Category: Quilting

Y’all Didn’t Read Instructions…

Grades are done. A miracle in itself. It felt never-ending. I mean, I say they’re done, but that’s just Trimester 1. I have four more iterations of panicking over grades. This school year. I actually already have stuff to be graded for Trimester 2…oh yay! A project is finishing up today and tomorrow, with a packet and roller coaster to be graded. 34 roller coasters, as quickly as possible, before the tape starts to fail and they don’t work. I’d do it today, but I have to ship a quilt. Tomorrow after school is pilates and Wednesday is a union meeting. Thursday? I don’t know. I still need sub plans for Wednesday morning’s literacy meeting. Not sure when I’m doing those, let alone making sure I have everything copied for next week (I don’t. None of it.),

I get frustrated with kids who continually resubmit their work without actually reading instructions or comments. I have two who tried to resubmit over the weekend (gradebook closed 10/27 y’all) but no. Y’all didn’t read instructions. You didn’t follow them. You didn’t read or follow comments. I’m done. I’m out. I cannot grade 24 hours a day.

I did get some other things done this weekend: I fixed the damn showerhead so there’s actual water coming out of it. Plus! That was a kamikaze trip to Home Depot. I also got the boychild and the ex to buy me lattice (it won’t fit in my car; I needed a truck) so I can replace what’s on the deck posts and maybe plant some things that will grow up it. I need dad’s help with that. I planted out a bunch of succulents that had been (unhappily) living on the kitchen counter. I have two more that need to go out there, but I went to my quilt guild meeting, which was nice…got to see everyone’s scrap block challenge pieces, the one I never got to. I know…I never do. Well, except during COVID.

And I quilted…Friday night…in the swamp.

Saturday night, I worked on pedestals…

Last night, I finished the pedestals, did the goddess’ legs up to the pubic area, and got most of the people under the umbrella done.

I have two people left to do. The machine is being a little fussy. Not sure how to make it stop. Probably needs cleaning. Next time I refill the bobbin thread, I’ll do that. See if it helps. Also, when I finish, I probably need to call the machine guy and put it on the list to be serviced. I think it’s been a year. They used to put a sticker on it so I would know. Not finding it. Doesn’t mean a cat didn’t eat it.

Probably not this one…

Nova has been clawing my ass in the work chair out in the living room, or making air biscuits here on the couch. But not in my office/studio.

We went hiking on Saturday…

It’s getting dark so early. Ugh. Even earlier tonight.

The next month is a little lighter on the weekend events. Plus some days off from work, which will be much appreciated. I’ll still need to grade and plan, but not while I’m working in the classroom. After today, I can put all the roller coaster materials away and we can move on to the next stuff. After I find all the magnets. I know they’re somewhere. Probably multiple somewheres.

She is cute.

So I’ll be quilting all week, probably. I tried to buy binding on Saturday on the way back from my guild meeting, but I didn’t find anything obvious that would work. I’m going to have to wait until I’m done (or near done) quilting and take the whole quilt in. Friday or Saturday. The quilt store isn’t open late enough during the week. I do have Friday off, so hallelujah. Today is finish building roller coasters, get packets in order, ready to turn in, babysit some kids who didn’t go on the other team’s field trip, a staff meeting, then drive to the UPS place that is actually open after 2 PM to ship this quilt. I have to cook tonight, plus plan some more or something for school. Then quilt. Blessed quilt.

Focus.

Hey yo. Going into Friday with an attempt at zen that will probably dissolve into wack. British spelling. Means something different than what I might do to a mole. Anyway. So that’s my brain falling into rabbit holes. FOCUS Nida. Focus.

