I finally updated my website to include all the bugs I made. You can see them here. At least for now. They might move. One has sold (that I know of)…it’s OK, it was the mutant first one I did before I figured out how to more easily (and quickly) finish them. Four of them are at VMOTA for now. The rest are here with me. They don’t have to be.
There’s one of them.
It’s the time of year when I’m scrambling and ducking and weaving and running. I could do with some down time, y’all. I did have a meeting canceled last night, and though I was looking forward to some stitching time with friends, I also enjoyed sitting on the couch with a variety of animals and reading my book for once. Well, I did a bunch of that last weekend too. Still sick, so balancing that with doing way too much. There is no balance. WTF am I talking about.
I’ve been doing about an hour of tracing a night, if I’m lucky…just short of an hour really. So I’m not getting far.
And it looks pretty much the same from one day to the next. I did start another yard of Wonder Under…
I’m in the mid to high 600s. Not even halfway. Ah well. Progress is slow. I did want to be ironing next week. Hopefully I will be at some point.
Must be cold. Dog in couch.
This is feeling real.
And I always appreciate this quote.
Creation is my sanity.
From the book I’m reading…The Dictionary of Lost Words…
Good book. I’d like to read it more.
OK. Ugh. I’m tired. Have not been sleeping well. Mostly in the AM. Still teaching waves…today is transverse and longitudinal. Only sort of know what I’m doing ahead of time, which is a bit nerve-wracking, but whatever. Nothing new there. Hopefully no stressful student crap today. Or adult crap for that matter. Hopefully some ceramics time. Then to the parents for dinner with the bro. Home to trace. Busy. Trying not to think about the idiocy that is my government in process. Dismantling the education department just hurts people. So many people are going to have their lives uprooted by all this…including those who voted for the idiot. Or who didn’t vote at all. You get what you deserve, but you dragged us all down with you. Stressed about all that. Ah well. Carry on. Draw some more. Contain the anger in a pile of fabric pieces…well, it’s not really contained, is it. Off to the mines it is…
OK. So my butt is wet. The cat did something on my chair. This is not a nice way to start Monday. Actually, I started with randomly low blood sugar. Always fun. The cat is old. I’m hoping it’s not…fuck…I’m pretty sure it’s pee. Sigh. She’s looking pretty irritated right now. Maybe because I’m accusing her of peeing herself. I guess I need to call the vet. Sigh. She’s old, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready for her to be gone. She has been getting worse…unfortunately.
So artwise, I finished all the bugs. Except I need to repaint one for like the fourth time. I delivered 4 to Visions Museum on Saturday. The rest will hold for a bit (maybe?) and go on Etsy (maybe?). I took official photos of them; I’ll put them on the website later too. Here’s the last one though…
With the one that needs repainting in the background.
I finally started drawing the next big one…it’s been in my head for well over a month.
Not that you can see much, and the boobs might need redrawing based on this. I just get the general shapes with the pencil on something this big. I don’t usually use pencil on the smaller drawings. Here’s a pre-drawing for it…done in two restaurants before dinner came…
Not quite all there. But a vague idea of it. I drew this too, with no purpose…
On Friday, I did some underglazing…
This stuff takes forever…
But it’s relaxing…
Apparently two of my pieces came out of the glaze fire, but I couldn’t find them on Friday. Ugh. Maybe today.
I also finished the center panel of Homegrown…
So now I can piece all the houses around it and spend another year making the borders. It’s also relaxing, but in a different way.
My piece Stop the Murder Madness made it to Miami for the opening…
A fellow artist took a picture of it for me…
Her name is Eden Quispe and you should go look at her work because it’s amazing. And I appreciate her recommending this show to me in the first place and sending me photos as well.
I managed NOT to work most of the weekend (on school stuff), which I think is pretty healthy. We walked the dog on Saturday.
I also blew leaves off half the roof, terrified of being up there, trimmed a bunch of stuff, dumped plant matter in greenery trashcans, finally rehung the art in the hallway…
Drove to a sketch location and bought a recliner for my kid, who may or may not actually want it because he was in Pinnacles with no cell service. Long weekend. I finished a book! That was good. Wait, I actually finished two. So even better.
For some reason, all the animals were giving me judgy looks this weekend. Here’s Nova.
Bowie…
You already saw Kitten up at the top…and Simba…
Luna avoided me mostly, so I guess I didn’t wrong her too badly.
I’ll finish up with two new skull finds…
The one on the right is a new type…I don’t think I’ve seen it before? I’ll wait for nature to clean it up a bit. We get a lot of rats and mice…this is not the right shape for that. Wait and see.
