Happy Boxing Day! Seriously, if you’ve survived the holidays so far, you’re doing great…just a few more things to get out of the way, right? The year is almost ready to end, there’s still some family stuff to do, there’s post-holiday cleanup, there’s trying to use up all the gift cards and certificates before you forget about them. You have a bunch of books to read, if you’re from my family. I have a lot more fuzzy socks than I did before, which is good, because a bunch of mine had holes in them. It’s all good. Well, just don’t think about deadlines or going back to work or finishing grades, and everything will be fine. I think I’m officially halfway through my Winter Break, and my phone map thinks I need to go back to school. Because it’s Wednesday and I’m not at work yet. Eleven days until back to school? That’s less than half left. Or exactly half. Something like that. So many things to get done before then! I tried to grade yesterday and mostly failed at it. Granted, it was Christmas Day, but in between this and that, I thought I could be efficient. Not so much.
First of all, back to Christmas Eve…I ironed in between the morning event and the evening event, trying to finish up all the bits that belonged to Figure number 2, like this bird.
Meanwhile, Kitten is watching real birds outside.
And in the evening, I drew my requisite, geez, aren’t they getting weirder and weirder, drawing…
There is a second figure bending over on the right. It has to do with how I drew the arm. She didn’t fit with the arm any more.
And then I laid out all the pieces for Figure 3…
I’ve been using a different run of flesh fabrics for each person, but honestly have not paid much attention to what might happen when they overlap, which is really just where the arms are. There’s always ink and thread for that issue.
So Christmas Eve, when I gave up and went to bed, this is all I had used. I have tried to keep the fleshy bits for each figure in a separate box, just so I can see them.
There’s lots of fabric in this one. And here’s all the Wonder Under bits that are not flesh but still part of Figure 3.
I didn’t get to those until Christmas Day…because in the years past, I have managed to stay out of the cooking/food prep part of Christmas evening (mostly) and so I can do art stuff in the hours in between. I would have walked dogs too, but it rained most of the day, so I opted out of outside.
Rushing ahead though. Here’s the pile of stuff to be cut out from Christmas Eve.
Christmas Day is opening presents and cuddling animals…
Animals with chew toys.
Animals who resemble presents…
That tile is from Spain. Or Portugal. Now I can’t remember.
All the animals…
Well, until he’s ready to guard us from the rain. It really did pour for a while.
We got over half an inch. Which reminds me…I need to go turn the sprinklers off again.
Kitten did a damn good job of guarding the bed…
I brought her a catnip toy to entertain her. She’s kind of antisocial.
Rainy driveway.
Today of course is beautiful and sunny. But we have an afternoon thing that will keep me from enjoying it. Oh well.
I did fabric stuff for about an hour in the afternoon, and then we headed off for Christmas dinner, which is a mix of stuff to keep everyone sort of happy.
Girlchild is a good cook. Which is nice.
I worked on the zebra for a bit.
No, he’s still not done. They’re never done.
And then I mostly drew this in the dark. Which might explain my spelling issue.
It might explain a lot of things. This would be a hellish quilt to make. But it was relaxing to draw.
Back to the ironing. While I’m actually picking fabrics, this is what the fabric pile looks like.
It’s a little chaotic. When it gets really bad, I clean up…here’s everything used so far…
I got through Figure 3 and all the attached bits…like this snake…
I’m ready for Figure 4, which has snakes for hair. Complicated overlapping snakes for hair. Yup. What am I, nuts? Don’t answer that.
I’m 12 1/2 hours into the ironing, and barely over the halfway point for pieces…about halfway through the 800s, I think.
The box gets more and more full.
My hours per week are up in the last 7 days, but still not where they need to be. I need to be fully ironed to fabric before I leave for the cabin, and honestly, I’d like to be done well before that and cutting the pieces out already. Done with that by the time I get back, and then ironing down, because then I go back to school. Yikes. No time for that. The next figure is also on fire. I really am trying to use totally different fabrics in each figure, even the reds for the hearts, although the last one had a gray heart. I want to cut into fabrics that have never felt scissor love. I want to use up things that I have large pieces of and that don’t need to be quite so large in the stash. Kitten just tried to turn on toggle sound on the computer. She’s using the keyboard as a pillow. Nice one, cat.
OK, but for now, I need to get ready for the last official family event, which means breakfast and a shower. And then maybe iron a bit before we leave. Figure 4 for tonight then. Some more grading at some point. Ugh. Some exercise some time. Tomorrow probably. Scissor love though. Gotta love me some fabric.
Kathy Nida 