Now the Party’s Over*

OK. Last night was the night. It’s when I finally saw the whole thing ironed out. We’re good. I really should trust my instincts after all these years, but there’s often that moment of uncertainty when I’m not sure it’s gonna work.

Before I ever started ironing last night, though, I packed a quilt up for Quilts=Art=Quilts so I could ship it this morning. And then I went to my quilt meeting…although I should probably stop labeling it with the word ‘quilt’ because half the people knit. Let’s call it a String Meeting. A friend I used to work with always asked me how my string things were going, because another friend at work knitted and I quilted and he could never remember which was which, but he knew they all used strings.

Because this quilt was at a stage that is not transportable, I took my handwork with me. I needed to get the wool pieces sewn down for April (yes, I’m working on May…I’m a little wombly sometimes). These are two of the three blocks, but there’s a bunch of pinky-red flower dots that have to be sewn on, plus I had to find the eyeball fabric when I got home. So luckily I’m still working on the May elephant block, because these aren’t ready. But soon.

Then I headed into the studio and pieced a backing, shoved the ironing board and chairs out of the way (I should have kicked them out of the studio), and threw the whole thing down on the floor.

Sometimes it’s a mistake to try to iron a big quilt down on the floor in there, so I do it in the entryway, but it was almost 11 and I didn’t want to mop the floor, because it was pretty dirty. Luckily it worked…I managed to line up the male’s head and gun with the hole in the chalkboard (note to self…no need for a hole there…if I’d drawn it all behind the gun, I wouldn’t have had to worry about it). I also managed to get everything else flat. Miraculous really.

Midnight was no help.

And then I spent about 40 minutes with a spray bottle and a hot iron, trying to make sure it would stick long enough for me to stitch it down…which I could start tonight, if it wasn’t gaming night. Surely I will start tomorrow.

It’s hanging up there and it’s too big for the space, so that’s a seriously wonky picture. But it’s gonna work. Outlining in the quilting for sure. No way do I have a thread that color…so this weekend, check batting and backing, and buy thread.

I’m sort of amazed by how hard this has been to make. I started teaching at age 35, recently divorced, with two little kids. The school where I started had very little support for new teachers. I had another science teacher I connected with who helped me a lot, but she has since quit. Nine days after I started my first job, two students brought a gun on campus to kill a teacher who “gave” one of them an F. Another kid snitched. I hate that word. I love that she told someone responsible. But those were the days before lockdowns. I remember at lunch, alone in my room, seeing kids running for the back part of the school in a huge bunch, but no one told us what was happening. I went home clueless…until I was watching the news last night and they broke the story.

There was no shooting. As far as I know, the teacher never came back. The gun never made it into the classroom…it was hidden on campus. That was a Friday. Eventually they called an emergency meeting for Monday morning. And that’s when lockdown drills started here in San Diego…or soon after. It was 3 years after the Santana High School shooting, back when these things were not so commonplace. I had a hard time dealing with the situation. It was hard for me to think that I might not make it home to my own very small (at that time) children because of something like that. And I have to say, that feeling has never gone away. I do still go back to school every day. Why? Because of the kids.

I’ll write later about a conversation I had last year with my students…which is also what this is about.

Deep stuff. Stitch down this weekend. Then sandwich and quilting.

*Roxy Music, Avalon

And I Will Try to Fix You*

Silly me, thinking I was gonna finish last night…because it bugged me most of the day, way back in the way back of my brain, but I was fairly sure I could make it better. So once I got home and got past the paralyzing exhaustion I apparently caught on the way here, I grabbed a blank piece of paper and traced over the part of the drawing that I wanted to change…

I was trying to keep the original drawing simple, so I only added one target, but then it ended up being on one of the lighter-colored heads, which was silly (but random) and said something I didn’t want it to say. It’s not that one kid is a target in a school shooting…in reality, a lot of the time, I think some kids might be because of bullying (them being the perceived bullies, and perhaps even in real life) or teachers or other staff might be, but sometimes it’s just anger at the whole world and a school has a lot of concentrated human beings so maybe it’s easier to go in there if you need to shoot a bunch of living creatures? Humans, to be specific…you don’t hear about zoo shootings or pet store shootings. I’m not being facetious…I’m serious here. Why does any sane (and that might be the issue) adult walk onto a school campus and shoot unless they feel the campus is part of their problem? I don’t pretend to understand anyone who uses a gun to solve their problems.

