Hello from Temecula still…it’s not far from home, but it’s far enough. I wished yesterday for my ironing board, but survived without it. I forgot Q-tips, but someone had left some. I might leave the center today to buy some stuff…or I might not. I’m feeling like town would be a shock to my system. So do I really need the stuff on my list? Probably nots.
Things I’m realizing so far: I hate rethreading my machine. It’s not hard. I just don’t like to do it. On this thread painting, I rethreaded it at least 25 times. No 35. Too many (for me).
She needs a base to live on…not sure what that looks like, but I’ll figure it out. Maybe when I get back.
I made about 14 dye paste colors, then painted one Monday night…
I think a lot of the orange will wash out, but we’ll see. I will be washing that one out after writing this and watching the SAQA Textile Talk about art communities. I will be washing Tuesday morning’s piece too…
Dye is nuts because it has to stay damp for 24 hours and then you still don’t know what it’ll look like. I’m embracing that. (Update: it’s taken over two hours to try to get this post to publish even as a draft…the iPad is old and apparently couldn’t handle it any more…so I’ve washed both out…I’ll post pics of those once they’re dry. I’ve also spent the last two hours listening to sirens going by; there’s a fire about 10 miles east of us that ballooned up to 200 acres. It’s moving away from us, but I did walk up to see the smoke–I’m down behind a hill–and was distracted by the Watch Duty app and evacuation warnings. None here…)
I did a black outline piece Tuesday evening, but the wind kept popping up and I didn’t want it to dry, so I didn’t even take a picture of it.
Finding places to store these is getting problematic as they get bigger. Now I’m just stacking them under that table, but the oldest ones are on the bottom…which is only an issue if I’m being systematic about washing them out. I want to see what they’re gonna look like. Am I wasting time on these? No because it was something I wanted to try.
Trying to beat the wind, I got up a little early this morning. I went to bed early but then had a blood sugar issue and didn’t get back to sleep until late. I might need a nap later. This one has a lot of color, and I used the dye bottles to draw.
I can’t say it’s easy to do and the dye paste might be a little runny, but I wanted to try.
This one I started because the wind hadn’t picked up yet, so I decided to try a small one with brushes instead of the bottles. The first one I did was all brushes too.
The dye paste mix is apparently good through Friday, so hoping for two or three more a day.
I also pieced a background for a more free form piece I’ll be working on today…I think.
I have a limited amount of non white fabric (I have a shit ton of that)…wait, not true. I have a lot of crazy-quilt-type fabric with me, but wanted a cotton base to build on.
This is where I wanted an ironing board… but I figured it out. I have a small pad, but it was hard to get this done. It’s still not flat but there’s gonna be stuff on top, so it won’t matter. I’m very cavalier about flatness. A lot of it quilts out, thank goodness, because I am not a master piecer.
There was a sunset meet and greet, although only two of us showed up. We had a good conversation though.
It’s really hazy up here, apparently still from wildfire. Little ones keep popping up, but nothing I can see from here, thankfully. I have my phone on in case my biopsy results come in…pretty sure my doc is on vacation unfortunately. I may call if I haven’t heard by tomorrow. Today is 5 business days. Stressful. So the phone keeps chiming in with fire notifications instead. I did not realize the original arts community up here burned back in 2004…so this is the rebuild. So it’s a good idea to keep the phone on.
In the evening, I like to sit and cut things out or stitch. I finished all the Wonder Under on Monday night…
7 1/2 hours. It’ll have to wait until I get home to get sorted and ironed to fabric.
Then last night, I pulled out the embroidery threads and that black and white improv quilt I finished last week and started working on it.
I don’t really have a plan, which is fine. I’m going to be here for a while (here being handstitching on this piece).
Ok, some random things…I brought way too many clothes for someone who was gonna spend 50% of their time in one set of barely acceptable dyeing clothes.
On Monday night, a huge spider (ok my Australian readers will laugh at my idea of huge, but a lot of ours are poisonous too, so bear with me) ran across the floor into the pile of stuff I brought and I got up and halfheartedly looked for it, but figured it would just stay out there. Until I went to get ready for bed, and faithful readers, either there are TWO of them or that fucker followed me into the damn bathroom. Big and stalky. Nope uh uh. Got a shoe and waited for it to get out of a corner and whacked it 5 times before it succumbed. Flushed its body but there were three legs I couldn’t deal with…too creeped out, so I left them. Next morning, two legs were gone. This place has ants….not horrendous but enough that you don’t leave your dishes out, and those annoying bastards had taken the two legs for me. By this morning, they took the last one. I feel more friendly toward the ants now. Also there better not be another giant spider in the house. I killed a big red ant and a smaller spider, and then there was this guy…
I called it “Sir” about 10 times before persuading it to leap from the door.
