"Lord Aukon has seen the sign!"

Save me from "The Wasting", an early title for the story "State of Decay" by Terrance Dicks. A story that almost never got made as the BBC Drama department had stopped Doctor Who originally doing a vampire story a few years earlier because they were producing Dracula.

But it became part of the E-Space trilogy and introduced the Time Lords vs the Great Vampires mythology to the series, which has since ben picked up in the novels and on audio.

Here joining the tapestry are the 'Three Who Rule", formerly Captain Miles Sharky, Navigation Officer Lauren MacMillan and Science Officer Anthony O'Connor who were better known as King Zargo, Queen Camilla and their councillor Lord Aukon.

 

Here are a few of the work in progress and initial sketch markings that were guides for stitching

Expanding Season 18

One thing I did notice about the recent panel was that some of the heads did begin to get larger, although this makes for better detail it will mean I'll run out of space before getting the list of characters I intend for this part finished.

So with the current panel I'm forcing the heads back to a more fixed size, it also means I'll get them completed quicker but the detail will be less, hopefully they will still be recognisable.

So, (Sow?) working down from Season 18 to meet up Warriors of the Deep that were at the top of the previous panel I've just added Pangol for The Leisure Hive.

And last night I completed Lexa from Meglos. Initially I was only going to add the cactus and Meglos as the Doctor for this story, part of the when the actor playing the Doctor was also somebody else panel. However, as I'm re-watching the season whilst working on this section I was reminded as to how excited I was by Jaqueline Hill returning to Doctor Who that I couldn't not include Lexa on the tapestry, although I've had to juggle the layout a bit to accommodate.

The earlier part of the tapestry concentrated mainly on aliens and monsters and featured less characters, it wasn't until the last few years I became happier with some of the faces that I decided to incorporate more characters hence the recent wave of additions on this series of panels. 

Three characters I've always wanted to do were the "Three Who Rule", Queen Camilla, King Zargo and their councillor Lord Aukon from State of Decay, which is my favourite story from season 18. It's with much pleasure and some trepidation that I've started work on Queen Camilla.

Goodnight 2024. Hello 2025

Happy New Year, don't suppose my posts this year will be any more regular that last year, not making any resolutions to do so. In fact the last resolution I made a number of years ago was to stop making resolutions.

That said, here's how the latest panel finished the year. This panel is now going on hold whilst I work downwards on the panel above it. Once this, what will be the top right of the final piece, is nearly full this and the below panel will be joined together before being joined on to the final work.

I have measured up and there will be a small gap between these two and the last one that was attached, which is a good thing as this will allow me to add in a couple of characters that got missed from that section.

A Warriors of the Deep Sea Devil will go to the right of the Silurian once the two panels are joined as it will be slightly over the join. I also need to ensure the two shades of blue Twilley wool used here of the background are not kept together and not misplaced whilst I work on the top panel.

The top panel already has Benny Summerfield, David Warner's Unbound Doctor, Katy Manning as Iris Wildtyme along with Panda on it. Below them I'm starting on Season 18 and working down to meet up with the panel shown here.

And now, a little later than scheduled

I thought I has posted a month or so back about Time Lash, but I had only managed to get half the post put together before something obviously happened. So sorry, but here's a catch up of what I've been stitching since the last post

First up from Time Lash we have the android played by Dean Hollingsworth and the Bandril Ambassador voiced by Martin Gower.

After that I added an icon of 1980s tv Jacqueline Pearce, best known for Blake's7 here she portrayed  Chessene in The Two Doctors

And finally I've been tackling Colin's first adventure The Twin Dilemma.  Here are a trio from that story.

Noma played by Barry Stanton; representing the Jacondans, Azmael played by Maurice Denham, and Mestor played by Edwin Richfield

A Second Revelation

Concluding work on Revelation of the Daleks, and joining Kara is Orcini the Knight of the Grand Order of Oberon played by William Gaunt.

I understand it was his birthday recently, plus I just happened to be listening to a BBC Radio CD of the Time Machine at the same as stitching in which William Gaunt played H.G. Wells.

 

"You before me."

And speaking of HGW, next up comes Timelash. The Borad is already on the tapestry. I won't be doing HG but will be adding a Bandril and the blue android.

A little Revelation

I'm working backwards through the classic timeline at the moment and reached Colin Baker's first full series as the Doctor. 

