Never Gonna Dance Again

Woke up to Careless Whisper by Wham!. Not sure what to think about that, on the first day back to work in 2024. Can’t get it out of my damn head though. So there’s that. Hey you know there’s 74 days until Spring Break! You know the worst part about coming back is when you don’t feel rested and refreshed, and everybody is all asking you if you feel rested and refreshed and please share one relaxing thing you did over break, and I’m like I READ 78 BOOKS BECKY precisely because that was my escape from not feeling rested and refreshed. Also I’m just a cranky old lady sometimes, and today is one of those times. Not enough sleep. Not enough shit got done. As always.

Speaking of not enough time, I really am trying to up the ante with this quilt, getting it done in an insanely small amount of time. How? Grabbing minutes when I’d normally do something else. I had 45 minutes yesterday afternoon before driving out to an art meeting, so I ironed instead of lesson planning. I had 30 minutes waiting for the Man to get dinner ready…same deal. I got the room cleaned Saturday in the hour before going to see his show, and when he sent me an updated start time (later), I sat down and got half a really complicated exhibition entry done. It’s good, but it feels like I can’t ever just sit down and relax. Hence my post-break feeling of no, not rested, not relaxed. My fault, but semi-necessary at the moment. I’m not letting another year of school fuck up my ability to make art. I’m gonna figure it out.

So I had everything laid out and ready to go on Saturday…wait. Stop. I need to be chronological about all this.

First of all, on Friday, I ran a million errands. I even wrote the blog late because of it. I spent about an hour staring at this asshole…

Which is the slow annoying one, because our faster one has been broken down most of the fucking school year, so we’re stuck sharing this with the front office, who keeps telling us we’re not allowed to use it. Uh huh.

Fast forward to Friday night (I did other stuff, very little of it art related)…I drew at dinner.

I was in a pretty positive mindframe at that point. Except she is holding her head. Legit position. Then we went out to see a friend’s band play…

Sonic Moonshine…ironically, we’d be back here on Saturday night for the Man’s band, Radio Thieves. But some drinking and dancing happened, probably too much of both.

Saturday dawned early, as it always does. I had a quilt guild meeting, so I worked a little on her face.

Slow stitching forever! Might finish in 2030.

Then came home and focused on cleaning up the art space, putting fabric away, even cleaned the floor because there was something on it that made it very slippery in one area (don’t wanna know what) and I was afraid I’d fall and break something. Like my leg. That would make life fun right now, right? Oh wait! Before I cleaned up in there, I had to deal with this. So we have this older friend who isn’t a quilter, but she had these blocks she cross stitched, and then I sandwiched them for her and she quilted them (the white threads are all my basting threads)…

And then I couldn’t deal with the sashing on a quilt-as-you-go, so we mailed it to a friend who used to live down here (she’s retired) and she put it together, mailed it back to me, and then I took it BACK to our friend and she hand-stitched all the sashing sides down (I taught her ladder stitch…she’s really NOT a sewer). Then it came back to me and I put the borders on and shoved some batting in there on Friday and Saturday, and then I removed all that fucking basting thread I put in last summer or whenever it was (2022? this has been going on for a while).

See pile of threads in the top right? So that happened before and after the quilt guild meeting. I needed this to get off the ironing board so I could use it for ironing.

Then I quilted one of the white squares on Saturday…

And one on Sunday. Yes, I could just do it all in one go, but it would take a few hours and then I would feel like I got nothing of my OWN done, and I cannot abide that at the moment. Nope. So my goal is 1-2 white squares a day and then the damn sashing and borders. I’ll get there. It just won’t be quick.

Then on Saturday, I laid out the first 100 pieces (after cleaning the whole room, floor, etc).

It’s not a big quilt.

Then I went to see the Man’s band play (more dancing, a little drinking, learned a lesson there I guess).

Home again. Spent Sunday getting ready for school, but also carving out time for ironing. I’m in the mid-100s, I think…something like that.

I got almost 3 hours in yesterday. Good times. You’d think I’d have more ironed, but there were a lot of little things going on and they took some thinking.

I also went to an art meeting and sewed down (during dinner) 9 of the 48 circles I need to stitch down for my mom’s thing.

See, I AM doing all the things. I’m just cranky about most of it. Except the ironing for my quilt. That is joyous and not cranky at all.

I’m sure everyone has seen some cool art or fabric in a TV show and screen shot it…this is the wall art from an episode of Suits.

Fascinating. I had some stuff burst into my head from this. Too bad I have to go back to school today instead of nurturing my Art Brain with some drawing time. Luckily there are no kids today…just adults and the bullshit the district wants us to do. Am I still burnt out? Oh yeah. I am. Do I have some plans for keeping myself from fully burning out? Uh huh. I do. Watch this space. Still got that damn song in my head.