OK, today is teaching speed and velocity…pretty easy stuff. Then a 2-hour staff meeting about literacy. I’ve been prewarned that the scientific content is factually incorrect (oh good), so I’m prepared to be irritated. Then to clay, to hopefully underglaze some more and find my two glazed pieces. Then back here to pack up three quilts for shipping. Fun times. And more drawing, hopefully…get those boobs under control. On the drawing. Those are the only ones I can control.
Up early again. Legit reason today. Emergency kid meeting. I’ll volunteer for those, if it’s my student. Not a fan of getting up early if I don’t have to. That was yesterday. Lack of communication. There’s a lot of that. Yesterday was also a pre-fight…apparently I walked right into the middle of it without knowing who was about to fight. I still don’t know…I told the APs to go check the cameras. Hint to kidlets: don’t try to start a fight right in front of the damn cameras. Thank goodness we have them and they work. Thank goodness one of the APs answers when I call.
Today will be fine. Yesterday I worked with this one kid who fell off a second-story roof when he was 7 and was in a coma and shockingly now at 13 has learning issues. We’re trying to get him help. Dad says his brain is weak, but it’s not…it’s traumatized. And that might be the theme for my whole school sometimes. I saw him sitting yesterday, trying to do the independent practice, and just shivering at the table, so I sat with him and talked him through it…which meant the rest of the class kinda went to hell. Sigh. They’ll be better today. Or else? I can’t solve all these kids’ problems, but I sometimes can help. I have no help in that class and he’s not actually on an IEP to get help (YET)…I wish I could move some of these kids around so they were in a more supportive space without all the official paperwork. Sometimes we can…
ANYWAY. In amazeballs news, I’m still not done with the bugs. I painted more canvases on Wednesday night…after I sewed these two, there were two that needed touching up…
The wrist brace is a thumb thing…from too much tech…mouse plus holding phone and ipad plus IDK what. The embroidery doesn’t seem to bug it…I sewed these down with the brace on.
Last night, I did one with the brace on and two without.
And then repainted one that didn’t seem to be the right color. So there’s one left. That’s tonight, plus making labels for them. Then I’m delivering some to the Visions Museum of Textile Art, and IDK what with the rest. Etsy? Maybe.
The opening of We Got the Power is tonight…I finally found the invites everyone was posting…
I still haven’t seen it in the gallery…they’ve been posting pictures but not of the whole thing.
I’m just glad it made it there.
So I’m about to start something new! And big. This little stuff drives me nuts. The Man was trying to figure out how many bugs I’d have to make a week to make up for my salary…and it’s not how many I’d have to MAKE…I’d have to sell like 300 of them a week. And that’s so not happening. Every time I make a little batch of quilts like this (I’ve done birds and cats before), I realize about halfway through that I don’t like doing it. I like to make big things. I like to make things that matter. It’s not that they aren’t cute or cool (they are cute…for bugs)…it’s just not why I make art. And when I retire from teaching, I don’t want to spend more time doing that…making little things that might sell but take up all the time. I want to experiment, explore, make different things, like I’m trying to do with the clay. AND make the big beautiful quilts I really enjoy making. All that.
Anyway.
It’s gonna be a while. And I don’t like chocolate.
Today. Today I will finish the last bug. I will watch that kid I helped yesterday completely fail the quiz because no matter how much I tried to help him, his brain doesn’t get it, and that’s not his fault. And I hope we can get him more help. Same with the emergency meeting this morning. I just want them to get help, and I can’t always do that for them. Which sucks. I’m also going to ceramics (hopefully the hand will play along and be OK with that). And I’m going to read my book, maybe finish it. And label the bugs. And finish designing the academic assignment in space. The assignment is set in space…I don’t have to be in space (unfortunately) to do it. That might be fun too. It is Friday. That’s a thing.
My brain is so discombobulated. It’s not Saturday? It’s Friday, but afternoon. I feel like I need a nap already. OK, so I was up kinda early to take family to a soccer game (my nephew’s in town, playing in a tournament). And there was sitting in the sun and then eating lunch and I’m a little out of it. And I’m going to have to leave in a couple of hours and drive BACK the way I went to the game, through that hellacious traffic we saw going north. Fun times.
I used to have a blog FULL of soccer photos. I don’t miss that.
