Doctor Who Quilt - Thread Sketching Tardis Panels.

Thread sketching involves using the sewing machine needle as a pencil, stitching with thread over the fabric to create a sketched image, which adds shadows, light, dimension and texture. My machine settings are stitch length set at 0 and the feed dogs up for normal sewing (not down).

Here is the Doctor (Mat Smith) with his sonic screw driver.

and below is my weeping angel transformed into its scarier angel,

The angle is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced. The Doctor and the weeping angle on the white blocks are meant to imply a reflection, in the Tardis windows rather than them being inside the Tardis looking out.

Gallifreyan was a Gallifreyan language used by the Time Lords.

Here are two of my four Gallifreyan panels, I love the way they are turning out.

First I drew all the main elements of the design. Here I have used a lead pencil on light-blue-coloured fabric. I would have used chalk on dark fabric. I love travel stitching over the stitched lines to make them more defined, which creates shadows and highlight areas on the fabric. Because thread sketching involves a higher thread density in one spot, the process requires more stability to avoid warping the fabric so I have backed my blocks with a tearaway stabiliser. The nicest thing about thread sketching quilting is enjoying the process.

Happy quilting, until next time.

Anne