Sneak Peek

I've been working on a quilt for the Milwaukee Art Quilters group, for an exhibit entitled "To a Tea". It is a potrait quilt of a cheerful Indian woman picking tea leaves. I'm afraid I may have bitten off more than I can handle...but if it all works, and I can get it all together...(and with all due modesty) it'll be really cool!!

So I took a couple pics of the hands and the little pieces that make up the highlights and shadows. And that brings me to my problem.

Usually, after fusing fabric pieces, I stitch around each piece to anchor it to the background. However, this is the first time I've had such teeny little pieces. How do I stitch them down?

These fabrics are all silks--some dupoini, some sueded silk and some crepe-back satin, and even though they are all backed with fusable interfacing, I'm afraid that the little pieces will either ravel, or be completely obluterated by the stitching, even with a very fine needle.

I've thought of covering the areas with tulle then stitching over that--but I've never done that. What what color shall I use? How is the stitching done? Yikes!!! So much I have to learn.

So here are the pictures. The pieces are fused to each other, but not to the background. They are on my teflon sheet; the stripes are the ironing board (cheery, eh?)

I will consider any and ALL suggestions as to how to do this. I know there are people out there who can teach me!