Promises Me I’m Safe as Houses*

I left school early yesterday…meaning I walked out the door within 30 minutes of the school day ending. I wanted to walk the dogs…it’s been a while. So I walked in the frong door, put them out to pee, and changed into dog-walking attire…so as soon as they came in, they were excited, running around, woofing woofing woofing. They know what it means.

This has seemed like the safest place to walk lately, in terms of coyote incursions. We know they’re there…but I’ve never seen them in the 3-mile loop I do with the dogs. Boychild has seen them further out. I figure if I can’t see them, I’m probably OK…

Plus the dogs like all the good smells…

And it’s apparently spring there…plus there were 5 runners and at least 5 bikers.

But there we are. Coyote. On the flat open area. I yelled at him, picked up the little dog, and took the other branch of the trail. He didn’t budge. Even followed us a bit. Sigh. Well next week it will be light longer, so hopefully coyotes subscribe to daylight savings time and will stay hidden for another hour.

Girlchild says I should walk where there are no coyotes. No such place exists. I know they have a place here…it’s just scary with the dogs.

My TV-watching companion is working hella hours at work lately, so I was on my own for dinner. Read my book…book club is next week already again and I am not done. Nowhere near done.

Then I started quilting. Quilting is relaxing. Meditative.

Especially when the machine is being nice and stitching with no issues.

I got all of the water/land of the Earth done, and some of the sky around the figures.

I did a little outlining on the figures and this caduceus (can’t spell it; can’t pronounce it!).

Not even halfway, but I did quilt for 2 1/2 hours last night. Tonight I have an opening to go to, so I don’t know how much I’ll get done. We’ll see.

For #marchmeetthemaker, I posted some of my process…because I finally got it down. It helps me get stuff done. What do I do next? I already know. I draw. Then I trace. Cut the Wonder Under. Iron it to fabric. Cut the fabric. Iron the pieces together. Iron it to a background. Stitch it down. Sandwich and pinbaste. Quilt. Bind. Repeat.

It’s working for me. Has been for quite a few years.

The next two nights are kind of busy, but hopefully I’ll get some quilting in…then finish it up Saturday? I have stuff to do Saturday and Sunday…if I want to buy binding fabric, it probably has to be Saturday. This is part of why I think everything out. When will I have time to go get binding fabric if there isn’t enough of something here? Now Saturday is in my head as Go-Get-Binding day. I might even write it in the calendar (probably should).

Now I should probably get to school…morning meetings suck. And yet they still exist.

*Depeche Mode, Never Let Me Down Again

All the Roads We Have to Walk Are Winding*

Well. So. I can finally quilt this thing. I have not been as efficient as I sometimes can be. Not sure why. Lack of rice krispy treats I think. That’s probably a good thing now that I think about it.

I’m finding school frustrating; you may have noticed. I think we work hard at giving kids the supports they need to think without giving them the answers. I’m frustrated at the moment with the lack of try I see. I know, I know, they’re 12. Try is hard. It’s hard for grown adults to get up off the couch and do something every night. It’s not hard for me, really, because I like it. I like it better than the couch. I guess I’m wired slightly differently. I’m OK with that.

So I did tutoring and talked to kids who just didn’t get it. There’s one girl who goes to tutoring every day and does hardly any work. It’s just social. Better than home? Yes, for some kids, school is safer and better than home. OK. Well. I will bury my frustration and keep trying. I’m the adult in there, so I should be able to do that.

Meanwhile, I came home, cooked dinner, ate, and watched some X-Files…sewed some more balls on…see! Progress! I’m doing one color at a time. It’s relaxing.

No, that’s not parmesan. It’s all my pins. Although it’s cracked. I need a new one…pin container that is.

So I cleaned all the tile floors after dinner and then pinbasted the quilt. I only clean floors when I need to pinbaste or trim quilts…

Lying around on the ground pinning at 10 PM is the best way to end your day.

I had a hard enough time getting up off the ground.

Wow…that’s some foreshortening. No way is that boob that big…

My work made it into Textile Fibre Forum…part of the Threads of Resistance exhibit…

It’s always interesting to hear someone else write about your work. I didn’t make that piece with the thought of Adam and Eve, but I do see how everyone sees that.

This quilt, Rooted in America, made it into Fantastic Fibers, hallelujah. I’m so glad this piece is going out in the world.

Especially right now…

From last night’s episode of Electric Dreams…

Great version of that song.