Where is everyone going this Friday? It’s Pride weekend…so they’re all going to LA? I don’t know. It was crazy traffic, and I don’t think it’s going to get better as the day goes on. So we’re going to leave pretty early, I think, just to be safe. I’m still a little paranoid that I don’t have enough stuff to demonstrate, but then I will have these bugs afterwards that take too much time to make to be able to sell well. I did one with a regular binding…the others may get a satin-stitch binding (half the time). We’ll see. Or I’ll sew them all together into a bug wallhanging unlike anything else I’ve ever made. Who knows?
I am tired though. Kittens have energy. One kitten (Kitten, the almost-16-year-old) started Netflix up this morning and woke everyone up. Usually I’m smart enough to change the tab that’s up on the computer (because yes, she’s done this before…she’s the Queen of Stepping on the Keyboard), but not so last night. Up too late, didn’t fall asleep quickly, up too early. My own fault. Ironing at night is cooler. Like less temperature cooler. So I do that instead of sleeping.
So quiltwise, not gonna be done by tomorrow…here’s Wednesday’s work done, two of the three main figures done.
Last night, I finished the third…
And started on the things in the sky…
That doesn’t look like much. I have about 450-500 pieces left to iron. Not a small amount.
I also made it to the ceramics studio for more coloring on this…
I think it’s done? Ready to dry?
Get it ready to bisque fire?
This is another art technique that takes a ton of time. Ah well. It is what it is.
I also made it to the native plant nursery yesterday and bought some different native milkweed.
Those will go in the ground as soon as this heat wave (minor) fucks off.
Meanwhile, I don’t have a picture of last night’s skunk, but here’s what I caught Luna eyeballing from inside the house.
And I saw this beauty while watering…
From a book I just finished.
Too real right now. Too real.
OK, I’m going to take a quick nap, pack stuff up, panic more about not having enough (it’s one of my common anxieties, often proven wrong), decide what to wear to this thing, and hopefully have a good time tonight. This kind of thing is always stressful, but I think I’m prepared enough for whatever might happen. Until I’m not.
Am I awake? Sort of. I’ve been UP for 5 hours, showered, fed most of the animals, drove to a news station, and did a live session about an art demo I’ll be doing at the Oceanside Museum of Art on Friday evening. Here’s the TV thing…
I’ll be doing my demo from 6:30-7:30 PM…it’ll be the bugs! I have some I’ll be ironing together (LIVE) and some I’ll be embroidering (also LIVE). That stuff is way easier than standing in front of a camera. Then I came home, changed out of real clothes, ate breakfast, moved some more furniture (endless, right?), and wrote some stuff. My plan is to iron stuff together until I need a nap (all the others are already napping)…
Simba was napping until the kitten (still nameless) grabbed his butt.
OK, it was obviously a busy weekend. Quiltwise, I finished Why. Not. after quite a few months’ lag.
It’ll go to the photographer once I finish the other one.
Then Friday, I made some bugs…cut out some Wonder Under, ironed them to fabrics…
I left one as just Wonder Under to use in the demo. I also made two of each, one more realistically colored and one colored for San Diego Pride Weekend…
I’m saving some to iron down at the demo on Friday, but I did iron 5 of them…
Yes, that’s 4…I think I hadn’t finished the outlining on the 5th one yet. This was Friday’s finish. Saturday morning, I outlined the 5th one and then quilted all 5.
The rest of their legs will get embroidered on at the demo (or after…depends on timing).
Then I finished one all the way with a binding and a sleeve…
Note to self…easier to embroider legs before the sleeve is on. And last night, I embroidered this one’s legs…
They seem like they would be really easy to make (they are), but they are still time-consuming. That sweet little bug took 2 hours and 19 minutes to make. So yeah. Not sure they’re saleable…but they’ll go on Etsy eventually. I’ll post all of them when they’re done. If you’re local and want one, don’t wait for it to go on Etsy. Just a heads up.
Here’s all the fabrics that got used on the bugs…
ANYWAY. So that was bugs. Not on the Bingo card for Summer 2024; neither is the microwave dying, and that’s also definitely happening.
I finally started ironing the Crones quilt together on Saturday…my goal is to have it done this week…which I have now lost Friday, so Imma do it quick.
The bottom was full of some fussy tiny pieces, which look awesome when done but are a fucking pain in the ass to iron.
Gaza war on the right side…
Loss of reproductive rights on the left. I have about 4 hours in and I’ve done about 250 pieces. I’m planning to do a bunch over the next 4 days. And also move furniture, do yardwork, paint things, possibly sleep, read my book, and maybe eat. I’ll be ironing as soon as I finish writing this thing.
I did do clay on Sunday…picked up the four finished clay pots for the Man’s bog garden. These two were pretty basic, although the glazes didn’t do what I thought they would (they never do).