There are already several Daleks and Davros is already represented from both Genesis and Remembrance so although I'd like to do him as The Greater Healer this story is going to be represented by two of the outstanding guest cast.

First to be completed is Kara played by Elenor Bron.

She will be joined on the tapestry by Orcini the Knight of the Grand Order of Oberon played by William Gaunt. Work has just started on him.

"In The Tribe of the Free we have a saying...

 ... we go forward."

And forward we go with the latest addition to the tapestry, Queen Katryca herself.

This completes the Trial of the Time Lord series, working backwards now through some of Colin's first series of adventures.

Playing Catch Up

It's been a couple of months I know, and although I've found time to get some work done on the tapestry - once the day was done and I was in bed, hot water bottle, cuddly toy and whiskey mac/Lemsip (circumstances dependent) by my side and audiobook playing, time in front of the screen to edit photos and upload has been slight. December and January have been busy months. Plus I had issues downloading to the PC from iCloud in January (Waves angry fist in the air, "Bloody Apple")

Continuing with Trial of a Time Lord characters, since the last update I've added...

Lord Kiv from Mindwarp - here is the original sketch made on the canvas for use as a guide and the final stitched character.

A Mogarian from Terror of the Vervoids

Gltiz, guide sketch

Sabalom Glitz (apparently he died falling over a whiskey bottle, according to Mel in the anniversary specials) from The Mysterious Planet & Dragonfire

Next up is Queen Katryca.

See the updates first on my Instagram page

Happy Birthday Doctor

 

Doctor Who celebrates 60 years of time travel today, but then if you didn't already know that you must be existing in some alternative dimension.

It's a show that has inspired so many people to go on and do so many things, indeed, so many people involved in the anniversary shows grew up loving the show which eventually went on to be their career.

For me it made me start stitching, and here's the latest additions to the tapestry, still working on the classic era. Say a very loud hello to King Yrcanos and Dorf from Mindwarp section of The Trial of a Time Lord.

Ssssss. Crombrom savalula! 

Next up will be the Mentor Kiv, in his second body

September is the time to enter the matrix

Now I am working across two of the panels at once. These are the final two panels to go on the right hand side of the tapestry. The top panel you saw the start of recently. There I added the Unbound Doctor, Benny, Iris Wildtyme and Panda along the top.

I have now returned to working up from the bottom and last night I added the last stitch to the Keeper of the Matrix from the Trial of the Time Lord.

The Sixth Doctor's own panel already featured Madam Inquisitor and the Valeyard, and various characters who also appeared in the trial season have already been added, as can be seen on the page dedicated to The Trial of a Time Lord

I'm often asked if I work from any pattern, all I do is a working guide sketch on the canvas then fill in from a photo beside me. Here's the comparison of the sketch to the finished Keepr.

Next up will be King Yrcanos and The Lukoser/Dorff

Doctor Who Tapestry Update - The missing months

So I've been a bit quiet on here of late, but I have been busy stitching away on the top right panel of the tapestry. Rather than post some of the work in progress I've completed the top row of figures, as these form a special collection.

So here goes...

This top area has been dedicated to some special characters, mainly originating in print, before being brought to life by Big Finish. 

When Benny found herself in the Unbound Universe with David Warner's version of the Doctor I couldn't get enough of their adventures, and I felt it was only right to honour David's Doctor with a place on the tapestry. 

Benny was a character I loved in print, so much so that I originally added Benny to the tapestry even before Big Finish had started recording audio adventures, and that Benny was based on the cover art work. I've always wanted to add Lisa Bowerman's Benny to the tapestry and I felt that the best partnership was to include her alongside David's Doctor and I based them on one of the boxset covers, hence the blue tint to the hair,  there remains a little remedial work to do for Benny.

I had only seen Iris Wildtyme briefly in print before she was brought to life by Katy Manning, and then she developed a life of her own. Who wouldn't want to climb aboard her double-decker bus and dash off on an adventure, and maybe just give the Doctor a few headaches along the way.

And Iris couldn't go anywhere without her trusty companion Panda.

Doctor Who Tapestry Update - March 2023 (Late)

My March update is quite late, I simply ran out of March before I was finished. I had aimed to have the panel fully integrated into the main body by the end of March, but it proved to be trickier than I had expected. I had pinned then tacked the panel in place, but it became necessary to untack it and re-tack it several times as the canvas pulled apart under the tension on the hoop.