*Cat Power (and Oasis), Wonderwall

Gonna Give My Heart Away*

Sometimes I sit here in the morning, staring at the computer, wondering what it is I want to say. What is important. Or more like, what do I need to get out of my head so I can get through the day and get stuff done. It helps me to parse it out, do this, do that, get this, get that. Each day is a discrete space where these 10 things will happen. It’s OK if some of those 10 things move to another day (that happens all the time) or if other things pop in, but I have a better chance of finishing some of those things if I clear my head and populate it with bullet lists.

Today is teaching renewable vs nonrenewable energy (need to publish the post for that and look up what I thought were reasonable claims from last year). Today I can start grading tests from last week, because grades are done. Today I will be at the tutoring center and I need to go to the grocery store (twice in one week? Bad planning) on the way home. I need to clean the entryway floor so I can pinbaste my quilt (I finished stitch down last night!). I need to cook dinner and pinbaste and hopefully start quilting.

That’s not so bad, right? It all sounds very doable. Other stuff will pop up, but let’s start with that.

Yesterday, I came home and prepped a quilt for delivery to a show today. My mom is delivering it, because all the hours for delivery are during my work day. Sigh. She’s also delivering my co-artist’s piece, because he’s out of state. So that’s not a small thing. I appreciate her doing that. It’s a pain being an artist sometimes.

After dinner, I started working on stitch down. I wanted to finish…at this point, it did not seem like I would…

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There’s always a point where it feels like you will never be done. Last night, I did 12 minutes, then took a 45-minute break (not sure what happened there…probably the dinner was in the oven). Then I sewed for 11 minutes and obviously ate dinner, because there’s a 2-hour break. Then I stitched for 14 minutes and there was a 17-minute break. I think I peed a dog or two and then posted something on Facebook for one of my art groups. Then 35 minutes with a 20-minute dog-playing event? Or maybe the 17-minute break was playing with dogs. A final 32 minutes to finish.

They tell you to take lots of breaks. Luckily (?) I have the dogs to remind me of that.

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All stitched down and draped over the ironing board. Tonight I’ll get her to the next stage…and hopefully beyond.

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I’ve been doing a half-assed job on Instagram with the hashtags #igquiltfest, which is skewed way far toward the traditional or modern quilter, and not the art quilter (which is partially why I did it) and #marchmeetthemaker, which is skewed toward the crafter/artist more…hard to say on that one, because Insta is fucking with my feed and I don’t see everything. Yesterday, I never posted, because one was about photography, and I use a professional photographer now (who is not online, so I can’t point you to him). I was trying to find one of my photos of my old setup with lights and tripod in the entryway, but they’re all hiding from me. Then #igquiltfest is about notions, and I’m not really overtly a notions person. I have the shit I use, but it’s not fancy. I use Machingers while quilting until the rubber wears off, and then I buy a new pair, about one a year. I covet scissors that are easy to use and sharp, because I do a lot of cutting. I need multiple seam rippers, apparently, I need lots of needles because I break them, they get dull, and I’m always quilting in the middle of the night, so I can’t run out and get more. I need safety pins, because yes, I still pinbaste. I’ve tried the sprays and hate them. I use Sharpies when I draw and Pigmas when I draw on my quilts. And the ever-present teflon sheet…I have about 4 or 5 of them. The cats like to chew on them, so sometimes I have to replace them when they get too many bite marks in them.

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That’s it really. But it’s too many words for Instagram, so I put it here. I can’t remember what today is…oh! Scrappy quilts! Well, hell…mine are scrappy to the moon and back. Probably not what the organizers were thinking of, but whatever.

This quilt, We Won’t Go Back, is going to be in Dia de la Mujer, opening Thursday, 6-9 PM, at The Front, Casa Familiar, in San Ysidro. I’ll be there eventually (long drive at the end of a long day).

This quilt, Earth Day, is going to be in Mind the Gap, opening next Thursday, March 15, at Southwestern College, 11 AM-1 PM. I will not be at that one, because well…work. Yeah. Feel free to take pictures and send them to me.

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More later about more shows…

*Portishead, Glory Box (I really like this song, but it’s problematic on the feminism scale. Like why do you need him to help you be a woman?)

Take That Look of Worry*

Well. That was the weekend. A lot of working. I think I graded on Saturday for close to 9 hours. Fun stuff. I obviously didn’t write here at all.

