Totally writing this at the wrong time of day for me. I meant to start it much much earlier and then the day ran away from me. Don’t you hate that? It just gets up off the couch and books it down the driveway, and then all of a sudden it’s 8 PM and I don’t know what happened.
Neither does he, if that makes anyone feel better.
So yesterday, I started this video of how I make a quilt from start to finish, using this small spacecat design that was in the last finished quilt. It’s been on my list for a while. I’m going to make a long version for my Patreon followers and a timelapse version for the rest of the world. I get asked a lot how I make stuff, and it’s all over the blog, but I’m going to attempt it in one go. I say that and I’m like 40 videos in and still not done, so WTF am I on about? ONE spliced disaster of a video. Because.
So there’s the drawing I did from the original drawing from some months ago, and there’s the pile of trimmed Wonder Under as well…
This is small, about 10″ square, with only 24 pieces in it. Here are the 13 fabrics I used in it…
And here’s the pile of trimmed pieces…
Oh wait. Those are not trimmed. Whoops. Missed a photo. Oh well. It’s in the video.
And here it is, ironed down to a background.
I stitched it down this morning and then sandwiched it and pinbasted it and all I need to do now is quilt it, trim it, and bind it. And then splice 3,000 videos together. Twice. Unless I can figure out how to timelapse it using the program I use to splice. We’ll see.
I finally started feeling well enough on Monday to exercise again…I started with cat yoga.
It’s not really cat yoga. It’s yoga where my cats stare at me and try to figure out WTF I’m doing. Same, cats…same. I also rode the stationary bike yesterday, and then graduated to a hike today. Exciting stuff.
I got two more days done on these…this is the star-shaped one.
And last night’s total pain in the bullion knot ass…
The lower one, not the upper one.
I haven’t done tonight’s yet. That’s next.
I also finished stitching everything down on this…
My official photographer will get this eventually.
For now, notice Simba in the left corner, and my daughter’s expert fingers, plus Calli in the lower right. It doesn’t have a name yet. I’m working on it.
My SIL sent me a bunch of fabric and I washed all of it and then had to re-iron a ton of it because the dryer folded it all up.
Ironing can be very meditative.
More fabric for the stash…
And then on a stitchy Zoom this afternoon, I was sewing all these pieces down…
And I actually finished…
So now I can embroider on it if I so wish. This is Applique Stories fabrics by Anna Maria Horner and her bimonthly challenge of sorts. Wherein I take some wacky fabrics and use them to make a nude. Like you do. (Most people make flower bouquets. I am somewhat strange in my fabric application.)
I also panicked all over the place about school and being an online teacher and just life in general. So there’s that. I have showered and changed my clothes though, so I feel like I’m doing OK for now.
What’s up next? I’m starting the next quilt. I’ve spent two days now procrastinating about Just Picking a Size of Paper to start drawing on, so there’s that. I can’t do a smaller drawing and enlarge it without going out into the world like I normally do. I did go into the world today. I delivered a mask to my dad so he won’t get arrested driving up to the mountains without one, and then I put gas in the car. That’s all I did. Well, we walked. There were a lot of people (and dogs) out there. I don’t blame them…it wasn’t raining and it was OK out and we all needed to get out. OUT. Yeah. Out.
It’s funny that with all this extra ‘time’ (mentally, it does not feel extra, but it is), I can’t manage to write every day. I can’t get my focus on. I’m not the only one.
Today would have been the first official day of Spring Break (well, it still is, but it doesn’t feel like it, right?)…and the man and I had three National Parks lined up. Right now, we’d be 8 hours into a drive to Yosemite, so maybe almost arriving, ready to set up a tent and cook tonight. We were looking forward to the trip, as was everyone who planned a trip for any time between the middle of March and who-knows-when. We only do one big trip a year, always during Spring Break. It makes me glad that we made an effort in the last few months to go to Portland, Joshua Tree, and happening Escondido wine country, because those trips will have to last in our heads for a while. We will just reschedule for next year, although Spring Break will be earlier next year, assuming next year is anything like normal…and this is already happening today…in April…
So we’d be driving into a small bit of snow, setting up a tent in snow, cooking in snow. It could be pretty. We had this issue last year, where we thought we might have snow and it never actually snowed ON us. So it could have been fine. Or amazing. Or miserable. Last year was fucking cold in Bryce. That’s the fun part about camping, is making sure you have enough alcohol and warm clothes to survive all those possibilities. Either way, we’ll plan it again.