Happy Wonton Lunch…

OK. Self realizes last real day of Winter Break is upon us. The to-do list is heinous. The month is ugly. I’m still feeling burnt out from school…not a good sign after three weeks off. But it is what it is. What I can have in place is a giant pile of books to read as a reward for doing whatever yucky thing is that I had to do to earn the reading, a solid exercise plan that moves for nothing and no one (almost), an art project that has a deadline, so it cannot be shunted aside. It would also help if I had a cook and a cleaner, but I’m not holding my breath for those. Best I can do today is cross off a bunch of stuff. I’m dropping my school computer off this morning and getting a loaner so that I can actually use it in class. At home, I’ve been projecting it to another monitor, but I still can’t see the login box (I don’t need to see that to get in, luckily), and a goodly chunk of the doc and tabs are unavailable. So I’m glad they were available to get me a loaner today. I’m also shipping the Supreme Court quilt to its new owner. I made some videos before I packed it up, so I’ll be hopefully getting those processed and on the blog this weekend. I’m picking up another quilt from a show; I’m glad they were open today so I could do that. Trying to do all this stuff during a regular work week is really challenging…half of these places aren’t open late enough for me to even get there. Frustrations aside (is that even possible? I feel like it’s a daily occurrence to be frustrated these days…ask me after today.), I have today planned pretty solidly. Hoping to get a hike/walk in there, but we’ll see.

So I’m on the speedy track with the first quilt of 2024. Why? I have a collaborative project I’m supposed to be doing in the next few months, and I also need to (want to!) make a baby quilt for a good friend having her first. Also there’s a deadline and I don’t have anything at all for it, which is weird and frustrating (there’s that word again). So I traced the whole thing in just three nights, I think…

Spending more than an hour a night, obviously staying up too late, sigh, those are the hours I am most efficient, but also the hours I need to be asleep so I can get enough sleep so I can get up at ugh in the morning. It was less than two yards of Wonder Under. I started cutting it out Wednesday night after finishing the tracing…

Didn’t get far, but did the rest of it in a couple of hours last night…

Today, I’m going to sort it, make sure I have a background, buy one if I don’t, and start ironing to fabric, which means putting everything away from the last quilt first, and honestly, I need to put the borders on the other friend’s quilt I have had for a over a month first, because I need the ironing board and table for that. So do that first. Realistically, that’s a lot, considering everything else I need to do today, but we’ll see how it goes. You know me; I’m all about progress.

OK, I’m going to have to write the rest of this later; need to book. *** Time Passes *** So I wrote that at around 8 AM and now it’s 12:15. I’ve been productive. I have a loaner computer and mine is winging its way (well, probably driving) to Apple for repair. I copied all the papers needed for the first two weeks of school (one copier is already down, so I stole paper from it and went to the office copier, so that reduces my Monday stress). I picked up my quilt from Visions, because the show ended. I shipped the sold quilt with insurance, which is why I had to drive into a part of town I never go to…it has to go to a customer center, not a UPS store. Annoying because they’re not open past 2 PM, so doing it during the school day is impossible. I might even have partially solved the insulin shortage problem; we’ll see about that. Why am I short insulin? Long story involving a defective pen months ago that still isn’t solved. Yet.

I also washed my storage bins that I use for sorting fabric and Wonder Under. The pencil had been transferring off of the pieces onto the boxes, and I didn’t want the fabric to get dirty. To be honest, I only washed the first 6…because that’s all I need right now. So later today, I’ll be sorting fabric. I also checked my background stash and I have something that will work well for this quilt, so there is (unfortunately) no need to go shopping. Wah. But also, that’s probably a good thing. I’m waiting for the loaner computer to finish updating so I can go lesson plan for a while…not my favorite thing to do, but I have a chunk of time when I’m not super tired, so I should do that now. My future self will appreciate it.

I’ll take a break while lesson planning to put the borders on that quilt and clean up the sewing room, so I can start ironing to fabric later today. The Man and I have a date night planned, since he has a show tomorrow night, so we’ll be going out to dinner and to see some music for a while. Tomorrow, I’m planning for more lesson crap and more ironing joy.

Last night, during my quilting-friends Zoom, I made wontons from scratch, to provide me with three days of lunch joy (and last night’s dinner). It’s too time-consuming to make during the school year, but it’s one of my favorite meals, so I make it once during break if I can. Then I started pinning the snowflakes on the borders of mom’s Tinsel quilt. Oh, I put the borders on the other day…

We changed the snowflakes to two different sizes of circles…

And then changed the borders from the pattern, only using 6 of the snowflakes Sue Spargo planned.

One of the other participants did it this way and added a bunch of different embroidered snowflakes randomly throughout the border, and I liked the way it looked better than the original. So my job is to applique down the 48 circles. Then I hand it over to mom and she does the embroidery. Then back to me to sandwich and quilt…she could probably do that, but that’s OK. I’ll give it back to her to stitch the binding down by hand. Then it’s hers. And when she’s gone, it’s mine. Unless my SIL or some other close family member wants it more. Then it’s theirs.

So those circles are my evening stitching after eating dinner. It’ll be a week or two to get done.

Here’s where I’ve been lesson planning. It got dark last night while I was working.

It’s kind of chaotic, but it works better than sitting on the couch. I did finish grading that last academic assignment, so that’s good. I have progress report grades due in a couple of weeks, and I don’t want to stress about it. I don’t have TIME to stress about it. Every weekend from now until February 10 has stuff on it. Some of it is art or music, but that doesn’t make it any less busy (there’s also tree trimming and mammogram, so it’s not all fun and games). I’m eyeing February for camping or something, because I’m gonna need it.

