After completing several embroidery courses on Domestika.org, I decided to use some of the stitches learned to design a work of my own.

I have loved Tolkien’s world for years and after seeing some amazing interpretations of hobbit holes I decided to attempt one myself.

I envisioned a foliage rich, super textured piece, almost completely filled with stitches. I wanted to use as many of the embossed stitches I’d recently learned as possible. During the planning stage I decided to try my hand at watercolor painting the fabric to add something new, as well as to ensure that any fabric seen between stitches didn’t stand out, but fit in with the surrounding color scheme.

I started with the tree trunk on the top of the hill using 3 strands of mouline in different shades of brown, and moved onto the door in padded satin stitch. The doorknob was a round Brussels stitch and the brickwork around the doorway was made of satin stitch, with stem stitched mortar in between.

The buttresses above the door and windows used multiple strands of brown and were again done in stem stitch. I outlined the window and then used needle weaving and a trim of detached blanket stitch to create the curtain. The shutters were satin stitch and the bricks under the window were the same as those around the door. The stepping stones were done in padded satin stitch with some straight stitches of lighter greys added along the length.

Foliage was done in sections, starting to the left of the door and included relief stitching (Brussels stitch on parallel frames), Palestrina knots, French knots, picot stitches, drizzle stitches, closed herringbone, and sprat’s head stitches.

I continued to fill in most of the frame with plants and then added couched stitches over tapestry wool to create the fence rails.

After all of the major work was done I went back through with 4 shades of green and added straight stitches into all remaining open green areas to fill everything out with grass.