Numenorian Design Progress

I have slowly been making progress on my little Tolkien inspired Numenorian design. I started with a very basic sketch. I can't find my sketch at the moment, but it was essentially what I have stitched below.

I stitched out the design by machine after drawing it with a little sliver of Ivory soap. Just stitched on the drawn lines. Then I started filling in with hand stitching.

I'm stitching with number 8 white Pearl Cotton. This last photo is where I am with this right now.

The next step will be to cover the machine stitched lines from the first photo with thin crochet yarn. After that, I don't know what I will do next. I've got plenty of time to think about it though.

This series of photographs, all of the exact same piece in various stages, really demonstrates how uneven the lighting situation is in my sewing room. I need to work on that! I should also work on learning to edit my photos better. It's on my list for this year.

Numenorean Design

I felt the need for a new hand project and I recently rewatched the Lord of the Rings. There are so many wonderful designs in the architecture and clothing in these movies. The floor of the kings hall in the citadel of Minis Tirith was the inspiration for the basic design - the on-point square with circles.

I stitched this design by machine and now I am going back and filling in with hand stitching.

Wow! You can really tell the difference in the lighting conditions of my sewing room. The second picture is truer to the real color of the turquoise wool I am using.

The current plan is to cover the machine stitching by couching some thin crochet thread over it. I have beads and buttons that may get added too. At the moment I do not have a firm plan of where this is going. I'm just making a decision about one part then doing it. As I work, other ideas come to me which I write down or sketch in my idea book.

If you are interested, you can see the floor I am talking about in the third movie, The Return of the King.

This will be my last post for a few days. I am going on a quilt retreat this weekend with my guild. I leave as soon as possible tomorrow morning. Today is being filled with packing and baking.

What's in a Name?

If you are reading this you may notice that I have changed the name of my blog. I never really liked "the Last Homely Quilt." It is an obscure Lord of the Ring and The Hobbit reference. If you haven't read the books several times, you probably won't get it. The name came about because I had been thinking about blogging for some time before I started. One day the quote "it's the job that's never started that takes the longest to finish" popped into my head. The quote is from The Fellowship of the Ring (first book in the Lord of the Ring series) and is made by a character called Samwise Gamgee. This got me to thinking about the books so when I had to name my blog I couldn't think of anything else. Why didn't it occur to me to just name it the same as the blog address? I don't know! This blog may end up being something like Bilbo's Red Book in that respect. He gave his book several names over the course of writing it. In the end Frodo finishes up most of the book and gives it a new title before passing it along to Sam. If you haven't read the books, you should.