I Quilt So I Don’t Kill People

Upcoming holidays terrify teachers. We know that however much we are looking forward to time off, we have two things going against us: 1. students who also realize a holiday is coming and will completely stop working and turn into psychos who can’t stop talking, and 2. a load of work to complete that could potentially take every waking moment of the holiday. So the week before the holiday is kind of a stress fest…in the past, for Thanksgiving, I’ve tried to finish ALL the grading by Sunday night so I can have the whole break to myself, but that isn’t going to happen this year. No freakin’ way. Because I’m the nutball who had all the cell projects, a test, and an entire science unit due this week, and I’m still behind from late October. Why am I behind, you might ask? Because I actually come home and do something besides grade. I know. It’s crazy. But I do it anyway.

So I’m finally mailing this off to its owner…

This is Breast for LM. The image is 8×10″ and she’s going to wrap it around a canvas. It’s from the Mammogram quilt. I redrew that one section after copying it from the original drawing, where that bit was about 8×10″ Then I moved the top hand so it was a little more symmetrical. She commissioned it in early summer and it’s been done for a while, but I’ve been waiting for her to get settled in her new place…so it’s mailing today.

The other one mailing today is Cat 3, going all the way to Austria. I put a label on it Saturday, and then noticed I had missed quilting between the leg and tail…

Damn. Spacy. So I quilted it. It needed customs forms, so I’ve done all of that and will ship it out today as well.

I had way too much to do yesterday. I washed another quilt at my parents’ house that is going to another buyer who is allergic to cats. My parents don’t have cats, so I wash it there and then pack it up there, and hopefully that means it doesn’t have a lot of cat dander in it. She’s done OK with the others I’ve mailed her. But it also needs to be mailed soon.

I graded a lot, I cooked all my breakfasts, lunches, and one dinner yesterday afternoon. And I finally got the finger pads from Amazon, post-razor-blade crazy, so I finished the binding on this one, Cat 6…the crazy one.

16″ x 12″, $285

My finger was unharmed during the binding process, so I guess those crazy stick-on things work. I drew this during a staff meeting when a coworker requested a drawing “with a cat in it.” Yeah. I can’t always follow directions, but “with a cat in it” kinda describes about 90% of my quilts. Or “with a bird in it” and often “with a snake in it” or “with Christmas lights in it.” I can’t really explain the last one.

My parents just handed me luggage for next week’s trip to Seattle (one of the reasons I might not get much work done) and I don’t know if my big sketchbook will fit in it. That said, I don’t want to take a bigger suitcase, so I will have to adjust. So yeah, I got a lot done yesterday, but Sundays are always crazy. Next Sunday will be lovely. I will only be grading and arting. Not panicking about next week’s lesson plan. Although there is some argument for panicking now about the following week, since I don’t have it much planned out. Whoops!

Honestly, I don’t know how I don’t own this T-shirt yet…

I’m fairly sure it’s true.

So one cat left and two hearts in hands, and based on my completion rate over the last week, that’s three nights’ worth, although I’m looking at the week and I have quilt class and I need something to work on there, but really want these beasts done. One of the things I did yesterday though was clean off the light table so I could start tracing the next quilt, because with about 773 pieces, that’s about 8 hours of tracing and then another 6 or so of cutting pieces out, and I want to be picking fabrics on Sunday, so that’s a mere 14 hours of work between now and then. While teaching and grading stuff. I think I’m fucking nuts. See shirt above…