Restless as the Wildest Way*

Here’s a blog post I wrote for California Fibers on the exhibit Time, which just opened at Blackboard Gallery at Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo, California. I have two pieces in the show. I was not there for the opening, but will be stopping by on my trip next week. Give Me Time…

And Holding It All In…

Are both in the exhibit. I’m looking forward to seeing it…it looks like a beautiful space. The show is up through May 9.

So I knew I had a bag of Wildflowers variegated thread, which has always been one of my favorites, starting when I was a crazy quilter (OK, I’m still a crazy quilter, but I meant a person who made crazy quilts)…I found them!

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This house has a lot of embroidery thread in it, just so you know. But now I have some different thread to use…I get tired of using the same ones over and over. I did the bullion rose under the tree branch, and then used up the rest of the thread in some stem stitching below the tree roots. I actually used two strands of thread, because I couldn’t finish all the bullions otherwise.

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Julie says it looks like a skull. She’s right. For now. Not on purpose.

Then I decided to blow off work completely (whoops…I will probably regret that later…) and start the fabric-picking part of this quilt. It has a top and bottom on the backing…a floor and wall, if you will. The other two bathtubs don’t. Not sure why this one does, but thought I would honor it with two different fabrics.

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I got the drawing hung up and started picking. Honestly, it was a pretty slow start.

That’s a plate of cheesecake laid out in fabric. A first for me.

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I’m really tired at the moment. Here’s the first 100 pieces laid out.

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Here’s the first 50 pieces cut out of fabric. No. I didn’t get very far.

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It took a really long time to decide what color to make the rug. I can’t explain that. It just happened. Greens are complicated. Interestingly, I think all the bathtubs have a green rug. I want a better bathtub…if I can ever afford to remodel the bathrooms here (they need it), a nice bathtub is a requirement. I miss baths.

Anyway, the way I number the pieces on the bathtub means I cut out everything that’s AROUND the bathtub first, and then I do the bathtub, then the water, then the human. I try to be methodical about things sometimes. The first bathtub I did, I think I was not that organized, and it made it a pain in the ass for picking fabrics. Anyway. More tonight. More Friday night, as I try to pack for this trip. Pack for potentially sopping wet and freezing temperatures while sleeping outside and then delightful and sunny while touring wineries. It’s not like I have a wide selection of clothes anyway. Layers!

Deep breaths for today. Spring Break is two days away and the kids know it! There is some dumbassery going on, as usual. And it starts with an early meeting for me…woo hoo!

*Crooked Still, Undone in Sorrow

And I Say It’s All Right*

So Kitten is sitting on my pile of things that need to be done by a certain time, and this is what SHE thinks…

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Yeah, I’m laughing too. Except in a psychotic stressed-out overwhelmed kind of hysterical way. It’s OK! I’m fine! No worries! Just don’t look too closely at me, or I might break. If she lies on the deadlines, I can’t possibly finish them. Not my fault!

I know at some point I will feel more organized about my trip and the current project and school and life in general (maybe not) and maybe even mellow out about traveling, but I’m not there yet. Last night, we organized camping stuff and went through and figured out which tent and which chairs and then couldn’t find my rubber mallet. Sigh. Seriously? I know it’s here somewhere. I need a Spring cleaning. I don’t have time for a Spring cleaning. I need a Spring cleaning of my brain. It’s fuzzy in there, a bit moldy, and possible spiderwebby. Not good. The mallet is not where I always keep it. And no one else lives here but those furry beasts. Dammit Kitten. Put the mallet back where you found it.

I’ve been told I can bring no grading with me. I want to bring some books, but can’t even focus long enough to figure out which ones. Oh well. I’ll get there. Wherever there is. I really need Spring Break. As always. Every year.

I finished the wings of the bird. What bird, you say? The weird purple and orange bird to the right of the tree. Can’t explain it.

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Then I got ready to sort Wonder Under. There’s only about 700 pieces, so 7 boxes. Not bad.

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All sorted. Less than an hour.

