Totally Obsessed

November 7, 2009

I’m having a hard time thinking about anything but the fabrics for this quilt. It’s good to be in the zone, but I have so much other stuff I need to get done, like mailing my very late birthday present to my nephew and finishing the Christmas UK stuff so I can actually get it out of this country (is there still a mail strike going on? I don’t even know.).

But no. I’m obsessively picking fabrics in between soccer games. In fact, I need to leave in 10 minutes for the next one and I found a good stopping place, but I don’t know when I’ll get to do this again. I have so much WORK to do for next week too. Sigh.

Kitten won’t get out of the way.

Nov 7 09 032 (Small)

But here’s what the fabric pile looked like last night. I think I’ve added 5 more fabrics today…maybe more.

Nov 7 09 008 (Small)

I do try to reuse fabrics throughout the quilt for continuity, but some fabrics just show up once. Lots of brown, at the moment. I have a yellow/orange crisis coming up soon, and then there will be a green brain drain that will take a lot of time until it’s solved, and then it will go very quickly. There’s a wine glass that my brain is working over right now. See-through stuff is always an issue. How to portray it? Make it real? Ignore the glass? Fun stuff.

Here’s the current pile to be cut out…

Nov 7 09 009 (Medium)

It’s mostly flesh colors on top, because I had to pull them out of the bottom. I forgot to cut out one leg piece when I cut out all the flesh bits, and I didn’t know what color it should be without all the other pattern pieces in front of me. No, I don’t color a mockup. I don’t color it on the computer. It’s all in my head. This can be a problem, but in general, it works for me. I remember one of my art teachers telling me that wouldn’t last. I guess if I have Alzheimer’s, I won’t remember any of it, so it will be fine. Maybe when I am older and more forgetful (and I’m awfully forgetful now), I will have to color things. I used to have to color a mockup for screenprints, but that was different construction. I’m glad I don’t have to do that any more.

Girlchild played soccer this morning. They won, finally. She assisted on two of the three goals and made one goal. Good game for her. This is her in the middle of some fancy soccer move, which has a name, which I can’t remember.

Nov 7 09 031 (Small)

I suck at this soccer mom stuff. It was a good game for her, though, and we’d just had this conversation about DECIDING to play well and then DOING it. Not letting referees and coaches and other players getting in the way of pushing her off her game. Being consistent. She says she doesn’t know why she plays badly some days and really well on others. We talked about being sick affecting her game, but that other things should be pushed off during games, that she could lose herself in the game and all that other stuff can just roll off her back. I don’t know if it really worked, but she played well.

Ah. Google rocks. It was a Maradona move. And she did it three times, two times successfully. This was the end of one of them. The other team gave her shit for being a show-off, when she was just trying them on in a game, instead of just in practice.

Off to the next game.

 

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Posted by Kathy

Finally Friday

November 6, 2009

It was a long week. I spent 4 days with microscopes in the classroom. Two of the days were awesome learning experiences. Two of them were awful disasters (not really) and I felt like I wanted to kill small, furry animals at the end of the day. After putting away 17 microscopes and washing over a hundred slides and cleaning up all the random trash and crap and candy wrappers, I came home and I read for a while. I’ll tell you later what I read, but it is an awesome book and it is sheer will power that is keeping me here at the computer in preparation for a night of fabric-picking instead of on the couch finishing it.

I’ve been pretty good about picking fabrics this week…did over 4 hours of ironing…and that seemed to be my max. No more than an hour and a half at a time. This is not normal for me, but I realize that I normally only pick fabrics on weekends or vacations, so I probably have more energy than I do after walking 9 miles in the classroom supervising chimpanzees with glass. Here’s what I’ve used so far…

Nov 6 09 006 (Small)

It doesn’t seem like much, and it isn’t. I’m only about 400 pieces into the quilt. I picked flesh fabrics for the main figure, but there is a head and an arm, plus some stuff in the dirt that all are flesh-toned. I’m not really sure what I’m doing for them yet.

There’s going to be a lot more green, that’s for sure.

Here’s a sign of insanity.

Nov 6 09 001 (Small)

I’m not cutting those out until they’re ready to be ironed on. They’re too damn small and they’ll get lost. I’ve learned SOME lessons over the years.