As I’m grading all this last-minute crap, that’s what I’m constantly telling myself. Some of them are doing a great job; it’s a joy to regrade their work, note the improvement, tell them how awesome they are. But then a chunk are just rushing it, they’re still not getting it, they’re fixing as fast as possible and still doing a crap job. Frustrating. And those are the ones sending me emails begging me to change their grade, or asking me “does ANYONE get an A in your class?”. Yes dear, but today? Not you. Can that change? Sure. Keep working. If I’d had her last year, she’d be there, but of course, this is the year where you have to have a 4.0 and outstanding in behavior every fucking trimester to get on the stage at graduation. This is one of the things I hate about 8th grade. The begging and pleading. Just listen to the instructions, turn your brain on, and stop writing random stuff. And then there’s the one kid who is using AI. But I’m worried about her. But I’m not letting her get away with it. Sigh. Plus the kids who are still turning in late work and trying to resubmit stuff when the deadline is past. Way past.

I have one more major redo to grade, and then a whole host of little bits and pieces to check. Plus a quilt to pack for shipping. Plus a quilt guild meeting. I want to hike tomorrow. Sometime. Daylight savings is about to fuck us over, so do it now! Hike!

Let’s talk about quilting. Because I finally am. There’s a lot of detail on this thing, but I can look back at the cyberpunk piece, which was a similar size and detail, not as many pieces though, and it was 14 hours of quilting. I’m going to buy binding this weekend though. Not because I need to this week; I could probably push it to next weekend, but because the week has been shit and I need to reward my hard-ass work with some fabric. Don’t look at my stash as I say that. It’s not warranted. But it is necessary.

So Wednesday night, I finally got everything ironed and laid out on the floor…

It was pretty easy, no fussiness. Which is nice.

It took more than an hour to iron stuff and then lay it out, so I didn’t get to quilting until last night.

I started late, because I was still grading crap at 9:30 PM. Fun times. Came home and that’s all I did except make dinner in the middle of that 5-hour time frame. Also the girlchild was on FaceTime with me as she tried to find parking near a Day of the Dead celebration, which unfortunately for her parking situation, was right near her apartment. I don’t miss parking troubles, for sure. Anyway, that’s about 55 minutes of quilting done. One chapter of Ursula K. LeGuin on audiobook. I have a hard time concentrating on audiobooks. I might need to not read book-club books that way. I don’t really hold onto the info. I need to see the words. I’m done with Chapter 3 and I’m still not really sure why this person is on this other planet. Hopefully in the next 10 hours, it will make more sense. Or I’ll have to get the real book and try again.

So I’ll be quilting for the next week. In case you were wondering. I’m good with that. I have the next quilt pre-drawn in my head, which is good, because it’ll be like a 5- to 6-week turnaround. Yikes!

Here was my grading setup yesterday…

Laptop has assignment I’m checking. Candy corn post-its are lists of whose stuff has actually be resubmitted on the form (I ignore the rest; they randomly resubmit without changing anything and it drives me bonkers). Extra monitor has the rubric up for whatever I’m grading. Judgy cat butt is there for general excitement. She’s looking for geckos. To her left is my notebook, propped up on a drawer so (a) I can note any grade changes and (b) Nova can eventually knock it off when she panics about something and jumps off. I’ll be there again tonight and part of tomorrow probably. We’ll see.

Ugh. Here’s one of the four books I’m reading…this is Margaret Atwood in one of her essays/speeches.

Sigh. I never feel like I do enough for that.

School is getting me down. Last year, I was losing my mind about now over 8th grade, but the teacher on leave was coming back at the beginning of November, so I saw a light. Well he didn’t support until mid-February, gave me 6 weeks, and then bowed out. I’m not seeing a light this year, and I suspect last year kinda traumatized me (OK, more than kinda), so I’m just depressed about all of it this year. Put your head down and get it done. Not a fan. That said, here’s a bunch of paper roller coasters half done…

Amusingly, they are supposed to BE done today. We’ll see how that goes. I remember now that the lazy sit-on-your-butt and do-nothing kids drove me crazy during this project, so I’m glad I shortened it this year. They’ll get it done…or not. I’m OK with that. They can still do the academic part without the coaster done; they’ll just lose effort points.

Today. They build. I manage. They have a quiz. Ha! I grade tonight. I quilt tonight. At least I don’t have to wake up in the dark tomorrow morning. Pro. And I think I get to hang out with some friends tonight, briefly. That’s cool.