I was going to go run errands, but none of them are desperate. Fire makes me anxious. Plus I haven’t gotten much done (besides dye painting two things, washing out two others, watching an art zoom, and trying to write this beast…way easier on a computer than the iPad, for sure. I need a new one. It’s ancient.) and I feel sort of reluctant to go anywhere. I’d have to put a bra on probably. And fight all those fire engines to get out (not really, but I’d rather stay out of their way).
OK. Rest of the day? (Note to nosy self: bring binoculars next time you’re on a hill.) Start freeform placing the figure on the pieced base. That’s all I’ve got. Brain is tired. I have lots I can work on…not worried about that. Play some music to drown out the sirens…that damn fire app will tell me if there’s an issue, but the fire is definitely moving east, away from us. Drink more tea.
Oh hey. Monday…first full day at my residency at Dorland Mountain Arts in Temecula…really just a week away from all the shit I need to get done at home and a chance to try out some new and/or different stuff. Right now, I’m waiting for the midday wind to die down so I can make more dye paste. I made some this morning and had to make more print paste. When I went out to make the rest, the wind was a bit crazy, so I did some thread painting instead.
Meanwhile, I had two pieces in the Infinite Rivers exhibit at The Front Arte Cultura gallery in San Ysidro on Saturday night. This is My Body. My Choice.
It’s about abortion rights, looking at different types of people who might need an abortion, pushing back against the bubble people who try to force their beliefs on everyone.
This is Same As It Ever Was.
When I got there, the little girl was leaning up against the quilt and eating. Her mom or grandma was selling some baskets and woven things, so they were sitting next to it. I asked the little girl not to lean on it (it is mostly washable, but I try to avoid it if possible) and then later told her she needed to be in the photo, so she produced a perfect smile (unlike me, who often produces some fake smile and I don’t even know where it comes from).
This quilt is about a lot of things…white women’s feelings about Roe v Wade falling, while people of color, indigenous folks, and LGBTQIA folks remind us that for some, it has always been this way, big red-faced white men in suits and robes yell at us about all the things we don’t get.
It’s a great show with a lot of variety. I’ll try to post more when I get home. Some things are just easier on a computer than on an ancient iPad.
I’ve been cutting out more Wonder Under up here…now 3/4s done.
I will probably finish tonight, ready to sort and iron when I get home.
I packed Saturday night and Sunday. I wasn’t sure it would all fit; I’ve got 4 different types of projects I’m working on here and they each use a different part of my stash. Kinda nuts really.
Here’s the cottage I’m staying in…
And the porch where I’m dyeing…
Fabric dyeing. Not end of life dying. that silent ‘e’ is really difficult in a conversation.
Did a short hike yesterday…up to the tiny lake, down to Sunset Point, up part of the Dorland Mountain and Bee Canyon hikes. It’s too warm to hike until 7 PM-ish, which doesn’t leave much time. I’m not an early riser. I also prepped some of the chemicals for today. I should have done more, but I didn’t realize the wind would be so boisterous.
I also prepped the fabric. Then last night, I tried some line drawing with the machine…
Thread tension was cranky as shit, even after I cleaned everything out. But eventually I got something to play with. Then today, I tried some thread painting.
Got a lot more to do on that one.
I still have the dye stuff set up outside (consolidated now because the wind blew most of it off the table…wind is not joking)…
Storing some in the bathtub so it doesn’t dry out.
I’d like to take a nap (didn’t sleep well), but I feel like I’m waiting for the doc to call with biopsy results and don’t want to sleep through it. Silly. I’m sure I’d hear it. Just tense about it.
Ok, the wind is still nuts. I know it calmed down last night. So I’ll do some more stitching inside until it chills out. Here’s a treat from last night…
I just got back from four days in Ohio…Athens, Ohio (OK, it’s taking me a long time to finish this post, so not really just back…almost a month ago! Hey school ended. Don’t judge too hard.). Where Quilt National takes place. This is my 5th time getting in, and nothing compares to the first time, but it’s still amazing. I wasn’t able to go the last two times…in 2021, there was barely a vaccine, and I was teaching on Zoom, and it just seemed like too much. In 2023, I was still listening to my school district tell me there were no subs, you can’t possibly take time off. I stopped listening to them, because there has to be a balance between work and life, and there hasn’t been. I am glad to have a supportive principal at the moment. So this year, I went. Excited! But even then, I had forgotten the amazing rush of being with like-minded people, artists struggling to create, whatever that looks like, meeting new people, seeing old friends, seeing the art! So my brain is still in exploding mode, and hopefully that will get me through the end of the year.
