Third Doctor and Master Embroidery + Pattern

This is the third of my Doctor Who embroidered blocks for the Doctor Who Sew Along. It features the third Doctor alongside his nemesis, the Master. I used the awesome pattern from Fandom in Stitches for the Doctor, and designed my own Master to go with him.

I started out with the idea of having the Master standing next to the Doctor, but after a few attempts I found that a detailed line drawing inevitably came out looking too friendly. Instead, I went for a more abstract looming face.

Click HERE to download the pattern.

This is the completed block. The pattern is 7.5" tall, which is the same as the other blocks for this quilt. However, I ended up shrinking both designs to about 60% size in order to fit them together onto one block.

Next week, I'll be going back to basics and sharing a felt pattern for a penguin. A penguin version of the eleventh Doctor in fact! (Complete with bowtie and fez - you can check him out here.) How can this happen? Looks like it might be part of a Dalek plot to hijack the TARDIS... Stay tuned to find out more.

Robot Mini Quilt Completed

It's the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge, and I've been looking forward to sharing my Sir Robot wall hanging. This guy was originally supposed to be a quick easy project that I could finish in one weekend, but he took a bit longer because I ended up using him as a test subject for many things, not the least of which was figuring out how to re-calibrate the tension on my sewing machine after it had been sent away for service.

This wall hanging measures 20" x 22" and was the prototype for my Sir Robot quilt block pattern. I wanted to surround the robot with quilting designs that would compliment its straight lines and blocky shapes. I used circuit board for the background, and straight line quilting in the borders. At first, I'd planned to fill the borders with giant cogs, but I was recently reminded, working on another project, how difficult it is to quilt proper straight lines. I decided to practice those instead.

For the body of the robot, I used a cogs quilting design from the Free Motion Quilting Project. I love it! I'm especially happy with the heart, which is hand appliquéed and became nice and puffy once I quilted around it. Its puffiness makes it the focal point of the quilt.

One of the questions I wanted to answer with this mini quilt was: if you join multiple pieces of batting, are those joins visible in the final quilt? Sadly, the answer in this case was yes, so I will probably not be using this method on a large project.

For binding, I combined leftover binding scraps from six earlier quilts, and I think that fits the project really well. Here is the completed wall hanging!

Second Doctor Embroidery + Pattern

We are currently in the fourth week of the Doctor Who Stitch Along, and so far I've really been enjoying the hand sewing involved. As ever, I'm completely incapable of following a pattern all the way through without giving it my own twist, so I'm mixing some of my own embroidered blocks with those from Fandom in Stitches.

The second Doctor is the first of my designs. It is 7.5" high to match with the other blocks in the collection. I've stitched it onto a 12.5" block.

Click HERE to dowload the PDF pattern.

This is my completed block. (Cool number 2 is taken from the Stitch Along pattern - check it out here).

Next week, I'll be sharing a pattern for the Master (1971-1973), which I've stitched alongside his nemesis, the third Doctor.

First Doctor Embroidery

Since my household is in desperate need of a Doctor Who quilt, I've started putting together a blanket celebrating the 50th anniversary. The quilt will feature the eleven (twelve?) Doctors we've seen up to now, as well as some notable nemeses, and possibly a few companions. I'll be using a combination of blocks from the Doctor Who Sew Along at Fandom in Stitches and the Doctor Who Quilt Along at Trillium Designs, as well as many blocks designed by me.

For the next little while, I'll be focusing on Doctor Who patterns for Pattern Friday. Don't worry, it's still Felt Pattern Friday! Some Whovian felt crafts will be included, and all of the embroidery designs I'm using on quilt blocks can be sewn onto felt if desired. In fact, the great thing about embroidery is that it works with pretty much any fabric, so turning your old T-shirts and canvas bags into Doctor Who gear is possible as well.

The embroidery pattern that I used for the first Doctor was designed by Aalia Zaman for the Doctor Who Sew Along. It's hand embroidered, and was a great way to pass the time on a plane ride. In retrospect, I wish I'd used a different colour of thread on the "1" to make it stand out from the rest of the design, but overall I'm really happy with it.

This is the completed block, measuring 12.5", with a 7.5" Doctor. I will probably cut it down later, but since I don't yet have a plan for the final layout I'm playing it safe.

Next week's installment will feature my second Doctor block, including a downloadable version of the design. (Hint: my 2nd Doctor pattern is based on this picture.)