These two were a test of a satin glaze, which turned out much better than the first test run.
So I’ll probably do this on the big sgraffito piece that’s on my shelf at the studio right now.
Meanwhile, I finished underglazing the bottom half of the next sculptural piece…
The colors will change a bit in the firing.
Flesh colors are always fun.
This is drying out right now, getting ready for the bisque fire. That sea monster is hysterical.
Here’s video of the whole thing…
Hopefully I’ll be underglazing the top this week. And working on that other sgraffito piece. Gotta schedule clay time into the ironing time.
We also hiked Saturday…it’s been warm, but not AS warm…and that’s the first deer I’ve seen at Sweetwater.
I’ve seen their prints in the dirt, but never the actual animal. So that was cool.
This California horned lizard was not AS cool…because it was unfortunately dead…but a good-sized one.
Oh yeah, Imma need more caffeine today. Lots more.
The older ladies are still unsure of the little beast.
There was some play yesterday and today, with a lot of consternation involved.
Not from him. He does not give a shit that they are all bigger than him. He is a sweetie, very loving, very people-oriented. But also a scratchy hyper demon. No name still. We have until tomorrow (self-imposed deadline).
I gave my SIL such a card for her birthday.
I hope she’s better at it than I usually am.
Also, need to go to this national monument. Put it on the list.
OK. Drink LOTS of tea today. Also maybe nap. Iron a lot. Maybe go to Home Depot…I was gonna go Friday night and then just didn’t (it’s open until 10 PM…avoid the contractors and go late). Contemplate the state of the union. And 20-year-old boys with automatic rifles. And crazy-town conspiracy theories. Consider the future of my country (that’s a big one…a scary one). But mostly iron. Looking forward to communing with some fabric.
Apparently I have no clue what day it is. Not surprising, really. I get like this over breaks. One day at a time. Do the things for that day, then make a pillow fort and disappear into a book. I had a legit reason…the book was going to be sucked back by the library demons at 2:33 PM today and I needed to finish it before that happened. I’m not entirely sure I understand what happened in the book, but when the fourth (in the trilogy, yes, really) comes out, I will just reread all of the three previous books and maybe it will all make sense. I really liked parts of it; just wasn’t sure how they were related to previous parts. It was confusing.
I really loved that highlighted bit. Because my co-teacher and I joke about everything being fine, but it’s not. It’s just hard this year. So I missed writing the blog yesterday, even though I wrote it down in my bullet calendar list of things to do, which I’ve been mostly ignoring, except for the parts where I have to be places and feed people. This morning I have to be two places. So I’m up because of the dog and the cats, earlier than desired, but whatever. That’s because the boy left and the dog thinks daylight is an alarm clock. He distinctly does not understand sleeping in.
So yeah, I made a lot of food that is still feeding people, and my family showed up…well, some of them anyway.
Minus the last-minute gravy the boychild helped with, so I officially still have never made gravy, and the cranberry sauce I forgot was in the fridge, but remembered. It was good. I never liked cranberry sauce until I had it made fresh.
This was after all the eating and drinking, so most people are smiling. The next day was the Man’s family, well, some of them…
This time before the eating, and at a much prettier table.
Also, I didn’t have to cook, which I appreciate.
And then there’s the artmaking, which I greatly appreciate…I sorted on Wednesday afternoon, while the turkey was cooking and before people arrived…
And then I started ironing to fabric. This piece has relatively few pieces (630) and is smaller (much) than the last one (28×36″ image). Those are little baby mountains…
This was what I had ironed after Thursday, I think…
And yesterday, I graded all morning and through the England v USA World Cup game. It needed to be done. Also someone needed to score, but I guess that didn’t happen. I’m not done with grading or planning. It’s possible that I never will be. I have two harder assignments left to grade and about two weeks more of planning to get me through to December. But it’s been taking me about an hour to plan each day of this unit/project, crazily, so I don’t know that I’ll get that far through. We’ll see. Too much researching shit, trying to figure out how better to present it than our curriculum does (because even when it’s pretty good, it still isn’t).
I also finished my book. But didn’t exercise. There’s 78 things on the to-do list that aren’t done. The Christmas shopping is mostly done, though. I need to assemble some things and I’m waiting on some stuff and I have to pick up one thing today, but otherwise, I might be sorta done. Kind of. More done than I was a week ago anyway.
I spent a goodly chunk of time ironing yesterday afternoon and evening and night though. And that was good. This piece of sky is one of my hand-dyes. I occasionally like to do it myself. Find it fun.