Life continues here. I am feeling more human each day, after last week’s whatever-the-fuck-it-was, although my digestive system is still not in fine working order. It is working though, so that’s better than last week. On Saturday, I actually had enough energy and brain power (mostly) to quilt…so I did! Although I had planned to use a totally different thread. I even bought (before the world shut down) thread that went with this background, who-the-fuck-knows-where-it-is-now though, because I was braindead and just kept using the thread I was outlining with.
Which is darker than I would normally use in this situation, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to say that a lot from here on out I think.
It’s the right color in the really dark areas and a little dark in the really light areas and so it’s perfect.
IT’S PERFECT I SAID.
Really it’s just me arguing with my own brain, and that’s a losing proposition at the moment, as it spaces out and wanders off to do something else.
Speaking of, I should go plant some sunflower seeds right now. Before the rain starts. The boychild and I moved some compost and some dirt and started on the other composter, because the girlchild has filled one with all her happy veggies and it got overloaded. If she lived here full time, we’d need three to cycle through our compostables appropriately. But two is normally fine. We built a small hillock in the front yard. Down with flat front yards! Up with hillocks?
You see? Some people are counting the days of social distancing…this is Day 24 since school got out, but we weren’t very good about it the first week, so I’m not counting it. Last week, we went to the grocery store (three of them) and picked up food from two take-out places. And dumped stuff in the parentals’ dumpster without contact. That’s it. My car did start yesterday after going nowhere for a week, so that’s good. This week will be the same, I think. The man is still essential and goes to work three days a week for long and horrible shifts, which is why when he’s home, the cats love him…
But he sometimes looks like this…
Which is kinda how we all feel about this.
I didn’t finish writing about the quilting bit, did I. Well, I finished quilting yesterday…or maybe Saturday. I can’t remember. Days are fluid.
Naw, that was Sunday. I finished quilting. And then the man had cleaned the floors, so I trimmed it.
It’s not very big…about 43″ high by 53″ wide. As always, there is cat assistance to be had.
The next part was finding a binding. So I have lots of fabric…I just don’t usually buy more than 1/2 yard of anything, and usually binding needs more than that…so I was thinking this would be an issue. I did some math, though, and realized if I used a batik for the binding, because they are usually a little wider (44″ wide instead of 40″ wide or so), I should be able to get the binding for this piece out of a half yard. So all I needed was something that would work that hadn’t had anything cut out of it yet. Hmmm.
And I was lucky in that two of the fabrics that I actually used in the quilt, well, I had brainfarted (and really really liked them) and bought them twice in half yards, so I had a spare half yard of each, and one of them worked for the binding. It took almost the whole half yard…
But I got it bound. And there was enough of the backing, a lovely lime green with a fade mark in it and some hippos, for the two sleeves, which had to be pieced anyway…
I’m pretty sure this came from my SIL, but I’m not positive. No way I bought this gem. You can see the quilting pretty well on the back here.
And then I pinned it and started hand-stitching all the way around.
The girlchild and I stayed up late and binge-watched Unorthodox last night and I didn’t get all the way around, but more than halfway.
I also worked on these…one dot on Saturday night…
The one on the far left…with cat assistance…
We love our kitties.
And one last night…
The seed-pod-like one…again, I bought nothing new for these. I had all the wool and I’m using threads already in my stash. This is Sue Spargo…she’s posting one a day on Instagram and Facebook and doing wonderful videos explaining how to stitch these. The woman is a creative force.
The cats are bug watching.
Or birdhouse watching…
I drew a little Friday and Saturday…mostly unfocused. Hopefully I’ll get focused starting today.
I have an idea for a big piece and a little piece.
We planted this mallow bush and it might not make it, although it seems to have new growth and a new moth as well.
Sweet fuzzy thing. That is a moth, right. Fuck.
Sigh. This is the bathroom. It needs lots of work. Realistically, it needs to be torn down to the studs and redone. It is also a cat convention area in the morning. Hi guys.