Find the Zen…

Ah. November. I see a few breaks coming up. This is a good thing. Deeply in need of no school, no pressure to have stuff done in 40 seconds flat, no racing around. There will still be grading, sure, but not like this, piecemeal, at the end of every day, all Saturday, during every class. I do need to find some zen, to find a way to take the overwhelmed feeling of all the work pressing down on me and whoosh it away. Shove it in a cupboard. Lock it the fuck up. Somehow. Haven’t figured it out yet. Certainly not today. I haven’t figured it out as of this moment. Unfortunate.

The quilt is on to the next step…I finished stitchdown on Monday night…

I’m always fascinated by the back of this…and then it disappears forever when I sandwich the quilt. So it’s only available for like a day, sometimes not even that.

Last night, I found a piece of batting big enough for this quilt in my already washed stash. Coolio. Because I thought I was going to have to wash and dry last night too, but no. I then found a piece of fabric that has been around for AGES…seriously, I bought it for baby quilts for babies who are now graduated from high school, or at least it’s that era. So 18 or so years old. But I had 4 yards of it. It’s super bright and colorful. It seemed to work. So I ironed it and pieced it and trimmed it…

Oh yeah. That’s the fun stuff. I still have a pretty big chunk of it for something. I’ve only ever used a small piece of it in a quilt. I don’t even remember which one, but there was a small corner chopped off. Find the fabric! It’s mind-boggling that I haven’t used it before now. It was waiting for this quilt.

In other news, The Way Out sold…so it’ll be shipping off to its new owner hopefully later this week (note to self, find boxes or buy boxes).

Last summer’s quilt…she was supposed to be much smaller, because I had a deadline, but in the end, the world made her have to be bigger. Yeah.

And now I can get the trees trimmed. And maybe pay the property taxes. What a concept.

Last night, while cooking dinner, I made a rough draft of the next unit. The table of contents anyway. And stuff on the calendar. I got through the first week of January. Which is 3 weeks longer than the other teacher wants to go. She wants to skip magnets. I did pull sound out, although she has a little of it, so I might put some back in. It feels better to at least have that. I don’t have everything done for next week, not even close, but I think I can get there in time. Hopefully. Not sure I can get it COPIED in time. Minor issue.

It’s funny, I saw this in the copier workroom…and had to put a correction…

But didn’t notice until today that “Usa” is also spelled wrong…well, unless you’re writing in Spanish. Ah well. I really do think teachers need to check their spelling. I mean, how can we expect kids to learn it if we don’t. Or if you know you have an issue with certain things, like my co-teacher, you tell the kids. And you’re constantly using spell check. My mom couldn’t spell spaghetti to save her life. And I have words I constantly have to look up. I can’t think of any of them right now though. Funny. Anyway. Yes, I’m a copyeditor on the side. It shows.

OK. Find the zen. Be chill. Teach how to fold a paper funnel for a roller coaster. Review kinetic energy. Grade 5th period’s unit packets. Maybe even grade 6th period (unlikely). Meet with 8th-grade science. Ignore that annoying kid today instead of trying to get him to work. His mom made him the way he is, as evidenced by her emails. You can’t fix that. She’s had 13 years on him and you’ve had 2 months. Never gonna beat that one. Ignore his whining. Then go to pilates. Then home and water some stuff, grade some stuff, then book club (I don’t even know what book we’re on), then pinbaste and start quilting. If you can. It’s OK. The shitty stuff is still there, but it’ll figure itself out…or not. I need more hikes. I need more outside. I need more time that doesn’t feel like I need to run or multitask or it won’t get done. I might need a different job, but that’s a bigger issue and probably not gonna be solved any time soon. I think I just need this job to be different and that’s a hard thing to make happen. Yeah. Oh shit, it’s the day after Halloween. Let’s talk about the candy in the classroom, y’all. Ugh.