But then I dye things that are hard to use. This will be good sky though. I made it through all the fleshy pieces…they started in the 100s, then through the 200s and most of the 300s, I think.
Of course, I only did the flesh. I still need to do all the non-fleshy bits: the bones, heart, lungs, burning trees, and polluting cars. So that’ll take a while. I might be halfway through? Not sure because of the numbering. Feels like I’m further on than that, but the head is complicated and so is the vomit. So today sometime I’ll work on the bits in the torso that aren’t flesh, and then I’ll have a better idea of where I’m at. I’m also going to pick up a quilt and hopefully hike/walk the dog and the Man. So here’s what I’ve gotten so far…need a bigger box, plus extra points if you can find the cat butt and tail.
Also need to grade at least one of those hellish assignments. Ugh. Don’t feel like it, but it has to be done. I know some people just don’t do any work over break, but it’s looming over me and I know how panicked I would be next week (or tomorrow!) if I hadn’t done what I did. I need my head above the water, not doing that thing where you’re kicking your feet to push your nose and mouth up a little to get air, which was the last three weeks. Sigh.
When I made it to bed, a bunch of animals followed me…Kitten settled down by my feet, which is not normal for her…usually she comes up later and shoves into my back.
She was there for quite a while before she wandered off to sleep on a blanket somewhere less crowded. Simba was squished between us most of the night…
Although this was before the Man came to bed. Luna showed up in the dark. Nova doesn’t come in on the bed any more. She would, but the dog freaks her out. Her loss.
OK. So I’m up. I need to shower, go get my quilt, pick up the Xmas thing, go for a hike, probably eat somewhere in there, grade some shit, plan some other shit, iron fabrics, probably do a date-night thing, and read another book (it’s OK; it’s short). Today is Saturday. I’m just writing that for my own assistance. I need to remember to do all the things tomorrow that get me ready for school, and the more times I remind myself that today is Saturday, the more likely it is that I will remember to do all the things on Sunday that will help me go to school on Monday. I’m glad I’ve had time this week to recharge without students around. To plan without panicking. To get caught up on grading. That’s good. Plus make a bunch of food and freeze it so my December self panics less. These are good things. Maybe next year I can have a break from school that isn’t full of grading and planning (ha!). Next year, I’ll have taught all this once and will have more help. Hopefully. For now, I’m thankful that it’s Saturday and not Sunday. I can do a Saturday.
I spent a chunk of time on Etsy yesterday trying to get 8 new pieces on there. They are all pre-COVID pieces; they just needed to be mounted in a way that made them able to hang. You can find these on Etsy.
My friend Susan talked to me and crafted (she was supposed to be cleaning…but I think we’re always supposed to be cleaning when we craft unfortunately). Plus Kitten was trying to help me do the computer stuff…not.
I’ve been drawing every night…after doing other stuff during the day. Drawing brain seems to prefer nighttime.
I knew there would be swallowing heads in here…kind of a symbol for anxiety or being swallowed by society or government or a political party that doesn’t like women except when they do like them (pussies and pregnancy yes, autonomy and rights no)
I didn’t realize until the middle of the night while trying to sleep that the heads would be filled with words. And then I tried drawing that bottom left bit about 4 times and finally cut that section out and taped a new piece in. I’ll try the redraw tonight…and then it might be done.
Then I can start numbering.
We’re still quilting this beast. And the machine is still possessed. Plus we need to replace some O rings.
More signs of demonic possession.
Kitten is wherever I am.
Simba misses the boychild but appreciates his elephant.
I started this at home and have been trying to write while being at mom’s with the quilting machine. We got to the bottom and have to go back to the top to fill in some wide apart areas we had in the beginning. Not today. Gotta go proofread some stuff, ship one quilt, and deliver another. All good.
So Summer Break is disappearing fast. Lost two days to a training that could be done in two hours…welcome to the inefficiencies of my day job. Seriously though…wish we could figure that crap out. I’m willing to be professionally developed when it’s actually useful. Not sure this 12 hours will be. That said, this week is still Not School and so is next week. Breathing in and appreciating that. This week, I need to get going on the next art quilt on the off chance I can finish before another deadline (probably not, but I’m going to try). I also need to get some home-related stuff done and I need to get that bed quilt done.
I think we’re at 16.5 hours (which includes about 5.5 hours of practice on muslin). We finally got it to behave appropriately for I think two whole rows, no, two and a half, and then the bobbin thread ran out and then the NEW tablet (mom bought a new one) crashed and then we had to try to restart from there (the app needs a solution for starting mid-row when it crashes) and then the thread broke, so the last row took 45 minutes instead of 11 and a half. Yeah.