I’m still impressed that I’m doing this while teaching. Some days I get totally overwhelmed with work, though, and I feel like I can’t do anything for work or art. I may be totally burnt out when I finish these. I guess it would be justified.

I have one day off next week for Veteran’s Day, but the boychild has a doctor’s appointment and the day will get eaten up. Then I have a training one day, so that puts me in the classroom only three days next week. And I have an evaluation, which is enough to make me lose sleep for a few nights. Evaluations are such fake assessments of teaching ability. You pray that the loud kid will be absent. You hope beyond hopes that no one will yell out a swear word or that you will totally mess something up. Presumably if I had tenure I’d be more comfortable with the process, but I doubt it. Oh well. It is what it is. All I can do is be myself, good or bad.

By the way, this is not the kitten’s preferred mode of transportation…

Nov 6 09 005 (Small)

but she often finds herself there for some reason.

This is a tree in front of a yarn store…

Oct 9 09 005 (Small)

Good advertising, actually, because I didn’t know there was a yarn store there, but they should really use brighter colors because I thought the tree was ill when I first saw it and couldn’t figure out what its issue was.

Here’s another tree…

Oct 14 09 021 (Medium)

it has different things on it now…not sure what they are, because I usually only see it at night.

And here is the family’s new shoe collection…

Oct 14 09 001 (Small)

yes, they all grew out of shoes at the same time…

Oct 14 09 003 (Small)

see if you can figure out what shoes belong to which member of the family…

Oct 14 09 002 (Small)

Most of them are the girlchild’s…

Oct 14 09 005 (Small)

but one is mine…

Drawn on a Thursday evening.

Nov 6 09 002 (Small)

I didn’t get much stitched on this last weekend. I showed up too late to each game to have real stitching time. Not sure why. It just was.

Nov 6 09 003 (Small)

I’m debating my fabric choices while I stitch it, but then I always do and it turns out fine. Most of those balls will be hidden behind windows and shutters and a roof for those columns. And when the red door appears, it will distract you from the balls. Really. That’s the plan. You can see I’ve totally slown (slown???) down on this though, right? I either grade at games or…well…I grade at games. It seems a more efficient use of my time. I have to be sitting there anyway.

OK…fabric picking time. Caffeine needed. Kitten asleep in front of computer. Dogs play fighting. Boychild reading. Girlchild bathing. Clothes are already in the dryer, so if I get tired early, I can just go to bed. What a concept.

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Posted by Kathy

This Blog Post Brought to You by the Letter F

November 4, 2009

My students always tell me that F is for Fabulous. F is not Failure. Actually, I tell them F is Fired. As in, what your boss would do if you gave them the same level of work that you are giving me at the moment. F is for a variety of other things, including a few words I threw out there when I figured out that I had an issue with my Sightline quilt the other night.

It’s OK. I Figured it out. I’m moving the sightline. I knew I might have to, so it’s cool. Really. The Fact that I can’t sleep at night worrying about it is no big deal.

I started cutting Fabrics out on Sunday, the First of the month. November is Fabric Month for my Sightlines quilt. Predesignated by my own psychotic schedule. The Fact that I have a whole ‘nother quilt to design, trace, cut out, and pick Fabrics For has not been Forgotten. I know. It’s keeping me from sleeping, but I need to solve this problem First.

Annoyed by the capital F’s yet? I am.

So I start by cleaning up (minorly) the studio and setting up the ironing board. I have a piece of plywood/formica stuff that I put on the board to make it bigger, and then I found a clean (read: not covered in cat hair) towel to cover it. I do iron on this board, although not always, so I need to cover it. Plus it makes it less slippery so things are less likely to slip off of it. Like cats.

Nov 4 09 001 (Small)

Limbo must christen the towel. He is the elder cat, so it is his right. In fact, he believes I have set up this cat shrine specifically for him, and he complains mightily when I remove him.

Holly takes over the chair behind the ironing board (in fact, she’s there now, keeping me from fully sitting back and resting my aching back).

Nov 4 09 002 (Small)

In fact, as I started cutting fabrics out, she decided she wanted to be involved. See her behind the ironing board?

Nov 4 09 003 (Small)

She kept that act up (as I yelled at her) while I chose all the flesh fabrics for the main figure.