Kitten is such a good baby. Fifteen and a bit. Definitely likes the sun.

And to be near me. Sometimes annoyingly so. But sweet here.

The composter in the front yard has a visitor.

Probably rat. Need to put more water in there. They don’t like it when it’s super wet.

Also, she’s touching me. Make her stop touching me.

Anyway. Coping mechanisms in place. I’m on some new supplements and hoping they will help with sleep and energy. And hot flashes, which may never go away. We’ll see. But for now, I’m going to eat happy wonton lunch and plan for a while and then not plan for a while. The art is what saves me, on a daily basis, y’all. Without it, I’d be bonkers, seriously nuts. I’m so glad I have that.

Not Enough Hours…

You know, just when you give up on ever hearing back about something, you inevitably get some weird voicemail about it. Guaranteed. So that’s one fuckup in 2023 solved in 2024. May there be more. I had a defective insulin pen. It only took them 4 months to issue me a voucher.

I’m getting lots done each day; it just doesn’t feel like enough. I started tracing Wonder Under for the new quilt, which has an insane deadline, on Monday night…

I spent more time than I usually do on a daily basis, because it’s break, and I’m allowed. Plus I cleaned and organized beforehand. Pay-off. I did the same thing last night, but that’s because I stayed up too late…

That’s not something I should keep doing, because sleep is one of my major focuses of the new year. Sleep affects blood sugar. And stress. Also stress affects blood sugar. And sleep. Annoying really. There should just be a button I can push to fix all of those. ANYWAY. I’m in the 400s…planning on finishing today. Then trimming the Wonder Under. Fast fast.

Unfortunately, this is the part of Winter Break where I panic about not getting shit done. I took the dog back to the eye doc today; his eyelid is healing fine and hopefully the growth will not come back and his eyes will not deteriorate super fast. We’ll see. He’s a good boy. I have a haircut later today, after a COVID-related rescheduling. Works for me. I have pilates today. That’s normal for a Wednesday. I started lesson planning yesterday with a little grading on the side. I still have one assignment that’s not done. Well, two, but one is super small. I should plan to finish those. I wanted to lesson plan first, though. I have a hellacious January, with 4 sex-ed curriculum meetings that weren’t supposed to exist (ah fun) and a whole host of other meetings, plus progress report grades are due. So I’m trying to preemptively get my head above water through February. Ha! Yeah, I know. I’m trying. I managed to get through 7 days of plans yesterday, but they had already been sort of roughly put together, so it was just finessing things and making sure there were rubrics and due dates etc. That’s almost the first two weeks of school, because of holidays and the like. So I’ve got another 9 days to get through for February, and they mostly don’t exist…and I’d really like to get a rough draft of the whole genetics unit, if I can pull it off. I don’t think I can, but I often set goals that I have no chance of achieving on time. I also need to ship some stuff today, write a blogpost I keep talking about writing, and do some organizing for a class I’m taking next week. NOT school related. Plus the quilty stuff for other people that I haven’t finished due to a shortage of time to do all the things. As always.

This was in the grocery store parking lot yesterday.

Chainsaw animals…always fun.

OK. It’s raining here. That’s a good reason to stay inside. I was up way too early. I need to put a label on a quilt and make sure I have hanging slats for it. Then head out for haircut and random errands. Busy day. Not enough hours. Always.

Doing It Better…

Well hello 2024. Nice to see you, and all those folks in the back kicking 2023 to the curb and welcoming you with open arms. Not sure where I am on that yet. 2023 wasn’t fun, but I’m not seeing the light in 2024 yet. I’ll let you know. No matter what, it’s some sort of a mental reset, although for teachers, I think Winter Break is a reset even if you don’t give us a new year in the middle of it. For me, I will hopefully get caught up and even ahead of the game. That’s the plan anyway. Although, what I planned to do today didn’t happen. I cleaned up my office space instead, the area around the computer and the sewing machine. It needed it. It was a disaster. It will be again, but I can start clean and semi-organized. Just don’t look at the rest of the house.

So the Man and I planned a weekend away to start the New Year. It’s been rough for both of us in the last month or so, and this was a better gift than anything else we could think of. We didn’t have much of a plan, but getting out of here is always a start. We started with a winery gift card I got in 2022 for Christmas and kept forgetting to use…we drove out to Julian…

Had a tasting and got a bottle of wine out of the gift as well…

Nice gift. This is Menghini Winery. We made the mistake of missing the turnoff through Wynola (we came through Ramona, probably because Interstate 8 is still down to one lane eastbound), so we had to endure the crazy Julian traffic.

The bathroom at this winery is stellar…

That is a living ivy plant both outside and in. I’ve been looking at bathrooms for ideas; I’ve got at least one bathroom remodel coming up in 2024 probably. A living plant taking over one wall wasn’t on my list…until now.

From there, we drove out to our Airbnb…it was OK. Not the most comfortable for a cold night. A fireplace would have been nice, but we left things too late and decided a real kitchen was more important than a fireplace.

There were horses on the next property over…

And turkeys wandering around both properties…

There was a lake with kayaks, but we weren’t in the mood…

Although it was a pretty lake.