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If I were less tired and discombobulated I would have started moving into the studio with this, but I’ve been really tired lately. Plus I did a bunch of school stuff before I ever got to that point. So I didn’t. I went to bed early…after I spent a short time with these dorks…

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I was combing out all his stupid Pomeranian knots and fleas (which are horrible this year even WITH meds) and Midnight was cleaning his head. Nice cooperative moment.

So tonight? I need to finish writing that exhibit blogpost. I could not process all the photos last night AND write it…not and keep any level of sanity. I really should go to the gym tonight, but I’m freaking out about getting everything done before Saturday, so no. Not doing it. That’s sort of how this whole year has gone…no time for exercise. No time for anything but work work work. We have this science project we’re designing for when we get back from break, and it’s named after some wildlife refuge or something, but I keep calling it the Gorgonzola project. It’s not that. It’s something culturally appropriate and I just can’t remember that shit right now. It sounds like Gorgonzola though.

OK, though, but tonight, I really want to start ironing to fabric. I’m so not going to get it all done before I leave, but I need a chunk of it done. Really. Seriously. I can’t afford to not get a chunk of it done. Seriously, not counting the ironing and cutting stages, I have about 35 hours of work left on this quilt. That means I don’t leave the house much (well, that would be the case anyway I think). I certainly don’t get the yard weeded…then again, that would probably be true anyway. And I’ll still have to grade stuff. Ack. My eyeballs are popping out of my head. Seriously.

*The Beatles, Here Comes the Sun

The Lengths That I Will Go To*

Well odds are that I wouldn’t have finished cutting out all the Wonder Under on Sunday night, even if I hadn’t had to finish the girlchild’s financial aid all at the last minute. Because it took me over an hour last night. And yes, I should have gone to bed earlier…what’s new? It’s done…in a little over 4 hours. Not bad. AND I graded…and tried to write a post about a show I’m in that opened last weekend. Still working on that, because I need more photos from the people who went. Tonight hopefully.

Yesterday was a 2-hour staff meeting. I wish I could say it was full of useful information, but honestly, the first part was stuff I knew and was kind of rushed. They gave us activities but then didn’t talk about them or let us do them. It was weird. The second half, again, might have been useful if it were concrete and not in some dream world where you don’t need to learn math if you’re not going to use it. Huh. I have had a hard time with staff meetings and professional development this year. I’d like to be able to test out of the stuff I already know. I don’t have time to waste. I hate wasting time. It drives me nuts. Next week’s trip, the worst part is the whole day I lose just to getting up to the area where I wanna be. Long drive. Ugh. Anyway. Over the years, I’ve tried a variety of things to keep me from falling asleep in PD/staff meetings, and drawing has always been the number 1 favorite.

This was done in my Rocketbook, and then scanned. I even emailed it to the coworker sitting next to me. He wants to color it.

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It disappeared the left part of the tree root…I think it’s because it’s too close to the QR code. But it turns out pretty good, I think…blacker than the pen I’m actually using. Interesting. I wish the book itself were more sturdy, the covers. It wouldn’t hold up in my bag for a long period of time.

So then I speed graded for a few hours…there’s Kitten hiding behind the monitor.

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I finished one full assignment and the bits and pieces of another one. Six to go. I think. Banging them out. Don’t want a ton of stuff for over break.

Then I headed out for the couch…Simba wanted a belly rub. OK. I can do that.

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And then worked on this…yellow straight and fly stitches around the red flowers at the bottom, then filled the ‘o’ in Prosper with French knots and did some other flower stitches in that area to finish the thread off.

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And then I stayed up too late to finish trimming all of this.

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That’s a whole quilt on the right. Can’t you tell? Tonight, I’ll sort the pieces and clean up in here from the last quilt, and then hopefully start ironing. There’s no way I’ll finish ironing before I leave, but I can get a good start and maybe take the cutting part with me. I’ve done that before. It’s easy stuff to do in the car or sitting in a hotel room. Not that I expect to do much of the latter. We’ll see. Certainly, when I get back, I need to iron everything down (10 hours), stitch it down (5 hours), sandwich it together (1.5 hours), quilt it (12 hours), and bind it (6 hours) in like 7 days. So yeah. That’s a little crazy. Sure, it’ll be vacation, so I could actually pull it off, but I won’t get anything else done. Sigh. Crazy schedule this year.