Nov 4 09 004 (Small)

I’m realizing I might need to keep these fabrics available for the 2nd quilt once it’s designed, because they need to relate to each other. Or maybe just having the same background is enough? Hard to say, since I have no Freakin’ idea what will be on the second quilt. I keep waiting for some inspirational moment or dream sequence, but it ain’t happening.

Meanwhile, I’ve spent about 3 hours choosing fabrics, and in between, Midnight keeps them warm.

Nov 4 09 005 (Small)

You know, like eggs that might hatch some day. I think she’s actually licking the background fabric in this picture.

I actually have a TON of work to do in the next few weeks, but I’m going to make this happen…somehow. I need all the fabrics ironed before November 25th. Ideally, I need the other quilt on fabric too by then, but I don’t think that’s an option.

On the reading front, I tried to read this.

Nov 4 09 009 (Medium)

It’s not that it was a difficult read or boring…it was actually quite amusing and sometimes helpful…but the girlchild stole it and ran off with it. I guess she recognizes her own issues.

Unfortunately, I don’t get to read much during the school year, and I had 2 weeks to get through this, and failed miserably, so it had to go back to the library to the next person who had put it on hold. I’m debating buying it and then mailing it to my SIL, because she’ll need it in a couple of years. Or I could just request it from the library again.

Is it Friday yet?

Don’t tell me. I know. But I’m picking out Fabric right now, so it’s OK.

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Posted by Kathy

More Commentary on How Much Art Is Worth

November 2, 2009

The SAQA Transformations 09: Reflections show is currently in Connecticut, which I mentioned before. I just found a link to all the quilts in the show here, on the SAQA site. Yes, my quilt is still rotated 90 degrees, but I sent them an email about that. Check out the quilts, because they are quite interesting and beautiful, and I’m looking forward to seeing them in person next AUGUST (sigh. be still my impatient heart).

But more interestingly, check out the prices. The size of a quilt or piece of art will often affect the price, logically so, and I’ve heard quilt artists talk about more cost for more embellishment. I guess this means the quilts I do with hand embroidery and beading should cost more than those without? Seems to make sense. Another quilt artist had a formula for a square foot, and then calculated each quilt price using that formula. I am not that mathematical, I must admit. I don’t usually even keep track of time spent, although for Sightlines, I am trying to do so. No, I don’t know why. I just feel a need to pin down time spent.

Back to pricing. Many of the names in this show are big, consistently in shows, probably sell regularly. Some have blogs where they advertise their quilts for sale as they finish them, and they seem to keep inventory moving, although I’ve never thought of my quilts as inventory.

I will be interested to see how many of these have sold by the end of the exhibit’s run, after a year of traveling during a lousy economy, will many of them have sold? That would be useful information, I guess, if I were trying to make a living at this artmaking venture. But since that’s really not a possibility in the near future (looming college costs), it may be totally irrelevant to me.

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Posted by Kathy

Freaky Experiment with Static Electricity

November 1, 2009

Yes, this is what the girlchild and I do after taking the newly purchased background fabric out of the dryer.

No animals were harmed in the making of this video.

But I did get a background fabric. I’m estimating 20 hours to choose all the fabrics…

Nov 1 09 001 (Small)

It’s not really that dark…it’s more of a midnight blue batik. And you can see the freaky string in the photograph too. Eight yards, just in case. Tonight, I’m going to start picking fabrics out. Whee!

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Posted by Kathy

Getting Some Rest

October 31, 2009

Interesting day. Slept for 4 hours instead of going to pick out fabric for the background. Felt like crap. Finally called the nurse phone line for my medical group and they sent me to urgent care. Tested for flu, came back negative, but apparently there’s still a 30% chance I have H1N1. Or it could just be my flu shot from last week and a cold on top of it. They don’t know. If I run a fever, I need to go back in. Better safe than sorry. The diabetes makes me paranoid about this flu. Plus I’m coughing and sneezing so violently that I pulled muscles in my ribcage somewhere. Hurts like hell. Yes, that’s how out of shape I am at the moment.

Meanwhile, I did finish cutting out all that Wonder Under last night.

Oct 31 09 003 (Small)

Lots of cups of tea and lying on the couch was helpful. I seemed to be feeling much better for about 5 hours until I got up this morning. Right now I’m OK too…so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Tonight I’m hoping to sort all those pieces into boxes. I put them in boxes by the 100s, so 1-99 is in the first box, etc. It makes it easier when I’m cutting pieces out…make sure I don’t miss any. And yes, I tend to cut them out in order. But I’m trying to find 11 boxes…and having issues with that right now.