I didn’t photograph all of the pieces. I get to a point where I can’t. But I tried to photograph every artist with their piece, and details when I felt them. Oh hey! Here’s me. Talking about my inspiration. I kept it short. I read Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves when I was in college, and then I had signed up for Audible to listen to books when I quilt and clay, and her books about wise women and crones and Mother trees popped up, and I think I listened to two or three of them. I loved the idea of a Mother Tree/Crone who was trying to protect us all, especially the younger women who might not have the resources we older women have (I’m still not old enough to be a crone, but it’ll come). On the left are all the issues with reproductive rights, telling us we don’t have any, turning women into baby factories. On the right is war, Gaza, Ukraine, there’s bombs dropping throughout this quilt, body bags, people crying. It’s not an easy quilt to explain; it wasn’t easy to make. And I’m glad it got in.
Oh yeah, it has a name: Seeking the Crone’s Protection.
And here it is surrounded by other quilts…love to see what’s around it.
Susan Else’s sculpture Something to Say; to the right, Jennifer Candon’sMetanoia, Peggy Black’sPolyphonic 5 to the left of mine, to the left of that, Ruth de Vos‘ Wings of Freedom, and then to the far left, Keetje Abbenhuis’ Trash in Orbit.
Here’s Peggy Black in front of her piece.
Here’s my good friend Dinah Sargeant with her 100 pieces…holy moly. The piece is called Snaps and is all of her scraps made into little snapshots.
A detail of one of the hundred pieces. Not a small amount of work. She made each into a tiny quilt with sleeves and rods.
This is Kestrel Michaud’sEchoes of Time and Magic, part of her steampunk world.
I’ve read articles and watched videos of her explaining her process, which is similar to mine, but uses technology (computers and cutters instead of scissors).
I had a great conversation with her about her technique and materials, and am impressed she has persuaded her husband to make her artistic life easier (more technological support).
I know that if my hands ever give out, I might need to do the same, head to the computer. Not there yet. Nice to know a process exists though.
I saw a few of her pieces at QuiltCon this year; it’s a fascinating way of working, especially after hearing about why (and how) she did the arm and shoulder after an injury.
Certainly very different to how I make work. It has some ideas I might be exploring this summer. Inspirational anyway.
This is Russ Little talking about his quilt to the right, More Than Black & White #4, with Helen Geglio’sMind Map: Compartments behind him. Russ had a fascinating story of the background behind making these pieces.
Also, this is a good example of my forgetting to go back and take additional photos. I was constantly getting overwhelmed by this experience of art and artists, so I apologize for not fully documenting the event.
For instance, this is Gabrielle McIntosh, a math teacher, who was talking about the piles of grading she needed to do (this is Precarious Balance, which is largely how I feel about school on a regular basis).
I meant to go tell her YES. I GET IT. And I never did.
I took one larger picture where you can see those two a little better, on the right. I think when I went back, there were people just hanging out there constantly (table and chairs?), so that’s my excuse.
This is Jennifer Strauser’sSweet Surrender, constructed by starting to stitch on the outside edges and then moving in.
OK, crazy small world (or not)…I just finished trying to watch some of the Making Zen online workshops this week (totally failed last year, due to being in Maine) and I watched hers! But I didn’t realize it was the same person.
It’s a fascinating technique.
And then there’s this, Stefanie Neuner’sThat’s NUTS, about her atypical child and trying to get them help.
There’s a ton of really special embroidery on this piece.
I know it’s emotional for her and am glad she was invited to be part of the exhibit.
Insane amount or stitching.
Cindy Grisdela explained her leaf/pod shapes and her experimentation with color, in Musings II.
Wendy Richardson’s piece Children of War won an Award of Excellence.
So many pieces about war this year. This one is beautiful.
She spoke about the crosses going up into the sky being those who had lost their lives heading to heaven.
I traveled with a local San Diegan, Juli Smith, who happens to be in my modern quilt guild chapter. This was her first Quilt National with Sweet Tooth, due to the sugar packets she originally designed with.
We had a variety of international quilters, as always, with a variety of ways of communicating with us. This is Harue Konishi and her piece Halu #14. She translated her artist speech for Keri Wolfe to read to us.
Great sense of color and contrast.
Betty Busby’s piece Conflict was an intriguing mix of materials and shapes.
Another war quilt…she talks about these being the aftermath of battle scenes. Here she is explaining how she made barbed wire out of fiber.
When I first started paying attention to Quilt National, you could always tell who had taken classes from Nancy Crow. I think Irene Roderick is the new version of that. This is Laurie Paquin’s Composition 3, and she admits to Irene influence. Her piece reminds me of beetles…or brightly colored cars. The thin lines are intriguing.
She won the Emerging Artist award.
I got absolutely no good pictures of Patty Kennedy-Zafred’s long book-shaped piece, Mercato Del Friuli. It’s behind that head. Whoops! I swear, my brain gives out after a while.