We went for a hike on Sunday…

The Secret Canyon Trail from the north end…it’s pretty flat for apparently the first 7 miles. We did not do 7 miles…

Nowhere close in fact. There were two water crossings that weren’t bad at all, and then we got to an iffy one, but realistically, the Man’s back was bugging him…

So we did a little over 3 1/2 miles…not much…

But it was nice. No one else on the trail…that’s always a plus.

Then we spent most of the afternoon and evening reading, playing a game we both won…

I did some drawing…

(small table)…I was drawing on the bottom of the drawing I’d chosen, which was from two locations and dates in 2022.

I added more after this.

Then I numbered it…

And then some crazy drawing I did late at night…

I can’t explain this, but I’m glad to have the mindset and the down time to have done it. To more of that in 2024. However I can figure that out.

I do notice that the harder stuff is, the more I dive into reading. I went well above and beyond my Goodreads goal…

Not sure what this year brings for reading, but hopefully it’s a lot. I realized today that I hadn’t read the book I need to read for school…I’ve read it before, but it’s been long enough that I don’t remember what happens at all. I should work on that. Or not? Hard to say.

Anyway, we drove back from the mountains today, and I started by cleaning up this workspace, at least some of it. And then the boychild disconnected all the cable TV boxes to return tomorrow; that’s been on my to-do list for months, so I appreciate his help. I packed up a box for the girlchild, who hopefully flew home tonight. I have a long to-do list for this week, catching up a lot of loose ends, but also a lot of school stuff. And tracing that new quilt. Tomorrow, hopefully I will be writing a blogpost about the Supreme Court quilt and how it came to be and what all the things mean (well, most of them anyway). Then it will ship off to its new owner. The purple quilt is at the photographer. I only made 5 quilts this year, which is down from previous years. I’m not happy about that. Usually I make a little photo thing for them all, but I’m not in the mood tonight. Maybe tomorrow. I’m sad that I didn’t have time to make more. So that would be something I’d like to change in 2024, but also something that will take a lot more than my just saying it in order to happen. I just updated the whiteboard calendar on my fridge, and January is hellish for school. I’m not happy about that. I also can’t do much about it. My teacher morale is low at the moment.

For now, though, I’m going to start tracing this new piece and consider grading the easy assignment tonight, or part of it at least. Tomorrow, I’ll get some errands done and trace some more. Plus read some more. Plus clean some more. I can’t really hit rest and relaxation with so many things that need doing, but tracing is meditative and that will help. May 2024 be better or as good as or whatever you need it to be. I’m going to focus on surviving the next 6 months and then doing it better after that.

May Art Sustain Us…

Weird frame of mind. I don’t have a clear idea of what art I’m working on next, which is hard for me. So I’m trying to get that taken care of in the next day or so. Plus I’m realizing I have to go back to school…I ignored school for almost a week and then I couldn’t any more. I graded the last of the big unit yesterday, so I just have one really short and easy assignment to do next week. The bigger deal next week is planning for the rest of this unit and as much of the next one as I can get through. I keep waking up in the middle of the night and my brain is trying to plan things that give me some down time in class. Please give me more time. I’ve been just slotting assignments in without thinking about how demanding they are on ME…and I need to try to fix that. Best I can. So that’s next week.

Artwise, I took all my smaller sketchbooks (not the super smalls, but the 9x12s) to the copy store after skimming through and tagging some I thought would work. I copied 11 drawings at 250%…

I started at 200%, but the pieces were too small. Then I started cutting and taping them together, numbering them as I went.

Takes about 12-22 minutes a drawing, depending on how fussy the pieces are.

Then I stared at them and tried to decide what to do. These are all just random drawings, mostly while camping or traveling, some during the Winter Break Draw-a-Day things I like to do (no time this year). So they don’t have a purpose or a theme to them, which is fine. I think of them as practice for the real stuff, but although I feel like I just finished some really complicated stuff (still recovering from the Supreme Court quilt), I can’t just do a light, easy quilt right now. And most of these roll in that realm. Not really light, but not really purposeful. So I picked this top one (of the 11) and added paper to the bottom…which is where I’ll add some purpose. Whatever that is. I have some ideas, just not fully formed.

That said, we’re taking this weekend off in the mountains, not camping (it’s raining and cold), but a little Airbnb with some hiking and nature. A reset. Of sorts. Might need one a month to get through the rest of the school year, but that’s not an option financially. Ah well. This should be nice. Hoping. I am taking the drawing (and two more sketchbooks) with me. And books. And stitching.

I got all the embroidery done on this (mom did the majority…I just did the little in-between bits).

When we get back, I’ll put borders on it and sew the little snowflake circles (we’re not doing all of them), then hand it back to her for embroidery.

This year has been difficult. There hasn’t been enough time to make art, and I hate that. I managed to stop thinking about work for a few days, which was good, but yesterday’s run through town to donate fabric, books, and clothes seemed to let the work back in my brain. Not good. I’m trying to make some positive changes in the next half of the school year, though, and hoping the next school year is better, but I’m counting on nothing at this point. I remember drawing every week. I remember making art almost every weekend. I just need more of that. An hour a night isn’t enough. Keeping that in mind…

Here’s my tree, which is already undecorated and back outside, so it can (1) enjoy the rain and (2) not be eaten by Kitten, who keeps throwing up the needles. Sigh.

