OK, officially a school Monday, but no kids today, just 3+ hours of listening to people talk about stuff that doesn’t help me get my classroom ready for tomorrow. It is an easier start than going right back to teaching, though, so I appreciate the afternoon, where I can make sense of shit, especially all the shit I didn’t finish. I actually did OK. I didn’t grade two assignments. Everything else is in the gradebook. Considering the number of days I was out of it with the flu, I did well. I didn’t really get a break from school entirely though, because I graded almost every day…just a little, but I did grade. I’m sure there’s a way to avoid all of it, but I mostly suck at that, so I’m glad I had time to get some art done…definitely spent more time than usual on that over break, although I only made it to ceramics once. Which sucks. Not sure what the status of my bowl will be when I get there after school today. Ah well. And I never saw my frames come out of the kiln. Hopefully they’re OK. It would suck if they weren’t.
So I spent a goodly chunk of time Friday night and Saturday cleaning up the office, moving stuff around, trying to make space. I did pretty well, although I distracted myself with culling through the two orange drawers and one of the three red drawers. I go through the fabrics I’ve been collecting since 1990 and if it’s something I haven’t used much of, I chop a fat quarter off of it (I usually buy 1/2 yards) and put it in the donate bag. Then when I have enough (whatever that means), I box it up and ship it to a couple of charity organizations. Gives me room for more fabric and more choices. Plus I get to see everything I have in the stash, which is sometimes surprising. Then I tried to put away all the fabric from the last quilt.
So everything gets messier for a bit and then I can see straight and can start ironing fabrics for the next quilt…which I started Saturday night.
I hung the drawing and started setting out the Wonder Under in numerical order by 10s.
And then I start ironing to fabrics.
Top left is the background fabric for this quilt. I’ve mostly been doing dirt and some water so far. A volcano. Some oil spills. I’m still in the 0-99 box, but I’ve pulled from the 100s too. It’s been a slow start, but it often is. There are lots of little details that all need to be different colors. But I’m doing it now…just hope I can be done with the ironing to fabrics sometime next weekend. Tight deadline for this one.
In other news, my 6 quilts made it to Virginia to the quilt museum in Dayton. That show opens later this month and I’ll be there for the closing activities in March. Put it on your calendar!
In other awesome news, despite having to paint in the rain, the cold, the humidity, and the wind, the boychild and I finally got the new railings on the deck.
I need to do some touchup, and then all those plants go back up against the railing (so I don’t have to look into my neighbors’ yards. I started this plant bonanza during COVID to block the view (and sounds) of my neighbors…at the moment, it’s a little out of control, so I need to do some more work in the next couple weeks to replant and move stuff around a bit to make it more organized. But the railings are done! Ish. Mostly. You know how that goes.
This lasted about 2 minutes.
Scribble wants to cuddle, but the big cats are hesitant. It’s cold here at the moment (well, it’ll be 79 degrees later, but it’s in the 40s at night), so they are more conducive to cuddling, but mostly with humans and not each other.
Yeah this.
My ICE quilt will be in Virginia. It’s not the first quilt that I’ve put ICE in…it probably won’t be the last. It also probably won’t be the last quilt with a tattered American flag and a body bag in it. Unfortunately.
This is also too real…
My district today is pushing us to use more AI for planning. Wasting more water and electricity…plus dumbing us down. Don’t get me wrong; it can be helpful. It’s just problematic in more ways than it’s helpful.
OK. 3+ hours listening to the things. Then working with my co-teacher to get the next two weeks planned out (hopefully, because I need to copy a table of contents for tomorrow) and making sure our classrooms are put back and functional after Winter Academy co-opted our rooms. Then run some errands…my store had no yogurt and no deodorant for me (ah, allergies), and I need more paint. Then ceramics! I’m hoping I have the energy…last year, I took a nap after this first work day. I’m cooking tonight and I should probably grade some of the two assignments I didn’t get to…and then I’m ironing, hopefully into the 100s and further. The nice part about the next 6 weeks is that we get three 3-day weekends…and then March is a vast expanse of hard work until Spring Break. Progress report grades are due next week too, so that’s a little stressful. But the extra Mondays off do help. I’m hoping they help me get this quilt done. And keep my head on straight. Ha! Well, I can hope.
Kathy Nida 