Simultaneous Release !

And then they had cocoa. Finally, pulled loose with not near the trauma of the mere 18-25 hour potholders that preceded it. The strong canvas bezel took the strain of the first pull, and held the ends of all the outer joins together. If it hadn't taken so long to assemble, it would be a shoe-in as the kick off of a multi-panel "Teefes" baby blanket. I'm definitely going to do another panel from "My First Hundred Teefes", but till I've gotten a lot faster at the stitching, I'll probably be sticking to single panel projects.

The slightly damaged holder board says, I didn't sew near as much foil to the back of this one. Even though I doubt I'll want to sew this one again this size, I'm still holding on to it for a while. It kinda reminds me of Han Solo (carbonited Han).   

Hanging there on the back of my chair, the recently freed hotel ghosts sip their cocoa, mocking me. Live it up fellas, you haven't escaped the needle.

"We've been Framed," Cried The Chocoholic Ghosts.

The stitching of the picture is done, Woo hoo! Now I have cut up an oldish (10 years), slightly stained, but very tough bakers apron to make the bezel (frame) and back in one piece. Once again the bakers parchment pattern transfers the slightly funky rectangle of the image to what should look like one of Tedy-cam's photos.

Although it might seem like extra work to inlay the image by hand, it seemed a shame to give up any of the picture for a stitching tab. Even with relief cuts in the stitching tab that come to just over an 1/8 of an inch from the corners they still mushed out a little (rounded unexpectedly). Huh, I meant to do that. Well only about 3 more feet of tiny catch-stitches and I can start closing it up.

Hungry Ghost, Post-Nasal

I guess I saved the best for last. Tiny Teefes roots, inner tube, and the even tinier water inside the inner tube, plus the dreaded marshmallows also remain to be stitched.  That said I am much better prepared now, having experienced the Hungry Ghost nasal aperture training just yesterday. Cross yer phalanges.

Chocoholic Ghosts Make 18 Hour Potholder Look Practical

I have yet to face the dreaded marshmallows, but I'm pretty sure I've passed halfway with the stitching. This one makes that "Simple 18 Hour Potholder" look downright practical. I guess it's too late for that paper-cut huh?

 I am finding close examination of my stitching is painful at best. Still I remember, this is not a prom dress, and the acceptable standards for arty, experimental, potholder quilts are a bit more lenient. In other words, "It would have to look a lot stupider than this before I could feel good about giving up". 

 Perhaps not yer museum quality pot-holder, but maybe good enough to hang in the kitchen and pick up hot stuff for years and years.  
Notes on the stitching; Especially on the shiny stuff, poking the needle toward the center (while not as pretty as a parallel to the edge stitch) and double wrapping the needle (knotting) each stitch helps keep them from bursting the edge as often. over cutting (leaving extra width) particularly in narrow spots cuts down on the,
"I meant to do that", on the fly image redesigns. Wish I had more, I mentioned over-cutting didn't I? Oh well Like Shakleton and Oat Willie, "Why stop now, onward through the fog". After the Shackleton family motto "Fortitudine vincimus" (By endurance we conquer).       

Haunting Progress In The Cold Morning Light

If somebody asks how long this took, lie. Better they think yer silly than nuts. This is making the standard, tacking the edges of heat stuck applique method seem worth a second look. The six inch thread sticking out of the greenish area is waiting to be pulled taut and snipped. It will draw back behind and disappear. It's already short enough to make knotting challenging. Future runs at this method will definitely have more over cut (bigger tabs for stitching on) especially on the shinny fabrics. 

The scary part is I've just gotten started good. While it seems like these pictures are a bit dense detail wise, I really like how they look as fabric mosaics. This is probably one the very few that will get a potholder test. I am totally stoked about doing some of  them as baby blankets (single frames). Several of the pages from "My First Hundred Teefes" (especially the front cover,"Hyah") are landscape-like with way too much detail to do in a panel (potholder) but might make a weird enough baby blanket to get hung on the wall. I can already see the old growth Teefes as various kinds of ticking, Hyah!

If Not For, Till Then

Poking the fabric, yes? Picky and slow enough to be a little embarassing, if it didn't look so cool. As I continue to fill it in I also continue to edit the picture. Just three shades of white and some black and its done, at least till the stitches begin.