Just Let Me…

It was a busy weekend. I managed tiny bits of artmaking, through stubbornness and refusal to sleep, really. I did a few things I wanted to do, not as many as I would have preferred, but I also worked a heinous number of hours for the day job. And that will continue all this week, because the next unit is not planned and it starts in a week and a half. Plus grades are due. So yeah. I’m hating it right now, really overwhelmed and not happy with any of it. If you see me, I probably need a hug and a donut…well, no one ever really NEEDS a donut…I probably need a hike more, but a donut takes less time. And time is something I don’t have enough of at the moment, nowhere close.

So…art first! Always. Even if that’s not what happens in real life. Friday night, after a book signing and dinner out, I managed an hour before bed…it was late, but I did it anyway.

Up in the heads and robes.

Saturday night, it was really late, after the Man’s show. Stayed up too late again…but got another 50 minutes in.

More heads. And last night, after working a million hours and cooking dinner and watering all the plants, I managed another 50 minutes.

Heads are done…I’m doing the goddess’ arms and the things above her.

This is the only time you get to see the back…

It’s kinda creepy.

Anyway, there’s not much left. I’m at 7 hours and 24 minutes. I think I might have more than 36 minutes to go? But I’m not positive. Maybe tonight? I’d like to be pinbasted and quilting this week. That’s my goal. Harder to find the time to get pinbasted though. Need to wash the batting, piece a backing, lay it all out, and then finally pin. Sounds like a lot for a work night when I’m buried.

Friday was a field trip with school to Old Town.

It’s not my favorite field trip…that would be the zoo…but it’s nice to be outside. My group was OK…some infighting occurred, which I knew would happen, because I had the kid who causes those things. Could’ve done without that. That said, we came back and mostly the kids either slept, gamed, watched the movie, or built their roller coasters while I graded. Useful. I’ll be doing lots of that this week…and planning.

Old Town was decorated for Day of the Dead, which was cool.

We do a scavenger hunt, which is nice, because we have a purpose, unlike most of the time.

That night, we ventured out to a book signing (not sure I’ve ever done one of those)…Stephan Pastis, author of Pearls Before Swine (and other things) was here in San Diego and I went to high school with him.

Here’s the actual moment when I told him we went to high school together…

It’s OK, Steph…I don’t recognize the kid you were in high school in your adult face either, except sometimes when you talk. We were on cross country together, with my brother and others, but he was the grade between us. So yeah. Fun stuff though. We ate dinner in a total dive bar, but the food is always good, isn’t it? Not sure why.

Saturday was a clusterfuck of work work work, in between an art meeting at the Lakeside Library, which had art by Bhavna Mehta…her paper work translated into metal.

Pretty cool stuff.

And then at night, the Man’s band had a show at a tiny place that blew out my eardrums and gave me a sore throat from the smoke machine (ugh). It was a good thing to dance and be sweaty for a few hours’ break though. I needed that.

Up late.

So all in all a busy weekend. I’m looking forward to a nice quiet weekend at some point. Not sure when that can be slotted in. Probably never.

So the kids are building roller coasters all week. I need to plan one thing for this week, hopefully today so I have time to copy it. But otherwise, after I demo one thing a day to build, maybe two, I’m hoping I can just finish grading and then start planning the next unit. If it works. Don’t take my prep period, don’t add any more shit to the pile of things to do (insert snotty comments about people who don’t understand email accounts), just let me get the things done. That’s what I need. And then maybe I can get this quilt pinbasted and back under the machine. Hoping.

Rewind…

So I feel like I blinked an eye and October slid past. Weird. It’s usually one of the longer months of the year for school, but no, our field trip and Halloween are looming on the horizon, with the end of Trimester 1 (and grades due. Grades are always due.). November is easier; December has its ups and downs. Well, November is only through Thanksgiving. That last week is really part of December (ask a teacher; they’ll agree). I have not adjusted this year to anything, even the overwork. I cried on the way home yesterday, not for anything in particular, just feeling like lots of little tiny things that needed doing would eventually bury me. Managing other people’s shit. I could do without that. That is this year though. Lots of that. I came home and put together roller coaster groups for today…there are some definite issues that I can’t fix with those. Ah well. ‘Tis always the case. There’s always one kid that every group wants and one that no one wants. Then I went to the gym. So I could read a book and not think about school. Not so successful with school texting me, but whatever.