But before that, we had weird divots in the stitch and then it would randomly decide to move up instead of staying in a straight line.
I wasn’t kidding when I said the machine was possessed. Inconsistent? Yeah that too. Could very well be user error.
I know with any machine I’m sewing with, I have to get used to it and then I know how to make it work, even if the manual says otherwise. So we’re not there. But we are halfway through the quilting! Mom wanted to rip the straight line, and I’m like NO, we aren’t ripping anything if we don’t have to.
And when I say halfway, I mean I will have to go back and do some filler quilting in between some of the rows (or parts of rows due to demon possession) that are too far apart. But I figure that will be quick. Unlike the rest of it. So probably three more sessions at mom’s? Hopefully? Done this week? I just don’t know. I’ve got a proofreading job coming in this week too, so I need to be home to work on that.
The newest quilt is at the photographer…I did get photos back of Desert Mother though…gotta get her on the website.
I’ve had such a hard time finishing work in the last two years. The day job is a hog.
Every year I say I will work on that, and then I get overwhelmed.
There are lots of super tiny animals in this piece…
Which take forever…
But I love that they’re in there. I also love that I made this totally nonpolitical quilt this year in between what will be more political things because the world is so fucked up at the moment. I know I needed a break after the abortion rights quilt. So this was it…
I feel bad for making nonpolitical quilts sometimes. Plus then people are all OMG that quilt is amazing why don’t you just make those instead of those other ones. Eyeroll. Because the artist brain does not work like that.
Anyway, so there she is.
I did start the drawing on the next one about two weeks ago, pulling from a drawing I did back in November 2021 and then starting to modify it. I had written notes somewhere on what else needed to go on it, but I have no clue where those are. Of course. But I stared at it for a while on Friday night, then went to sleep, and woke up Saturday morning with a goodly chunk of it back in my head, which I wrote down in TWO places…
So as soon as I can get my head out of the exhaustion rut it’s in (too many early morning wakeups for me lately), I will get going on that. Hopefully in about 20 minutes.
Also, I finally finished mounting the last of the pieces that need to go on Etsy…
Trying to get some of these smaller pieces sold and out of here. So now I need to find all the photos I’ve taken as I’ve finished them over the last month, gather all the sizing and pricing info, and post those. I’ll let y’all know when that’s done, but hopefully this week. I also had a plan to put some of my older art quilts on sale…will need to get my act together on that too. You can see how summer/free time gets eaten up, yeah?
We hiked Saturday, but just flat because the Man has a broken toe…slammed it into a chair…
Probably he shouldn’t have hiked because now it hurts more, so also probably I will be hiking alone for the next 5 weeks.
Nova asleep in the heat…
The bunny who keeps eating the flowers of my native plant…
A very confused caterpillar…I’m not sure where it went from the cactus (the milkweed was right next to it)…but I can’t find it anymore.
Ah well.
Want some owl videos?
Three babies…
Haven’t seen the parents for a while (would I know? I don’t know if I would know…but they sound different). One seems to hang out here all the time; the other two seem to range around a bit more. Hoping they find a nest and/or learn to stop yelling all the time (much like the neighbor children?) relatively soon. But I’m glad to add them and their mouse/rat-catching to my ecosystem here.
So today: draw more, Etsy some stuff, go have lunch and hang out with teacher friends without thinking about school, read my book? (it’s nonfiction, but there’s a mystery and I suspect old white men are the perpetrators). Shit. I need to start the crockpot for dinner. Ugh. OK. Better now than having to cook later, right? Yes ma’am. It’s still summer. I am still sort of free from stuff (ha!). Working on Zen.
I’m at that stage of the school year where every morning is exhaustion. Friday was fun with microscopes, but a lot of running around and then trying to get kids focused, then some adult drama that I could do without. This week has some ups and downs for what we’re teaching…today and tomorrow will be a bit of a slog, no matter what I do to prepare them (and me). But I did everything I could this weekend to be ready for it.
I also did a lot of art, which was nice. I even took a class in something I never would have done if my guild weren’t doing it. So that was good. It’s always good to stretch a little to see if something new will work.
So the current quilt…Friday night, so close to done (not really…there are a lot of pieces left in there…they’re just small)…
Saturday night we went to an art opening and got freaked out by small space, lots of people, but then came home and watched a movie and I cut out the rest…
That’s 21 hours and 21 minutes of cutting. Very precise. You want to know how I price my quilts? By my time.
