Moving to the Next Step…

The next project is already moving…good thing, because I only have a short period of time if I’m going to get it done. Five and a half weeks, to be specific. It might not be possible. But so far, I’m doing OK. I finished cutting out Wonder Under last night, with just over 5 hours into that. Trash on the left, pieces on the right.

It was still early when I finished, so I sorted them…missing the two boxes on the right in this picture.

Apparently I have the brain power to sort pieces late at night but not the brain power to take a decent photo of them. They’re in boxes by 100s, so there are 10 boxes total. Well, that’s not true. Here’s box 11.

The Wonder Under is separating again. Sigh. It’s OK. As I iron, I go through this box and find the piece of fusible web that’s the same size as the paper piece. Or retrace. Whichever is easier. And that one piece is missing a number. I don’t usually do that…forget to write the number down. But it does happen.

I’ve been using WU for so many years and been through so many chemical compositions for this material…this last one has been the best. It releases well, but usually only when it’s supposed to. I do keep it “sealed” (not really sealed) in a bag when I’m not using it, which is supposed to help. Oh well. It makes my life a little more complicated, but it’s not a lot of pieces that released.

The next step is to pick fabrics…AND to quilt the baby quilt. I have a mostly free day on Saturday I think, but grades are due as well, so I need to deal with that. Too many things. I did not do any schoolwork last night (well, not true…I emailed myself some stuff and answered some email), because I spent all day helping kids call home about missing work. And that’s frustrating. Tiring. Even annoying. Plus watching kids do the interactive stuff on the website and then yell out, “I’m done!” Done with what? Playing around? Awesome. Go back and answer the questions and write the paragraph. What paragraph? The one I told you about in the beginning of class. But I already did the whole thing? No you didn’t. You did the playing. Now do the work.

SIGH. We have two parent meetings set up already, working on the third. A fourth is coming in with a possible meeting time today. I hate parent meetings…hate scheduling them…hate having them because 80% of the time, maybe more, nothing changes after the meeting. The kid continues whatever they were doing before and if I call the parent NOW, they get all irritated because Insert Reason Here. They’ve already come to the meeting. Why am I still bugging them?

I really need to walk away from the school stress…hence the art when I get home. The most I can…because I do have to grade things…but try to come home and be a real human instead of a teacher.

Kitten agrees. Apparently I finished that other traditional quilt so she and Midnight could fight over who lies on it every night…

The other thing I’m doing tonight is tossing some other small quilts I found up on Etsy.

Not that anything’s happening there, but it’s a place to stash the smaller things. They might sell eventually.

Ah yes, and then there’s the unnamed quilt…

It’s actually Bathtub 5, but it will need a real name…and it’s number 5 because I numbered the drawings, not the quilts. The first one is Bathtub 2. Confusing? Only to you. I know exactly what I’m doing…

She dyes her hair by the way, like the majority of women my age. The next one will have white hair. Here’s where the second owl came from…

I’m also really happy with the wine glass, although it was a heinous pain in the ass.

And those toes. Love them.

Oh look, there’s the glass. I love my photographer. It’s like he’s psychic.

And the sewing stuff. Because I sew in the bath. Don’t you? I would sew in the bath.

Maybe. Anyway. It needs a title in the next week. No, I’m not asking for help with that. It’s in my head and percolating. First quilt of 2016 though. Should redo all the pages so Recent Work is recent. Later. Not now. Now I have to go teach Punnett Squares. Then I get to move to the next step…art…not science.

I Am Installed…

OK. Deep breaths because the installation is done. It wasn’t even too painful. The pieces I really wanted to be in there are up…I had way too many quilts, but it was good, because it gave us choices. The boychild assisted in hanging stuff and was generally very helpful, even editing artist statements, which takes special skill.

And there’s Brandon, the gallery guy, helping as well. I’m not posting pictures of the full exhibit yet because I want you to come to the opening! My work plays well with James Watts’ sculptures…similar bright colors and even noses…

I brought an iron just in case…didn’t need it. You can see it in this artsy photo of a ladder.

