She Expected the World*

I think I’m about to get whacked by a calico cat. I’m never really sure when either cat is gonna either whack me or bite me. Sometimes I wish they could just use their words. “Pet me.” “Stop petting me.” “Pet me differently.” I guess that’s a huge part of their potential vocabulary…minus the swear words probably. I imagine cats swearing all the time…just based on their looks. As a teacher, I have those looks where kids don’t need to hear the words. Cats do too, if you’re paying attention. This one, though, back to the calico…she’s whacking me with her tail already. Obviously I’m doing everything wrong.

So last night, I was trying to make a simple fix, to sync my contacts on multiple devices, after a year plus of not having that. Boychild walked me through part of it and we found one bit that might be part of it, so then I tried to fix that one bit. Over an hour later, on chat with Microsoft, we get a partial fix. Not fixing the original problem, of course…just the first step toward being able to do that. So yeah, the first fix was entirely Microsoft’s fault…and it took a level 2 fix. OK. So now on to the original fix, which goes back to iOS. Sheesh. But after an hour, I couldn’t deal any more. So I’ve been on a cleaning fit (it’s OK…it’s been brief)…I was going to go deal with the pile of papers that’s been in the little living room (weird side room) since December. Obviously they are very important papers. But instead, I cleaned up my photo files from May 2015 and 2016, so I could stop looking at them while making May 2017’s files.

Giant sigh. Too behind on everything. But at least I have time to do that, I guess. We’ve mostly planned everything for the school year. We have a few things left to do…some ends to gather up. And at some point, we’ll have to start on next year. Revising and all. But not yet. It means I’m refusing to grade at night at the moment. That might change, but right now, I’m fighting the good fight.

So I didn’t start making dinner until 9 PM or so. I know. But I wasn’t in the mood. So after that, I did my one thread of stitching…still beating that hand about…

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And then I had cut a piece of paper the right size for the piece due at the end of the month, read the instructions for the theme etc, and realized I wasn’t sure if the orientation could be vertical or horizontal. So I emailed the organizer. Who didn’t answer immediately. Sigh. I wasn’t really expecting that…it’s OK.

So I decided to draw the Desert Daughter that I tried to do the other night. Because that one sucked. The original Earth Daughter was drawn on a plane returning from Boston after dropping my daughter off at college…I always wonder what people who sit next to me on the plane think…

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Here it is when I finally made it as a quilt, almost a year later…hey, they’re in line sometimes.

Art Quilts and Fiber Arts

The plus to that piece is that it’s technically no nudity, which means I can enter it in some shows I otherwise couldn’t enter. It’s also not huge…only 28″ wide (OK, that’s small for me). The original drawing was done in my travel sketchbook, which is about 9×12″. So I went back to that book for this one, pulling from desert imagery.

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The heart even has cactus spikes. I think this one turned out really well. Although the top right is bugging me. She’s not centered, which is OK by me, but…maybe that’s what my issue is with the right side. I’ll figure that out.

But I still don’t have a drawing for the one due May 29. Huh. Well. Waiting for an answer. I did spend a lot of time staring at a face and blank torso before I got to this…and then it just spilled out. Lost the fennec fox…the incredibly simplified ocotillo parts ended up in the lungs, the rattlesnake covered one breast and some very bulbous cactus the other. OK. So I made a list of daughters I could draw…or I could work on the climate woman…or or or. Isn’t it nice to have the mind space to have choices? Yes. Yes it is.

*Coldplay, Paradise

When All You Do Is See Me Through*

Drawing is a weird thing. Something it just flows right out of me, the line barely lifting to move to another part of the paper. It’s like being possessed by the pen and my brain, a direct connection from one to the other…I’m just the physical entity that holds it and directs it. I can hear art brain mulling about where or what next, but there’s no delay.

Then some nights, the first part is quick and then there’s a delay. I get the eyeballs in and then I stare at the paper. I stare at the holes, the openings, the empty bits, and my brain fills them in, directs me to put the pen there and draw that. Look that up, because you’re not exactly sure what it looks like. I always have to look up the Earth…to get the continents sorta right. They’re never REALLY right, but I try. Sometimes I don’t. But mostly I want it to be recognizable as our planet. I want the lion to look like a lion. Obviously I don’t care as much with flowers and birds and fish, because I make them up all the time. I think it’s because I’ve drawn them longer…so I can improvise easier. Maybe when I’m 90, I’ll have the continents down flat and lions will be everywhere. Or maybe I’ll have forgotten all of it, and you won’t be able to figure out WHAT I’m drawing. That might be interesting…if I can roll with it and it’s not frustrating.