It wasn’t too late yet, so I sorted them too…
So many tiny pieces. You can see the 400s box has most of the big sky pieces in it. Everything else is small as fuck. I know, I know…I designed the thing. I’m the one who is also hoping it’s done in time, but who the hell knows.
And then last night, I started ironing it together…
Somehow I lost a bunch of tree parts already. They could be in the couch, they could never have been cut out (I found one in the pile of trash I save for just these reasons). Who the fuck knows. I don’t. Kept ironing though…
I’m 150 pieces (approximately) in. My goal this week is to get it ironed. Of course, my schedule and exhaustion levels might not help with that. Plus that grading thing. Whatever. Those tiny animals though…they are a time-consuming thing. I have a tortoise and an owl to do tonight. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all looks though…I never see it in full color until it’s ironed, except in my head.
The class I took was on Zoom with David Owen Hastings…Inspired by Architecture. I borrowed pictures from the girlchild’s travels, although she’ll be hard-pressed to tell what photo I used.
I could make all of those, but I probably won’t. I cut out the pieces for another one…not one of these…it’s somewhere else. In a pile.
David was a great teacher, lots of info, nicely timed, feel good about the process, although it is incredibly outside of my wheelhouse.
I couldn’t help but put some hand-stitching in there. I’m not sure modern is my thing, but it was an interesting class. Certainly this was faster than my normal process.
I was hoping an art reset would help with this week. Maybe it will. I know I came home Friday night incredibly stressed and overwhelmed. I finished grading one thing that might help with the mindset…although there are other things coming to take its place. One of the issues was my septic. The pumpout this year went fine, but my tank is old and there were some issues…the issues started at being around $1200, and now are a partial rebuild…so 5 times that.
I guess it’s a good thing I sold two quilts…I can pay for this and probably my taxes and maybe my property taxes, maybe? But the summer is now unfunded. That’s really how teachers look at summer sometimes…unfunded.
So there’s a bit of panic in my head. I’ll get through. Just unexpected.
Part of trying to reset my mind was cleaning my studio up for yesterday’s class. I had pieced three of these, so I did the other three.
This is from the Molli Sparkles Cut It Up Quilt-Along. I’m way behind, but that’s OK, because it’s just a fun thing I’m doing. When you make the corner pieces, there are leftover triangles. I hate to waste, so I pieced them all…
I’ll trim them up and put them in the quilt somewhere. You can see that mostly I was doing complementary colors: blue/orange, red/green, purple/yellow. Guess that art degree paid off.
Ah yes, well school starts soon. Back to the chaos. And it’s a hot week, so hopefully they can finally get my A/C really running, instead of ignoring actual class temperatures and going on after school is out. Somewhat frustrating. Three more weeks until Spring Break. It also means I think I only have three weeks to finish this quilt. That could be problematic. Ah well…if I don’t finish for one deadline, it will go to another show, won’t it? Yeah. It will. I am frustrated by my inability to get art done this year (and last year…see the pattern?). My day job is taking too much time. More than usual. Sigh. OK. Well. Tonight I dedicate time for art. Hopefully.
I just got an email about a call for artists: the gallery is charging $40/entry for an online exhibit. Online. No catalog. Just online. This after two rejections last night. It’s OK. Rejection is part of the game. If you enter, you will be rejected more often than you are accepted. It’s normal. And more people entered than they were expecting. So there’s that. But I’m not willing to turn around and shell out more money (yes, every entry costs money, and not a small amount of it…remember shows with $10 and $15 entry fees? Proof that I am old.) for a show that only exists online. The gallery is nonprofit…usually entry fees pay jurors and provide food and drink for openings, plus keeping the gallery open and staffed. What is this entry fee for except the jurors? It’s not even on the gallery’s website? I don’t understand.
I get to this stage every once in a while, where I’m tired of paying out fees for themes that are just difficult for me to get my head around or for show after show where I can’t get in. It’s OK…then I just make a bunch of work and then eventually something gets in or some new opportunity pops up that doesn’t cost me any money (those are always nice, aren’t they?). I say that as I’m working on a piece for a show with a theme and probably a fee. Ah well. I’ll finish it and then see where my head is at. Right now, it’s hard to know where my head is at. The man is planning to start hiking again tomorrow. He’s been icing his knee (and his beer) at Kennedy Meadows since Friday, trying to decide whether or not to keep going. The knee has not stopped hurting, mind you, despite the rest. Meanwhile, I’m in a bit of limbo over some projects that need to start and scheduling some things, because I don’t know if I will need to (a) still meet him at Kearsarge Pass or (b) come pull him off the trail again. So I do cross things off the list and let a few things just sit there, waiting. I’m still tired…still occasionally grinding my teeth…still in recovery mode. Not sure when all that improves.