In the end I had to try and work for a period without the hoop and put my own tension onto the square inch I was working on at the time, to avoid straining the rest. However, the join has been completed and all that is left now is for some filling in to be done.

Trying to match the colours from the original edge in order to bring the pattern across the join onto the new panel was very difficult. When that edge had been done before with the companions that had been intended to be the outer edge, so I had no notes of what wool brand, colour or shade had been used. Some I was able to find a good match for but he candy pink blob was a headache. 

I’m going to try and get Nimrod finished asap, as the weather is turning and very soon it will become too warm to be sitting with the whole tapestry across my legs as I work on it, so attention will then turn to the two remaining panels that will be used to complete this side of the tapestry now.

I’m going to jump ahead and work on the top panel for awhile as I have made a change in the planed design for this side, and I will be allocating a part of the top panel to a special version of the Doctor.

Doctor Who Tapestry Update - January 2023

The joining of the panel onto the main body of the tapestry has begun. This is not going to be easy, there are sections along the edges that have little aida left to join with. What has made it even harder is that the vertical join is not a straight one but has a step in it where the previous sections were not evenly matched.

The first stage is to pin in place the new panel. You can see towards the top left of the photo where the edge steps out of line. This area might be easier to join when I get there as it will have a lot of extra aida to work with. That will be the last part to get stitched in to place.

What you can see to the top right of existing panel that is already in place, is that there is a large gap that should really have been filled before I started work on this other panel. Because of the location the only choice of stories I had to pick from to fill it were Ghostlight and Curse of Fenric.

Before I can do anything about that I need to secure the right-hand edge of the aida and bind it. The general binding I've used on the panel being attached is a black rib of wool, although it's not black edging right to the bottom. 

This binding is the first part where the top canvas is stitched on to the main body forming the final tapestry.

I've gone with Nimrod from Ghostlight, but it might just be a tight squeeze to get the top of his head in. The top of his head will form part of the join across the two pieces. I'm busy trying to complete him as well as securing the panels together.

To help hold the whole thing together I've done some rough tacking stitches using cotton to hold the ends together. I will be stitching through both layers where possible to join them together. Any visible cotton can be clipped out after.

The background here will be done in blocks so that the wool  threads cover as much of the material as possible above and below the join. This is to ensure a strong join exists between the panels.

 

It's been a bit tricky to hold the ends taunt and flat whilst tacking them together, stretched out across the bed as I need a large space to work on. But, you have to be very careful not to stitch the blankets to it at the same time. It really needs about three pairs of hands.

And so it begins

My end of January update will show how much progress has been made in attaching the latest panel on to the main body of the Doctor Who tapestry.

This is the panel now that the final gaps have been filled in and last small details added. I started this panel back in September 2021 and it is now January 2023. By this rate it will be a good few more years before I get the whole project complete. A rough calculation says two more panels to complete the right-hand side and at least three on the left-hand side to include everything I want to feature.

I've already cut and prepared the material for the next panel. This is so I can stitch when away from home or sitting in an armchair. 

Attaching the finished panel to the main body will involve laying the canvas across the bed as it is the only area where the weight of the main canvas can be supported while I work.

Wish me luck...

Doctor Who Tapestry - December Update

 I'm not too sure how, but during December I appear to have been more productive on the tapestry, almost finishing Delta and adding a Navarino from that story. I worked on the Navarino over the Christmas period whilst away from home as this character was easier to work on than the final details of Delta or Gavrok.

When the Navarino is finished, along with any small outstanding details and a bit of background work I will be ready to join this panel on to the main tapestry, hopefully within the first couple of weeks of January 2023. 

The first update of next year may show how the panels are joined on to the main body of work. This panel is part of the McCoy era and will be joining the other McCoy era panel going on just above the Ancient One and Light.

The work on the tapestry has taken priority for my spare time, so other crafting and model building took a backseat during 2022, and may well do so during 2023 as well. However I have been stocking up on the Doctor Who figures from Warlord Games since their Doctor Who licence expires at the end of 2022 so I want to ensure I have as many unique characters to paint later when I get the time. It's just a shame there were so many non-released packs that are only available if spend £75 and cannot be bought separately.