Now the colors are placed. I haven't sewn several of these fabrics before. To tell the truth I'm not sure that I want to stitch it and make a backside for this pot holder.




It's colorful, finished looking, and may get ruined when I begin the catch-stitch and sew it all together for real. It would be really easy to Sum it up, hold what I've got  and get a frame. But no! Till then, it's the coolest page for "My First Hundred Teefes" so far. Sew, if I wasn't so tired I'd jump it tonight. I really want to see a quilt that includes this panel.

Cairo Solid Thwarted By Outlaw Polygons

As I looked at the assembled peels from Poly and speculated on a Cairo pattern wrap for the Snub Square Antiprism (j85), I noticed something odd about some of the pentagons around it's sides. Because every angle of these pentagons had it's roots in an equally divided equilateral triangle, they look very hexagon like. On further reflection, I began to wonder how they could be so odd, and still be equilateral pentagons? Attempts to construct them in 2 dimensions failed.The pentagons containing the "right" angles came in at 570 degrees of interior angles, while the troubling looking ones contained a whooping 600 degrees.   Further research revealed, the sum of the interior angles of a two dimensional pentagon is 540 degrees. Using the following formula (I found at mathsisfun.com) with n as number of sides,  (n-2) x180= the sum of polygon interior angles. Duh! 

The circular king of Flat Land would have had me bisected for even entertaining such a heresy as a pentagon with five 120 degree angles! Careful examination of the model on the right,  revealed that the pentagons on the Snub Cubeoctahedron (which presents the closest I've found so far to a spherical snub square network) were also impostors. They contained a total of 570 degrees of interior angles.these were only marks, representing the true dual.

Pentagonalicositetrahedron

 

Obviously something different happens when one strikes a line from the center of each polygon in a 2 dimensional snub square network. A careful examination of these pentagons reveals, three120 degree angles, and two 90 degree angles, in each.

 I still believe a visually similar and highly thought provoking result could be achieved on the snub square solid. While I'm pretty confident, I think a little more Photoshop and a working model will precede my fleece experiment. I found the true dual of the snub cube, but have yet to model it.

If Not For Tedy-Cam

If not for Tedy-cam, they would have never known their room was haunted!
Ok, back to our roots. This one is experimental on so many levels. The picture it's drawn from is the original "electric finger paint version" (drawn on a Nexus 7 tablet, with a finger tip, in an older version of Spray Paint by Netox). This later became a neater line drawing page in "My First Hundred Teefes". Now it's in testing to become part of  Teefes quilt. If you look closely, you can see the color pic at right has a few visible ball-point pen lines ( and probably a few holes).

I'm only on the second piece and I can already tell it's going to have some challenging places. The marsh mellows were trouble in Spray Painter, which had a very limited undo. They could be fixed easily enough in this phase (and should have been). It's easy enough to change stuff. Still I like the weird little marsh mellows, and who knows if I'll stitch this anyway.                                                    










Ow, the crown installation was a little painful as well. What tha heck it's an experiment, and part of it is to find the sticky places early and adapt them, or bail.

 Once again it's a little embarrassing how long this is taking, but I like the faux quilt look. At the least I'll get an interesting looking illustration out of it. Or two if I get to the backside, remember it's still a potholder if it works.

Cairo Cover For Snub Square Antiprism Pillow (Single Wiggle)

While bringing Pillowhedra up to date I saw the single wiggle snub square antiprism, and immediately wondered how it would relate to the Cairo pattern. Since I still had the model (a pre-wiggle version), I put a pencil dot in the center of each face and laced it up correctly to see if it was consistent.

 It worked well enough. I automatically pictured it with the colors and textures of the Cairo/snub square baby blanket that worked so well just recently. Although with it's row of non-regulation, hexi-looking pentagons around thewaist. It really does look a lot like a turtle shell. With project ideas piling up, I'm not sure which way I'll jump, but it's nice to have so many toys to choose from. This pattern looks so cool wrapped around a shape, especially this one. This feels like one of a pair, or perhaps a trio of pillows (or whatever). One thing's for sure, it's gonna be challenging to do something else thinking about this one.