*REM, Losing My Religion

Oh Please Stay*

Crazy weekend. Just absolutely buried in work and barely finished anything. Whole lot of wishful thinking. I had 8 assignments to grade. Now I have 7. OK, that’s an LOL moment. It’s not like I didn’t do anything. I now have new tires, I have the paper I need for a class assignment on Thursday, there’s enough cat food for the next few weeks, I made lunches for the week, and I have a room full of camping equipment…amusingly, for only 3 nights of camping, but with an injection of rain to the mix, so that makes life more complicated. I remember why I planned to leave on the first day of break, instead of giving myself a day to get acclimated and packed, but right now, it just seems like crazy.

Hopefully I’ll get more organized as the week goes on.

The weeds on my property are taking over the world, although this is a very nice picture because of the flowers, and you can’t really tell that all the greenery behind them is weed city.

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I have this goal of filling my two greenery trashcans with weeds every week, so I’ll be done in 2019 or so, but I can’t even manage that some weeks. I did do it yesterday though. Fought the stingy plants (I had gloves, but needed long sleeves and it was too hot for that). I’m unlikely to get another two trashcans filled before I leave. Oh well.

The boychild is hiking over HIS break…he sent me maps, and being his mom, yesterday I printed them out and tried to map out where he would be each night. Like I know what any of this looks like.

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It makes me feel better anyway.

Two nights of stitching on this…the orange that is in the center of the flowers at the top-ish right, then continues in straight stitches around the cretan stitch. Then the flowers in dark red on the right near the bottom. One unfinished…ran out of thread.

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Then I did all those damn bullion knots on Saturday night.

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So the one goal I absolutely wanted to reach over the weekend was cutting all the Wonder Under out. I was FaceTiming the girlchild last night and cutting stuff out when I thought, I wonder when the financial aid deadline is? And I’m not in charge of hers, and I can’t fill out MY part until her dad fills HIS part out, and he had just finished…I only knew because girlchild forwarded me the part she got and asked about it. I thought I had a while. Turns out I didn’t. Crap. So I dropped everything and came in here and finished my part. At about 1 AM. Yeah. Well. I didn’t even know he was done until Friday…so it’s not like I procrastinated a lot. We’ll see.

Hence the unfinishedness of the cutting out, dammit. Sigh.

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I have this week and the week after next basically to get this quilt done. Crikey. I know. Well. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I missed the opening of the new California Fibers’ show, Time, which opened at the Blackboard Gallery, at Studio Channel Islands. I’ll make it to the show next Friday…it was just too far to go this last weekend.

This is co-artist in the show Lynne Hodgman, closely inspecting my work Holding It All In during installation.

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And the cover picture from the Studio Channel Islands Facebook page…with my work, Linda Anderson’s quilt in the background, and Ashley Blalock’s crocheted piece on the left.

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It looks like an awesome space. I do have another piece in the show as well.

Anyway, now I’m late for school as well. Auspicious start to the week. Late to everything. Sigh. Two-hour staff meeting as well.

*STRFKR, Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second

Running Over the Same Old Ground*

It’s actually Thursday night right now. It won’t be when I finish this, but I’m trying really really hard to procrastinate myself through the last of the projects I have to grade. It’s killing me reading/watching them. But I have to do it. I just took a quick break to do stuff, and was skimming the first page or so of the book I’m supposed to be reading for the next book club meeting…the one I’m not even going to, because I’ll be camping in the rain and cold. I’m reading it anyway. And the cover looks like this…

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So I almost didn’t check it out, just because of that, but then I started reading. And I’m dying. If it continues like this, I’ll read all of them. Here’s a line: “After a geological epoch passed in which single-celled organisms evolved into talk show hosts, Mr. Coffee was still holding out on me.” Yeah. This wench can write.

It’s morning now. I totally forgot I wrote that last night, until it popped up on the screen. Oh yeah. I was trying to get through the grading. So the book is still pretty entertaining, but light. I guess that makes up for the one for May, which I’ve already read, which was pretty dark and heavy. I feel like all I read at the moment are book club books…ironically, because I hardly ever get to go to book club. It means I don’t have to make a decision about what to read next. There’s only 264 books in my to-read list on Goodreads. Hard to choose.