I did trace Wonder Under before dinner and a movie (it was one of those nights)…and caught up on three night’s worth of this. I’m behind because I’m doing other art stuff. I did stuff in the bottom left again…filling space…leaves and parts of that vine…

And after the movie (where I was sewing wool bits together)…I ironed. First I finished the thought cloud…but I had lost (misplaced) one of the Es…so this is why I keep my trash pile. It was in there. Duh.

And ironed it together…

Again, making a guess about what’s going through their heads. It’s hard…bullying is a real thing in middle and high school. Kids can be vicious assholes. But it would be nice to live somewhere that the solution was NOT to bring a bunch of guns to school and spray bullets everywhere.

So this was all ironed down already. I was hoping it wasn’t ironed down super hot, so it would still release and allow me to push stuff underneath. Otherwise, this would have been a pain in the ass.

I was still gonna do it though. Luckily, it did release pretty easily.

So I ironed and cut out and then ironed down all these little tiny target pieces…so it wasn’t about one kid with a target that was supposed to stand for all of them. I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding about the target. Mostly the kids that get killed or shot (and hell, I go back to Sandy Hook Elementary every time…) just happen to be there. Because who shoots kindergarten kids? Because he had access to guns…otherwise maybe he would have done something else, something less deadly.

Such a dark place I go to when I work on this. Because as a teacher, I always have in my head what I will do if a shooter arrives on campus…how I will protect a classroom full of 12-year-olds? And if your response is to arm ME? Yeah. No. That’s not a solution. More guns. You want a gun to shoot? To protect yourself? To hunt? Is that more important than a 6-year-old’s life? Tell me that. Truthfully.

No. I didn’t finish.

*Coldplay, Fix You

Stray from the Straight Line on This Short Run*

Rough morning…puppy seems to think if he howls, he is somehow scaring the coyotes away. Or he’s communicating with them in coyote talk. Or he’s just scared. It’s really hard to say. I just wish he’d stop. The Golden Retriever feels no need to communicate with the pack that runs by my house at 4 AM. And I greatly appreciate that. Maybe size does matter. Simba, the part-Pomeranian, drives a mad sports car with tinted windows and tails you down the road because you’re only doing 5 miles above the speed limit. Calli, the Golden, drives an old Subaru going 5 miles below the speed limit, oblivious to everyone around her, quite happy to be toolin’ along. Certainly she perks up when balls are being thrown or there’s a walk to be had, but otherwise? She’s mostly lying around relaxing. There’s something to be said for living with each of them.

I had hoped to be done with the ironing yesterday, and I think I would have if (a) I hadn’t gone to the gym, (b) my book weren’t so good so I kept reading when I should have gotten up and started ironing, and (c) I weren’t worried about how the pieces would fit together. Usually on a big quilt, I iron sections together and then don’t put the whole thing together until I’m putting it on the background. I have an ironing board extension (well, I have a board on top covered with a towel), but it’s still not big enough for this thing, to try to get everything positioned correctly. The pieces ironed on Teflon get really heavy and slip off the board at some point.

But I needed to know all the fingers and tentacles were going to fit right, so I did it anyway…

There were a couple places where I had to put a small piece of fabric behind to fill in a hole, but nothing major.

Then I ironed the head to the body on the other side…

But I couldn’t figure out how to get the arm in the middle positioned on the ironing board. It just wasn’t big enough. So I dropped to the floor.

I had to fuss with it a bit to get it all to go where it should, but it eventually worked. I often do the final iron on the floor for a big piece. That’s probably why my floor looks like crap…because I iron on it. I have to keep that in mind for when I eventually replace the flooring. I’m sure the Home Depot person will be able to help me find a flat, solid floor that takes a hot iron and doesn’t melt or otherwise disfigure. A simple requirement.