I meant to go back and never did. This is where I tell you to buy the catalog. If you can’t go to the show.
I love Anne Smith’s work. So much recycled fabric used in such a fascinating way. This is Elmore & Duke Reminiscing.
Inspirational stuff.
I often wish I could work more like that…more freeform and textural.
She is also a much more careful quilter than I am.
Susan Shie was not at the opening weekend. I’ve met her before. I would call her one of my early influences in the art quilt world. This is her piece Navalny: 9 of Wooden Spoons (wands) in the Kitchen Tarot.
A crazy amount of writing.
This is Rodger Blum’s Seven Angry Men and One Celestial Being…
The surface is very interesting. I’d like to know more about how he does this. .
This is Trash in Orbit, by Keetje Abbenhuis.
She talked about using a particular shape, three sides and a curved line.
Ruth de Vos was also not at the opening weekend (not surprisingly). This is her piece Wings of Freedom.
The bird wings are beautiful.
Isabelle Dupras’s piece Le grand Tamtidelam a deux tetes is a fun folk piece.
It’s also very different than her other work.
I did ask if she had cats at home…
because of these…apparently no.
Cara Gulati’sRainbow Spiral Kaleidoscope is fun to look at (and try to figure out).
His piece is sound reactive, so I spent time staring at it, trying to figure out what it was reacting to…
No real answer to that. Just that it’s reacting. Certainly beautiful and fascinating.
Sandra LH Woock’s piece Day Break is just fun to look at, trying to figure out how she made it.
That website is ancient. Clearly she spends more time making fascinating things than updating it.
This is Danette Pratt’sScream. I wanted to meet her, to talk to her, but she disappeared. Her piece is on the page next to mine, and she has my mom’s middle name.
Plus holey moley, her stitching, that face; they’re just fascinating.
I like it. I like the hand applique with the slow stitching.
The cool shading here.
Just an amazing piece.
Barbara Schneider is amazing at making fabric look like bark. This is Forest Floor, Tree Bark Fragments, var. 10.
You know, one of the reasons it takes me so long to create this post (besides the day job) is that I search out websites for each artist, and THEN I read their websites. So I just take forever.
This is Barbara Lange’sSo Wa Wai. It’s all discharged jeans fabric and there’s an amazing story behind it.
It involves a mom’s love, which is always a cool subject.
This is Heather Akerberg’sDialectic No. 1, which won Outstanding Machine-Pieced Quilt.
I love that on her website, she talks about introducing her team…and it’s her. And her cat.
From left to right, Louise Silk’sGabriel: A Mantle for our Steel Town Angel, all of reused materials. Then Sandy Curran’sSurvivor’s Guilt. And Shin-Hee Chin’sViriditas (Greenness), which won Best of Show.
Here is Jean Renli Jurgenson talking about the fabric she used for her piece Hallelujah.
It was a real pleasure to meet Jane Haworth (I own a small piece of hers) and hear about how she made all the chickens in Let’s Talk Color.
She makes some amazing collage pieces of animals.
And her chickens are gorgeous.
I also talked to Sue Sherman, not realizing at first what other work she had done that I had seen. She’s been creating these animal portraits and they’re mind-boggling. This is The King Family, and they are all painted.
Then the frame is made of all the things the animal would like…such as the squid crown.
Real skill in the painting as well…
There is such a wide range of work that is vastly different from mine…it’s part of why I love these exhibits. This is Seen and Unseen, by Kathy Ford.
She was an architect in her former life, so this is a true departure.
More fascinating closeups.
Here’s a better photo of Shin-Hee Chin’s piece Viriditas.
She’s got some YouTube videos of her process that are just fascinating, but she also talked about the role of classical music in her work.
Looking at it up close does not help explain her process!
I could stare at it for hours.
This one, I could have sworn it was flowers until the artist, Beth Schnellenberger, started talking about the two birds in Double Phoenix Rising (it was my first run through…wasn’t reading labels at all).
She uses a technique very similar to mine (so she understands my insanity).
Brent McGee’s work Apollo and Dionysus is fun to look at…very textural and 3D (honestly probably more fun to touch…but you’re not supposed to touch the art).
I spent some time hanging out with Brent and some of the other artists at a winery Saturday night. It was interesting listening to all the ideas bopping around.
Here is Ann Houle talking about her work Bio-Sphere on Fire.
It’s a fascinating piece to look at up close.
As is this one, Holly Cole’sAdrift, which won the Persistence Pays award.
Intriguing use of materials and development of imagery.
Vicki Conley’s piece Flying has crazy details. These are flamingoes…which explains her headband and shirt…
I had just read an article about her traveling and quilting. She has a setup in their camper and it works. Sounds lovely.