It’ll be the New Year when I’m back…so happy new year to all, if that’s how you roll. If not, happy weekend. May art sustain us, however we take it in or push it out.

Bits and Pieces of Time…

Ladies and gentlemen and folx of all designations: we have reached that time of the school year when kids are checked out because this three-week time period is squashed between holidays of sleep, food, and nonstop videogaming. There is the additional pressure of gift-buying, plus meetings about something and nothing, add in the holiday gatherings that all seem to happen on one day. Now figure out how to buy nails that are iron and not coated with something. Because science labs. I spent way too much time in Home Depot yesterday. Then figure out what all the emails from admin and people who don’t live in the classroom mean to you personally. Do some grading and planning, get frustrated with the whole mess, shove your computer in your bag, and tell the day job to fuck off for a while. Like that works. It just comes back and reminds me why I can’t ignore it.

So day job aside, I ironed for some bits and pieces of time this weekend…Friday night…

Pink wings and a red heart.

Saturday night…

Lots of factory buildings and nuclear towers.

Details

Sunday night…

Water. Fire. Oil spills. And that bottom right fabric…that’s a Tula Pink with pink squirrels on it. I won it at the guild party, and someone said they couldn’t imagine me using it in one of my quilts, which makes sense…the fabrics work together to make the image, so an image on the fabric might detract from that. Anyway, I used it in her pubic hair. Fussy cut a squirrel to fit in that. Good times.

I wish I’d had an entire afternoon on Saturday to iron away, but I didn’t. Two meetings and a hike, more like it. The afore-mentioned guild party, there was a sweater block challenge. So on Friday night, under pure exhaustion, I pieced a block.

I generally don’t piece…

But this one wasn’t bad. So everyone was supposed to bring some number of sweater blocks and you got a ticket for each one you brought, and then they divided them all in half and pulled two tickets, and those two got to take home a pile of the blocks. And as I was sitting there in the meeting and seeing the blocks, I was like, um, no, I don’t want to win. Because then I will feel obligated to DO something with them and bring that back to the meeting and I don’t wanna do that. I don’t want to make something coherent out of all that chaos. So of course…I won. And handed it over to someone who brought 7 blocks and obviously WANTED to win. Yup. Not taking that pile of blocks into the universe. I already have all these other blocks that I didn’t do anything with (not pieced, just a friendship square swap). No guilt!

I stitched during the meeting…

I finally finished her arms and am onto the head. Green hair it is. I enjoyed the people I was sitting with. So that was good.

When I got back, we walked the dog…

It gets dark so damn early.

I drew at dinner, but didn’t finish…

Mid-tree.

The cats must be cold…

Sisters, yes, but not friends in the summer. Winter brings it on.

OK, I have to say that this week has brought on some serious overwhelmed feelings and just general frustration with the job. Like that’s new. I have a ton to deal with this week, and I haven’t figured next week out at all. I’m hoping for some actual time to get shit done at school this week, unlike last week, when every time I turned around, someone needed something. Plus I’m back to having stuff to grade. It was nice to have a week off. Now suck it up. And with that, I’m off to get through a bunch of stuff today, probably unsuccessfully, so I can do a lab tomorrow that may or may not work. Fun times. Wish me luck.

No Cap…

‘Tis morning. There will be no sleeping in with a puppy. In case you were wondering. She thinks it’s time to get up way earlier than I do. Unfortunately. Ah well. Here’s Simba and Anwen (aka Annie)…

As you can see, she’s grown from the last time she visited…and Simba is not really a fan. She is a sweetheart but hyper and into stuff and sometimes doesn’t know her own strength. Plus she turns a year old next month but doesn’t act like it. And she’s an early riser. Ugh. It’s a good thing she’s cute and a sweet baby. Cuz she’s currently in my studio here trying to eat all the things.

Although she does slow down eventually.

Not a bad way to spend a little time.

A few people have commented how I went right into making the next quilt. Well a couple of things are going on there. First of all, I have a tight deadline coming up. So there’s that. I really didn’t expect the Supreme Court quilt to take quite that long. I was thinking it’d be done mid-October; I had a show I was thinking of, but then school was a bastard again and took up way too many weekend hours, and there was no way I was making any deadline of October. Plus it sold anyway, so there’s that. No deadline there.

Anyway, the second part is that I actually LOVE making art. I love it more than my day job (which has morphed into my every-night job and my all-weekend job as well). So if I take a break from art, then really I come home after doing the day job, do more of the day job, and don’t really have anything that feels fulfilling at the end of the day. It sucks. I’ve done it for short times before, and I’m sure people are like, hey lady, just RELAX and hang out with friends and family, but I do that anyway, and I find making art the BEST KIND of relaxation. I mean I love hiking and reading and traveling, but artmaking is what I need the most. I’m not even really a fan of social interactions…don’t get me wrong, I like hanging out with friends and talking etc, but if you said, hey Kathy, you can EITHER make art every day OR hang out with your friends every day, my artistic introverted self would choose the art. Every Time. So there’s that.