We had hung most of the quilts by the time sculptures started arriving.

It was a little chaotic for a while until heads started being placed where they belonged.

We finished up the last wall. It’s a wide range of years for my work. A lot of the most recent stuff is traveling or can’t be shown because of rules for other shows or has to be shipped before this show closes, but I think it works well. The earliest piece is from 2003…the latest from 2014? I think?

What I notice is that I used to make much simpler quilts, but they still have presence in the room.

I was pretty emotional about this yesterday…I’m 48 years old and having my first 2-person show that I didn’t put together. I’ve been quilting for 25 years, making art quilts seriously for about 17 years. When I think about my students giving up on stuff after just 10 minutes or so, I guess I’m a little more persistent than that. I appreciate Prudence, the curator, for thinking of my work with James’…but it’s those weird little opportunities that make things happen. I don’t think I’m going to get a solo show somewhere standard, because so much of my work is challenging. Which is too bad. And no, I’m not giving up on that…I’m just waiting for the right opportunity I guess. My work’s out there. Someone needs to offer me the space.

Anyway, make me happy (if you can) and come to the opening. It’s Tuesday, February 2, from 5-7 PM at the Hyde Art Gallery, Grossmont College, San Diego, CA. It’s a college campus, so there’s no alcohol, but there are cookies! And lemonade! Or whatever they serve.

It is a relief to have that off my shoulders though. And then I came home and collapsed a little before I started putting the baby quilt together. She’s due in less than two weeks now. Had to put the dogs out to lay out the blocks and mess with them.

But I got them all together and borders on them.

Hopefully I can get it sandwiched this week when the dogs are gone and start quilting.

I also wanted to finish cutting these out.

This batch of Wonder Under is cranky…it’s separating from the backing. I thought they had solved that problem, but apparently not.

And the half page that was left took two hours. I guess the other page I did was all bigger pieces and these were tiny. I have a little more than half a page left…maybe an hour or two. Tonight? Perhaps. If I feel up to it.

I’m still fighting off this cold. It hasn’t quite taken hold, but it’s enough to slow me down a bit. Plus I’m tired from all the physical work and stress this weekend. Not very relaxing. I did finally get pictures of the newest quilt, but I’m going to hold off on posting them until the quilt names itself. Better be soon…it needs to be entered into a show.

Not a Diptych…

Long weekends should be relaxing. But they so rarely are. And now I’m sick. Oh well. Get through it. I spent a lot of time ironing yesterday and trying to organize for the show installation today. I’m a little wigged out at the moment, but it will all be better by the end of the day. Well, it will be installed anyway.

I even worked on the other quilt…basically blowing off grading completely yesterday. I did send out the team email, so I didn’t blow everything off.

My couchmate waiting for me…I will have to move the boxes of Wonder Under to sit next to her.

Then she snuggles with her head on my leg. Sweet. Slightly annoying. But she doesn’t usually complain if I move around. She’s not a good replacement for a human though. The next kid leaves Saturday…Calli has big shoes to fill.

I actually got more than half of it cut out in a really short period of time. I think that’s because so many of the pieces are the same color, so I lumped them together, and they only get cut out once at this stage. Once they’re ironed to fabric, it will take longer because I’ll have to cut them each separately.

So I might even (hopefully) finish cutting them out tonight. Although if we get done with the installation early enough and I don’t feel like shit (had to take a nap yesterday because I felt like shit), then I’m putting that damn baby quilt together. THEN cutting out Wonder Under. Then maybe torturing myself with grades.

Hopefully I can get to ironing Wonder Under to fabric tonight or tomorrow (shit, I don’t think I have a background…of course I have a background. I must have a background. Huh.). With 980 pieces, picking fabrics is at least 10 hours. So plan to be done Saturday, with trimming starting Sunday? I have a meeting Sunday. I can trim there. Grades are also due, but they’re only progress reports, so I don’t have to kill myself to get everything in. There’s one thing I want to finish and another I should do, but might not get to, so there we are.