Susan Lapham has been doing these organic plant quilts recently (or maybe forever?), which totally contrast with the more blocky/improv stuff I’d seen from her before. I love this piece, Field Counts 2.
Jungeun Tark’s piece Tea-Bowl of Mama has some very interesting construction going on.
When I think of experimenting with more textural work, this is some of what I think of, at least in parts.
Lousy picture, sorry; I think that woman walked in front right as I took the picture and it focused on her amazing hair instead of Jean Sredl and her piece Shoddy, made up of waste fibers and other fun things.
She talks in her statement about ‘environmental catastrophe’, which is what this piece reminds me of happening.
She moved so fast! She had someone read her statement for her; I found a website, but it’s out of date. That said, her work is fascinating and very textural.
She mentioned that her piece didn’t have any deep story behind it; it was just about color and shapes…it is a fun piece though.
Jan Soules told a story of improv piecing these fish shapes in Two Fish, Blue Fish.
Complicated but also fun to look at and contemplate.
Sarah Spencer’s (aka Io the Alien) work is graphic and in your face, as is the subject of this piece, Queen of Swords, who is Mona Eltahawy.
This is kind of my mood for 2025 (my own Project 2025?), so I love it, and the color. Plus Sarah is fun to talk to.
She’s relatively new to the quilting world, but let’s hope she keeps making these graphic pieces.
I’ve always loved Terrie Hancock Mangat’s work, from way back. This is Vertigo on Cobblestone, which is so accurate for how this quilt feels.
And even better? That skelly under a sheer fabric.
It’s funny that her work and Susan Shie’s are two that I feel really influenced me early on, and I don’t embellish really at all…although maybe I want to? I did crazy quilting, so there is a connection. Terrie wasn’t at the opening, unfortunately.
This is Kathy York’sWhere the Walls Have Eyes piece, where the eyes are inside.
I did wonder if it was on the wrong side, because you could only see the eyes from the top, and most of us were too short to see them…but I don’t know what happened with that.
I didn’t take pictures of everything. I always feel weird about that after, like I would have enjoyed staring at Niraja Lorenz‘ piece Abundance, on the right, for a long time, but I never got there. And there’s Denise L. Roberts‘ piece Finding Connections #26, the red on blue piece.
There’s a point when I feel totally overwhelmed.
This piece was so delicate and beautiful. It’s Dawn’s Early Light by Myania Moses.
Linda Steele’s piece Communication Breakdown is about being addicted to being on our phones, but also a fun use of improv and text.
I realized while wandering all over her website that I’ve seen some of her crazy quilts before. She has a wide range of stuff she creates; truly impressive.
This piece, Cellular Entanglement, by Mattea Jurin, is a very cool use of materials.
The clear vinyl plus stitching plus colored pencil work…
She wasn’t there, unfortunately, because I would have loved to hear her talk about her work.
This is Susan Avishai’sWhere Do the Children Play?, a quilt about the Hamas attack on Gaza.
She uses a lot of repurposed fabrics and texture. But also, wow, another war quilt, and as I’m finally getting around to finishing this post, the day after my country drops bombs on Iran. Sigh.
Doesn’t matter what your politics are…it’s a valid question.
Here is Regula Affolter talking about her piece The WEF Extra’s #103.
She was talking…sorry for the weird face! I do spend more time listening than I do taking amazing photos (as might be obvious).
This is a quote from her statement: “Pieced with dimensional pocket that person can fit in.” Because we need those.
Yes, I know I missed some people and some quilts. I can’t do it all. In fact, in looking at the catalog, there’s some I don’t remember seeing at all, which is kind of mindboggling. I did really really really enjoy the trip though. Totally worth all the school stress going in and coming back. Just getting the chance to hear everyone talk about their work and spending time with artists was a boon to my art brain. So I’ll remember that for the (hopefully) next time I get in. Always go. Don’t NOT go. Now I just have to find the extra frame I have somewhere in the house so I can hang my poster from the show…my 5th! I remember when I thought I would never get in. It feels good to get in.
Well there’s nothing like the shitty Sunday sleep that comes after two weeks off of work. I’ve got a few thousand things to do rattling around in my head for today, and sleep was not my friend last night. I mean, sleep is never really my friend, but sometimes it comes along for the ride. There are 41 days of school left. It feels doable until you consider the details. Grades are due next Tuesday. I was really good and didn’t grade until last Friday. I didn’t finish, but that’s OK. This is a progress report so I don’t have to be done. The texts are rolling in about how we have new projectors, but they’re not set up and our rooms are messed up. Fun times. School starts in less than 90 minutes and now we have to set up beforehand. Ah well. I’m not rushing to get there. I’m boggled the district doesn’t send an email out about having to set shit back up and how. I know they assume we all come in over break, but I stayed away and it was a good thing. I needed a serious reset.