Friday, I finally finished the cover page for the new science unit. I didn’t have time Thursday, because I was grading units. I colored while kids were writing warmups and watching the short video we showed.

Then driving through my town, following this guy. Sigh. Big fucking sigh. I wonder how the other person’s family feels about that. I wonder how you’d feel about that if the teacher didn’t throw themself in front of the shooter on campus…the one you allowed to be armed…because they put their family first.

Yeah whatever.

Apparently the Tivo is warm. I wanted to persuade him to lie on the DVD player too…duster cat.

It looks like he tried to…

For one of the online March things, they wanted us to take a picture of our machine…this is one of 4? I think 4? A Singer and 3 Vikings. I usually get my mom’s hand-me-downs, but I had one become overly temperamental when I was in the middle of a major quilt, and mom’s wasn’t working for me. So this was my early Christmas present in 2016.

Honestly I don’t know how people afford machines that can do what I need them to do (which is sew fast and strong without fucking up). This is a Viking Husqvarna Sapphire 855. It was used when I got it, but my repair guy sold it to me with a warranty, as long as I bring it in every year. I can do that. It’s going in the end of this month actually.

So Saturday, I did spend most of the day with these guys on the couch with me.

I also binge-watched the rest of The Expanse while grading. And some other stuff.

Then for Sunday, they wanted to see the space where we work. I mostly have all my sewing stuff in the same room I have my computer crap…so it’s school and art…and copyediting, when I’m doing that. It needs a serious remodel, but that’s not in the cards at the moment.

It’s a tight fit with three tables, three bookshelves (well, technically four), and a ton of fabric. I move the ironing board around based on what I’m doing…but on Saturday, the ironing was set up…and there’s the other view. It’s a little chaotic.

But it works.

More puppy sitting with me. I lost him for a bit…because he was on the couch behind my head.

There’s the pile of science units I brought home with me. I did two periods Friday night after I got home from delivering a quilt…that was about 3 1/2 hours, I think.

So probably 13 or 14 unpaid work hours this weekend. One night, I didn’t have the energy to do anything else, so I sewed balls on.

I think we were watching a movie. I did start tracing Wonder Under on the next piece too. Barely. That might be crazy.

Then Sunday, after all the errands, I finally found the time to iron the bodies down. You can see one of the gaps, though, above her shoulder. That’s the fun part…trying to make everything fit…especially hard when the ironed background is solid like this one. So I had to do some fussy stuff…in there, I just inserted another piece of the darker blue.

Down by her left hip, I added more land. Somehow, I got the other side to fit.

I’m not entirely sure how. Then I put down all the other little bits, the screws, the shoe, the music maker, the words.

And ironed it all to the background. I like it. The movement is nice. Same with the colors…

Oh, yeah, and so you can see the studio mess is genetic…here’s my mom’s. BIGGER! Yes. That would be nice. You can’t even see the longarm. I don’t know if I will ever have this much space…probably not. Oh well.

We went out to dinner with my parents, because it’s my birthday this week.

Then I came home and started the stitch down…

I got about an hour and a half into it…including all the metallics, which stitched down really well.

I got a lot of the earth stitched down and most of this figure. So not halfway, but maybe close.

So I could finish tonight? Sandwich and pinbaste? Start quilting tomorrow? That would be cool. Quilting will give the outlines I want…details.

I did finish grades on Saturday. That’s a plus. They’re due Tuesday. But I have to be in early this morning for some stupid meeting. Three early mornings this week. Ugh. But positive stuff on the quilt. Positive stuff on grades being done (although now I have to grade the tests). I just need to get a lot done this week (unlike other weeks…laughing. Whatever.).

*Phil Collins, Take Me Home

Gonna Make You Burn, Gonna Make You Sting*

So yesterday morning I was convinced it was Friday. By the end of the day, I was sure it was Wednesday and I had one more day to finish everything. The brain is a strange thing. My brain on days of the week is apparently a messed-up thing. It’s Friday! You’re all like, yeah, we know. Today I have two parent meetings…in the morning…and then I get to drive in Friday rush-hour traffic to deliver a quilt…in the rain. If you live in Southern California, you know we don’t drive in rain well. Water confuses us. So I might be “driving” (sitting stopped in traffic) for hours. Fun stuff. But at the end of it, there is a weekend. There will be sleep and no students. For Two Whole Days. That will be good.

