thelmasmith

I’ve been working on this red, matka silk, on ivory Thai silk ground a little every day. The acute, inside corners are challenging.

You can see my basting thread; it’s ivory silk so I don’t lose it on the red. I’m working with red silk thread in a size 11 straw needle.

I have no idea whether my needle work is good, bad, or indifferent. Here’s the back of the Thai silk. It is a joy to work with. The smaller sample I had made, disassembled part way, and repinned was worked with fine fuse on the acute angles; I didn’t like it. So on this big one I’m just toughing it out.

Here you have the cat covers that go on when I think I am tired enough to make mistakes.  You can see the debian test pattern on white muslin.  I laid in the “d” with an embellishing machine and black wool roving.  I doubt I will use the resulting felted letters on the quilt itself.

You can also see, in the lower left corner, my test pattern for the Debian swirl on white muslin.  I had  all sorts of plots, plans, and foolish fancies.  In the end I decided the best thing to do was to take up a needle and thread it.

Today I’m basting the turn under on the Debian spiral. About one third done I decided to sit down and take a break. I thought that I could sit in my easy chair and do this task. UM. no.

I’m standing at the ironing board with surgical tweezers, a pressing cloth to make sure the fusible reinforcements do not get on the iron, scissors, ivory silk thread and a number eleven straw needle. The trifocals go on and off depending on the demands on my vision.

A close up of the inside and outside corners.

Then a look at Mr. Lincoln and Peace. Early spring mornings in Sonora are the best.

Today’s work on the small Debian quilt was slow. I worried until I went to sleep last night about how I was going to assure accurate placement of the logos detached parts. So, this morning I put the big, pattern copy on the copier and put transparencies in the tray. It will work.

There is one problem with transparencies. You must not let them stack up in the print tray. Senora Rosita Gordita is sitting on the evidence.

A nice bit of evidence, too, The Epoch Times. I picked it up at the Seventeenth Street Market. It says, “began as a weekly Chinese newspaper, Da Ji Yuan, for Chinese people living outside of China.

The English edition launched in September 2003 on the web and in print in 2004 in New York. It is currently published in eleven cities, and in ten languages in thirty countries.

I’ve been telling my friend and website administrator, the Spider, that I would make use of the debian logo he sent me more than a year ago. Debian is the open source software that is the basis for Ubuntu, and myriad other open source software systems. Here is the logo as I received it.

The smaller of two enlargements, getting parallel lines marked so that straight of grain can be maintained. There is one almost twice as large that will go on an ivory background and will have the debian of the logo added at the bottom to balance the design.

The red silk for the logo, itself, fresh from the washer and dryer.

The silk in a macro image. It appears to be hand spun and hand loomed but I do not know if that is true. Look at the interesting weave that shows before ironing. As I got it ironed I let it flow into my old leather armchair. Next time I looked that way Little Smoke Cat had made herself at home. I hung the silk on the coat hook on the workroom door.

The beginnings of placing the image on the batted quilt ground prior to beginning appliqué.

The placement of the mirror image, freezer paper, pattern on the ironed silk.

The rough cut pattern adhered to the silk. The pattern is mirror image and on the back.

The right side of the silk logo. It is still rough cut with the freezer paper on the back.

The pattern with almost all the freezer paper cut away. Bridges of paper remain to hold detached bits of silk to appliqué in place.

This is the point where I need to turn the extra under. In fact it will be pressed over the back of the freezer paper in as many places as possible. The silk is prone to raveling. It is too late this afternoon for me to decide whether to add fine fuse to the points and sharp turns to help control the raveling.

FineFuse is a tool that is a mixed blessing. It is probably the softest of the synthetic fuseables and no longer on the market. As soft as it is I question whether I want to use it with a fine straw needle and silk thread. So, I’m shipping this blog and thinking the situation over.