I decided against trying to iron his head and arm onto the existing stuff at this point…too much weight.

Well. That’s um. Yeah.

So what’s left? The thought bubble, which won’t take long. It was after midnight when I stopped there, though, so I figured it was better to get some sleep and finish ironing tonight. So I’ll iron it all down to the background tonight and maybe start the stitch down. Definitely I’ll be doing stitch down on Thursday and probably Saturday…it’s a big quilt, so it will take a while. Distance over number of pieces is what matters on quilting and stitch down. I’ll have to check my backing and batting stash over the weekend and make sure I have enough…maybe sandwich on Sunday? Start quilting?

I’m ready to be done with this one. I do (finally) like how it’s turning out, but it’s still not somewhere I want to hang out for long. The subject matter is worrisome.

Hard to say if these two are getting along any better. I’ve seen some playful moves from mine, but Satchemo is still just trying to invade space. They do both sleep on the bed sometimes, one at my feet and one under my armpit.

It makes it hard to move sometimes. But I’m looking forward to the day when they curl up together. Or at least exist in the same space without glaring or yowling at each other.

Man I want time to draw. It was loud last night, the voice…draw draw draw. I may just have to go with it at some point.

*Sarah McLachlan, World on Fire

Fake It if You Feel Like Infection*

My brain doesn’t know where to start. I’m listening to Talking Heads. I finished grades yesterday afternoon (I think…I’m always paranoid I missed something). My lunch is put together. All the animals are fed and medicated and settled…well, no, I had to go get the Golden Retriever because she’s being destructive. Paper is her issue. She likes to rip it up and eat it. Nice habit. I need to leave for work in about 25 minutes. I’m fed. I obviously don’t have enough caffeine in me.

Girlchild has been in Copenhagen for 5 or 6 days…her school had a few days off and she and a friend found a cheap flight, so they’ve been living it up in a tiny bedroom belonging to some young couple and their kid. I hear from her a couple times a day, so I know she’s alive. Boychild complains about the weather and sends comics. I know he’s alive. That’s all good.

I’m trying to finish up this quilt so I can move on to another more lighthearted one. Ha! Because the next one is about climate change, and that’s still depressing. Sigh. I did enter another show last night and there’s another few coming up in the next month. My solo show comes down in a week and a half, so all those quilts are coming back here. I didn’t expect to sell anything big, unfortunately…it’s a harder sell. The little ones are safe and relatively cheap. Time is worth money. I’d rather have the quilt than be underpaid for my time.

So finishing grades at work yesterday meant I came home and totally spaced out for at least an hour or so before I came in here and started ironing. I think I made dinner first. Can’t remember. Oh wait. I entered the show, THEN made dinner, and THEN ironed. I have half a brain. I wanted to walk the dogs, but it was hot. Bleck.

I’m considering a change to the head with the target…I didn’t purposely pick head colors…just wanted a variety. And this is less about the colors of specific students and more about all students as a whole. So I’m debating how to deal with that. I have a couple of ideas…one is embroidery and the other is more random. I’m letting it percolate.

The chalkboard…you know, the thing teachers don’t use any more.

The head goes in…

And the writing. The date is the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting…that event had a huge effect on my local school district…it’s when we started locking the campus, fencing it all in, locking our doors for that 6 months afterward because the kids were so freaked out. So were the parents (and the teachers), but we do this stuff for the kids.

Some more stuff on the board…

And that arm in place…

Finally working on the last figure…some may be offended by the American flag, but I think we have a deeply rooted issue with guns that you don’t see in other countries. This school shooting problem is a purely American construct. From Columbine on, we keep seeing these shootings occur and we don’t do anything to stop them.

As a teacher, I have some issues with that. More about that later.

Anyway, I have about 110 pieces left to go, and then I hope it all fits together…it could be a little wiggy where all the hands meet bodies. Hopefully that’s tonight…ironing it down to the background. We’ll see.