So I currently have a whole barnful of images poking at the edges of my brain, wanting out, begging to make it on paper and be chosen to become fabric. That’s almost harder, because I can’t concentrate on just one thing. So I sat down last night to figure out one drawing that I know is coming up by the end of May, and that’s not that far away. So two things I know: (1) It’s small and (2) I don’t have much time. Well obviously I don’t always make good decisions about the “it’s small” thing, because I put a million pieces in a small quilt. And time. Sheesh.

I TRIED…but about halfway through the drawing…no, not even that far…I realized this was not the drawing for that piece. Because it had way too much detail. And it was all over the map. I had a theme I needed to work for, and I know I could make it work, but I can’t do all those tiny little pieces and get it done in time.

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But it’s OK, because I’m kinda reveling in the ability to just sit and draw. This one’s not done, but it’s going somewhere…interestingly, it’s not going where I need it to go for any of the upcoming deadlines I’m considering. I think. There’s one a ways out…

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Climate change is obviously on my mind. But so are gender issues. The world is such a troubling, disturbing place at the moment, at the same time it is absolutely wonderful and amazing (Thank you France for restoring my faith in humanity at the moment).

This drawing did not come easily…it had to be wrested out of me. Sometimes it’s because I routinely draw the human figure, so how are they not all the same? I have to be conscious of that. But mostly it was that staring into a blank space and trying to decide how to fill it. I don’t like blank space (obviously). So there’s more coming out of this drawing…somewhere.

I did also work on the creepy hand…

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Someday I’ll go back and fill in the black spaces that are still there. But not today.

Puppy slept a lot. He doesn’t like rain, plus he has an owie on his foot that he won’t let me see…

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And it was cold and rainy…not his favorite weather. I was OK with it once I was done running around and doing stuff. I cleaned out two drawers and two cupboards as part of my Spring Cleaning into Summer campaign. I’m not sure why I had half the stuff that was in there…but I did. Sure, I could have graded something instead, but eh. No. I couldn’t have. Balance.

*Tears for Fears, Pale Shelter

You Don’t See One Person Sitting Down*

Weekends. I try really hard to make them NOT all about running errands, tearing my hair out, planning lessons, and grading shit. I am a failure. I managed to drive all over San Diego County, run a number of errands, mostly in the rain, make it to dinner, watch two creepy-as-shit episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale while drawing, then run more errands in the rain, grade an assignment, input some grades, and spend an hour or so updating a worksheet with current contraception data. Seriously. That’s what my weekend looks like on a regular basis. I got up out of the computer chair twenty minutes earlier to figure out what I was doing for dinner. I had totally forgotten earlier in the day when I put dinner into the crockpot. WOW. OK. Need time off much? Yeah. Well. Stuff is stressful right now.

School is starting state testing, which is hard on teachers too. I bought a bunch of food and drink for my little monsters, so their brains will keep working on throughout the whole three hours. I’m trying to manage all the kid stuff for the summer, which is no small feat. Or even fête. It should be fête. But one is coming home for only two weeks and the other one is an unknown…home for at least 2 1/2 weeks, but not the same ones. Sigh. Life is about to topsy turvy itself, and that’s hard to watch…let alone experience. I finished a bunch of art stuff, but now my art brain is flailing like a goldfish out of water…and the left eye is twitching like a caffeinated wombat at the moment. I think I just need to sit and BE for a while, but it’s not in my nature.

Today would have been a good day to Walk It Out, but it’s been pouring all day. I did walk Friday night, though…3 miles with the pup. Tired his spazzy ass out. And mine, I guess.

I did one or two night’s worth on the hand. I just pick colors and fill in with chain and stem stitches.

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Then I tried to deal with some of the drawings that are stacking up in my head, but I was really really tired. This might go somewhere. Hard to say. It might be the bottom of a long, skinny quilt.

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So I tried from the top end. And I was so exhausted, I went to bed. Sometimes that’s what needs to happen. But this one can keep going…

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My Saturday night hand stitching…one thread. That’s it. This picture is in full daylight though…much brighter.

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I drew Saturday night too. Strangely, this did not go where I thought it would. But it’s a drawing.

