don't know, I am a big fan of the One Piece series, especially the anime. It has a lot of really fun opening songs, and when I searched for some sheet music, I think I've found the perfect length!

Fun fact, did you know that not all measures are created equal? Measures can shrink or expand to fit all the notes, and are definitely not consistent throughout a whole piece. With this in mind, I actually had to plan this out. After looking through the piece and finding natural line ending spots, I've decided on this break down!

Now that we've got a piece, we can include the key and time signatures! 4/4 time can also be written as Common time, and I decided that that would be a little easier and more legible. 

Showtime! The actual notes! Someone suggested using French or Colonial knots for the notes, but I didn't think that would convey the right vibe for these. Plus, I am not confident in being able to make each note look consistently like the others, nor how that would work with half or whole notes.

Eventually, I decided to go with what equates to small squares. Using 6 strands, I would stit h a 2x2 quare, then fill it in with an X with a slash horizontally through the middle. Technically this doesn't fill in everything, but its relatively flat and gets the idea across. 

Going through the process, I finally finish the first line! I think it's legible and I can actually read it while playing the viola. This is where I'll leave it off for now, and part two will come out whenever I've done more work on it. 

First line:

And the back if anyone is curious. 

Date started: 11/9/2024

Date completed**:  1/5/2025

**It's not completed but you know what I mean....

Also this is basically 1 year since I started embroidery! Going from a generic kit from Amazon to this seems a little crazy, but I'm having fun! 💜