On the brain dominance tests, I tend to test right down the middle. Creativity is a huge part of my life, in both work and art, but so is the anal-obsessiveness that makes a good editor. I’m super-organized in a totally chaotic fashion.

I’m really chomping at the bit to start picking fabrics, so I’m super-frustrated by not getting that started today…on the other hand, 4 hours of exhausted sleep seems to imply that my body wants me to take a rest.

So I listened. For a little bit.

Here are the monsters…

Oct 31 09 055 (Medium)

They get bigger every year. Then the boy-vampire started to lean in to the girl’s neck…

Oct 31 09 056 (Medium)

That’s more like it. They did trick-or-treat in two neighborhoods. Then the girlchild was headed off to a party. I guess that’s probably the future. Parties. Yikes. I’m so not ready.

Oct 31 09 002 (Small)

This was on the fridge this morning. I guess I need to start sewing that costume now? What the heck is a black angel anyway? Like Charlie’s Angels? Sheesh. Gimme a picture, girlchild. I’ll get Grandma in on it.

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Posted by Kathy

Viral Fighting

October 30, 2009

Not computer. The cold virus kind. I probably should have stayed home today, but I protect my sick days. I don’t want to come back to a national disaster area and no work done in the classroom. It’s honestly easier to come in and bully through. I wasn’t running a fever, so I knew it was probably just a cold and not the flu that’s been going around…you know, H1N1. That flu.

Drawn last night…

Oct 30 09 007 (Medium)

All I do every day is feel kids’ foreheads and decide whether to send them to the nurse. I’m batting pretty high on those…most of the ones I send to the nurse go home with a fever.

Wait a minute. I keep TOUCHING them. And no, I’m not an obsessive handwasher, and I’m allergic to half or more of the antibacterial soaps. So I take lots of Vitamin C and hope for lots of luck.

Today the luck ran out. I did nap for about 2 hours after school and rallied enough to cook dinner. I’m hoping to function well enough to finish cutting out the last 2 yards of Wonder Under pieces.

I’m not sure the drawing above is done, by the way. Dinner arrived and I stopped drawing.

The plus is that I am TOTALLY and COMPLETELY caught up with grading.

Oh wait. No I’m not. I have 26 essays to read. Ugh. Maybe next week.

Oct 24 09 001 (Medium)

This lady (?) tried reading those essays and just plain gave up.

Halloween is tomorrow, so this happened.

Oct 30 09 006 (Small)

Maybe tomorrow I will have pictures of the kids in costume…because those bits on the floor were my butchering of the girlchild’s sleeves, per her request. Apparently she has issues with floppy long sleeves.

Girlchild finished this drawing this week.

Oct 30 09 009 (Medium)

It was colored pencils, which are apparently harder for still lifes. Still lives. Lifes that are still.

That’s a stuffed dragon, I think.

Playing music really loud doesn’t get rid of sinus pressure, in case you’re wondering. Maybe I’m just trying to keep myself awake. Going to go conquer that Wonder Under now. I feel bad that I don’t have anything to show up but huge piles of Wonder Under, but that’s the way it is here in Kathy’s World right now. I’m hoping to start choosing fabrics this weekend, but we’ll see. This virus may kick my butt instead.

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Posted by Kathy

Show News aka Why My Quilts Have More Vacations Than I Do

October 30, 2009

Two of my quilts are in a show that opens tomorrow, Halloween, in Auburn, New York. The Quilts=Art=Quilts show looks to be a good one, based on the other names in the show, and I wish I could be at the opening.

My pieces rarely make it on the postcard, although one of my really old pieces (so old I don’t even have a picture of it) was on the show postcard when I first started showinq quilts instead of prints. I did have a PIECE of my quilt on one recent show postcard. I went looking for that postcard and couldn’t even find it. Lame.

Found it.

SCALpostcard09

They chose 4 details from 4 artists. Mine is second from the left. It’s very abstract-looking because it’s been cropped so tightly. It’s a stomach, part of a liver, a piece of uterus, and I think some part of the heart.

I recently got the postcard for the SAQA Transformations 09: Reflections show.