Giant ass sigh. The pro is that it’s very easy to get up off the couch (after working some more after dinner on school stuff) and come in here and do stitchdown. It’s meditative. I’m listening to a book, which is not always a successful endeavor for me…I tend to space out and then wonder what the fuck the reader is talking about. I wonder if I would like this book better if I were reading it myself. It has some good things, but some things are just not as good. It’s John Scalzi, Starter Villain, read by Wil Wheaton. You’d think those would all be good things. I’m not sure. I got a year’s subscription to Audible just for this purpose, quilting and stitchdown entertainment. But I do have a hard time listening to words. I have to rewind. Rewind? I am old. Anyway, I’ve managed about an hour a night…here’s Monday…

And Tuesday…

Everything under the umbrella is done, plus the goddess’ legs up to the knees, plus the swamp and cloud going into the swamp fires. So I suspect I’m doing pedestals next on the right. Three hours in. I suspect it will be 8 total. Ish. I only have 4 hours left of the book I’m listening to. There will be another, I suspect.

Got this (and a check) for the anti-anti-abortionist quilt…

Nice. Appreciate the vote of confidence. That piece deserves it.

I just washed all those, Kitten. After you threw up on them.

Sigh. This cat. She keeps eating bits of leaves and pine needles and then vomiting them all over the house. I cleaned one set of floors; I need the Man to do the other. Double sigh. He has a show this weekend, so that won’t happen. And the boychild has reneged on any household duties except his own room and bathroom. Ugh.

I woke up to a really weird unsettling dream this morning. I didn’t like it. It’s still hanging around my shoulders and I still don’t like it. Thanks brain. Appreciate those moments. Perhaps you could be more supportive? Oh yeah, this is you being supportive. Eh.

Then last night, while I’m trying to grade using all those papers, Nova just plopped in the middle of all of them.

It’s unlike her…but she kept trying for my lap and that wasn’t an option, so I guess everything else I needed was. That irritated look is because I just pulled half of them out from under her.

That project grades really slow. Not a fan. Trying to decide how to modify for next year.

OK. Today. Some parts of today will just be hard…it’s a lot. We’re starting roller coasters (built out of paper). Tomorrow will be more chill, but today is a little chaotic. I have way too many adults coming in and out of my classes for observations. The field trip is not fully planned, although I think I am fucking done with my part (and next time, y’all can do it, even if you don’t have all the kids. OK. I’ll probably change my mind about that. Maybe). I have pilates today and potentially four errands after that. Which is a lot. I might move one to tomorrow. It would be easier. Pro? I get to stitch later. While listening to a book. That I will partially ignore. Yeah!

All of Them…

Hey. Friday. Hey, I’m glad to see you. I’m not sure where you’ve been hiding. The other days just haven’t been as friendly as you. Thursday tries really hard but it’s not the same. Although my workload won’t be any less. I still have a pile of stuff to grade and plan that is beyond overwhelming, but I’m doing a little at a time and I may actually feel like I’ve conquered some of it after the weekend. Maybe. Or it’ll be Monday and y’all know what they’re like. Too much, y’all, too much.

So I had hoped to be done ironing last night, and I would have been, except Art Brain objected to the background behind the justices, so I had to scramble a bit. It’s OK…the scramble took 36 minutes so far. When I tell people I keep track of my time to make these, I’m not sure what they think. I have a tracker. I turn it on when I start and off when I finish. I track each task, which is really useful when I need to figure out WHEN THE FUCK I can move on to the next step. Seriously. I’m at almost 29 hours on the ironing and there’s probably another hour. I guessed 30. That’s pretty good.

Anyway, on Wednesday night, I finished ironing all the bits I thought I’d be ironing…

Cool! I thought. I just need to iron it to the background. But a friend had suggested the drapes in the Supreme Court might be burgundy (they’re not, but that’s another thing). I had originally thought to put just a lighter blue behind them, but the idea of the drapes coming down from the goddess’ arms really appealed to me.