Although yesterday we had a good solid discussion on what teachers look for when grades come up…say a kid has a 59.5% (F) and they want to know if the teacher will bump it up to a D-. Well I told the kids we look at what the kid has been doing. If they’ve been working hard, on task, asking about makeup work, and turning it in, odds are we see that hard work and bump them up (not every teacher…but in middle school…in MY middle school…that’s a good sign. I want to encourage that behavior). However, if they have 18 missing assignments and I’ve reminded them of that a few times and they have done nothing, no makeups, no tutoring, nothing…then they have earned that F, fair and square. And extra credit bathroom passes will not fix that hot mess. These kids still believe in magic.

So that is a significant chunk of my weekend: getting grades done. I have two periods graded of the science units, three to go. Ugh. I’m getting there. There’s light…it’s a ways off, but there’s light.

I had a meeting last night, my stitching friends, so I worked on this…

And realized I was going to run out of the thread for the grasses. Damn. Can’t get that locally. I’m going to go through my stash and see if I have something that will work…

Then I had some time when I got home with animals. This one is way too close. He can’t just hang out on my lap…it’s gotta be in my face.

Then I got up off the couch around 10:30 PM to iron…to finish the last bit, the second figure.

I ironed the eyes separately…it’s easier to make sure they’re placed correctly that way. No crooked eyes!

And there she is. So I could iron both figures to the background tonight and then iron to the background. Yay!

That sounds good. Hopefully I won’t be too exhausted when I get home to do that. Then I’ll grade some stuff tomorrow and Sunday, but hopefully I’ll have time to stitch this down and get it pinbasted for quilting. That’s my goal anyway.

My current goal is getting through those two parent meetings and all day teaching energy to kids who alternately have way too much or nowhere near enough energy. Should be interesting.

*Led Zeppelin, Black Dog

Playing with Fire Gets You Burnt*

Some mornings, I’m so sure it’s a different day. It’s Friday, right? I think that’s because I had two 4-day work weeks and this is the 4th day. So it must be Friday, right? Oh no. It’s not. But I did survive everyone turning their stuff in yesterday, although the boys (it was ALL BOYS) who didn’t have all their papers in order and strew them all over the desk and then the end-of-class bell rang and they stood there helpless and ever hopeful that I would come over and do it for them…yeah. Well. I’m not enabling your shit today people. I also wouldn’t let any girls come over and do it for them. I said “You’re not their MOM” about 72 times.

So there’s that. And the doctor…so I think once you hit a certain age, they just want you to do all the possible invasive tests, so that’s fun. Because then I have to schedule all that for one of my breaks, because no way in hell am I trying to schedule and prep for a colonoscopy during teaching. They were adamant that I do a sleep apnea study too, because I admit to not sleeping well. I tried to explain that I had never ever in my entire life slept well, plus I’m an old lady with hot flashes, but that was not stopping them. So fine. Whatever. I’ll sleep with the machine. We’ll see how that goes. I did get to run downstairs to get to radiology for foot X-rays (ironic that) before they closed…and then the guy told me to stay in the room and never came back. It’s OK…he did the X-rays…and then I think he went home. I don’t blame him. It was late. No one was there when I came out of the room. I could have been locked in there with no supplies but hand sanitizer over night.

Anyway, that’s done. I just have 118 science units to grade. I did a few yesterday…I brought the rest of 2nd period home to grade last night but that didn’t happen. I ate dinner and then packed up a quilt to ship today, which took a really long time. Part of that was ironing it…it’s huge. And then dehairing it. I didn’t finish getting it all packed up until around 10:30. I didn’t start ironing until 11:24…and honestly, I almost didn’t start. But I’m a fan of At Least 30 Minutes a Day. It works. It makes me feel better and shit gets done.

I just walked away to warm up my tea, and the cat ate my Cheerios. Or licked them really. Now they’re all sticky. Crappy breakfast anyway, but it’s all my stomach can handle some mornings. I am NOT a morning person. I realize I sent an email this morning and it was cranky as hell, but I’m tired of editing something for this woman and having her ignore the fucking Oxford commas. Why ask me to edit it then? Because it’s fucking wrong! OK. See? I’m not fit to do anything in the morning but drink tea. And I’m obviously bad at that, because it’s always cold because I forgot to drink it in a timely fashion.

So 30 minutes of concentrated ironing…I started on the other figure. It’s a frontal view, but with a tree…all those rib bits will look better when they’re outlined during quilting.