Actually, it kind of helps to write the blog and realize how many things I’m working on…so on Friday, I continued outline quilting on the 20-year-old quilt…
Which will eventually need a better name…but I did finish the outlining…
And started the background quilting, which is going to take a while. But it’s started.
I also did some ironing to fabric on the current quilt made for a themed show that will cost money to enter. This is my view while ironing, watching a recorded Zoom of something textile-related.
Can’t remember what. Picking out the sky fabrics here…this was Friday night, I think?
I lose track. Actually, I think it was a Zoom meeting. I had two on Friday and then I watched the recorded talk.
And then on Saturday night, I finished the rest of the ironing for this quilt and organized all the fabrics by color…
I used 99 fabrics and it took 9 hours and 45 minutes to pick them all and iron them to fabric. In general, this is a very muted quilt. The bright colors are in a few small locations. It’ll be interesting to see it all ironed together.
Then last night, I started trimming the pieces…
I haven’t gotten very far…the top left box is all trimmed. The bottom box is to-be-trimmed. It’s gonna be a while.
On Saturday night, when I was done ironing (which was pretty early), I finished up the hand-stitching on this piece, which I’ve been working on for a very long time. How long?
Hmmm. Looks to be around January 11 of this year that I started this. Not bad…I thought it was last year. Only 6 months. Honestly, it’s been almost done for a while. And it’s really not even almost done…everything is just stitched down and I got rid of all the pins. I actually want all of these (there are four now) to have a lot more hand sewing.
I did the first one, bottom left, in February or so of 2020…and the other two after that. They are from Anna Maria Horner shipments, using only the fabrics she sent that month. Hence the crazy combinations. I like them though. It’s a different kind of challenge. There are 6 shipments a year, so I didn’t finish last year’s quite, and now I have two…no three more this year. One just arrived and I cut the background fabric out already and it’s waiting…although I think there is a cat lying on it. Maybe someday I will finish these. Who knows. Maybe they are like sketchbook drawings…just little workings of the brain when other stuff is too hard.
On Saturday, I also went to an actual in-person meeting (outside, in a park, where I got sunburned again in a weird pattern on my back because I thought it was all covered up, but I was stitching and so I was bent over and…duh). It was one of my quilt guilds…and I worked on Sue Spargo’s Homegrown, finishing the third of four blocks for March.
Look! People! In a group! I know. It makes me nervous unless it’s outside. We’ll see how that goes in the future.
Ah yes, and I finished stitching hangers and a label on this one, so it’s off to it’s new owner later this month.
Took forever to finish this one…mostly my fault…combined with school and sewing machine issues. See, I did do a lot…plus bought shelves for the deck for plants to block the neighbor noise and view…working on the plants and pots part. Need more of both.
On Saturday, I hiked a little over 5 miles…it was hot. This is a kite…a bird kite, not a manmade one.
It’s a bird I only see at Sweetwater. Looks like a hawk but mostly white and a little gray. Stared at me.
I didn’t see anyone else out there. Granted, I was hiking during the dinner hour, I think, and it was warm even then.
There’s a lot of flowers still blooming.
I like hiking by myself mostly…
I do listen to music…
I wanted to go further, but the parking lot closes…
Sweetwater River Trail? Or Reservoir? Not sure.
Finally got to the water.
And then headed back…I like this succulent, although I’ve never been able to get it to grow from a cutting.
I don’t take it out of wild parks…just from side of the road bits where I can pick a leaf or a stem.
Maybe I should just figure out what it is and find it somewhere legit that costs money.
Lots of cat pictures…Nova cleaning Luna while I was trying to nap.
I did not nap. Luna then got cranky and started a fight.
Not nap friendly.
When I got back from the hike, Kitten decided my hat was a sleeping space.
Hmmm.
Nova checking out the living room last night…
So today…I’m in a Zoom, watching some art stuff, plus trying to write this. Then I should quilt some more, cut some more, walk some more, and IDK what else. I have a list. Fill the hummingbird feeders. Do some yard work. I need a list for that. I should do that. I should just take a break from expectations, right? Yeah, I’m not very good at that. I’ll keep trying. Without the fees and the rejections, yeah? Don’t enter; you won’t get rejected. But if your work needs to get out there, then you will have to take that chance, spend the money, get it out there.
Kathy Nida 