Six Lines Shy

I admit it, I'm loafin on tha fishes. Though it's probably just as well. I've been sewing every day for six weeks now. Building up to about six or so hours a day, and I'm still short most of six "layers" (sets of wiggly lines about four inches apart, all the way across the quilt in six separate directions) of stitches. Don't get me wrong, I love the threefold-fishy network, its's possibly the best quilting pattern my entry level skills and sewing machine can manage. But dam, that's a lot of wiggly lines.
 Besides, my quality control was weak-ish. As demonstrated by the area of tiny red ties that delineate a repaired ripple that required repairs in lots of stitch rows to chase down and flatten. In fact it was several times as large as the one I missed completely (pale green, top center) till this picture was in Photoshop being re-sized and saved for the web. So, guess I dodged a few more repairs anyway. I can save five or six layers of repairs by taking care of this one before I finish the last six layers of wiggles.

The threefold circular (piscis) network is at the heart of this group of Cyclogon Quilts and is also the pattern of the quilting in this project. Printed out and laid face down on a blank white sheet, the worksheet at left makes it easier to find the various cyclogons (compass net versions of various polygons) used in this group of quilt experiments.

To quote Mr. Deeds and President Kennedy, "These puppies are wicked hard to work with, but it's not because they are easy that we will take these challenges on."

The Last Connoli

This is the last time I'll have to roll this quilt to add another wiggly line of stitches. Turns out I was once again over optimistic about how much more there was yet to do.

Three sets of wiggly lines to outline the triangular pieces, that is rolling and working all the way across adding lines of wiggly stitches three directions. Then three more times to subdivide them into three smaller wobbly triangles. This is where I stopped.

To make the circles and fishy flowers like at the bottom foot or so, would require six more rollings. I'm sure it would be lovely, but it would take me about 20 to 24 more hours. I think I'm really warming up to the wobbly triangles, any one of which would fit in the palm of my hand. These two show views of the top side before it had a border

 I'll get better pictures up tomorrow. As it is I'll be lucky to get this post up by 11:30 tonight.

Cyclocentric Fabric Origami (test 1)

It's not snake-skin, although it approaches that level of pain in the but to work with. OK, it's not sticky or stinky or really easy to poke a hole in, and if you screw it up you don't have to find another snake to continue. But, if you mark the wrong side of the fabric, one can't just flip it over. It's not that kind of symmetrical, especially if you've already cut the edge. Even though it won't work for the project I had in mind, I went ahead and stuffed it down just to see how challenging that was, ow!
The little section in the picture took about an hour. Because of the weird way the edge wobbles, when the network is expanded the lines get fat and thin.

 When they're stuffed in, the thin places want to pull the fabric across from them up. I'm pretty sure I can still hide the edges of  two thicknesses of flannel, but I'm not so sure about fleece or furry velvet. I still want to see the bulgy side after it's been stitched down, but this time that would suck because the good side of the fabric's on the back. Guess I better find another snake, and start over.

Cyclocentric Fabric Origami

This is the first test of a symmetrically collapsed unbroken plane, quilting technique.















 Ideally it would have been on a longer piece of fabric, since if it works I'd like it to be a scarf. It's still a fairly long test strip, yet not so long as to be a severe waste of fabric.

 So far I haven't figured out how to reference up the triangles I haven't seen how the bulge looks. Uh-o, I just realized this a single side good fabric so if the back side's good the bulge isn't. I meant to do that. The plan now calls for a good side bulge, pieced batting and a solid symmetrically dimpled fllannel back.
Stand back, wouldn't want to sew you down to it.

Change On The Fly Or Die

After agonizing over content , I finally decided to roll with the original weirdness from the book illustration since it was already named and published. This position hit the wall particularly hard later. The ticking Teefes look like mattresses having an adventure, and the added textures reminded me of a comment my Deddy made about an earlier fabric mosaic. He mentioned that the oddly detailed finely grained fabric patterns added an interesting counterpoint to the odd but simplistic cartoon-like picture. I totally agreed, and later while looking at the bizarre mattress Teefess decided to, "Free the Calico Cat" and as it turned out the Jacquard horse as well. Having now given up on my original color scheme, I began to dig through my fabric scraps for alternative solutions to more colors. It's a good thing too, since the further I got in filling in the details of the picture, the more obvious became that it would work well only if it were twice or three times as large. Rather than "Live or die as is," We will live or die, redesigned on the fly." Since the crazy dream-like quality of the piece is more important than any single over detailed element, redesigns to accommodate my level of sewing skill and odd new fabric choices will have to fall under, "I meant to do that." Meanwhile, I intend to push on still having fun on purpose and finish this sucker.

Stumbled "Hyah" Baby Blanket Begins Possible Remix

After looking at the full sized plan, the giant Teefes (now each head sized or largrer) just didn't make me want to sew them for hours and hours. However, I am  liking the the transplanted Teefes. When the plan is re-assembled construction of the "Hyah" baby blanket will most likely resume.  

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.