I spent 45 minutes this morning trying to find a file that my son found in 5. I think that says something about my fitness to do anything at the moment. I have now saved it to the correct folder. I have no idea why it was hiding where it was, but it probably had something to do with the fact that sometimes my computer shuts down and saves things in stupid places without telling me, and because I installed a new version of Microsoft All the Things, it lost the link to A File You Recently Used. Thank you, technology. Well, thank you boychild as well.
We followed up with him digging two holes while I fetched equipment and moved dirt around. Two more holes to go, and then we can set some posts in. I probably should go buy the stringers tomorrow, so I don’t have to deal with a hardware store on a weekend. I found this while cutting things up…
The boy also found a dead baby bird, probably a dove, probably related to the two who were making a nest in one of our trees, and who seem to be piles of feathers in the yard now (ah, hawks)…and also found a dead baby rodent. Hard to say whether it’s rat, mouse, or gopher…I don’t see a lot of gopher holes in the backyard, so I’m assuming one of the others. Simba had a good time rubbing his head on it. Dogs are weird.
Apparently, I can only quilt at night. There are a bunch of other things I do during the day, like ship boxes and try to find quilts that are actually going to be exhibited somewhere and cut up greenery. Fun stuff like that. But I have about 5 hours of quilting in, all outlining, and I don’t think I’m halfway done yet…
I’ve made it up to the hip area of the central figure…
I’ve done everything in the foreground to the left of the main figure…
And a good portion of the foreground area to the right of the figure…
I need to do her face and one of her arms, about half of it anyway, and some of the stuff on the hillside. Then I’ll finish the main figure and do the stuff in the sky. I might be close to halfway done on the outlining? It’s hard to say. I have my quilt Zoom meeting today, so I think I’ll work on it for that.
I have other things I also need to work on…I traced the first embroidery for Patreon rewards, Part 2.
These are good for time in front of the TV. There isn’t any of that planned for tonight, though, so it probably won’t get started yet. She’s going to have rainbow hairs. I also finished all the grass embroidery in Folk Tails, finally. I kept looking at it until I thought the parts were full. When I’m done quilting this thing, I’ll sew the borders on so I can put the last bits on it.
I also framed some art I bought…as well as some posters for the man’s birthday. I need to hang all of them, but need to find room as well for mine. The perils of being an artist! Not enough wall space. The one on the left is a print by Fernando Marti, who I first met in elementary school, when we painted the nurse’s office together. Even then, he was way better at realism than I was. He belongs to a group of printmakers (Just Seeds) who do a subscription service, and I signed up for the subscription just for this print of his rabbit Bunnicula and the nolite bastardes carborundorum from The Handmaid’s Tale.
Just Seeds is an artists’ cooperative of 29 artists committed to social, environmental, and political engagement. The subscription is for a print a month, shipped quarterly. You can see some of the prints here.
The one on the right is from the SAQA auction at their online conference in March, the first one I’ve been able to attend. It’s by Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, whose work is fun and hard and amazing. Now to figure out where they will hang so I can stare at them. A lot.
I’m close to making bread again…yesterday, I got it all ready and folded and stretched and all that. It’s wetter than it should be, but it worked last time. We’ll see in an hour what it looks like.
I’ve got stuff I’m trying to ship out. It’s complicated by missing shipments, a need for boxes, lots of packaging. I’ll get it all figured out here in the next few days. So much for making one trip out…it’s gonna be three, I think. The world goes on.
My school is doing a summer enrichment thing. We made the news. My classroom (without me in it, hallelujah) made the news. Still don’t feel good about going back, but my superintendent thinks we are in 28 days. That said, union negotiations are still in play, and it’s possible the governor will just shut it down until (rumor has it) after Labor Day. So that’ll be the first three weeks online? Seriously just keeping my head down, trying not to follow too much on social media, trying not to think too hard about it (difficult when you’re a union rep and have to do trainings on how to help people who want medical leave). I love this…
More artmaking! Really, I do think I need that. Fence up though. That too. I want a good long hike next week too. There’s some cooler days coming up. I’m glad to have the art to fill my head. It’s a better place to be.
Kathy Nida 