Plodding along some days. Yesterday, my to-do list overwhelmed me. I went to my new chiropractor, who is large and muscular and male, which was kind of a new experience. That said, I can move my neck again. That’s a plus. Then I came home and walked the dog, about a mile of it essentially in the dark. I’m not going to be happy with Daylight Savings, am I. And then the to-do list reached up and slapped me in the face. In fact, the girlchild called and added things to the to-do list, and there are other things on there for her that I haven’t even touched. Because they’re annoying and time-consuming and I don’t want to deal (flight home etc.). But work was screaming at me, plus a bunch of stuff that has to be mailed or shipped, but wrapped first, plus I need change, and it’s all so complicated, so I quit and sat on the couch, completely overwhelmed. I hate that feeling. And I know the best way to deal with it is to make a list or two and prioritize and calendar tasks, and I did some of that, and then I came in here to deal with art quilts, because the rest of it was just too much.
If I can’t get my brain around it, then it isn’t happening.
I sandwiched and pinbasted 9 quilts last night. Granted, they were all small, but I did pretty good. Here’s the stack of them…
I found two large pieces of fabric that were relatively useful for backing…this Monet waterlily fabric you can see in the top left…
And this brightly colored town fabric that I’ve had for a million years. There’s stuff hidden in the back of some of these fabric drawers that might never see the light of day…and some of it isn’t really relevant to the kinds of quilts I make now, so they work well for this.
I am almost out of large pieces that will work for backgrounds on small quilts though.
And then I have a ton of leftover batting I use for this. In fact, I had some leftover pieces that are about 6″ wide, and I have a hard time tossing those even…smaller than I will ever work. Yeah, I know I can piece them…I did that on the 17-foot woman…but I prefer not to for something that hangs on the wall. Anyway. There’s one left, the owl. Long and skinny. It was after midnight by then and I was tired. I’m tired now too.
Interestingly, there will be a group of people teaching in my class today, so I can get some grading done. That’s a good thing I think. I won’t feel as bad about blowing off school this afternoon, when I have a thousand things scheduled on my calendar. That whole thing where having the kids gone would open up my schedule? Yeah right. I don’t know what happened with that…the extra work I took on, I guess. Need more of that. Gonna have to bid again. In my spare time. To do more work. In my spare time.
In other news, the kids experienced snow flurries this weekend at college. Boychild has all the appropriate clothing; girlchild panicked. She now has a winter jacket on the way (temperature yesterday morning was 20 degrees), and spent all day in fleece. Socks were on her agenda as well. Amusing, because it hasn’t even really snowed yet. Guess that one will move back here, no problem. The other one gets cabin fever with a long winter too…he likes to hike like his momma…so maybe he will come back too. I just want them to be on the West Coast in the long run. Back East is so far away.
Anyway, the mood from Sunday continues. It’s just getting pushed out by stress. Or amplified by stress. It’s there anyway. Working on it. Regular exercise planned all week. Regular artmaking planned all week…I’ll have to start quilting these in the next day or so. That will send me back to the chiropractor (already scheduled for next week…told you it was bad). Don’t even talk to me about money. I might explode.
Should have meditated last night…but I didn’t have time. Yes, that’s ironic.
Kathy Nida 