I might get this quilt done in time. Just might.

So this morning, I rolled up all the quilts by semi-size (not really, but didn’t want them all in one roll). These are the medium-sized ones.

Up on the bookshelf are the small ones…with the large ones on the coffee table.

Finally installing. For this, by the way…

Yup. There it is. My first show that isn’t just one or two pieces with a bunch of other people. I’m sure there’s a better name than “two-person show”…like a diptych but not…a dipexhibit maybe. Except apparently the “p” belongs with the “tych”, so that’s diexhibit, which has the word “die” in it. Whatever. Taking my sore throat and my spacey head and my cranky boychild (I meant to remind him of the time last night, but I was a mopey mess) and my cold feet and going to hang a shitload of quilts. Wish me luck.

So Obviously a Dream…

I’m typing this while gulping down my first cup of tea for the day, the one that makes me legal to drive and interact with humans. I’m putting food in me as well, because it’s a day of moving and lifting, helping someone out. I’m tired, but I’m not exhausted any more. Last night I got a burst of energy and ironed about 5 quilts, cutting slats etc, and then bullied through the rest of the tracing of the Wonder Under…

Honestly, for a quilt with almost a thousand pieces, I didn’t use that much Wonder Under…two full sheets and about 2/3 of another. Of course, that’s because all the pieces are fucking tiny. It took a little over 9 hours to trace, with over 2 hours of it last night. I did exactly what I said I would…spent a little time vegging out, then packed up the girlchild’s Box of Forgotten Things (more like things that wouldn’t fit in her luggage) to ship to her, ironed some stuff, ordered pizza for dinner (had a coupon), and then traced until I was done. I even graded a few things last night, though it was nothing major.

I can start cutting all that Wonder Under apart on Sunday, once I have all the quilts ready to go (kind of a scary thought in itself). I don’t think the cutting will take long, because I clumped similar pieces together (all the fingernails on one hand, every other tooth…that kind of crazy thing). Less cutting until the very end, when I iron them down.

My parents’ dog Katie is back to visit. If by visit, I mean sort of stalk cats and roll over for a belly rub every time someone walks by. It’s actually really hard to get a good picture of her, because despite her roly poly affect, she’s a hyper little sausage beast. I call this “Katie with Red Toy.”

But this is really mostly what I get…

Spaz. I’m off now to make the second cup of tea for the day, the one that makes me not only legal, but somewhat competent, although arguably so. I dreamt last night of sitting on a couch in the evening, no pressure from work or kidlets or anything else, just drawing. Happily drawing. Uh huh. Oh yeah, and I was well-rested. So obviously a dream.

A Room with a View

This has been my view every night this week…

Although often there is a cat butt or dog face right beyond it. One night there was a fire in the fireplace. The TV fare has been a wide variety of sci fi and drama and action thriller, with an occasional foray into vampires or cooking shows (girlchild, not me. When she’s not here, I don’t watch cooking shows. Or Criminal Minds. Or any of those not-mean girl shows like Awkward and Faking It).

In the other room, where I’ve been ironing and dehairing and cutting wood dowels or slats all week, I’m watching zombies.

What’s interesting (and possibly stupid) about this quilt is that the pieces I’m tracing are all pretty small, so it hasn’t taken much Wonder Under so far. I’m only on my third piece, which is about 3 yards. And I haven’t even come close to filling the third piece yet.

Yesterday, I traced the central upper torso and the last arm (of 5…of course) on the left side, and then just started the last arm on the right. So I have that arm and a uterus (it’s floating in air…like they do) and then three heads.

I made it into the 700s yesterday, so there’s less than 300 pieces to go. I did a little tired flailing last night, so I didn’t get started on the tracing as early as I wanted. And that’s lame, because then I get into it and I’m all of a sudden not tired any more, and it’s really relaxing, who needs meditation, because I’m tracing all these pieces out and I can’t really focus on anything but that and the sound from the telly and it’s all very nice.