So I ironed the tree separate. Why the tree? Two things…rooting her into the Earth, but also the support she’s getting from the surgical stuff. Like this strong tree trunk that’s helping to hold her back straight. To give her the room to grow.

Pick up tree, iron on top of body. Lower torso done! That was easy.

Seriously, it was. Tonight, if I have the energy (I have a meeting), I’m doing the rest of the body. So maybe Friday I get the whole thing ironed together. Hopefully.

I am pretty damn exhausted at the moment though. But I really like the ironing part, even though it’s late at night and I’m tired, it’s cool and feels good and is meditative and there’s a picture at the end. Damn, I need grades to be done so I can ignore them for a few weeks and get some art done. Seriously. This is annoying. Stupid job sucking up so much time and energy. For what? So you can tell me no more money for SCHOOLS, but we’ll give money for GUNS? Florida, you are a fucked-up state. I appreciate California so much right now. I love my stoned, hippy, snowflake state. We rock.

*Yaz, Midnight

Time Has Come As We All Go Down*

Today is the day I’ve been preparing for, the day I get (shit…I don’t remember how many students I have right now…hang on…133 students)…wait, it doesn’t matter how many kids I have, because inevitably, a bunch of kids won’t hand them in, but hey! Let’s be optimistic, even though we’re a public middle school teacher in March about 4 weeks before Spring Break and 3 days before the end of the trimester and there’s very little optimism available to my brain right now, let’s say I get 133 science units turned in today! Yeah! Let’s say it! Yeah! Then I need to grade them all before, well, honestly, Monday night. Yeah! And my doctor is gonna give me shit tonight about working too many hours and not exercising enough! Yeah! And I’m gonna tell her that on the days when I do 12,000 steps AT SCHOOL before I even leave to go home, hell, there’s no steps left in me (not true…I do more because dogs). Yeah!

I do work too many hours. I don’t exercise enough. This is not the time to stress about that balance. When my grades are done, I can stress about it. If I get far enough in the grading by Sunday, I can even take time off and go to the gym. That’s my goal at the moment. It’s a few days out, so it’s still doable. Meanwhile, my lunch is made, I have a plan for the day to balance my sanity with my job (that’s a thing…and this week, that means I’m allowed one Rice Krispie treat a day. ONE, doc, ONE.), and I’m hoping to come home and (well, grade a bunch of science units, honestly) iron the last body down. Hopefully. It’s about 150 pieces, so it’s doable.

By the way, when it’s cold, apparently it’s acceptable to have a cat face up your butt…

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After dinner was eaten, while once-nightly TV show is being watched, I have been sewing on circles…I figure I will never get them done otherwise. I think I got three done.

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Then off to the ironing (I did grade before all that). See this is the part I was kind of afraid of…that’s a lot of little tiny spine pieces…

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But honestly? It was pretty easy to iron together. Because of all the metallics, I used a press sheet between iron and fabric…and I’ll need to remember to keep doing that.

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I decided the space in her back was going to be just that…SPACE. There’s definitely a space theme going on in this. I guess I’m thinking of all the potential a teenager has…and it feels like they have all the potential of SPACE. Or something like that. It’s HUGE.

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Then I laid the spine piece all ironed together on the space and put the border around it…and voila! ‘Twas awesome. Seriously. I really like it.

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Kitten is not so sure…

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I gave her some hair and finished all the finger bits, thus getting me into the 520s or so.

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One figure done. The other one does have another 150 pieces, true…but I don’t think they’re as bad as those back pieces. We’ll see tonight. Then hopefully iron down to the background on Thursday night and start stitching down? I’m not sure how these fabrics will deal with that, but let’s just assume it will work out. Yeah!

That optimism (that really isn’t optimism…it’s some sort of crazy)…is what will get me through the day. Maybe.

Oh yeah, I just finished this book…Golden Hill by Francis Spufford…

My ex-SIL sent it to me at Christmas and I just started reading it a few weeks ago. At first, I was like…um…this is 18th-century stuff and I’m sort of a fan at times, but it’s not easy to read, but after a few pages in, I realized, OMG. No really. OMG. This book is great. It’s funny as hell sometimes and stressful at others but it was published just a few years ago by someone who generally doesn’t write fiction, but does like history. So the history is there, and it’s definitely got some accuracy going, but then he throws in this half-assed explanation of sword fighting that made me almost fall out of my chair. And he full on admits its half-assed. The ending is also awesome. So yeah, I recommend this book…and if he writes any more like this, I’m in. Totally in.