But the plus is that I finished grading THAT project. I now only have 8 things to grade. But we also managed to get the science budget done yesterday (two days late on our schedule)…which was a monster this year. Pro: We got a windfall, never happens. Con: We had to spend it quickly. On top of dealing with everything else. Note: We’re not the problem, but we have to manage those who are. It’s been a stressful few weeks. But we’ll have a significant stash of equipment and materials for next year (finally!) to teach with, which will be nice. It will probably never happen again, but for now, it looks good.

This is what grading has been looking like…with Kitten lurking behind the monitor.

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Which is significantly better than when she stands in front of it.

So I skipped Thursday on this…was so focused on finishing the tracing that I just didn’t do it. So I did two night’s worth last night, both in that bottom section. I did more green leaves under Prosper and around the blue squares…and then added the red flowers and lines.

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I’m debating taking it with me on break…I think I should, just so I don’t have to do 8 days’ worth when I get back. But it seems silly to waste packing space on something I’ll barely work on. Huh. Well. We’ll see.

Then I started cutting out Wonder Under…which went pretty damn fast. I did one yard in less than an hour…

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And it was the water one (well, there’s two water ones), so convoluted twisty bits. Only 2 1/2 yards to go. I can’t take it to gaming tonight though. So hopefully I will still be awake when I get home. I’d like to get another hour in tonight…at least. I really want to be ironing to fabric on Sunday. So I need to think about a backing too.

I have so much crap to get through this weekend…grading, the last bit on my taxes (the hard, time-consuming part), the girlchild’s financial aid, because her dad finally finished his part…I’m panicking. Plus this quilt. Yeah.

Unlike this beast. No panic there.

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Looks a little psychotic, but totally relaxed. I wish I were a dog. Especially today…on a Friday when the kids are already wiggy as hell, and we still have another week until Spring Break. Ugh. Today is not a low-maintenance day.

But it is a Friday.

*Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here

Don’t Know What It Means…*

Tired this morning. Puppy has been Mr. Barks-a-Lot the last two nights. Not sure what living creature is offending him now…sometimes when he’s barking out the window I think he must be able to see eddies in the wind that none of us can see. Or ghosts. Or he hears dogs barking five miles away and they are warning of impending tsunamis…now he’s got the big one barking too. For nothing, as far as I can see.

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Maybe he’d bark less if he didn’t have all day to sleep. I don’t have this luxury, unfortunately. It’s not all his fault…some neighbor was making noise before 6:30 as well. Sometimes I think I need a padded bedroom, against noise and light and all intrusions. Certainly I’m sure someone’s designed it better than mine. Some noise catcher that grabs unnecessary dog barks out of the air and turns them into something else.

Yesterday we started a new unit, the last one besides the sex ed unit we teach at the end of the year. I kinda went overboard on the cover page. And I still need to color it.

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Which should be less of a priority than grading probably (but is more fun).

Came home and ate and watched Walking Dead with my favorite couchmates…although I was not the lap of choice for once…dog nose being warmed by cat.

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They like each other.

OK, I added some pink to the blue squares at the bottom…straight stitches, lazy daisies, fly stitches.

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They look a little like vulvas. Seems appropriate. There’s too much blue and pink at the bottom…need to fix that.

Then I had a choice. Grade or trace? I really want to hit this deadline. Yes, I still have to grade. I just didn’t have it in me yesterday. I did enter a show, so it was already a late start. I don’t like grading after 9 PM. So I traced…for a long time. In the dark background, you can see puppy…waiting for me to sit with him.

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I got to piece 613, which is the neck. So all I had left was neck, head, and crown of fire (don’t ask), which was about 84 pieces. But it was 12:15 AM. And finishing would have been another hour. And that’s not responsible.

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Aargh. So I guess I’ll have to try and finish tonight…although I am going to see Neil Gaiman tonight.

