If I Did Nothing Else…

If you’re a quilter and you hang out on the web (which presumably you must, since you’re here), you’ve probably heard that Quilters Newsletter Magazine is closing up shop. I’m not a traditional quilter (you may have figured that out), but have a special place in my heart for QNM, because in the beginning, they were one of the only fiber magazines that would publish my work, because of the nudity. And they had my back…multiple letters would pop up in the letters section about my work being inappropriate, and then they would post even more letters about how it’s art and really? Seriously? Quilting Arts won’t publish nudity. There’s a few others as well. Fiber Arts Now published one of my pieces last year, and the SAQA magazine has shown one of mine (as part of an article about curating a show), and Textile Fibre Forum recently published some pieces of mine as well, ironically in an article about censorship, so maybe the world is coming around. But QNM, bastion of traditional quiltmaking, was the first. So thanks to them. And I’m sorry they’re gone.

I ironed like a beast yesterday. Really there were other things I should have done, but I just allowed the word IRON into my head most of the day, so that’s all I did. I’m hoping to pick up my machine today (although they haven’t called), so I want to be done soon. Well. It’s not going to be SOON, because even though I put in almost 6 hours of ironing yesterday, I’m still only in the 1300s…so I have about 600 pieces to go. But I’m getting there!

By the way, the bug from yesterday was a tarantula hawk…second most painful sting in the world. For three minutes. Then you’re fine. You just scream for the whole three minutes apparently. Good to know. AVOID.

So I finished the crane…

Kitten sleeping away…

And then ironed the arm in there, with the body as well…

Seaweed behind the crane…

It was long and skinny and fit into that space…

An octopus…because they’re cool…

He goes on the shoulder, a transition between land of the the torso and water of the head…

Then I took a break and had dinner, watched a movie, and finished this bird…only two left to do.

Came back to the ironing room and did a cactus…

Which belongs there…oooh…forgot about the grass above…

My setup…the cat moved, because she doesn’t really like the fan on her. And it’s hot, so the fan has to be on. I’m watching Person of Interest at the moment. I bingewatch shows while ironing.

Late at night, finishing a tiger with a lung above it. I can’t put the whole artery down, because stuff needs to go under it.

Everything fit into the space! A miracle. The other breast is a cat much like Kitten, plus a bunch of flowers on a vine…

I didn’t get all the way done with the other breast. It was closing in on 1 AM at that point, and there was a lung and a heart (not difficult) plus a bunch more viney bits and flowers (more difficult), so I quit. So the rest of that section, plus the snake arm, and then the head. And I’m done. Here’s everything I did yesterday…

A significant chunk. To be done, I’d have to do the same today, and since I’m going to the gym and there’s Shakespeare tonight, that’s unlikely to happen. Oh well. But close! I’m close! Then iron it to the background, stitch it down, sandwich, and quilt. Because that’s not like 50 hours right there. If I did nothing else, I could be done by next week. Except yeah. I can’t do nothing else.

Anyway. I like to see progress. And that I see.