I forgot to post on Friday…it was a busy day. I had to pick up art in the morning, long drive, then doctor appointment, then I graded all afternoon and did some yardwork, then we went to see Regency Girls at the Old Globe.
It was fun, a good women’s-rights-friendly musical. So no art happened on Friday though. Saturday, I made it to ceramics. I was supposed to load the base of this piece into the kiln, but it was too warm. I’m going back tomorrow. I did add some bullets and money to the upper torso…
I had to fix the flag and some fingers first.
Sculpting is definitely a skill that needs developing.
This thing is a little crazy at the moment.
I also worked on the new quilt, after delivering the last one to the photographer and picking up the one before it. This is Portrait of One Self.
She’s big. She took four months to finish. Crazy really. Thought I’d hit a deadline; didn’t even come close. Ah well.
Started ironing with the Statue of Liberty…
Second Statue of Liberty in one of my pieces.
Yesterday, I washed all the embroideries, then realized I’d missed a bit. I’ll fix that tonight hopefully. Then I started ironing page 2…or is it page 1? Because the statue is the cover page.
Easier for me to think of it as four pages. I didn’t finish. This one is more complicated. So hopefully by the end of the week, all the page pieces will be ironed to fabric and I can start trimming. There’s a super tight deadline on these guys.
This is a thing.
Real people helping real people. Seriously, if you think she’s a caricature, you should listen to Dolly Parton’s America, the podcast. She’s not who you think she is. And she’s better than those dingbats who went to space.
Simba agrees.
Wishful viewing of the bunnies in the front yard.
OK. School. Apparently need to put my room back together before kids get there. Nothing is set up, I think. Or did I do it before I left? I don’t think I did, because they were gonna do our floors. Deep breath. It’s fine. Today’s teaching is easy. Then a 2-hour staff meeting (ugh). Then errands, dinner, art. The Man is having dental surgery today and is on liquids and soft food for about a week…so my dinners are my own problem. Pros and cons to that. I’m expecting some exhaustion this week. Going back to school always does that, more so as I get older. But also, I’m reading two books, making some art, dealing with yard stuff. Nothing new. Grades. Damn. Grades already. OK. Well, that’s happening whether I’m ready for it or not.
Well I said that a week ago and I feel like that’s all I’ve been trying to do for 7 days. Mostly succeeding. No super long hikes like trips in the past, but lots of little ones. Plus reading, stitching, drawing, and staring deeply into fires. Also not having a clue what day it is, which is the absolute best thing ever. We didn’t do a long road trip last year because I had to pay to fix the flooding damage, and I really missed it. I’m glad we did it this year.
We’re not back yet, by the way. I just have some time while the Man watches some videos for school, and I’m not really in the headspace to draw…ironic since a quilt fully drew itself in my head about 10 minutes into our drive today.
So we left last Saturday and took a couple hefty drive days…California is beautiful, even from the car…especially in Spring.
We stopped in hotels in tiny spots off the main road, nothing exciting…although at one point, we were across the bay from the girlchild. I stitched the pieces I needed embroidered for a small set of quilts I will need to finish very quickly when I get back.
Here’s the San Rafael Bridge…
It started raining at some point on Day 2, which turned into a downpour. We ate leftovers in the deserted hotel breakfast area and hung out in the room. There was a plan to go out, but the rain put a damper on that. So I drew and stitched.
First I had to trace the second bit of stitching…love hotel rooms with irons and ironing boards.
The next day, we had a few hours to waste, so we searched for the Bertella Kildow Skinner Grove in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which involved parking on the side of a road and hiking using two different topographical maps to figure out where the grove and sign should be. I know we were in it at multiple points, but couldn’t find the sign. It’s possible things were burnt in the 2003 Canoe Fire? Who’s Bertella, you might ask? I think she was my great great aunt? Or maybe three greats. I had these two old lady aunts who were awesomely strange in my childhood, and this was their mom, who I think died before I was born? Or soon after. But Jeanne and Bernice were definitely around.
We finally got into the campground just as it stopped raining, which was good, because it sucks putting tents up in the rain. As it was, the site was pretty muddy and damp and cold, but we enjoyed it.
I stitched in the campground too. We hiked in the AM, then more in the PM. Nighttime was for fires and drawing.
The Man had some moments…
Before showering. Definitely. In his creepy stalker stage.
The sky. It’s up there.
The Eel River…
Glorious weather for most of it.
When I was a kid, we traveled all over the US, but we never really were allowed to stop at the weird places. So the Man and I kinda try to do just that.
Legends of Bigfoot. And us.
After Humboldt, we headed for Sonoma.