*Seether, Fake It

Your Conscience Will Be Mine*

Grades are almost done…they’re close enough that I could ignore them last night and iron for a few hours. That’s how you know you’ve done it right. I’m up early for a parent meeting…I don’t really like morning meetings. I’m not fully functional even with a cup of tea in me. I need time and space to get my head in the right place to teach, to get my classroom ready, and morning meetings fuck with that. It’s better than the days my school day started at 7:25 AM though, so I am glad of that.

I managed three nights’ worth on this…blue, white, and peach down in the bottom left, a variety of stitches…some lazy daisies, straight stitches, fly stitches, and French knots…whatever it took to fill the space. Chain stitches too…

Then filling in the elephant…that might take a while.

Then I came home and ironed…got the face done. The eyes are always a bit fussy. I don’t like ironing one down to the face until I have both of them and I can place them together.

It can be a bit fidgety sometimes, getting them in the right place that is…

And then it gets dark. This is a dark quilt. There’s no doubt about it. I guess many of my quilts are challenging, but this is straight up painful to think about and to make. So maybe that’s why I’m so troubled about whether it says what I want it to say.

I finished the head and the arm in the middle…gray, not flesh. I guess people will read that however they need to.

I’m 500 pieces in…only have 360 or so to go. So hopefully by Tuesday night I’ll be ironing it to the background, and then maybe stitching down after that. It’s big, so that part will take a while. I think I’m about 7 hours in on the ironing. I can’t check right now…my phone is in the other room charging…I’m not sure why it wasn’t charged this morning, but it wasn’t. Weird. Hopefully this is not a sign that the phone is dying early.

This morning’s reward for having to be up too early…

May the rest of the day follow that with abandon.

*Adam and the Ants, Stand and Deliver

Let Me Hold My Broken Parts*

Yesterday I was efficient and on track and yet frustrated as hell and then incredibly inefficient. Sleep makes one inefficient. But apparently I needed it.

So the app I use to keep track of how much time I’m spending on tasks in my quilts did not update with the iOS update, and instead of just working slowly and inefficiently, it’s completely inaccessible…along with all of my data. Fuckers. So I think I can cobble most of it together from my blog (which means reading through and trying to find that info for the last few months), but I’ve lost some data from older pieces that are in flux at the moment. Frustrating, yes. I found a new app and hopefully the developers will continue to update it and I won’t lose shitloads of stuff because of an update. And maybe I will remember to download all data before I ever update again. OK, that’s unlikely. I think I’ve picked one that keeps data in the cloud instead of on the device…at least, that was the plan. The problem with these apps is that they border on a business app, so the developers want to charge a million bucks for aspects I don’t need with the Pro versions, and the free versions sometimes don’t have the save in a cloud feature. OK. They never do. Frustrating as hell.

Anyway. So that was some moments of my day yesterday. I did finish a big chunk of the grading on Friday night, which is why I did no ironing Friday night. I think I in fact fell asleep on the couch, brain fuzz fully in gear. But I got up at a reasonable hour yesterday and refused to work on school shit all day, so I got 5 hours of ironing done and then went to an art exhibit and out to dinner (and fell asleep on the couch again…aaargh!). Must have been tired still.

Walked the little dog on Friday night…lovely skies…

Kitten doesn’t like it when I close the door on her…

Simba needed knots combed (and cut) out…this is his bitey face. Y’all love his bitey face because you are just looking at a picture of it and not trying to keep him from biting you while you cut knots out of his incredibly badly designed butt fur.

Ironing begins…this thing is BIIIIGGG.

I’m using two teflon sheets to try to iron the entire width. Straight up, it’s a pain in the ass, because it’s heavy and keeps trying to fall off the ironing board. There’s my cup of tea and cat in the background.

I did try to keep this piece relatively simple (for me), but spiderwebs crept in…

The bottom with roots…this piece has a lot about roots in it…our beliefs rooted into our behaviors…or vice versa. This notion of what it means to be an American seems so deeply rooted in some that they can’t see sense or have empathy.

Working on the female figure…the two margarine containers are being used as weights to keep everything from falling off.