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I think it’s something that needs redoing. I like the ocotillo and the snake. Not sure about the cactus. I was expecting something different when I started drawing. Amusing really, since I’m the one drawing. You’d think I would know what was going on, but I’ve often said that my drawings make themselves. It’s not the conscious part of my brain doing the work most of the time.

That one. She’s not coming home until July, and then only for a short time. I miss her dirty-dish-leaving ass.

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I do hear from her almost every day, so there’s that. And the other one might be here all summer. It’s OK. I realize half of college students move home after school because they can’t get a job. So I haven’t remodeled her room into a dye studio yet. YET. (Actually, the best water supply is from the boychild’s room, so that would be a better dye studio.) Nah. I do want them to head back to Southern California at some point…although we may all be underwater by then, so they should work on their boat skills.

OK, what I really need to do is work on an 18×24″ block for a show my art group is doing. I’ve just been blanking on it. So that’s my goal for the night I think. Just drawing. Maybe a little stitching too. And Spring cleaning…because.

*Fergie (with Q-Tip and GoonRock), A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)

You Know I’m Racing Round*

Well today feels weird. I finished two quilts last night (you should see the hole in my finger from the needle, because I stupidly forgot the thingies that protect it). And then I ironed and dehaired and rolled them up so I could deliver them to the photographer today. But what that means is that I’m done. The crazy ass deadline…I’m a week late. But that’s apparently OK. The solo show will be ironed out sometime early next week and I can stop worrying about it. Oh no, I won’t stop worrying in general. Apparently that’s in my code, and I am constantly talking myself out of it, and there will be new deadlines, but nothing like that, I think. Most of the rest I could walk away from if I needed to.

But a solo show…or even a show where you committed to provide work…you can’t fuck that up. Well. You shouldn’t. And it’s not like I fuck that stuff up…I’m pretty reliable, I think.

Now I need to make my coloring book…which will be for sale at Visions and elsewhere in July. And there’s some other deadlines coming up. Seriously. Stop laughing.

So I finished the sleeves on the bathtub quilt last night in a Barnes and Noble Starbucks with friends. Julie and I bought this eyeball uterus crochet pattern back in February from a cool crochet artist…I know her as Knot by Gran’ma. Anyway, Julie was working on one for me last night at our monthly stitching meeting…

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Houston, we have a uterus and one Fallopian tube. I’m supposed to be finding an appropriate iris thread in my stash tonight…I looked cursorily last night and couldn’t find one I liked in the obvious bag. I will need to go through the less obvious containers tonight. It’s a cute little beast.

Then I started on the other binding and sleeve…much easier to push the needle through this stuff than that dark blue batik from the other quilt. That shit was tightly woven.

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I always have couch companions…

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The roll ready to go this morning.

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You know, I feel a little weird having all that done. A little loosey goosey. Not sure what to do next. I’m looking forward to drawing tonight. There’s a couple of things that need to get out. I have a pile of drawings I can pull from if I wanted to start a new quilt tonight, and maybe that will happen later this weekend, but for now, I’m just sitting here. Done. Strangely done.

By the way, if you want to see my work in the next few months, here’s the down and dirty:

California Fibers: May 21, 12-2 opening, Front Porch Gallery in Carlsbad, show runs until July some time (more to follow).

Allied Craftsmen Material Obsessions: May 27, 6-9 opening (need to RSVP), Sparks Gallery in downtown San Diego, show runs until July 9. I won’t be at this opening unfortunately.

SAQA So Cal Untethered Thread: June 11, 1-3 opening, Poway Center for the Performing Arts in Poway, show runs until June 24.

FIG Don’t Shut Up: July 8 opening (details to follow), City College in downtown San Diego, show runs through July.

Nida Powers: July 15, 5-7 opening, Visions Art Museum in Liberty Station, San Diego, show runs until October 8.

Check me out…I’m gonna be all over San Diego County.

*Glass Animals, Hazey

In Touch with the Ground*

Binding stuff takes forever. But it’s nice to just sit and watch all those saved TV episodes for a while, trying to get caught up on shows you haven’t seen for the last three months, because you’ve been too busy. In one night. OK, maybe two nights, because I didn’t finish the binding last night. Because I’m trying to get two of them done before I go to the photographer tomorrow. Sheesh.

But when I first got home, I ended up finishing my book, which had some cool elephant stuff in it along with the human interest story. I seriously needed some down time. And I think I made dinner too. Yeah. Well somebody had to do it. Then finally on to the thread stuff.

I worked on the hand…two day’s worth…adding arteries. Or veins. Hard to say.