I don’t know if I can finish tonight. I hope I can, but I’m already really tired from the first week back to school, and I have to be up early tomorrow. So maybe not. I’m going to try. I’m going to come home from work and get some tea in me and allow for about 30 minutes of sitting down and vegging out, and then I’m going to pack up the box for the girlchild that I was going to ship today, but now she wants shampoo and I don’t have any (I did go shopping yesterday). So that’s going tomorrow.

Less than 300 pieces. Less than three hours. Order pizza. Boychild won’t mind. Almost 7 hours into the tracing. Don’t think about all the shit that’s getting turned in today at school. Of course, I haven’t spent almost three hours working on tracing this piece all week…too tired. But I think I’m far ahead enough in the ironing that maybe I can do less tonight. Because I still have Sunday.

I definitely have drive. You can’t argue that I don’t. And I should think more about what I have traveling in shows…I forget that stuff is out there and in the world. Two pieces in People in Portraits are traveling with AQS Quilt Week, starting in Phoenix, AZ, February 11. Earth Stories is at the San Jose Quilt Museum in San Jose, CA, through February 28. My Celebrating Silver quilt, Awakening the Crone, will be traveling with the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo, starting in Atlanta, GA, March 10 (I’m wondering how this will go down personally, but whatever). My Part-Time Oasis quilt is traveling; it was just in Oklahoma and will be going to the Home Machine Quilting & Sewing Show, in Salt Lake City, UT, starting May 5 (another one I wonder about). And I’ll have pieces in the Artist as Quiltmaker and Art Quilt Elements coming up in the spring. Not bad for something I only do in the middle of the night.

In fact, I have some shows I’d like to enter and so much of my newer work is out or spoken for that I’m having a hard time coming up with work to enter. Sad but true.

I’m glad I have the art. My counselor asked how I was doing with one kid back to school already and the other one leaving in a week, and the answer is I’m sad. I mean, I don’t have to clean off the counter as much, but the house is a happier place with the noise of other people, especially my kids, and that’s a hard thing to lose. I know it’s what supposed to happen and I want them to grow up and move out and have lives, but it’s still hard on my end.

Girlchild at school…in the snow…

OK. Got to go to work and teach kids how to argue properly. About science. They already argue about other stuff all the time.

Just Keep Doing

The routine. Ugh. What did you do today? I got up, ate, went to school and taught all day, dealt with crazy stuff after school, came home, vegged out for a bit, cooked, then ironed and dehaired a bunch of quilts, and then traced some Wonder Under. Attempted interrupted sleep. Did it all over again. But then again…it’s probably that routine that makes all those quilts. Because it’s already in my head…what I’m supposed to do. Get up. Make dinner. Wash dishes so you have time and energy to make art. Do it earlier. Don’t start at 11 (although at some point, I have no problems doing that…not on the week school starts back up). Start early. Make it work. Blow off all that grading. You did enough work at school today. What is your life about? Being a teacher (a little) or being an artist (a lot). Yeah.

A frustrating hour with a parent issue and a bunch of kids who were dragged to detention by admin didn’t help. I’m about to give up on that. I’m about to give up on a lot of it. Usually we wait until April…but Spring Break comes early this year…and the lack of follow-through on the kids and the parents is just wearing me thin. Especially the little stupid things. There’s an answer key on a disk I have at home. I want to put the answer key on my school Google Drive, so I emailed it to myself. The school email rejected it because of the “type of file it is.” You mean a PDF from a school publisher? Because that’s what it is. And I emailed it to myself. Fuck me. So the parent that wanted me to make 14 phone calls yesterday in the very short time I have during the day that isn’t eaten up by everything else…yeah. Same deal.

This is why the art. So much of it.

