Matte, I hope your fever has come down.
Here's a quickie for the process I used to create the gradient. The pros probably know a better way but this works. The table is Christian Becksvoort's classic Shaker table. In this example I am just using exports direct from SU. One is textured with lines turned off and the other is Hidden Line using my Pencil MP1 style. Both images were exported at 3000 pixels wide because I wanted the pencil lines to be thin and light.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5096/5539777800_4e4981f295.jpg
Textured export
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5258/5539198313_b92d1441f9.jpg
Hidden Line
I used Photoshop Express but I guess the process would be similar in any image editor. I opened both images. In the textured one, I created an additional layer I called Lines and then copied and pasted the hidden line image to that layer. I put the textured layer on top. I could have copied the textured image to a new layer in the hidden line image and eliminated the step of rearranging layers but that's not a big deal.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5539198377_b37d27166a.jpg
Layers
Then I selected the Gradient tool and set it to go from transparent to white and made sure Transparency was selected. I used a linear gradient for this but there are other options.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5252/5539219095_2a8a0373f0.jpg
Gradient settings
Then it was a simple matter of clicking and dragging to indicate where the gradient would be. The shorter the line, the steeper the gradient--the more quickly the image blends from one to the other. I played with different angles and directions to find something suitable.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5296/5539198559_228559ecaf.jpg
Christian Becksvoort's Shaker Classic textured and in pencil