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Definitely a worthwhile way to spend my time…but it’s hard to walk away from all the crap that needs doing. Workaholic. Yes. So grade if I have time, but definitely finish tracing. Then tomorrow is cutting…schedule is tight. But if I get the whole mess ironed down before we leave on vacation, I could take the cutting task with me. Maybe. I’m a little worried about this timeline, straight up.

*Nirvana, In Bloom

What You Gave to Me the Day I Wandered*

Spring Break must be close…I made my trip travel list last night…at least the first version of it. I’ll have to borrow some stuff off my dad, who has all the camping equipment in the world. I’ll need a good book or two to read. I think I’ve actually finished everything that was on my Right Now list…waiting on two books from the library, maybe three. It’s OK…I’m not leaving this weekend. I have NINE whole days of school left before I’m allowed to leave. And in that time, I have 17 thousand things to grade, my taxes to finish, a quilt to get significantly closer to done, and if I look too closely at the house and yard around me, I’ll persuade myself that I shouldn’t take time off.

Yeah. Well. I’m gonna need to take some time. I’m still grading the climate projects. It’s hurting less, because I’m almost done…although trying to watch the videos when Kitten decides she wants my attention and stands in front of the screen is a pain in the ass. I have 18 left. Well, I SHOULD have 18 left, but I’m betting some of those kids didn’t do the video, so that’s much faster to grade, although hard on them.

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That’s the hardest part of creating curriculum…seeing how much work you’re going to have to do before next year so you can get more of what you wanted out of them. I’m trying to be smart and take notes…maybe even start rewriting rubrics now. Maybe.

So I was sitting here writing, listening to the pool motor straining, thinking…what the hell? The water level is high enough. So something’s caught in the basket…go out there. Sure enough. Well that explains the skunk smell. Poor thing…I do like wildlife, even when it smells bad. I’ve pulled possums and gophers out of there before, but never a full-grown skunk. I always feel bad when that happens. Like I should have done something to protect them more. Sigh.

Um. Let’s see…oh yeah, I made boxes out of the triangles at the bottom and added a lazy daisy stitch, and then used up the rest of the thread in French knots, which I do a lot.

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While doing that, three of the four animals in the house came by to lie on me…you can’t see the black one, because I couldn’t get her in the picture as well. You should also be impressed by how my shirt (from school) matches the pajamas and socks I put on when I finally got home last night.

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I got up eventually (it was pretty late by then) and started tracing. I got into the water, which is always a pain in the ass to trace. Figuring out where stuff overlaps and drawing these wild pieces that are all loopy and swirly…can drive you a little bonkers.

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That’s what I get for drawing bathtubs full of water, right? I have not learned my lesson.

So I think I’m in the 400s…like 428 is next or something like that. So I have about 200 pieces to go…but the water ones take longer than normal pieces because they’re so complicated.

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I wanted to finish tracing water last night, just because it’s easier to keep in my head what is overlapping what if I do it all in one go…but then I looked at the clock and it was late. And then I couldn’t even go to sleep, so that sucked. My brain was ready to keep going. To the END! Yeah. Well. That’s the same brain that will get irritated by behavior today, so I have to manage it a bit.

My ex brought me a lemon…with the dog’s pills. She’s now on official arthritis meds, plus more anti-inflammatories, and higher doses of the joint meds she’s been on since she was little, plus some salmon oil. It’s a lot of stuff, but hopefully she’ll feel better.

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She’s obviously aging. Poor girl. I don’t know what to say about the lemon, except that I’m kind of impressed it kept growing, despite its obviously limiting circumstances. It smells very lemony.

So I don’t know if I’ll get through tracing all 200 pieces tonight…which is unfortunate, because I know I have stuff Wednesday night that will go late. And I want to get this thing to the next step. I wonder how hard and fast the next deadline actually is (I’ve been trying NOT to think that, but…it might need to slip a little). Yesterday was a lot of overwhelmedness…too many things to get started and done. A lot of those are still hanging over me today…but that’s kind of been this school year. You are overwhelmed and you will take it all in and breathe deep and then go hike somewhere to try to dispel the panic. Yeah. I could do with less of that. I’m feeling a bit like that lemon.