I had one pile on the left of stuff that was ironed and had slats or dowels, but then it was getting too heavy. It’s supported by a large flattened cardboard box on two chairs and a computer desk. On the right is now the larger quilts, with a couch and a coffee table and a cardboard box full of books. Trying to keep cats off…

And dogs for that matter…

Is not easy. But it’s worked so far. I have about 18 done…and I’m not really sure how many I need, and I’m still culling. I pulled one yesterday, and there’s one in this pile that isn’t going as well. In the first pull, I just grabbed anything that might work.

These are the ones that are still in need of ironing and slats/dowels. I don’t know how many are in there, actually. I just aim to iron about 5 a night. Some have more cat hair on them than others…if there were safely rolled up most of the time (which probably meant they weren’t going to shows due to age or just whatever), then they were pretty clean. It’s the ones that didn’t get put away after they came home that are the biggest hairy mess.

But there’s progress. And that’s good. And I’ll feel a sense of relief when it’s done, that’s for sure.

I did trace for over an hour and a half, and was way more efficient than I have been lately.

Believe it or not, less tired last night. Not sure why. But I’m in the low 600s now with about 5 1/2 hours in. Only about 400 to go, so if I can do 200 each night, I’m on track. I haven’t scheduled out beyond that. That might be an issue. Cutting out Wonder Under doesn’t take much time…ironing will be another 10+ hours. Cutting out those takes a little longer than Wonder Under. Then ironing. Yeah. I can’t see that far out. I have a bunch of stuff going on this weekend, a baby quilt to finish, grades due…all in the next 10 days. Then I can think more clearly. Just keep doing is what I say. I can handle that part. Last night I did well.

But I Like It…

It’s amazing how exhausting teaching is. You forget about standing and walking all day. And not being able to pee when you need to. And how your voice gets used so much more than at home. Plus I’m not sleeping well. Something keeps waking me up…besides my alarm clock. The heating goes on when the house is below 54 degrees…and it has been a lot so far this winter, as my gas bill can attest. The noise from the heater wakes me up sometimes. Ugh. Yes, I know it’s colder elsewhere…girlchild got snow! Now does she send me pictures of snow? No she does not. At least she texts.

Boychild is stuck with his boring, overworked parents (well one is overworked because of soccer, and that’s not me). And the animals. It’s probably quite nice here without all the people…I should know. I had that last night. Put a fire in the fireplace because I knew I’d be tracing stuff on Wonder Under and that room is cold at night when it’s cold outside…the thermostat is on the other side of the house, the warm side.

Anyway, before I traced, I got a few more quilts ironed and slatted. It’s looking like I’m bringing way too many, but I will probably cull again before Monday. I just want them ready. Then I can choose.

I only traced for a little over an hour yesterday…about 20 minutes in the morning before school (I never do that) and then late at night. I went to bed somewhat early for me (before midnight) because I was exhausted…but then something woke me up before 5 and I couldn’t go back to sleep. So I’m feeling groggy. Better than yesterday when I was groggy AND sad that the girlchild had just left. Perimenopausal hormonal woman with not enough sleep AND sadness. Not a good combination.

So yeah. I didn’t get much done. In the morning, I had a cat butt to contend with…

And past the cat, the dog snores on.

I know, Midnight. She’s a lazy dog. She tried to leave with me yesterday morning, because she’s used to going to my ex’s house in the morning because she’s been breaking out of my yard, but the boychild was here. So I left her. And her confusion.

At night, I had both cats in there with me, but curled up on quilts (not art quilts. Couch quilts). They like the fire in the fireplace too.

This is not a fast quilt to trace. It has little pieces. It has 10 hands in it. Hands are complicated. They have wrinkles and lines and fingernails. It’s not a small number of pieces. I’m figuring about 28 pieces a hand. At least. And then there are almost 1000 pieces in this quilt, so that’s at least 10 hours of tracing no matter what. I’m on piece 363. Only 600+ pieces to go. Actually. That sounds better. That’s about 6-7 hours. Wait. Six sounds better. I could do that in three nights…couldn’t I? If I don’t do anything else.