How can I help? Better than Zoom meetings. Cat meetings.
Last bit. I’ve been doing hand applique since I was 22 or 23 years old. Back then, I bought a bunch of thread, so it’s all maybe 30 years old. Sheesh. But I finally got to nearly the end of a spool. I’m hoping I can finish the binding before it runs out.
It’s so old that Mettler decided to renumber everything, so to find a replacement spool, a $3.25 item that has lasted 30 years, I had to find an online conversion chart for the old vs the new numbers, and then find someone who carried it. Then I felt bad for not buying more stuff from them because who am I keeping employed with my $3.25 purchase? No one. Sigh. Money is scary right now. Which reminds me, I need to pay the property taxes. Because that hasn’t gone away.
OK, my plan for the day is to watch the rain fall from the sky, maybe plant those sunflower seeds in the hillock we just created, finish binding, and start the small and the large projects in my head. I think the small one might become something public-ish. I also should shower. And remember to eat and drink things. What else? I don’t know. Function. You too. Be well.
Hi. How are you all doing? I’m on day 6 of not feeling right. No fever, no cough, just a fun conglomerate of other symptoms that might be something and might not. So I’m just drinking a lot of fluids and hoping whatever it is goes away soon. I suspect a bunch of you feel the same way at the moment. Or not…
I spent yesterday’s school Zoom meeting lying in bed with a cat and the computer…there’s a quilt meeting today, but I don’t know these people, so I don’t feel like I can do the same thing, although my head’s a little slippy/slidey at the moment. Spacy. Headachey. All good.
I have moments of feeling fine, like Thursday night, when I walked almost three miles without any dogs for once…
It’s not because I didn’t want to walk with the dogs…they had gone over to the other house and I still wanted a walk…which is good, because yesterday, I so incredibly did NOT have the energy for walking, and today isn’t looking much better…hello Hawk.
I even finished my book.
Sitting in the sun…with Christmas socks on. Good choice.
My school team got our twinsies shirts on for the school social media…
And I did a bunch of stitching to get caught up on the dot embellishment…Dot 1…
Dot 2…
I’m just using whatever thread I can find at the moment…not always the right stuff.
Dot 3…
And Dot 4…
Then Friday brought spacey head and lots of digestive issues, continued over for Day 3 of Digestion Bingo at that point…now on the All White Food diet, trying to stay hydrated…plus during gaming last night, I did Dot 5, horribly over flashed, but there nonetheless…
She says each one will take 30 minutes. That last one took more than 30 minutes.
I’m caught up. For now.
I finished the outline quilting on this quilt…
I’d like to finish the background quilting today as well, but I’m not sure of energy and I’m supposed to do a Zoom in about 15 minutes. Ugh.
With rumors of San Diego going into mask requirement, I started trying to find materials in my office. Fabric is not the issue, but the ties…but I have a weird stash of truly old stuff…
I made the first mask from some pattern (please don’t ask me which one…they’re all over the internet and I only have half my brain functioning at the moment)…
I used batiks because they are a nice tight weave, but straight up…
I can’t wear this. I get claustrophobic in it and can’t breathe. Everyone else says it’s fine. So I guess this one is for the girlchild.
I then tried a basic surgical mask…much easier to breathe, but this is only one layer. Not very protective…
So I did a second one yesterday with two layers…not perfect…it only stays on if I have my hair in a bun or ponytail.
But I can breathe through it. Boychild doesn’t like the ties. I haven’t offered one to the man yet, because now that I think I might be sick, I’ve breathed into these and need to wash them before anyone else uses them. Sigh.
No, I can’t make masks for you. I can barely handle making these at the moment. Straight up, sitting up for long periods of time in an actual chair makes me dizzy. So I love all of you…go make your own please or go on Etsy, and if you’re making them for hospitals and medical workers, I love you more; please respect that I cannot. Sometimes we can only do what we can do. As I chug more Gatorade and wonder why it has such an awful aftertaste.
Have a cute cat picture…
And another one….
Plus this wide-awake one…
And lastly, this dog, NOT helping me review curriculum that decidedly does NOT cover photosynthesis.
Ah. School. You still drive me nuts.