I pulled the image off the teflon sheets (a task unto itself, let me tell you)…

And laid it on the chosen background fabric…

I have changed the background fabric on other quilts, but not often. The difficulty here is if I go lighter for all of it, there are issues with other parts of the quilt. But that blue is too close to the justice’s robes.

So I started looking for drapery fabric for behind them…

And this seemed to work.

So last night, during my stitching Zoom, I pieced the background and laid the image on top of it, and ironed the bottom half down…

And I’m thinking, I’ll just freehand cut a piece to go behind the heads. But what about the feet? Shouldn’t the drapes go all the way down to their feet? This is getting complicated. Plus it needs to be fused. It’s too big to NOT fuse it. Huh.

So I grabbed the drawing and drew the drapes, and then traced them on Wonder Under, trimmed them, and ironed them to fabric…

Which you can see in that video. Tonight, I’ll trim those pieces, slide them behind the other pieces, and iron the rest of it down. Then I can start stitching…which I’m estimating at 8-10 hours. So hopefully I’ll be pinbasting next weekend. This weekend has meetings. Next weekend now has meetings. Grades are coming up again (when are they ever not?). My life is not my own.

Here’s the part that’s not ironed down yet…

And a cat. And here’s the background pieces…

Although my process looks like chaos, it is actually very controlled. Parts of it anyway. The fabric choosing is a crazy thing that happens in my head.

So this pile is (a) pieces that stand on their own and will need to be ironed down tonight and (b) random pieces that never made it into the quilt because (i) I lost them and already recut them or (ii) I don’t really know where they go.

Not that big green piece. I think that’s from the previous quilt. I think it was the wrong color. I have a hard time throwing away the orphaned pieces. They’re useless. Those two skinny red pieces, those were the wrong color. Somehow when I ironed them to fabric, they ended up red instead of white. So I recut those. The money all has a home.

So yeah. That’s where the quilt is at. It looks awesome. I know you can’t really tell from the photos, but hopefully tonight, there will be a whole quilt top photo. Definitely worth the time.

Meanwhile, the Man keeps thinking he’s hearing/seeing a cat on the roof, for over a year now. He’s out on the deck at night and hears it and calls to it and it won’t come down. He gets fleeting views, nothing definitive. I’ve asked, are you sure it’s a cat? Oh yeah. Totally. Last night, after I went to bed (I did hear the banging around for this), he heard the cat (let’s just do this…’cat’) and put some food in a bowl and shook it around and called for the kitty to come down. He put the food down and…well…watch this.

Um. Three. Three Not Cats. Nope. Those aren’t cats. Not surprising. We’ve had raccoons before. They are cute, but not feeding any more of them. Probably explains the ‘cat poop’ in the backyard that the dog is totally interested in too. And I think that’s the dog’s bowl, so that should be interesting when the dog comes back. Hmmm.

Anyway. Mystery solved. Those are young ones too.

Work today…finish all the things. Do all the things. Get the kids to do all the things. Find all the things. Grade all the things. Get all the things ready for next week. ALL OF THEM. At least my observation is over. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been teaching, they stress you out. So that’s done. Just a shit-ton of grading and planning left. Art meeting tomorrow that’s a potluck…these also stress me out. I am not a good potlucker. Some people are. I’m not. Ironing tonight. Hopefully stitchdown tomorrow. Need to deal with the house, clean floors, get a quilt to another stitcher (but I need to get thread for that too). Yeah. Crazy busy. But Friday.

Not So Quietly…

Hey. This week. Yup. It took 4 hours yesterday to read through 2 classes of claim/evidence/reasoning (CERs). And it was pretty disheartening. It’s OK. I’ll hammer them again. And again. We’ve reviewed twice. Doesn’t seem to stick. Must be doing it wrong. Try again.

The Man actually comes back today after hiking all over Catalina. It’s good, because I’m tired of being the only human in the house. Maybe someone else can cook or feed a cat. Wait. We’re not cooking cats. Cooking food for humans. THEN feeding cats. That would be nice. The dog has been such a weenie about my being the only human that he is the Boofy King at night. I started playing white noise on my phone to try to drown out whatever he was thinking about barking at…it seems to have worked. Anyway. He’ll be a happier dog tonight.