Sigh. That’s the problem. I have other stuff to do. Add the exhaustion piece when I get home, and it’s gonna be a slog. But I can do it. I think. Sigh.

I wonder sometimes why the art drive is so strong in me. I went to school with people, knew other people who were artists in school, and now they don’t do anything. They don’t draw or paint even for relaxation. It’s just gone. I can’t do that. It’s as strong as that maternal instinct. It’s right there, whispering in my ear all the time, getting me off the couch, standing for another 2 or 3 hours after standing all day at school. Sitting down at a sewing machine for hours on vacation. It’s crazy. It never stops, never lets up, never leaves me alone.

But I like it.

But Yeah. No.

Well. So the girlchild left this morning for college. The boychild is stuck here until…well…until National Pie Day. I think he must be bored, because when I jokingly asked him if he’d organize all my to-be-filed papers, he jumped at it. Excited. Weird. I never feel that way. And he was FAST. I helped a little…but here…

All organized by company or topic. Then I went through and filed most of it. I hate doing this. But I needed to find the roof receipt to deal with the leak. Ironically, it was on top almost. Don’t know why. It’s from 2010. I file sporadically. Sometimes I start at the bottom of the pile and sometimes at the top, so you never know what you’ll find in there.

So that ate up part of my evening. A significant part. That and fixing the girlchild’s pants so she could wear them for a few more months, and prepping a lesson for school, and putting away all the wrapping paper crap, and dealing with all the boxes that have been accumulating, and installing cable boxes, and cleaning out cupboards. Some of it was stuff that had to be done sooner rather than later, and then a bunch of it was just procrastination, because school made me tired and braindead.

It was almost 10 when we finished the filing. So then I didn’t have the energy to trace stuff, which is unfortunate, because although I did a bunch Sunday, I probably need to do that EVERY night to keep up. I did not grade though. But I did work on lessons. Because I needed to. Still need to.

I did start ironing and dehairing quilts though. Now I have three piles going…this is the pile that is ironed and clean and has a dowel or a slat…

It’s not a very big pile. I just started. Don’t judge.

The pile on the couch is stuff that has dowels but is not ironed. Eventually the ironed pile will go there, because it’s better supported and it’s easier to keep the cats off of it. But I need to shift some of it into the ironed pile first.

This is the scariest pile…those that are not ironed or dehaired and don’t have hardware yet. Or only have half their hardware. So that’s an issue.

Again, if I do about 5 or 6 a night, I think I’m OK. I will probably need to go back to Home Depot for more wood though. I forgot a couple. Oh well.

But really, if I want to get this new quilt done in time for its deadline, I’m going to need to finish tracing Wonder Under this week and start cutting it out on the weekend. I was up early today to see the girlchild off to college, so I’m ahead timewise by about 20 minutes. I’m just going to go work on it now. I could go to school early and grade stuff. But yeah. No.

Back to the Grind…

You know, the one I never left, because I graded almost every day over break?

I’m up. I’m semi-ready (not mentally, but at least in all the other ways) for school. It was not an easy wake-up call…the dog apparently needed to pee in the dark. I got up and let her out and stood there, eyes closed, leaning up against the back door, relishing the moment when I could climb back into a warm bed and continue that sleeping thing. By the time I got back to the room, the alarm was going off. Not quite dark then. Wake up time. Ugh. It’s not like I did a good job sleeping in over break anyway, but it’s nice to not HAVE to wake up before your time. I meant to go to bed before midnight, but I was tracing stuff and finally made myself stop and then was looking at something online and saw the news about David Bowie…and since you can’t trust the internet, I had to go searching for reliable sources. Sad but true. An amazing musician dead too early.