Anyway, I finished drawing the new piece (which is much smaller and less complicated) on Monday night…

And I numbered it too…

Only 464 pieces. I had another piece this year on a deadline…only 5 weeks to finish it, so I had a guideline of how many pieces to aim for. Although while I’m drawing, I have no clue how many pieces it will be. I just limited my desire to add more details to everything.

Simple. For me.

My second goal with this is to spend more than an hour a night working on it. I have way too much to do this week. I’m trying to get caught up on grading, because I know what the next three weeks look like and it’s hellacious. I also need to lesson plan; I have the first week planned out (mostly) and the next two weeks are still hellacious and I can’t guarantee I’ll have time to lesson plan. So I’m panicking a bit. I do have a goodly chunk of the grading done so far…need to do some more today and then start planning. The yard is a mess; I did some things yesterday, but there’s lots more. AND that whole Thanksgiving thing…I’ll be cooking Friday for that. I’m also trying to get some stuff fixed around the house; yesterday I replaced all the batteries in the rain gauge (found two spiders living in it, one quite large…I’m hoping that’s why it didn’t seem to be working), plus fixed a toilet. I need to do some plant shopping; not sure when that’s happening. I went to the gym yesterday; that was on my list, as was dealing with Simba’s eye (weird growth). I’m still hoping this stained-glass guy can come over and repair my window. Not sure when that is happening. So crazy busy for a week off (it always is).

BUT, I did manage more than an hour on the quilt each day…last night, I spent two hours tracing Wonder Under…

Tonight will hopefully be more of the same. I’d like it all traced by Friday. Seriously. I’m not kidding. I’m not sure if I have a background fabric, so I might need to get that on Friday (in between turkey cooking and whatever). I need to use the free (FREE…ha!) time I have to get ahead. On everything. Otherwise everything is rushed and frantic, and this time of year is kinda like that anyway. I’ve barely done any Xmas shopping. The girlchild comes home before break starts for me, so her room needs to be cleared by then. I’ve been packing up fabric to donate; I’d like to ship those out Friday or Saturday to get them out of here. It’s all good things…there’s just too many of them.

By the way, I’ve got this down.

Hopefully I’ll have time to cull some of that before I actually die, but hey, if not, the boychild will probably burn it all anyway.

The three of them (boychild, girlchild, and ex) are now all together in the Londonish area…but girlchild sent me this cool photo.

I hope they’re having fun.

OK, today unfortunately includes a trip to the dentist to deal with a failing filling, but then pilates. And artmaking. But I need to finish grading this one assignment and a bunch of redoes on another. Plus brine the turkey. I’m debating doing that tomorrow morning, since we aren’t doing turkey day until Friday. Can’t decide. I feel like this afternoon is just going to be way too busy. As usual. Well eat first. Then grade stuff. Or shower, then grade stuff. It’s nice to have some choices. Plus being able to pee when I need to. And to drink lots of tea and not worry about being able to pee when I need to. Plus it’s mostly quiet here. No kids calling me bruh and telling me no cap. That’s a plus.

Brain Down Time…

Hey. It’s a Monday I can handle. I would’ve liked to sleep in more, but I’d have to live further in the boonies, away from gardeners and their blowing devices, plus no daylight to make animals think it’s feeding time. Not happening. Plus I shouldn’t go to sleep so late, but I was contemplating a drawing in progress, and I needed brain down time, and then the ideas popped into my head, but then it was like midnight and I knew Simba would be boofing early in the morning and the boychild would show up from work and there’s just no point in trying to sleep in. Ah well. My art brain is a child sometimes. I wanna stay up! So I’m a little tired this morning. What’s new.

So in quilt news, I finished the binding and sleeves on the Supremes quilt…

Then I needed to add some writing and embroidery (not a lot), so I did that Saturday. Then emailed the prospective buyer. Yes, y’all…this beauty has sold already. I’m always incredibly appreciative of those who support me in all the ways (two friends mailed me those stick-on thimbles to save my finger from holes while stitching the binding on). As I get closer and closer to retirement from teaching, which pays the bills, I do hope I can continue to make the big and beautiful quilts (as well as smaller ones), and selling them does help. This one took 181 hours to make. I’ve been working on it since July 13. At some point this week, I’ll make a post about all the bits and thoughts, best I can.

Saturday night, I started drawing the next quilt. I have a deadline. I’m trying to stay ‘simple’ (this is incredibly difficult for me). I had a drawing in my head, so I started on that, but Nova was insistent.

Really insistent…

Persistent even.

At some point, I just paused and petted her a lot and eventually she had enough attention and left, and I finished drawing. I have no picture of that, of course. And then yesterday, I enlarged the drawing and stared at it for about 30 minutes and then started adding stuff. But then stalled, so then I sat down and scrolled through stupid social media for a while as I watched Madam Secretary (still bingewatching that) and then the idea slammed me upside the head for how to complete it. I taped a bunch of paper on the side and bottom of what I’d drawn (Keep It Simple! um. Maybe not). And then realized it was almost midnight. Aargh. It’s OK. It’s in my head. I can do it. But to really meet the deadline with this one, I need to do more than an hour a night this week. So that’s my goal. Along with everything else. Put in some serious time every day. I can do that. Around cooking and going to family gatherings and dropping people at the airport and walking TWO dogs (the puppy who is no longer really a puppy is coming to stay for 8 days).