*The Proclaimers, I’m on My Way

But Forget It All, I Know I Will*

I spent a lot of time grading student assignments this weekend. I’d like to say I’m done, but I’m not. I think I have 23 to go…which sounds like a lot to the part of my brain that will have to watch all those videos. I’ll get through them, but I wanted to be done. I often want to be done with the work part so I can go on to the art part…a split in my life, when normal people plop down on the couch and watch some TV to wind down, I’m getting up to stand for the next two hours, tracing. Which is in fact what I did…eventually…

I did finish the other quilt; well, the binding anyway. I need to do some other stuff to it. I think. Photos will follow. It won’t be officially photographed until the end of April, with the other one, which doesn’t exist.

I’m reading this book that I’ll write about later…but I liked this quote in the frontmatter with regard to art…

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And that might have been what Marker referred to (haven’t seen the movie), but in the context of what I’m reading, it becomes much darker. I still like the quote though. More about my reading later…not today; got a parent meeting. I’m already behind and overwhelmed.

I drew this Saturday night while watching the band play…

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I had done a drawing back in January and had some false starts in the sketchbook, so I turned one of them into something.

Here’s another false start…

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We’ll see what I do with that.

I had to take a walk yesterday to clear my head after grading stuff. I was getting irritated. Getting outside and touring the neighborhood trashcans is always nice. (I actually do just look at plants and the sky…the dog is more interested in the trashcans.)

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Wildflowers abound.

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I skipped Saturday’s stitching…so I did two yesterday. I started a wacky bird to the right of the tree. It’s not done. And then I did the blue straight line triangle shapes on the bottom. I saw someone else stitch something like them, so I wanted to put them in there. So I did.

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Still not sure I’ll (a) make it all year on this and (b) have room to stitch all year on this and (c) be able to stitch on it during my trip over Spring Break. But that last bit is fixable and the first bit is no guilt and the middle bit is. Well. It just is.

I then continued to trace Wonder Under for the next bathtub…this will be the third one I actually make of the six or so bathtub drawings I’ve done.

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I got an hour and a half or so in last night…there’s only 630 pieces and I have 350 done.

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I’m hoping to be done Tuesday…then cutting them out…then hopefully ironing down to fabric by the weekend. We’ll see. The timing on this one is really tight.

I got this thing called a Rocketbook. You can draw in it with special pens (downside) and then there’s an app that will scan it and send it where you need it…like all the ones where I mark the rocket picture at the bottom, it will send them where I tell the app all the rockets go. So I can have one for drawings and one for school stuff and one for art notes and one for one art group I’m in, etc.

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The coolest part though is that when the book is full, I can microwave it and it will be blank again. So last night I tested it out with a really quick, simple drawing, just to see how it worked. The pens are OK…they’re erasable though, so that’s cool. Anyway…it’s just something techie that I thought was really cool and wanted to try out. Plus I have a staff meeting today and I’m not allowed to bring tech and this is kind of like tech in that I can scan the notes and mark the apple, and they’ll all go to my Google Drive for school, to the folder I tell it to send all my staff meeting notes. And that’s cool. Even though I’d rather just type them. No time.

OK, parent meeting (OMG, are we just realizing our kids are failing?) and school and at some point I get to make art. My daily goal…get all the other shit done (or done enough) so I can art.

*Squeeze, Tempted

So Motivate, Though It’s Hard to Let It Ride*

I’m taking a way-too-brief break from a day full of grading. I can’t say I’m having fun, but I’m trying to get it done. No promises honestly, because some of this is just a slog. I’m trying to sew the binding on the newest quilt while I listen to the videos…because some of them are a bit um long and maybe boring. But some are kids who never talk in class, and they’re really interesting because of just that. Certainly I’m also reflecting on how to redesign this project to get more of what I want for next year. That’s the hardest part…because I might not remember for next year, so I try to write notes on the calendar and/or revise now. Writing curriculum is a pain in the ass. I’ll be glad when I can just refine stuff and make it more awesome, rather than making it from scratch.

So this is my view today so far…

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Taking little breaks regularly (that’s what this is…a break from the grading) so I don’t go crazy. Maybe I’ll get the binding done too while I’m at it.