So yeah, I started tracing Wonder Under for the new quilt yesterday. I did do some prep for school, even went into the classroom, if only to realize all the stuff my custodial staff disappeared from my room, even though I drew a map of the room and counted chairs for them and all that crap. Sigh. Oh well. Who needs a teacher’s chair? Or a trashcan? It will be fine. I made a promise to myself that after the packet that’s due Friday, and my threat to call any parent whose child does not return it or who fails it (no, you may not write IDK for every answer) in order to set up a parent meeting, after that, I’m done. Any kid that comes to me for help or whose parent contacts me with a reasonable request to help (there have been some unreasonable ones), I am there for them. But I’m not chasing down all these failing kids any more. I can’t do this for another 6 months without going nuts. This group of kids is just not getting it. I’m frustrated as hell. And I can’t be. I’m putting it back on them and their parental units. Someone needs to help me do this job.

So balance it is. Art it is. I did three hours of tracing yesterday.

I didn’t get a ton done…only in the mid 200s…but it’s a start. I also need to start on the quilts…I think if I do 5 or 6 a night…iron them, dehair them, make sure they have slats or dowels with eyebolts, then roll them up…I think I’ll be done by Monday. So that’s my goal tonight is to start that as well. I’m not grading at home this week. Not gonna do it. Nope. You can’t make me. I finished all but three assignments, and one of those is half done. I did OK. Not great. Just OK. And there are more Fs now than there were before break. Also sad but true. Makes it all feel kind of pointless…because these assignments were due AFTER I counseled all those failing kids.

Girlchild leaves tomorrow. This sucks. She has both cats here, although I think right after this, she was moving her toes around and Kitten attacked. Screaming ensued and now Kitten won’t come back out on the couch.

Later she replaced the cat with a dog. A very tired dog. We’re not sure WHY she was so tired, but now she’s on the floor in my office, so apparently she still hasn’t had enough sleep.

I did drop my other quilt with the photographer, and he asked about why owls? Owls have shown up on the last few quilts I guess. Or have they? Not sure. Owls are wisdom. But they’re also protective. I’ve always put birds in. The wings, the ability to fly…all fascinating things. I’m not sure the new one has a bird…I know I thought about it…and a dog…and another cat, because there is one on the rug lying in front of the figure.

I’m supposed to provide 1-2 paragraphs about my work for the upcoming show. Thing is, I had to pull work from way back, which is cool, because some pieces have never been in a show…and they’re good enough. I just never found a show willing to take them. They never fit with the others. Hey there’s something I understand. But trying to encapsulate 10 years of art quilts in two paragraphs of explanation is difficult.

OK. Must go to work. Back to the grind. First day…no, the first WEEK is always survival. National Pie Day is coming…there’s something to look forward to. Seriously. January 23…who’s with me? Pie. Yes, my brain’s all over the map. Stay with me here. Some sanity might return.

Mt Woodson: The Fungal Trail

So no art was made yesterday. It happens. About one day every two weeks, I do nothing artistic. No Thing. Yup. Used to be, I’d go weeks without touching art stuff, but I don’t function that way any more. Yesterday I worked and I hung out with friends and I hiked with my kids. That’s not a bad day. If it were just work and nothing else, I’d be upset.

So my vacation is essentially over. I didn’t grade everything. In fact, I need to get one batch of science journals done before Monday no matter what, and I really should finish that assignment that’s kicking my ass. But otherwise, I did pretty well. That said, I am not well-rested and relaxed. It’s been a stressful break…too much to do, too much on my plate, too many things to worry about. But that’s just the way it is sometimes. There are still 8 things on the post-it, but I can’t do anything about many of them. I’m in wait mode. Or I need materials.

I also made some progress on the Grossmont show prep…figured out what quilts needed dowels or slats, made a list…heading over to Home Debit later today. Then I’ll need to start the long process of ironing and dehairing each quilt. Girlchild leaves on Tuesday. Maybe she’ll finish washing her dishes and putting them in the dishwasher by then, but it seems unlikely. I’ve asked three or four times now. So yeah. I love her. I really do. Boychild is stuck here for another two weeks…he’s looking forward to having access to the car and going on longer hikes than we do. Whatever.