The heart…complicated…always…

Her torso is done, although there’s another arm out there…

I got the other arm down, although the sun is shining on the hand so you can’t see it. I can’t remember how wide this is, but it’s not small…

From there to octopus tentacles. I wanted her to be able to reach out and hurt him, but not with a weapon, per se. I only wanted one real weapon in the piece.

Yes. That is a cat. In a box.

Third tentacle done just in time for leaving for an art exhibit…

So I got into the 300s yesterday…next up is her head and stuff behind her. More of that tonight, I hope. Less sleeping on the couch…more art. I say that but I know I did a lot yesterday.

From there, we headed out to the Perfect 10 exhibit at La Bodega Gallery…

Everything is supposed to be 10″ square…

Below are Kristine Tran and Natalie Bessell…just a note, I link when I can easily find one and it’s obvious it’s the artist I’m showing…sometimes I can’t figure that out. Which maybe is a commentary on artists who need to have a better presence online? But if you know you have a good link to someone you see, I’m ready and willing to fix this. I do want people to be able to go look at their art and maybe even keep an eye out for it or buy something. I wish I could buy more, honestly.

This is Skindiana Bones…I love her stuff…

Mario Chacon…worshipping pizza with cactus heads…La Sacred Piksa, he calls it.

Jennifer Cooksey…with some badass 3D work…

This is by Hyper Helix…

Luchuk’s stabby eyeball…

Another Spenser Little wirey piece…

I really like this Karen Ramirez piece…’twas all shiny and frightening…

David Van Gough…the lighting was hard to get around, but incredible detail…

Optimus Volts…they look like spray cans all cut to pieces…

Iwatsumi…the lighting was changing as I watched it…sorry for the crookedness. There are always lots of people at these exhibits and it’s hard to get straight-on views sometimes.

Turns out I follow this mural artist on Instagram…this is Shiva Trump by Celeste Byers…crooked to try to beat the glare…

Hers was the only piece with a statement…

Anna Stump with one of her beautiful nudes…

Teenah Clemente…

Chris Farrington…

TEM…

Lauren Grant…

Buffalo…

An interesting show…with that much small work, you’re bound to find something you like.

With that, I need to do a bunch of schoolwork today before I can get back to ironing…plus it’s time to get the week on track with food and other crap. I love having a day off from all of it to just do what I want…I need to plan more of that into my schedule, of course…always.

*Ingrid Michaelson, Be OK

Everyone’s Taking Everything They Can*

So everything I was supposed to do last night got canceled, and I ended up with a free evening. Which is strange. So like any good teacher worried about grades, that’s what I did first…but it was good, because I got an entire assignment out of the way and in the gradebook. I’m feeling much better about progress report grades being due next week now. I’ve got one major assignment, but I’m just over halfway through grading it, and I think I can get a chunk done at school today (I hope), so that will help. I don’t want a weekend full of grading. I’m trying to avoid it.

Never look a bunch of cancellations in the mouth? Just go for it?

It meant I was back to art stuff pretty early…well, early for me anyway. When I sat down on the couch, there were three animals with me in about 14 seconds flat…Satchemo, looking plaintive.

Calli, who is finally feeling better, and Simba with his bone…

Seriously, Satchemo always looks a bit plaintive.

Mostly it’s because he does not get all the food and all the pets.

Two nights’ worth on here…in the bottom left still…the pink lazy daisies and fly stitches, and then the flowers in a slightly different pink.

I have to decide on how to add another thing, a motif. And what to add.

I did finish cutting out finally…it’s a good thing I didn’t try the night before, because it took another hour and a half, for 14 hours total.

A lot of bigger pieces…filling up the box.

At that point, it was just after 11 and I was trying to decide…do I sort tonight? Well yes, I do. It’s easier to do that and then start clean tonight with ironing.

It took just under an hour to sort them all…not bad.