Last night, I was just grading until I got to 3 videos totaling 20 minutes from one kid. It was a giant NOPE moment. I gave up.

And I slept in this morning, mostly because there was barking in the night and it wasn’t mine. But it kept me up. And I was tired. You should always acknowledge tired and try to do something about it. Sigh. I try. I don’t know why the stretch from February’s 3-day weekends to Spring Break is so long and torturous, but it is. My patience worn thin. My workload has not abated all year. I’m just done. But I can’t be done. So there we are.

Two more weeks until Spring Break. Then the run through until testing…it will be rough, but it will get done.

I did more of the flowers on the left, filling in between, but running out of thread, so one flower is not done. In the middle. Oh well.

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As with everything else, I will figure it out.

My couchmates last night…the cat licking my arm and the puppy throwing himself into my lap.

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Hopefully the binding will get finished while the grading gets done. And then maybe tomorrow, I can continue tracing Wonder Under on Bathtub 4 (turns out that one is #4, even though I’ve done #2 and #5), although there’s some planning and cleanup that needs to happen first, of course. So much work. Ugh. Overwhelmed. Buried. I really want to go for a walk…but I can’t do that…maybe tomorrow.

I do have plans for tonight, although they’re not ideal. I will get out of the house with my sketchbook. So I have 5 more hours. Use them wisely. Stop wasting time. You will just pay for it later.

*The Roots, What You Want

Now That She’s Back in the Atmosphere*

Well. Tired. Yup. Need more sleep. I try. Well, not very hard. But I do try. There’s just a space between enough sleep and happy because I got to make art, and I lean towards the latter. I also know that should be “toward”, but it sounds weird. Regional vernacular. See even when I’m bloody exhausted, I can figure out grammar. And that’s important. Ha! It’s really not. But whatever.

So yesterday I had quilt class, for the first time since I think September. It’s not going away for a while…but eventually my teacher will move north to her incoming grandchild and I’ll have to find another group of like-minded women (this might be incredibly difficult) who meet locally (also difficult). Sigh. But not now. So that’s good.

I wanted to be handsewing the binding at said meeting, but that would have meant even less sleep the night before, so I just got everything ready. And it’s probably good that’s all I did, because when I started sewing last night, I realized I had been a math dumbass (not surprising after midnight…math is not my strong point and it was an improper fraction too) and had to recut the binding. But the question of what to do at the meeting was easy enough, because I do have another deadline looming (they always loom…they don’t ever just come in and sit down for coffee and biscuits, let alone come in and start doing the dishes)…so I started tracing the Wonder Under for the next quilt. I don’t usually overlap when I’m working, unless there’s a jump in line. I have a couple of quilt tops that aren’t stitched down, for example. And some others that aren’t what I would consider serious art quilts that are in stitchy limbo. But generally I get all the way through one before I start the next one. I think a one-day overlap on these two is not a huge deal though.

I got a little over an hour in and about 100 pieces traced. Hopefully more tonight, but we’ll see…because I had to grade last night and I will have to grade tonight and perhaps every night until June 15.

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It’s such a relief when I don’t have to grade. So rare too.

I started doing flowers on the left side…but I only did every other one. I’ll have to figure out how I’m going to keep handling that.

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Then into the room of fabricky goodness, where Kitten deposited ALL the fur on this quilt. Bindings on, sleeves on…

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Pinned down. Yup. Used an existing fabric, which luckily I had enough of to cut another set of binding strips that were 5/8″ wider. Sigh. I hate to waste fabric. See the cat hair though?

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I think she needs a bath. Not that a bath will solve the hair problem.

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So now it’s all ready for the handwork. Woo hoo! Finished in March. Leaving me 5 weeks for the next one, except I will be gone for one of those weeks. YIKES. OK. Deep breaths. I got this.

Now I know you just come here for puppy pix…and he’s not a puppy…just a little furry asshole.

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Who is often cute. And bitey.

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But yeah…lots of tummy rubs and scratches were needed last night…and this morning, I need to get my butt out of here. Like now. Yikes…

*Train, Drops of Jupiter