More gorgeous green. I finished the embroidery that night in the bungalow.
So those are ready to be appliquéd into a quilt.
We hiked in the morning.
I scared a deer while peeing in nature.
Or it scared me. Hard to say.
This deer could not give a lesser shit about humans…
Which I appreciate. Also I never get good quail photos.
Plus our quail are much skinnier.
Flowers everywhere. Then we spent some time (and money, let’s be honest) at the Gundlach Bundschu winery (oldest in California)…
Beautiful day, needed a nap after. No shock. Did more drawing in a cocktail bar later…
I actually started drawing this over a week ago and just kept adding to it. I also started stitching a tree in Sue Spargo’s Rooted block of the month. I think this is the March block.
I worked on it today but forgot to photograph it. Today we left Sonoma and stopped in San Francisco to see the girlchild and her visiting friend, who worked with USAID, fuck you to the dumbasses cutting jobs without considering real live consequences. We had lunch…
It was nice to see them in person…from there, we negotiated all the Friday traffic past places we visited two years ago, maybe three? Down to Santa Ynez/Los Olivos, where we are now, researching hikes, wine, and ostriches. Plus donuts, due to the campground having a Donut Kebab van that just set us off on a donut tangent that has not been satisfied.
The cravings are real. The Man has an essay to write on Sunday, so it’ll be a bit of a kamikaze trip home so he can read the chapter in the book he didn’t know he needed. It’s fine. And I have things to finish too that I am currently ignoring quite well. I finished one big book and read two smaller ones so far, spent 12 1/2 hours doing the embroidered words, plus 4 drawings? All good.
We are currently sitting out by a fire pit, listened to Great Horned Owls and getting tired.
It’s almost the full moon and we’re ready to enjoy tomorrow.
Power’s out. Some car crashed into something. The road sounds closed; I don’t hear cars down there. It’s cold…and I need tea, so I’ll be leaving for school soon.
I did finally get the studio cleaned up…
It took two nights…it was a lot. And I started ironing last night.
School was a little rough, but it’s been like that for days. Kids are fighting; not sure why. Hard to get them to work. I’m feeling underwater on getting stuff done. I guess that’s nothing new.
Dumbassery abounds. Ok I think it might be bright enough in the bathroom for me to take my meds and get out of here to school, where it will be warmer and I can make tea. I’m making a lot of art this weekend…yes, I need to grade too, but art is large on the agenda. That and getting my computer to work. Sigh.
Yo ho yo ho a pirate’s life…wait. No. I’m teaching gravity today…not going to Disneyland. Seems like a questionable life decision. Computer is still not restored. The internet is intermittent. So frustrating. I just need it to finish ffs. I’m tired of trying to do things on the phone or this ancient iPad. Ah well…at least I have that option.
Artwise…I finished trimming Wonder Under…
And last night, I sorted them…
Ready to iron to fabric. Unfortunately, my studio is not ready for that. I’d like to be ironing tonight, but realistically, I will probably be cleaning and putting fabric away after a long long day, so wish me luck on actually ironing. Definitely tomorrow night though.
Someone needs to change all the clocks in the house. I don’t know why I am in charge of clock changes. I have changed two…well three if you count my school clock. I’m sure the men would argue that I’m the only one who cares about the other two…possibly true.
I started underglazing (finally!) the base to the newest piece…someone bumped it (again) and broke two things off. Community shelves sometimes suck.
Super pale at the moment with 2 coats…got one more coat and then all the details. I’ll be here a while.
The current government just needs to die. I’m done with the stupidity. The illogical bullshit that puts Teslas on the White House lawn and claims we can’t speak our minds. At least some of us have minds…
Gonna end with that. Too much in my head right now between the Orange Dumbass pissing off Canada and the crazy demands of the day job…gonna demo some gravitational force today and get through a union meeting and go to Pilates and then clean the studio so I can make art. Sleep if I’m lucky (not last night). Dream of a better world and how to get there.
I have a new computer. It’s still restoring all the stuff from before. It was at 12% when I went to bed last night and it’s still at 12% this morning, like no time has passed. Granted I feel the same way about the amount of sleep I had last night. I know I went to bed at the appropriate time for whatever time hell we’re in now, but I was still out of bed in the early dark feeling like I hadn’t slept. So maybe the computer feels the same way. It’s gonna be a rough week, for me and the kids.
This weekend was my 58th birthday, and I did my best not to work. There’s some level of having to pay for it during the week, but the week is already a shitshow, so I probably won’t notice much. What did I do? I read, I made art, I went on a short hike. All good.
Simba appreciated it. Maybe.
It was a little closer than I like to be to coyotes, but it reminds us that they are always there.
I did a little ceramics on Friday. I was tired though. There’s a bunch of stuff going on her arms.