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Then I remembered that I only had two nights to get both bindings done, and thought I should try to do this one while I was “fresh” (as fresh as you can be after all day at school). The binding was already cut out.

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My original plan was to sew it on completely by machine, but either I didn’t cut it wide enough or I was sewing weird (highly possible), because it wouldn’t fold over far enough for me to do that. It’s OK…It’s not a full binding because of the sheet hanging off the bottom. But I’ll still need to get it sewn down. Tonight. Yeah.

Then I managed to sew all the binding on this quilt…still need to do the sleeves. That dark blue fabric is really tightly woven and a bitch to get a needle through. And that puppy…

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Oh so helpful. At one point got his ear fluff caught in one of the pins and started flipping out. Sigh. You don’t need to be ON me. (Yes I do)…

Later…I got these two AND one of the cats.

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Everyone gets more sleep than me. I’m gonna get all the binding stuff done tonight, iron them, dehair, and pack up for photographer. Yup. Done deal. Gotta decide what to do about the finish date on the quilt with the sheet…it WAS October or November of last year, but now I’ve put a binding on it. Sigh. Hate that crap.

*Duran Duran, Hungry Like the Wolf

You Don’t Move Slow*

Tired mode. Got up early yesterday for a parent meeting and they didn’t show. Neither of them. Sigh. So now I’m more tired than I really need to be this morning…it’s a cumulative thing. I think I’ve saved up (wait, how old is the boychild? 21?) 22 years of sleep deficit now (I didn’t sleep well while pregnant). But now that I’m older, it’s harder to sleep. Damn inefficient system, if you ask me. Then again, I apparently picked a job that doesn’t match my normal awake hours. Or maybe it’s the second job. Or is art the first job and it fits just fine…it’s the job with the paycheck that’s kicking my sleep-starved ass. Gonna have to go with that.

I need time and space to draw some time this week. Trying to balance the school duties with the art stuff. Getting there. Maybe. Mostly it’s about finishing stuff this year. At least this week. I came home and got right on the binding task…

Some quilts are easy to trim. You make one cut on each side and that’s pretty much it. Some quilts require more fussy crap, for whatever reason (perhaps the rotary cutter user is the problem…but since it’s always me, that means I have good days and bad days when it comes to cutting straight lines…which is true).

This was not easy to trim. It was a fussy beast.

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As you can see by the pile of tiny cuttings on the floor. A fraction of an inch here. A fraction of an inch there. Ugh.

Then I accidentally (even after reminding myself not to) sewed two of the binding strips together backwards. I didn’t realize this until I was sewing the binding on, either, so that was fun.

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Perhaps all that was proof of user exhaustion. I mean, I was up for an early invisible meeting, then taught all day, then helped run a parent info meeting on the sex ed program (no we’re not showing the kids porn. You idiots. Seriously?), and then went to tutorial. I guess it was OK to be tired after all that.

Simba still wants belly rubs, even when I’m tired.

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But I got the binding and sleeves on this quilt and started the hand sewing.

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I was going to sew the other ones on too, on the other quilt, but I figured with all those mistakes, it was better to wait until tonight to do that. Seriously. Listen to the tired body…with the tired mind.

Maybe by the time I finish all these bindings, I’ll be able to process some of the crazy political stuff that’s swirling around in my head into a drawing. Speaking of drawings, I am finally going to try and make a coloring book next month of my drawings. So that should be interesting. We’ll see.

*The xx, Crystalised

I Open My Mouth and It’s Something I Read*

Oh sweet hallelujah, lo I were awake much later than I should have been on a school night, ere the quilting is complete! I couldn’t stop. Art brain would not allow me to stop. She was on a roll. The machine behaved too…no thread breakage, no needle shenanigans, no weird stoppages. What the hell. (Don’t question it…just do a quiet hallelujah in your head…or all over the internet…whichever works best for you.)

First I graded stuff, and then I worked on this stupid worksheet for school, and then made dinner, and then finished the outlining of the creepy hand.

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I wasted no time after that…it was already 9:30 PM. So I started quilting. I had barely started the background quilting the night before. And I had never outlined the cheesecake, so I did that too.

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I had originally planned to switch threads from the uber-dark to a lighter one where the fabrics changed, but I forgot and started quilting down into the lighter blue. Instead of pulling it out, I just did a little transition there from the dark to light. I think I might be the only one who will notice it.