So speaking of hikes, I’d never done Mt. Woodson…not sure why, except everyone seemed to say it was hard. And I won’t say parts of it weren’t difficult, because I’m not in good shape at the moment, but I did it. And I was a little nervous about it, but that’s how I get over that. I tell the kids we’re doing it and then we do it and I know I can do it, and that’s the end of it. Easy.

I also wanted to see the infamous Potato Chip Rock after seeing it posted on a million hiking pages. We started on the service road off the 67…one of many places to start this hike (we debated all of them).

The road was relatively well-maintained. There’s Woodson in the background.

The problem with roads is that cars drive them, and cars don’t always need switchbacks. So it was uphill. A lot of uphill. A 1200′ gain in 2 miles, apparently. Somewhat painful for the old lady. But a beautiful day…

Not too hot. A little chilly.

And beautiful views for miles.

The mountain has boulders all over it, plus lots of instances of nature having its way with big rocks.

Roots traveling all the way down…where there are dirt and water, the trees will find a way.

Lots of butt rocks.

Oh yeah. That’s a butt.

A view of the valley to the east…nice to see blue skies after four days of rain.

And way down there, the road where the car is parked.

More views, this to the northeast.

Interesting rock formations…

And an antenna farm at the top…

Boychild had a doggie friend for a while (his owners were behind us, then in front of us, then behind us).

There were a reasonable number of people going up this route. It was a weekday, but not all of us were back to work.

I’m actually fascinated by towers.

All the weird shapes and protrusions…

Then we headed down the other side, towards the west.

To Potato Chip Rock. It’s been there for years and everyone (except us) gets their picture on it. In fact, one of my teacher friends was there yesterday and had her picture taken with her dog on it. Me and the kids? We agreed there was no way in fucking hell we were standing on that. Because it would break.

There was a line for it…probably the shortest one ever (only 10 or 15 people). But still. Not doing it.

We headed out the ridge towards Poway. There’s another entrance at Lake Poway.

There’s the view to the south, with that tall peak near the middle being Iron Mountain, the one we hiked right before Christmas.

Standing on rocks…

And then we went northeast on the Old Fry-Koegel trail, where we delightfully saw no one the whole way back. We did nickname this section The Fungal Trail though, because of all the fungus we saw. Though this is moss. A plant. In case you didn’t know that.

But damn, that’s some fungus.

There were many yellow and white and brown versions…

Looking back up at Mt. Woodson from the north side.

This trail was nice. Not too up and down, although probably would seem like a lot of up if we went up that way. Can’t decide which would be worse.

More fun fungal things…

And cracked rocks…

Too early in the season for true spring flowers…

Lots of shade and a true trail…not a road. The mud wasn’t too bad, considering the amount of water that fell this week.

Another clump o’ fungi…

I’m not even showing you all of them.

This tree was burned up the middle, but still very much alive.

Signs were helpful. We had a map and a compass and a hiking app, but didn’t really need them for directions.

The fires a few years back definitely left their mark. And there were a few tree parts down over the trail.

We walked through this beautiful oak grove…

Gorgeous trees…and poison oak.

Just under 6 miles with 1200′ of gain. It took us just under 2 1/2 hours. Pretty good for being out of shape. And now I know I can do it. I’d like to try up Fry-Koegel and maybe the Lake Poway version as well. Next time.

I had found some smaller quilts when I was pulling stuff for the Grossmont show. I did the journal quilt thing back in 2005 or so. Got some of them into the book. Not sure where all of them are, but here’s a few things that will probably go up on Etsy in the next few days.

Maybe. And maybe I’ll get ready for school too. And start working on the next quilt, before days have gone by. Aack. Too much to do. Always. Ugh. It’s true I hate being bored, but there’s a fine line between not bored and overwhelmed. This does seem to be my existence. Oh if only I were a normal person who didn’t come home from work every day and try to figure out how to make more art. Just sitting and relaxing does not seem to be in my toolbox. And that’s probably OK.