Fun times. My glazes came in Friday as well, so that’s hopefully what I’m doing after a two-hour staff meeting after school. Ugh.
Friday night I finished tracing…
Four yards (just under) of Wonder Under. I spent almost 4 hours cutting stuff out this weekend…
And not a lot else honestly.
There are never enough hours in the day. I did a little yard work; I have bulbs to plant. but I quit when I accidentally trimmed a branch with a hummingbird nest and broke two eggs. Mom bird had lots to say about it and I felt (still feel) horrible, so I quit. It’s spring! Don’t kill baby animals. If you can. I was actually trying to avoid another thing that looked like a nest so it felt even worse that I fucked that up.
I had two dinners out, which was nice, and got a pile of books to read and my mom’s stash of silk ribbon, which is fun, so that didn’t make up for the hummingbird babies, but I also found out there’s a grove in Humboldt named after my Great Great Aunt Bertella who was an obstetrician, so we’re totally visiting that over Spring Break.
Government still sucks, if we can call it that. Our National Parks are at stake here. And people’s lives. Sigh.
I am coral. Ok, gotta teach and professionally develop and clay.
Yo Friday, I appreciate you. It’s been a long week. Eye issues, kid issues, but grades are done! So I’m not working this weekend…it’s my birthday. I’m gonna hike and read and make art and go out to dinner. And try not to think about school…although next week is not fully planned, nowhere close, so I’m freaking out a little bit. Ah well.
I’ve been tracing Wonder Under all week…I should be done tonight.
Crazy ass butterfly…did not number it well. Brain must have taken a break.
Last night, I had a stitching Zoom meeting, so I got two hours in…I’ve got about 150 pieces to go. Then trimming for a few days, ironing by next weekend? Hopefully.
Minus the pumpkin patch.
Agreed. So much stupidity going on right now. I’m having some panic moments about where to buy things I need due to The JoAnn closing down and avoiding Amazon. My free time is generally not free and online shopping is awesome. Working on a list. But with quilt stuff, the secondary issue is the politics of stores. Sigh. My local quilt store is owned by a trumper.
Working on all of it. Today is an assembly (ugh), but mostly making a little eclipse flipbook. And planning. Hopefully some ceramics, finish the tracing. There’s something I need to remember for today and it keeps flitting into my brain (paper towels!!!) and leaving again. Caught it. Good times.
Well good news, I can still see, no surgery (knock on a big piece of wood), and the odds are that in 6 weeks, I won’t have to be low-key stressed about any weirdness in the right eye…besides that bizarre swirling thing that is still there. Yeah. As a visual artist, the thought of losing any eyesight is pretty terrifying. I guess I’d still have clay, but it wouldn’t be the same if you couldn’t see it. My vitreous humor (and perhaps a hefty chunk of my sense of humor) is floating around my eye with wild abandon, occasionally panicking me with “OMG what’s that“ moments, but otherwise, I’m OK. Exhausted but what’s new. My retina is holding strong. All good.
I had to take Monday off because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get in to the doc or what might happen after. I spent a million hours grading this weekend, so I refused to grade after the doc appointments. I try to save the stuff I can do at school so I have some down time at home, so I finished the new quilt drawing, numbered it (just under 700 pieces), and started tracing.
It’s not huge, so I’m hoping I can hit the deadline. Knock on wood.
I’ve already found 7 pieces I didn’t number at all and one number I used twice. Good times.
So maybe not just under 700.
I traced for about 3 1/2 hours on Monday…such a delight.
Then another hour last night…
I’m just under halfway. Realistically I could be done tracing Friday night. Although I still need to input grades. And we don’t have next week planned for school. Minor issue. Not so minor.
I’m also reading two books and trying to decide if I can pull off another show. The proposal has to be done by the 15th, but I need to. Finish at least one of the books first to make the proposal. Some level of insanity going on here…or a reaction to the day job’s grab on my personal life. Hard to say. There’s also about 2 hours of quilting left on this (I try to do a little each night).
My self-imposed deadline is coming up and I’m not going to meet it.
I spent 100 minutes working on hands, knuckles, and fingernails. It was glorious.
I had to persuade the fingers to change shape and direction.
A rare moment of sisterly friendship. Although Nova is doing some side eye.
In case you were wondering how daylight savings might affect you.
Sometimes AI is really stupid. This can lead to sleepiness…
This is too true. Ok today is the end of lunar phases (well, not really) into eclipses, plus desperately trying to plan for next week without interruptions (ha!), then Pilates (gently) and book club. Whoa. Busy night. I finished the book Sunday? I think. I hope. Then tracing some more. Getting grades completed so I can just input Thursday and be done. That’s what I need.
Kathy Nida 