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This was halfway through, at about 11:30 PM. At this point, I wasn’t sure I was going to finish. Kitten did not care at all…except that I wouldn’t let her lie on it.

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Past 12:30. Done. 9 1/2 hours.

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Tonight I will trim it and put the binding on…and email the photographer? Well, I have to put a binding on the other one as well. So yeah. I still think I can get it done though. And then panic about what needs to be done next…I’m fairly sure something has to be done by 5/29. But it’s not big and doesn’t need to be quilted. But I also have no idea what I’m doing for it. Minor issue, right? I also want to do that drawing that’s been lurking in my head since Sunday morning. It’s niggling at me. Poke poke. Hey. Over here. Draw my ass.

*Kongos, Come with Me

Dream of Better Lives, the Kind Which Never Hate*

Quilting is taking longer than I thought it would. Well. It is so far. It might be that when I get to the end, I’ll think otherwise. I finished the outline quilting last night at around midnight…about 7 hours’ worth. Only the background is left, and from what I remember with the other two bathtubs, because the image takes up so much of the quilt space, the background doesn’t take long, so I’m hoping to finish tonight. (Let’s not think about progress report grades…they are close to done…sort of. Program glitch of sorts…waiting on a logical answer…instead of the annoying time-consuming one that I suspect will be the actual answer.)

See that black fabric under Kitten? It was there for maybe 5 minutes before she appeared out of one room and sat on it. Then looked offended when I pulled it out from under her. Cats. Sheesh.

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So this is my teabag squeezer thing (insert official name here). I cleaned it all up to take it camping with us and then couldn’t find it. Since April 7. Found it! In the bag where I put it, which traveled all the way to the redwoods and back and a few other places after.

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Aren’t brains amazing?

So I went shopping for binding fabric yesterday, and got sidetracked by flesh colors. There is a binding in there, I swear.

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Lots of random spots seem to be in fashion right now.

Then quilting when I got back from dinner at the parentals, where they helped me sort all my Monopoly pieces for that stupid grocery store game. Still haven’t won enough to pay next year’s college tuition unfortunately.

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Lots of water and body parts to outline…

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The needle behaved last night. Not sure what’s causing the issue, but explaining it to mom, she looked horrified. Like NO, it’s NOT supposed to do that. Well, I KNOW that…but can I sew anyway for now? Because I have two to finish, hopefully by the weekend.

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There we are. All the outlining done, and even started the background quilting in the bush to the right.

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She already has a name. I think. I might change my mind. You never know.

More hand stitching…see, I anchored those flippy bits too. I don’t know where I’m going next…

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Unfortunately, I have a 2-hour staff meeting this afternoon…suspect that might kill my brain. It’s because state testing starts next week. Ugh. Need to start lining up some copyediting jobs for the summer, locked in around possible jury duty. Need to figure out the next project. Need to get the house straightened up. Ha. Well that’s obviously not very high on the priority list, right? Fabric manipulation comes much higher.

As it should.

*Modern English, I Melt with You

Kick My Brains around the Floor*

I’m finishing up progress reports, dealing with the last-minute panicking kids who are desperately turning in assignments to bring grades up (um. That 5-point assignment that is 125 days late will not help you.). I’m hoping to find quilting time this afternoon…surely I am going to buy binding fabric no matter what, because I won’t have time any other day this week…the shop closes too early. What’s more important as I go into the school week? Binding fabric or groceries? Um. Well. Are you asking me that? Because I’m getting the binding fabric first. Yup.

I woke up this morning, barely, couldn’t open my eyes (noise before actual wanting-to-wake-up time), but as I’m struggling to go back to sleep or something, persuade my bladder it doesn’t need to be up, an entire drawing pops, fully formed, into my head. Just like that. I know some of the places it came from…a focus on climate change and the effects, plus walking around ArtWalk yesterday. But yeah. A full drawing. That I now have to DRAW. Because I can’t download directly from my brain. Yet.

I have a bunch of cards of artists I liked from ArtWalk, but no time today to post…and I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of most of them. So I have the pitstops and distractions…one stop at (damn, can’t remember the name, but it was cool) for a cooling peach sangria and a seat…yes, those are fluffy sheep on the ceiling.

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Then more walking in the heat…

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A good set of phrases to keep in mind…

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Then a ride to a gallery opening, which wasn’t open yet. Awesome…Border X Brewing in Barrio Logan…

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Plenty of art there as well.