I’m still ironing, but I’m so close to done, I can taste it. Monday night, I worked on the flag…

And the coathanger. Here’s the side view of the whole top…

I have one background fabric for the whole thing, but I’m not sure it will work in the justice section…it might need something lighter, but not too light…so I might be doing something there. I’m not sure yet until I get it all onto the original background and see what it looks like. It’s always hard to judge here because I iron onto a white teflon sheet and that is a very different look than when I usually use a dark background. Those black robes may need something different. I have some ideas in my head for how to deal with it…might need an all-new color, but my local quilt shop closes at 3 PM STILL, even with COVID long gone. Super frustrating.

Then last night, I ironed Ruth and her wings, plus that diploma.

I’ve got two relatively small things on the end and then that’s it. I’m done. Well, the background needs to exist. I’m debating stopping at another quilt store…it doesn’t have a massive selection of fabrics, but I have an idea of what might work instead of what I have, and it’s near pilates…wait, no, it closes at 5. Sigh. Working quilting people…what do you do? Buy everything online? I find it really hard to buy fabric online effectively. And it won’t get here quickly enough. Sigh. I might have to wait until Saturday. Ugh. You don’t wanna know how cranky I’ll get with no art in the evening. And I’m already pretty cranky this week. Too many adults doing stupid stuff. Copier issues. Lesson material issues. More things piled up…I realized last night when I was trying to fall asleep (good timing, brain) that I had 17 little stupid things that needed to happen this week and I had done maybe 1 of them. And I will probably forget them today.

Just losing my mind over here. Not so quietly. And the weekends are chock full of places I need to be, things I need to do.

Foggy this morning. Makes it easier to see the giant-ass spider webs before they are all over your face.

Grumble. Not a fan of all this right now. I want more time, more help, more support, fewer things I have to do, more time for art, someone to change the damn lightbulb in the bathroom because I forget until I’m trying to take a shower in the dark. Maybe someone could vacuum. Maybe stop asking me to do more things. I want the other people using the copier to realize they are not special and their copies are not more important than everyone else’s. I want time after school to go for a walk. I want a quilt store that realizes some of us work during the day…just one day a week, stay open until 6 PM for goodness sake. Or even 4:30. I could probably get to the other one by then on a good day. Today is not a good day for that. SIGH. Yup. Cranky.

Bread Dough…

It’s Friday at last. This week is like bread dough that overflowed the bowl and then blooped down the cupboard and is stuck in all the cracks and will take forever to clean out. Three months from now, I’ll still be finding dried-up dough bits in the cupboard cracks. Of course, that’s if I make it through the day. I will. Of course. Hoping for no fight after school today to break up. Hoping kids actually try on this project and don’t just speed through it. Yesterday was actually pretty chill once I got them started. I need to get all of next-week’s stuff ready to go, so I need today to continue to be chill. I am completely exhausted and kind of over-emotional because of that. Sigh. I just want to sleep for three days straight. Not happening.

The pro is that it’s the opening weekend for Interpretations, so there’s an opening tonight at Visions from 6-8 PM (I’ll be racing to get to that from Day 2 of Sex Ed Curriculum, which hopefully will go better than Day 1 did). Then artist talks are tomorrow from 11-1, then there’s an artists’ dinner that evening. My lovely anxiety pops up for that, because I don’t know if I know anyone. And those situations always make me nervous. I’ll be fine in the moment, I’m sure, but right now, it feels like work. Here’s my piece Same As It Ever Was…

It’s a fun one. Born of a weekend away plus Roe V Wade falling.

Man is hiking the Trans-Catalina Trail this weekend, so he leaves today and won’t be back until Wednesday. So there’s stuff I’d normally get help with that won’t be there. I have my first school observation next week…the plan is mostly written, because I’ve taught it before, but the last bit needs some work and I haven’t had any time for that. Fun stuff.

