All Around the Discworld

"In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part ...
See ..
Great A'Tuin the turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked with meteor craters. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and asteroid dust He stares fixedly at the Destination."

I started this one back in June 2017 with this photo:

The fabric is a custom-dyed 32 count Murano from Sparklies.  I explained to Kate what I needed and very exact dimensions for the paler blue circle.  I started stitching in the middle and worked to the top so I could make sure the edge of the Disc would match up with the circle on the fabric.  Fortunately, it did!

Here are some photos of my favourite parts:

The very centre of the Disc, Cori Celesti is the Home of the Gods:

The whole Mappe:

I do know how many days I stitched on this piece, anyone want to make a guess?

I recently discovered how to make Slideshows of my photos!

This first one shows the progress from June 2017 to December 2019:

This one shows the progress throughout 2020:

Finally, the story of my love of the Discworld.  The first book in the series was published in 1983 when I was still at school.  I think my Uncle introduced us to the books as he had with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy some years before.  My edition is a 3rd reprint from 1985 which is the year I started work so I probably bought it to read on the train.  It cost £1.75, about an hour's wages for me.  The standard paperback still costs an hour's wages at about £7.99 which is interesting when so many other things have seen rampant inflation.

I collected each book after that, getting the signed ones when my brother went to Uni and attended all the signings at The Forbidden Planet bookshop.  Then I stopped collecting about the time I started cross stitching on the train.  It was hard to read anyway as there were a good group of us who used to chat every day and socialise together off the train!

Fast forward to my son being born and being read to each evening.  We were given The Bromeliad as a present which he loved.  In April 2014 we started reading the entire series from the beginning.  This took us three whole years.  I started collecting the new hardbacks at this time too.  Then when we finished reading the series, topped off with the Science of Discworld books, I started stitching the Mappe.  Now to get it framed.

Thanks for being part of this journey with me, especially those who were tempted into reading the books themselves.  De Chelonian Mobile - The Turtle Moves.

GNU Sir Terry Pratchett