I’ve also been stitching down wool bits on something I can’t even show you…but it’s a brain filler. Lets me relax and see progress.

Saturday, we hiked…

My favorite tree fungi (above, not below).

Weird weather flow over the weekend. Today we are back to blue skies.

Girlchild is wandering through Scotland on her way to the wedding that the boychild and ex will be attending as well (hence my puppy visit)…

I’m totally jealous. I made one attempt to go through Scotland (by myself, with very little money), couldn’t understand anyone, got driven nuts by American tourists, and gave up after a week in Edinburgh. I regret that now, but know that I would be much more confident traveling now (it’s also easier with the internet etc.). Maybe someday. Anyway, so the whole family will be in the UK for Thanksgiving except for me, the Man, and the parental units. It’s OK…they’ll all be here for Xmas. I’ll be making a little Tday feast on Friday for us four. Not sure how many dogs will be attending that…at least two.

I also am trying to clean up and sort the other drawer of fabric that Kitten slept in for about 6 months. Serious fur incursions. I’m sorting, dehairing, washing when necessary. Prepping some to be donated. I have donations for SJSA if they need them and The Navajo Quilt Project. My quilt guild also needs donations. So my goal for this week is to get some stuff boxed up and mailed out. There are some reuse stores locally, but they want pictures and then to approve stuff, and that sounds like more than I can deal with at the moment. So here’s the blue drawer sort in progress…

Along with the perpetrator of furry deposits. Sigh. She loves to lie in fabric drawers, that’s for sure. Annoying.

I forgot to show the SAQA auction quilt I bought this year. This is by Jane Haworth…

To add to the collection…this is most of them, although there are 7 in other places around the house…

I usually buy one a year, but two years ago, I bought two because I had sold something and the dinosaur called out to me. They fit really well in the wall space above my windows. And I get to see them all the time. And you can hear the gardeners in the background. Not mine.

Simba in a mood…

OK. So let’s focus on today. I need to finish the drawing, number it, and start tracing. I also need to put some stuff in a safe place because that not-puppy is coming today and she destroys toys and other things. I need to go get my knees X-rayed for future cortisone shots (that I can’t get until February). I need to shower and eat breakfast before all that. I also need to do some grading today, get it over with so it doesn’t loom over me all week. Tomorrow, I’ll do some lesson planning. I think. I do have a vet appointment tomorrow for Simba’s eye again. He’s going to need surgery on a growth that is just getting bigger. And dental stuff for me on Wednesday. Fun times. Plus lots of dog walks and book reading. That’s the plan anyway. Make art, read, sleep, garden…damn, I need to do some of that too. OK. Whatever it is, I do need to get my act in gear and get started.

That Mindspace

OK. It’s Monday, but it’s a week until I get a week off. Yes, I just had a day off, and yes, I enjoyed the extra time before I had to buckle down and work for the day job. I need more of that. I’m a little in burnout mode right now. Trying to stay out of that…it won’t help me get through the rest of the year. Not sure what will, though. So can I do this 5 days? Um. Maybe. Seriously. Not sure how long all the things will take. I added new stuff this year to stuff I did last year, so there’s always this sense of not having a clue how long anything will take. But only half of it, because the other half is stuff I did do. Ugh. Anyway, we’re in magnets and at least there’s some hands-on stuff this week, but a bunch of stuff is up in the air, hope it works, or hope it doesn’t, or shift this because of that. So that’s not something I really enjoy. I like knowing what I’m doing and how long it will take. Yup.

Plus there’s like 4 parent meetings, but I can’t go to one of them, and one of the others, I need to get through a phone call visit with my doctor in time to go to that one, which I organized (it’s not how I meant it to be), so that’s fun. Double ugh.

Meanwhile, I did finish quilting on Saturday night…

Spent a few hours Friday night…

Finished the outlining with an hour or so on Saturday morning, then packed it up and went to buy binding, because the store is closed on Sunday. Then came back and started the background.

Saturday, I quilted for 5 hours.

I remember back in the old days, pre-COVID, when I could spend most of Saturday working on art stuff if I wanted to.

The only way I could pull it off this weekend was because I had Friday free too. Sad but true.

Then last night, I trimmed the quilt and started getting the binding and sleeves on.

I didn’t finish. I started at 9 PM (worked on school stuff from 2 PM until then, minus cooking and eating dinner). And then it was 10:40 and I needed to go to bed.

I still have one sleeve to put on plus all the hand stitching. I’ll be on the couch with that this week. Then I’m emailing the photographer. He’ll have a field day with this one. Then hopefully mail it off to its new owner. Although my quilt guild wants to see it…so we’ll see if the timing works on that for the next meeting.

Anyway. The next one is in my head. Not sure if I have time to finish it for that deadline, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, I’ve been drawing in restaurants and forgetting to photograph any of it.

Sometimes it takes two nights out to finish a drawing. Not that one. They took a really long time to serve us.

I drew at the book signing while I was waiting. Shootings are apparently often on my brain.

Sad but true.

It’s the one time I get to draw at the moment. No other free time, really. I need to have a certain frame of mind to draw, and it’s harder to find that mindspace. If I’m home, I’m more likely to pick up my computer and try to get school stuff done. Because it’s ever present.