Now I have less than two weeks to finish my book club book. Yikes. Priorities.

*Kaleo, Way Down We Go (didn’t we just hear this one while writing not that long ago???)

The Pleasure, the Privilege Is Mine*

Some much-needed rain today…we’re at less than 3 inches for the year, so far, and this is the rainy season. The dogs aren’t happy though. Sometimes I think the puppy will hold his pee for days just to avoid wet feet.

I’m at the point in this quilt where I’m dealing with a lot of little tiny pieces, instead of the big sweeping bits of earth and sky, so it looks like I haven’t done much, when I’ve ironed 100 pieces together. Last night, I cut out all the little holes in the second line of the text and laid them out…

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I haven’t ironed them down yet…I want to wait until I get the figures ironed down, so I can get the curve right near the arm.

So then I started on the left figure…

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Again, this is about 80 pieces (lots of finger bits)…the back is another 100 pieces, I think.

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So it’s gonna take me a couple days to get through that I think. I’m hoping to finish this figure tonight. But I’m also trying to get through grades and do things like cook dinner etc. And maybe get enough sleep (ha! Never gonna happen…).

I did sew a few more circles on after dinner last night…on this from a million years ago. It’s just filler stitching…for when I’m not quite ready to get up and iron.

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More ironing tonight. I have a goal…makes it easier.

I have a quilt in this exhibit coming up. I’m looking forward to being at the opening…

I have a lot of openings coming up…this is one of the ones I can go to, luckily. Tonight I do need to pack up another quilt for shipping for another LA show. I forgot to do that last night…oh well. So many things on my calendar shift days as needed.

OK, off to school. The unit is ending, so today is test day and tomorrow they turn in the last month-plus of work. Always a bit stressful…and then I have like 5 days to grade them all. Crazy really on my part. Oh well. Job of a teacher.

*The Smiths, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

I’ll Be At Least 2 People Today*

Yesterday was a long day. I left here around 8 AM and had an easy drive to Pasadena to QuiltCon (pictures later this week). I went and saw all the quilts and the vendors. Then I sat in a coffee bar named appropriately Art+Science…

(mom, you wanted to know what I wanted for my birthday…look up) and graded stuff and drank tea. Really strong tea. Then I drove a few miles west into Los Angeles proper to our opening (more pictures later this week)…

(sat around outside for a bit and read my book, waiting for the opening to open…)…

(opening was at the Brewery…)…hung around for a while, and then headed back to San Diego, making awesome time, until some accident that must have had major injuries occurred just north of Oceanside. Added an hour and a half to my drive. Mostly creepy crawly drive, but some out and out stoppage. So like any good artist, I drew. Seriously, I turned my car off and drew.

But it got dark. And eventually we had to drive again. Apparently seeing all the word quilts at QuiltCon made me want to cover a body with them. I’ve done it before, with parts of bodies. I might need to do a larger version. We’ll see.

Anyway. I was sort of exhausted when I finally got home, but managed to get the trash out, eat dinner, and semi-function as a dishwasher. And then it was like 10 PM and I thought I should maybe get up off the couch and do something. I considered going to bed, but I wasn’t really sleep-tired, just drive-tired and brain-tired. I don’t need my brain to iron. This is not a brain-heavy part of the artmaking process. So I ironed.

Wait. This is from Saturday, because I didn’t blog Sunday morning. I did this bit Saturday, finishing off the Earth and doing part of the sky…

The screws from scoliosis surgery…they’ll be floating in the sky later.

The music-playing device…everybody’s got one…

The shoe signed by Mac DeMarco…I’m pretty proud of the signature, although the smiley face needs eyeballs. I figure I’ll stitch those. They’re too damn small to cut out.

That was Saturday and I didn’t want to start the next phase of the ironing, so I came in and finished handstitching the Climate Goddess piece that I’ve been working on sporadically since last June. It’s done.

Real photos later. When I go to the photographer later. Like much later.

THIS is Sunday night’s ironing. I started on SPACE…

Space is beautiful. I need to draw more space. Space and ground…

I’m quite happy with this…

Then I attached the bottom piece in the middle…I’ll have to hoist everything up on the teflon sheets to iron the sides down…

There’s writing in the sky…but I only cut the outside edges when I trimmed the pieces. I didn’t do the little holes in the letters, the part that makes o’s and a’s and e’s. Because those are a pain in the butt. I leave them until the end and use the tiny scissors and re-iron the paper on the fabric so I can use it to help me cut.