TransformationsCT (Small)

I’m intrigued. I think there is a catalog for this one…hopefully I will see it soon. What’s interesting about this show is that because it’s traveling, they are trying to advertise in each space. This is the part in Connecticut. From there, it goes to Alaska, I think. Like I said, the quilts have a much better vacation plan than I do.

Here’s the back.

TransformationsCT2 (Medium)

So many openings. Some day I may have a life that allows me to go to some of these.

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Posted by Kathy

Big Cats

October 29, 2009
You Are a Lynx
You are a quiet observer of the world around you. Your wisdom comes from listening carefully.
You’ve always been extra sensitive and aware. And it’s made it difficult for you to fit in.

You see past people’s outward personas. You are able to penetrate a stranger’s soul.
What you’ve learned about people is both beautiful and ugly. And you keep these secrets to yourself.

I’ve been watching lots of Big Cat Diary lately. I know I’m not a lion, a leopard, or a cheetah…apparently I’m a SMALL big cat.

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Posted by Kathy

Dinner’s in the Oven

October 28, 2009

Some days I’m so efficient I freak me out. Dropped girlchild at art class, picked up puppy (who now weighs 50+ pounds, a full 15 pounds more than my dog), made tea, prepped dinner, and popped it in the oven. Went back to art class, picked up girlchild, am now home with 5 minutes until dinner’s ready. Wow.

And I finished tracing the one thousandth one hundredth and twenty first piece of Wonder Under at about 11:15 PM on Monday night. My goal was Tuesday night. Boo ya.

Here it is, all laid out (minus one length, which I had already cut out).

Oct 28 09 002 (Medium)

That’s about 9 yards of Wonder Under that I now need to cut out. Yikes.

Oct 28 09 003 (Small)

Actually, as of last night, this box is full and I only (ONLY) have another 6 yards to go. Double yikes. Looks like I may meet my goal on the first quilt, anyway. I need a plan for the second one. Like yesterday.

I’m figuring 12 hours plus to pick out fabrics, and I want it done before I leave for Vegas…which would be fine, if I didn’t have 17 soccer games, a work evaluation, and 32 meetings to go to before that time. Minor issue.

I will go buy background fabric Saturday between soccer games (ooh. A fabric store…danger danger.). Meanwhile, the random parts of my brain that aren’t involved in cooking, organization, or work are now coloring in all the different versions of this piece in my head. Hopefully they’ll be done sometime in the next week, so I can pick a color or ten.

Soccer this weekend involved mud.

Oct 24 09 012 (Small)

Not a lot of it. But enough. Note the painted two-tone toenails. Oh yeah. That’s my girl. And she’s stealing my nail polish (which I never ever wear any more). She is probably the only girl at her school with turquoise toenails (the previous color).

The boychild managed a couple of headers…

Oct 24 09 014 crop (Medium)

and my photos are all blurry. The girlchild had a random game…very inconsistent.

Oct 24 09 021 crop (Medium)

Though they tied, unlike the boychild’s loss. The season is not a great one. Lots of inconsistency on both teams, and the girlchild herself is obviously feeling the strain of 7th grade. She loves the game, but I think having a coach that quit and having to deal with a new coach, who is female, has been hard on her. I think it’s GOOD for her to have a female coach, don’t get me wrong, but she doesn’t know how to deal with criticism well…so we’ve been working on that. Typical of the age…

According to mom, the beaded pink dress in the previous post was HER mother’s, my grandmother’s. OK. Even more reason to hold on to it, I guess. Grandma (my mom) made a run to local thrift shops to find the girlchild a girly girl dress and (I believe) succeeded, but now because Grandma and I made the mistake of telling her how CUTE she looked in it (and I rarely use that word), she’s stomping around telling us it makes her look FAT. Holy god. I hate that middle-school/high-school girl crap. She’s not fat. She’s not a stick either. Grr. Being a girl can really suck.

So I think she’s a pirate wench now. And the boychild is NOT a Twilight fanboy, but a vampire. OK. Gone are the days when I have time to think about and sew costumes. And when I’m writing posts like this one, which has been interrupted by dinner, dishes, math homework, phone calls from teen girls, printing photos for teen girls, and WordPress crashing…this is what the kitten does.

Oct 28 09 001 (Small)

Man, does she have it easy. (and yes, my keyboard is THAT dirty.)

Off to Wonder Under Land.

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Posted by Kathy

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