Friday, I spent time with my old veteran, replacing some lattice covers so I could plant something to cover them.

The old ones were 20 years old and broken, so these have another 20 years hopefully. I also got two vaccines, one of which is causing an allergic reaction on my arm…fun times. Then two MRIs (one for each knee!). It was a weird day. But some stuff got done, which is good.

OK. Well. Today is what it is. I go to work and keep teaching magnets, and hope the labs work out etc. And all the parent meetings this week go well. And I feel less burnt? Unlikely. That’s just the way this year is rolling. Ah well. Time to build some mental health days into my curriculum, eh? I think so.

It’s the Spider’s Fault…

So Saturday night, or maybe it was Sunday morning, I kept waking up and trying to puzzle out what day it was. Did I have to be up early for school? Was I ready? Had I planned? What the hell? It’s true I did absolutely no schoolwork on Friday night or all day Saturday, so I get the panic, but Saturday nights should be clear of most of that, right? It’s 2 AM and my brain is trying to figure out what clues I have for what day it is…no dog, so that’s one of three nights a week. What did I do the night before? Ah, there’s a drawing, so it must have been a Saturday.

There’s more in the finished drawing…it took a long time to get the food. Pro: more time for drawing. There’s little enough of that going on these days.

I had a quilt guild meeting on Saturday and worked a little more on my incredibly slow stitching from 2020? Or was it 2021? Can’t remember.

My brain thought about staying and doing the post-meeting activity, but I really just wanted to get back and iron the Supremes. So I did.

Well, this was Friday night…after a long semi-difficult day that ended with my 56-year-old self trying to figure out how best to break up a fight without getting injured myself. Fun times. I think I came home and slumped on the couch for two hours before I started functioning again.

I did eventually find the missing ‘C’ on Sunday night…

Then Saturday afternoon…

I spent a couple of hours doing the goddess’ legs and toes and all…

Then went for a 3-mile hike by myself…the Man was not feeling well.

Sunset is getting earlier. I was just about OK on time…

It was warm at the start…despite being October, it was in the 90s during the day. But by the end, there was a cool breeze…and this sweet little California Horned Toad/Lizard…

I love these guys. They’re hard to see, so it’s a treat to actually see one.

After dinner, I ironed some more…here’s Gorsuch.

His ‘O’ disappears later. Not sure where. I’m sure it’s here. There was a spider that I think dropped from the ceiling, right on him (ironic?), so there was some scuttling of things to catch it, then forget I had caught it under something and recatching it. I suspect the O succumbed to all that scuttling. I’ll find it. Or recut it. It’s the spider’s fault anyway.

The whole piece so far.

There’s a lot going on in this quilt. I also ironed a bunch of money that’s floating around all those justice’s heads…

Sunday there was less ironing time. Almost 3 hours on Saturday was delightful. Sunday was just over an hour…

The ‘O’ is gone, but there’s Alito. It takes about 70 minutes to iron a Justice. It’s mostly the fingers and the face…all the details. I iron the ears, then the eyes. Then pull the eyes off and do the rest of the face so I can place the eyes well. Stitching will help with the details too.

I’m in the 1000s, about halfway through them, so also halfway through the quilt. I figure a Justice a night…but I’ve got a hellaciously busy week. Three nights with 2-hour meetings. Today’s 1-hour meeting got canceled, and I get to be in charge of the department meeting, so I suggested grade-level was fine, get your stuff done. We don’t need to meet. We already meet Tuesday and Wednesday during prep.

I worked from about 2 PM until 9:15 PM, with an hour’s break to make lunches for the week, and another hour’s break to make dinner and eat it. I didn’t finish. I never do. I did get some major stuff done, though, so I can at least get through this week and the start of next week. I think. Not quite. Gonna use my prep and after school today to make more sense of it…and to make copies. The Man will be gone for 6 days to hike the Trans-Catalina Trail this weekend. AND it’s the Interpretations opening and artist talks and artist dinner at Visions this weekend. Super busy. Two weeks behind on grading homework, but I should be able to get through that this week…we’re doing stations, plus writing a CER (that’s high-maintenance), and then doing a project. So I should have some free time in at least SOME of the classes to get work done. Using time efficiently. Sit next to the kid(s) who need help, but grading at the same time. We all do it.

Hello Kitten. She’s still here. Older by the minute.

I had a drawer of fabric that she (or someone?) peed in so I spent some time this weekend trying to get the pee smell out. Not quite there yet. Frustrating. They’re usually really good about that…which is why I think it was her. Losing control a bit. Giving her lots of love while she’s still here.

OK. Donuts and voting this morning. Teaching. Collisions and momentum. Tried to find a good simple video about conserving momentum that wasn’t too mathy. Wasn’t successful. Could be problematic. Almost done with my book, so suspect I will be doing that tonight. Hoping anyway. And ironing. Thomas is next. He’s complicated…in more ways than one.

Hearts and love to everyone trying to survive in Israel right now. More wars. Do we need them? More death? Sigh. Religion and hate make such a mess of things. Sending good healing and loving thoughts in that direction, hoping it helps. Maybe if we all do it, the warmongers will get hit so hard by the blast of good feelings that they’ll just stop. We can hope. I certainly don’t have any better solutions.