Looking good…think the “us” needs the “s” cut out better, but the others are pretty good.

Of course, that’s only half the words. I’ll do the rest tonight…and get started on the bodies, which is where a good chunk of the pieces are…

So it was a productive and exhausting weekend. I’m still fighting this Not-Really-A-Cold thing that comes and goes and bugs me and then goes away. It’s just annoying. Grades are due next week, so I’m in all-out-grading mode (hence sitting in a coffee shop in Pasadena and grading shit). Hopefully I’ll get this whole thing ironed together in the next two or three nights, then move on to stitch down by the weekend. Hopefully pinbaste and sandwich over the weekend? That would be cool. I’d be ready to quilt next week. I’m still debating getting this other quilt done by April 6…which would actually have to be done by March 28 so it could be photographed before I leave on vacation. Ha! I might be nuts. I don’t even know if I can do that. We’ll see.

*Gnarls Barkley, Who Cares

Be Proud to Be Outta Your Mind and Outta Control*

Well so I thought I’d be too tired and sick last night after work and gaming to do anything artistic. Apparently my art brain totally did not agree. So after I did 24 points of damage on some Bloodthirster thing by blowing out its spleen (I was aiming slightly lower), I came home and sat around for a bit, drank some tea, took some meds before that, and tried to get my head around stupid gun people shit…seriously, I can’t even look at Facebook at the moment with all the stupid gun people shit…then my cohabitant went to bed and I came in here to basically just straighten up the studio and get all the relevant pieces in here so I could iron today. So I’d at least be ready.

I laid out the drawing and moved the ironing board and sorted the first 100 pieces…and then started to iron. And that went on for a while, until I realized it was after 1 AM and I should probably try that sleeping thing (which I really do suck at, so honestly, I might have been better staying up longer, except I am sick and I don’t want to make that worse).

Wait, so let’s go back. I embroider at gaming because I’m tired and it keeps me awake. Sad but true…Friday night socializing is not my strong point. I’m almost done with the road part and then I can start embellishing the rest of the June blocks. These are June, right? Why would you know? Yes, I’m behind. Plus this is from 2013. So I’m really really far behind.

Don’t judge.

So yeah, while I was trying to wake up after gaming, I set up the week’s pages for next week…this is the basic format I use. Top section for general to-do list. Middle section for art-related, although more the doing of art, rather than the business of art. Business of art ends up in the top section. Bottom section is for exercise logging and doesn’t get used nearly enough unfortunately.

The other stuff is a little random…to-do lists that I don’t want in the dailies, notes to myself, mostly about art stuff…I found someone else’s version of this and tweaked it slightly for what I needed. Then here’s last week’s after I got through (it was a busy week).

Sometimes I draw stuff on there too, when I feel like it. Some weeks are busier than others. It’s keeping me accountable for what needs to be done…better than online calendars, although I’m using those too…plus a white board calendar on the fridge. I’m pretty damn visual. It helps to check in with myself regularly. It’s even better when I get to use a lot of colors to do it.

Usually I set up the week on Sunday, but I’ll be in LA tomorrow, heading briefly to QuiltCon and then on to an opening downtown-ish. Then home. Long day really. So I have to get all my Sunday stuff done today…groceries, work email, stuff for class on Monday. So I did it last night. That’s probably what jumpstarted art brain.

But I also want to iron today…because I started last night and here’s an hour’s worth…

I didn’t finish all the earth bits, but I got a bunch done…planning on doing more today.

Girlchild finally found her phone charger and started communicating again. Apparently they had some sort of caravan transport on three boats to that thing out there? I think? Or maybe that’s coming back? Anyway, she balances way better than I do.

Not that it’s hard to do that. My balance sucks.

I sent her a puppy picture…because he’s tired of me right now. I’m no fun. I won’t play with or pet him nonstop…

And I’m the only one here today. Oh well. I have my work cut out for me (ha. Cut out.). I’m going to iron for a while and then do schoolwork. Woo hoo. The ironing…I just wanna do that until I’m done. I love this part of the quilt…getting to see it all come together. Yeah. Gonna do more of that.

*Eminem, The Real Slim Shady