I drew for a while last night. It was hard because I was pretty spaced out.
Yes, I am drinking chicken broth. All I really want right now is some really good chicken soup. I will probably settle for mashed potatoes and canned chicken again.
Usually I put my goals for the day(s) in this last paragraph. I’m tired. I don’t like food right now. I want to feel better. I want to finish quilting. That’ll do.
Ahhh. Yes. So. This new world order of school online and trying to figure all the bits and pieces out (there are a lot of bits and pieces). I’m supposed to call three families back and try to get them to get free internet. It’s like sales calls except the families are so embarrassed that they don’t have it already. I remember saying something in class about it, and one kid was like “WHO? WHO doesn’t have internet?!” and I’m like, whoa kid, lots of people, you privileged doofus. Which is funny, because I’m at a Title I school and there’s not a lot of privilege there.
So I’ve had too much stuff to try to get done in the last few days. And more today. Plus eyeballs on what’s happening in the country, on more horrors and do I need to make masks and why can’t we get the military folks off the carrier and WTF is going on with Florida or why do I care about that? In all that, I’m trying (like many) to do my job in a whole new way. Online meetings and trainings are fine, but they tie you down to where the computer can go, so there’s a lot of sitting. There were five of them yesterday, three for work and two social, but they were too long and too much, so I need to figure that out. Sooner rather than later.
I need a routine. For food, for work, for art. For life. Don’t we all? Here’s one of the social meetings…I’ve only been kicked off a few times, which should make it interesting when I’m doing school stuff with kids in a few weeks. I got kicked off this one a couple of times…or at least paused.
I’m currently listening to another training while writing this. Then I’ll shower (I hope) and try to get a hold of the rest of the kids I’m missing.
There’s been some stitching…I mindlessly sewed all 90 dots down…
For like 3 nights straight. Maybe 4. I don’t actually know what day it is.
Really, the hardest part was finding a color of wool thread for each dot. I have tons of it, but I kept missing one green here or there. They’re just whip-stitched down.
Why am I doing this? Because Sue Spargo is posting an embellished dot a day, so I thought I would add that to my crazy shit.
I finished yesterday during Zoom number 4. I find sitting through Zooms without something to work on just sucks.
My last Zoom was book club, and it would have been nice to have something to work on. So I need to be prepared for that shit.
Now I am four days behind the embellishment, so that’s today. Maybe. Plus I want to walk the dogs and sit on the deck and draw.
I finally FINALLY got my head around quilting last night. I’m getting close…
Got the arm done and the sky around it…
Easy stuff…just needed the mental space for it.
Realizing I’m not going to be able to go out and buy binding…huh…
Well. I guess we’ll have to wing that. WING. Ha. Ha.
Sigh. I still don’t feel particularly well. I’ve been dealing with something for about four days now. Headaches in the beginning, hot flashes and chills, minor, very minor fever (really, it’s hard to tell with me), plus digestive stuff showing up now. I think we’re all turning into hypochondriacs.
OK. Well. Then there were lots of animals involved with everything, because that’s how it is now.
They are on us and in front of us and next to us…
Which is mostly fine. This one can be a pain in the behind…
But cute, nonetheless…note that they are sleepy once you are up and out of bed. Before that, they are rambunctious and climbing the blinds.
Fuckers.
All three cats are in this photo…because my office is the best play space ever.
Disaster waiting to happen.
Guarding my thread…
Or playing constantly…
And lastly, the comfort foods. Yesterday, three of us each made one…boychild top left, girlchild fancy ones on the right, and mine on the bottom left (I don’t eat chocolate)…
There must be a need for comfort.
OK, I have no official duties today, besides finishing all the things I didn’t get done yesterday. I’m hoping to finish the outline quilting and move on to the background…maybe even finish it. Plus do the four embellishments (or at least two of them). And draw. And walk. First shower…and hopefully get my digestive system to behave. Sigh. There’s a sense of twisted normalcy here…but no routine. I gotta figure that out in the next two weeks. It will be easier then, in two weeks, I think because there will be required meetings every day. It’s just harder to keep track of these things. There’s no bell between homeroom and 2nd period. I don’t know when to eat lunch. I can’t remember where to be when. New world.
Kathy Nida 