Nine bins full of pieces ready to be ironed together. I’ll hopefully start tonight and get some done this weekend. I do want to do some enjoyable things this weekend too, though, so that will be on the agenda. I’ve read another 17 articles about teacher work/life balance (it must be September!). It’s a myth that you can ever have that with this career and do a decent job of it…but certainly you should always be carving out time for self and friends and family. Carve is the appropriate term too…with a rather sharp, nasty, and dangerous sword.

Good news though…three pieces are in an upcoming local show at the Rose Gallery, located at Francis Parker School…so yeah, no nudity! And I had three of them. Miraculous. The opening is November 16…put it on the calendar. They do a lovely reception and it’s a beautiful space…it’ll be the first time I’ve had work there. It’s all good…persuades me to enter yet another show.

I don’t actually need persuading. I know better than to look at any one (or series of) rejection(s) and take any life’s purpose from that.

*Zero 7, In the Waiting Line

Laughed as My Body She Lifted*

So the dog is feeling better…she finally ate something this morning. That’s a relief. Although she’s back on meds. I’m currently negotiating with the two cats in my office. One doesn’t understand personal space apparently. They’re semi-squealing at each other. Really? Knock it off.

Yesterday was too long and stressful, although I was efficient until about 10 PM. Then it all fell to hell. Not surprisingly. I guess I’m not Superwoman. Oh wait. I already knew that.

I’m back up early today for another meeting. I’m not sure why some people assume everyone functions in the morning. I do on here, but this is light and pictures and words typed on a keyboard. I don’t have to really talk to anyone except in my head. I did a lot of that yesterday, talked to people while I was driving around to all the things, chiropractor, vet, and an art meeting. Ugh. I’m not happy about a couple of things at school and it’s dragging me down. I know my counselor would say to knock it off and I’m trying, but I’m just not happy about it at the moment.

Ahh…sigh. Just ignore for now. Get shit done. Hope the rest disappears or changes.

I finally sat down around 10:30 or so to cut stuff out…

IMG_7957 small

Yeah. You’d think I would have finished. And I thought about it. But I was really tired and knew I had to be up early today. So I tried to be a responsible adult. I have 12 1/2 hours into the cutting. I suspect there’s less than an hour left in there. It’s busy today and tonight, and grades are due soon, but my plan is to finish cutting those and then sort them so I can iron tomorrow night.

Now that’s exciting, isn’t it? I think so. Meanwhile, I’m still waiting to hear if I have to make another piece sometime before January 1 (it’s not on my calendar! And I don’t know how I’ll pull it off if I have to…). And I’m waiting to hear about a show. And I really just want to run away to somewhere kinda cold and rainy or warm and tropical and just make a bunch of art while someone else teaches science and grades a million things and cleans up dog vomit and tries to manage a bunch of people. Is that an option? Nope. Probably not.

*Natalie Merchant, Wonder

I Need Direction to Perfection*

I spent an hour plus last night fighting my internet…slow as heck, same old stuff. Whatever it was, sludge speeds, figured itself out by the time dinner was done, so I could upload photos at the speed of light again (entering a show…yes, hope springs eternal) and do the other internetty things that needed doing. But I had carved out an hour and a bit for grading and then that didn’t happen…and I couldn’t bring myself to sit down and do it after dinner, because I wanted to get to the art stuff, you know? Too many hours of working and you start to go nuts.

So no grading yesterday. None. Sigh. Don’t think about grades being due. You’ll do what you can.

There’s Calli…she’s sick. Some tummy thing. She’s going to the vet this morning…hopefully it’s something simple. Because she doesn’t feel well. Usually she comes down the driveway with me to get the mail. It’s one of the exciting parts of her day.

Yesterday she just sat there until I started coming back and then she got up and slowly walked toward me. Poor baby.

I did two nights on this…the green feather stitch and blue lazy daisies on the left, building up from the bottom now.

I guess it’s all either curved lines or straight ones.

Puppy hung out with me on the couch for most of the night.

See how close he gets? I’m still cutting out…did almost 3 hours last night and I can see progress, the end of the road.

Although all those octopus bits were a tad annoying. The suckers…that’s what they are.