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I have photos from the all-women show at La Bodega Gallery, which is open again (seemingly without the crazy crowds), but no time to post today. We came back and watched two episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is just as intense as you’d expect it would be, but definitely worth it (probably it inserted itself into my dreams as well; hence the drawing in the morning fuzzy brain)…and I did the hand on the right, except two stitches, I forgot the anchoring stitch, and I obviously didn’t finish the hand. I’m deciding how I’m gonna handle that. Not sure. Like the tree, it will take many days to finish perhaps.

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Today. Finish grades, do one day on this piece, quilt a lot, hopefully all of it (doubtful), find a binding, do the damn grocery shopping, get the mind and body ready for another full week of school…only 33 days left, and I’m skipping two of them and three of what’s left are minimum days for kids because of testing (this is not actually better, because we use up a shit-ton of energy managing kids during testing, and I’ve got a couple of uber-challenging sweethearts in there). And I gotta get that drawing out of my head and onto paper. Somewhere. Somewhen. Somehow.

*Queen/David Bowie, Under Pressure

It’s Never Quite as It Seems*

Leaping out of bed at 6 AM, grabbing the phone and finding the camera app. Not to go to work…simply to try to record what freaking animal travels past my bedroom window every morning, usually at 5:30, but apparently it sleeps in on Saturdays. Simba is barking wildly, like he needs to kill it. Then again, he barks at the wind, at phones ringing on television shows, and random shit that’s at least 5 miles away. So I’m not really paying attention to him. Did I catch it? No. It’s either raccoon or skunk…not sure why I care, except it’s constantly waking me up…not because of its stealthy movements through the leaves. I can sleep through that (usually)…but I can’t sleep through Mr. Barkypants. Some part of me thinks if I get a picture of it and show it to the pup that his tiny little brain will go, “Oh. That’s it. I don’t need to bark at that.” Um. OK. So when I write that out, I realize how crazy it sounds. That dog would just bark more.

Yesterday was Calli’s 8th birthday. She acts a lot older this year though…maybe that’s the growing arthritis. I don’t usually have her on Fridays, but I automatically went and picked her up, so whoops. I wanted to go on a walk, so I figured she probably did too (I was right). Even with the arthritis pain, she loves walks.

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It doesn’t matter how I try to organize and untangle leashes…the little one is a leash idiot.

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The plant growth this year is crazy…

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The last time we were here, it was almost underwater…

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This was exciting for both of them…that is a bunny. There were lots of bunnies, actually…

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And lots of wildflowers…

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And these weird giant spiky pod things…

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These flowers are here every year…there were actually fewer of them because they were inundated with the taller grasslike weeds.

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Unfortunately, Simba was badly designed. I constantly consider shaving his butt fur. It’s really impossible for him to poop without it getting stuck in his fur sometimes, which is lovely. Really lovely. He needed a flea bath anyway. The fleas this year have been awful…I feel like nothing is working…

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He doesn’t like water. At all.

Before we went on the walk, Calli went and rolled in the skunk-infused dirt again, so she reeked. So I bathed her with better-smelling stuff and her skin stuff, so she has to sit with it on for 10 minutes. Always fun.

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Yeah, I should remodel this bathroom. Remind me to put in a dog-washing station. Seriously. That pink bathtub has to go.

I finally caught up on three nights on this…almost a third of the way through? And I’m lagging. I filled in the eye on the left with three different colors. That’s it. Now I want to do a hand.

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I tired the dogs out at least. Tired myself out as well…was already physically and mentally exhausted from school.

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I finally managed enough energy to eat dinner and then started quilting. The machine was amazingly well-behaved last night…which is good.

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Kitten was not so helpful. There’s some competition apparently between the two cats for time on my bed, and Kitten is being nonconfrontational with the other cat but very needy in the studio. Pet pet pet. Nice kitty.

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It took a wine assist last night…too stressed to think straight. It’s been a long week. But I got a decent amount of quilting done.

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There’s a lot of things on the to-do list today. But I’m up and trying to be efficient. Gonna get through the first two quickly so I can get on with some quilting and artful enjoyment of the rest of the day. Artwalk is downtown and there’s another opening I want to see…plus The Handmaid’s Tale is on someone else’s Hulu. So that sounds like a good afternoon and evening. I’m hoping. I need some down time before I barrel through grades. Tomorrow I’m hoping to be done with quilting and to buy a binding. And deal with the other quilt. Yeah…that much closer to having a clue what will be in the solo show…probably that’s a good thing.

*The Cranberries, Dreams