I did iron the last two nights. Dragged my ass off the couch, my brain out of stupid cat videos, and stood in here and ironed. Wednesday night, I managed Coney Barrett…

She was somewhat complicated. Last night was harder, only 41 minutes of ironing. And I spent part of that organizing all of the 1300s. So only part of Brown Jackson got ironed down…

I gave the three justices who appear to remember they represent people brightly colored robes. Based in black, but not all black. All their arms are stretching down to hold an umbrella over the people, protecting them. Hopefully I can finish her tonight, but it’s not looking good. I have school all day, then duty after school, then a 2-hour curriculum meeting about reproductive anatomy, then a 2-hour opening, home probably by 9 PM. I suspect collapse at that point. I hope I’m wrong and I can iron her face, but it doesn’t look good. As it is, I need to leave in 10 minutes for a parent meeting that I hope goes well. But probably won’t. Sigh.

It’s fine…I’ll find time to iron at some point. And sleep. And finish my lesson plans. And get the room set up for next week. And and and. Getting closer to having all the justices done…that’s good.

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.

Building It in Pieces…

Hi world. This week has been rough. Lots of busy moving crazy racing. Not a lot of relaxing. Ironing every night though. I did much better the last two nights. Because grades were done. That helps. It does mean I’ve been ignoring school a bit (except when I’m there). It’s OK to do that. Not forever, because it will catch up and hit you upside the head, but just a bit.

In quilt news, I’m still ironing. I’ll be here for days. But it is progress, much easier to see than when I’m tracing or cutting things out. Wednesday night, I finished two pedestals and started a third…this was after finishing Thomas’ and starting Alito’s…

Finished Alito’s and started Gorsuch’s…

So you can see the progress on the whole thing…

Building it in pieces. Last night, I finished the Gorsuch pedestal and carefully removed the ironing sheet from behind that bit (I only have three big ones, so they need to be reused)…

So much detail that needs to come out in the stitching.

Then I started on the other side with the stuff below the pedestals…

I lost both the N and the C for a bit, but found the N (it was numbered strangely). I’m sure the C is hiding somewhere. Or I sneezed at the wrong time and it’s under the couch, in which case, I’ll make another one. Here’s the big picture at the moment…

I have the sky folded over so I can iron down all the stuff that goes under it. Y’all, this is tiny fussy fiddly work…and I love it. Seriously, this is one of the best parts of making the quilt, watching it come alive with color. So I enjoy it, even though I’m exhausted at the end of the day. I do look forward to doing more of this than I am at the moment. More art, more quilts.

I got great news yesterday that My Body. My Choice. tied for Best in Show at the No Boundaries exhibit at the Virginia Quilt Museum. The show closes tomorrow. That quilt was last year’s hard-to-make, hard-to-live-in piece. I guess this is this year’s equivalent.

Yesterday, in an attempt to return to pre-COVID art shenanigans, I went to a friend’s opening at the San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery. This is Grace Gray-Adams and a piece from 1972 that I loved…

That’s underwear and this is the period…

Love this show, Glimmers of Grace. Definitely worth a trip out there, even if I looked ‘shell-shocked’, as a friend described me. I was tired. I came home and worked on school stuff until I couldn’t anymore, and then I ironed.

Oh wait, this is also hers, from 2010. She found this paint-by-number Mary and then replicated it and had her friends paint them.

So beautiful.

Sometimes my students are hard, although this year is much easier on that front than last year. My advisory is so quiet, only the mouthy ones speak up, so I made sure the vote was unanimous, on a Google form, so everyone’s voice got heard. We had to create a class vision (I have a hard time with these), but after all the yelling about money and cars etc, this is what they voted on for why they go to school…

And I swear, every time I read it, I get tears in my eyes.

I can do this year. I can. I may not always be graceful or happy or calm about it, but that’s maybe just how I roll. Today? Oh today is chaos. Assembly day, so short periods, with stations, one of them a lab with balls. And collisions. Yeah. Could be bad. Plus standing for the last 90 minutes of the day watching the assembly. I already have a headache. Should go take meds, hydrate. Loud noises coming. Then home to iron and read and sleep. And maybe relax.