But it meant I was down in the mostly big pieces of the female figure by the end of the night. Those are the 100s, I think. There’s dirt below…more big pieces. The top box still needs to be cut out, but you can see the box is nearly empty. All the stuff that’s cut out is in the bottom left and the trash in the bottom right.

I’m pretty close to done I think. Unfortunately, I have a potentially longish meeting tonight, so very little time for grading or cutting…but we’ll see. I’ll still cut stuff…I just may not finish. I’d like to finish…but then I have another meeting Thursday, so even if I finish and sort before that, I won’t be able to start ironing until late Thursday at the earliest. But progress! Remember progress! Because that’s what keeps me going…that and getting to see it finally ironed together and deciding if I actually like it. That’s a big one with this quilt.

Plus the next one is percolating in my head. It’s already started on paper, and it’s gonna be big, but I need to finish this one first. And I might cut myself a break and finish that other smaller one in between. Or not. Hard to say. It’s partially done already.

Anyway, hopefully the dog is better by tonight, the meeting is productive but doesn’t put another piece to be done on my plate (not sure where that would fit), and I get through the cutting stage. My hand would be happy with that.

*The Killers, All These Things That I’ve Done

An Ocean of Violets in Bloom*

Last night I had a great idea for how to write this post. And then I forgot it. This is why I should just start writing it whenever those thoughts pop into my mind. I even have the app on my phone…I’ve written entire posts on my phone…so there’s no excuse. Well, I think the excuse was that I was driving. But whatever that thought, ever so important at the time, it’s gone now. Or not really…because I’ll be driving along and it will pop back in…you know it will.

But for now, the mind is blank. At least on that topic. It’s roiling through a series of other topics instead.

I belong to a quilt guild…just one. I’ve belonged to it since I was about 25 or so, maybe earlier. I was the youngest person there for a really long time…then one woman came who was a year or so younger and another woman brought her daughter. I am no longer the youngest woman there. Which is fine.

I only go about once a year at most…because they don’t have a lot of speakers I want to hear. They used to…or I used to go listen to a lot more? No, I think it really was more art-quilt centered for a few years in the way back, so I saw Laura Wasilowski, Hollis Chatelain, Joan Colvin (that link is a video of Joan, who died in 2007), and Ellen Anne Eddy, along with others. I took classes from most of them, when I could fit them in, so they probably had some effect on me long term, some more than others. I still dye fabric the Ellen way. It may be that I reached saturation…I saw enough techniques that I didn’t need to see more? I went to Patt Blair a few years back because I liked her use of color, and last night, I went to see Sue Carlson for her use of fabric and color. I’m pretty sure I have her first book in here somewhere, so this is not a new fascination with what she does.

It was great to listen to her explain her process over the years…fascinating really. I completely understand the obsession with fabric as the palette. I have some pictures, but honestly, they don’t do justice to the work…although when I got there, a slide show was playing that had me in it (that was weird)…apparently Visions was going to talk about their current exhibits. That’s Carlson’s Dixie Dingo Dreaming…

And one of her fish…

But really it’s about seeing how she uses ALL the fabrics to build her pieces.

Aboriginal dot dingo…amazing use of fabric.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. You should go check out the website and read her blog. Her pictures are way better than mine…

I came home to the two boy animals behaving…

At one point, I had all 5 animals in one room and no one was hissing, growling, yowling, or barking. It was stupendous. A work in progress.

I did cut things out last night…for almost two hours! Can you tell? I can…barely. The top one is stuff that’s cut out…the bottom left is still to be cut, and there’s the trash pile for just in case.

Oh yeah…and Satchemo…wanting to be in the middle of things.

Sometimes mornings with all of them are a bit much. Calli wouldn’t eat this morning, someone threw up in the hallway, and Satchemo and Midnight were both in my office sounding off at each other. Whoo!

I did work on the elephant at the meeting until they turned the lights out…a little progress.

I’ve got nothing else going on tonight, so hopefully there will be another 2 or 3 hours of cutting…maybe I’ll be able to see the difference in the piles by then!

*Prince, When Doves Cry