Hearts in Hands…

Saturday came to me early and I told it to fuck off. I reminded it of all the Saturdays I’d been up early for soccer games, up before dawn, getting cranky-ass kids out of bed and finding their uniforms. Getting up early because kids were up. There was no such thing as sleeping in. Saturday reminded me that Kitten was hungry. I rolled over and told Kitten to fuck off, that there was dry food in there and she obviously could gnaw on my arm if that ran out.

It’s such a rare occurrence that my street is quiet and there are no other interruptions in the morning that I can actually sleep. So I did. Because obviously I needed to. Although I have a headache…but I think that is attributable to my need to go to the chiropractor (appointment Monday with a new one, because my old one retired) and possibly the weather. Or a lack of caffeine. Can’t fix the weather.

I graded papers last night. I know you’re shocked. I didn’t grade all of them. I left some for today or tomorrow or for every fucking day between now and the end of the school year. And then it starts again next August. Teacher hell. If you don’t grade it, they won’t do it. Sigh. So I’m buried. Underwater. In a metal tomb that says “She didn’t finish her grading before report cards” inscribed on it.

But then I got up off the couch…and I should admit that I took the dog on a glorious 3-mile walk before I graded papers, so getting up off the couch was a challenge…and came in here. I didn’t get all of them done, like I wanted, because now I’m ironing the more complicated ones, so they take longer. Well, one of them did. The other was pretty quick. I’m hoping to do some more today, but I’m running out of time. Always.

Earlier this year, I participated in a fundraiser for cancer research, and I made a small heart in hands for my donation. It was too complicated for the amount paid, though, so I tried to redraw it simpler…I think I succeeded with this one, but we’ll have to see what the final minute count is…

This was actually the second one I drew…

Because first I drew this one, which is twice as complicated…twice as many pieces and many of them tiny little fingers with tiny little wrinkles in them. So not a success in simplification. That said, I still like it…

And hopefully someone else will too…

So those two are obviously not cats. There’s two cats left…numbers 3 and 6 (the one I called 3 yesterday is actually 2…I think. Sigh.). And then the owl. So I’ll get one or two or maybe even three of those done today. After I eat and shower and consume more caffeine and I really should grade more papers. Stupid job. And I have another story I really need to write ASAP.

But after hiking last night, I had to just sit and space out for a bit. I read some stuff on Feedly. And then I went to ultra-space-out mode and tried to clean up my photo files. I moved all of July’s files into their appropriate homes, which took about an hour or so. And as I was going through those, I realized I really really wanted to make another big quilt…because there were all these photos of the drawing process and ironing of Beyond the Concrete. I really enjoy the time it takes to make a large quilt…the depth of the process, how it consumes you for weeks. These small ones are like potato chips. You get one done and you’re like, oh, that was it? Must have another. A big quilt is like a good piece of cheesecake…it will last for ages. The feeling of fulfillment will last a really long time. You’ll be immersed in it, enjoying it, dreaming about it, thinking about it while you drive. It consumes me. I like that feeling.

I guess that’s a good thing, because I have two larger ones coming up that I want to do. I just need to make a decision about the drawings I’ll use. With the second one, I think I will draw something new. Maybe. I do have this incredible urge to draw as well. I wish schoolwork would mellow out enough that I felt like I could spend a few evenings drawing. I am so buried.

Anyway. Large quilt on the horizon. As soon as I get these tiny beasts done. End of October. My Halloween gift to myself…a new big project.

Hope to see you at the Interpretations opening tonight. Now I have to worry about what to wear…

Music in the Morning…

It’s Friday morning. Usually I sit at my computer, drink my tea, read a bit, and write, and it’s all in dead silence. Some of that dates from when the kids got up after I did, so I had to be mom quiet to let them sleep. But then when they went to high school, that was less of an issue…they were up well before me. I’m not quite awake this morning, so I just turned the music on. It might help. Certainly there’s no one here who cares but me and the cats and the dog. And the fat black cat just wandered in, so apparently she’s not offended by morning rock ‘n roll.

I had quilt class last night, but I was crocheting. Long story. It will eventually end up on here. I’ve always known how to knit and crochet; was taught at an early age. I used to sit in high-school history class knitting scarves so I wouldn’t fall asleep. I find history classes kinda boring. Probably means I never took the right ones.

I came home and ironed after eating. I let Rubio feed me last night. Never met the guy, but he saved me from cooking.

So the plus with these little guys is that they iron so quickly. The minus is that because they iron quickly, I have to make fast, repeated decisions about backgrounds…which is hard. But I did it anyway, until I was too tired to stand. Then I sat and did some school stuff instead.

So first I iron the whole thing to a teflon sheet with the drawing behind it…

That’s some brightly colored cat there. Then I pick a background and iron it to that. Pretty much it takes less than 30 minutes per cat…some were only 15 minutes.

Easy peasy. And the ones with a lot of white in the same range, I will outline shapes with a dark thread, almost like drawing on the quilt with the thread. So those features will pop. This one is little…the littlest, I think.

Much happier on a background. I debated green, but there’s a little green in the background and she looked funny on the green. I actually pull a bunch of backgrounds and drop the cat on top of each one until it looks happy. Not washed out. Not lost. But happy. This one made her happy. The green did not.

I did a black and white bird last year, and the patterns made it kind of fun, so I wanted to try it with a cat.

This cat is a little perkier than the last one. All these cats are numbered so I can keep track of them, but I’m not doing them in order any more. Dammit. Because the boxes were piled up in no particular order. Wish I could tell you which one this was…maybe 5?

This is 3…and I used an actual cat as a model, although I changed the coloring. So calm.

Deserving of a calm background. She’s pretty. At some point, I’m going to run out of that fabric I love, the batik with the wispy cloud lines across it.

OK, you’re gonna laugh, because I had this sudden bug up my butt to troll the internet for that fabric, and realistically, it’s probably 4 or 5 years old, so I couldn’t find it, but I found three others that are similar that might give me as much joy. And utility. So yeah, I just bought them. The internet is such an enabler. It’s also amazing with all the fabrics I have that I always need new ones. Not quite the right shade or whatever. But I do try to use stuff up…I haven’t bought anything else for these cats. The background above is from my second mom, who died in June. The spiral blue is the leftover from another background on a larger quilt…can’t remember which one. Would have to go back and search for it. I think the other blue is also a leftover piece.

Anyway. So that’s what I do in the mornings before work. Troll the internet for fabric I need? Well, no, I don’t usually do that.

Tonight, I’m hoping to do another 4 or so…I have only 5 left, but I think 4 of them are the harder ones…more pieces, more complicated. So keep your eyes open.

These will be for sale, if you didn’t realize. I meant to do them over the summer and got sidetracked, but if you’re looking for a holiday gift for a loved one (or yourself!) and you see one you like, let me know. I won’t hold you to buying it until I have it completed with a price. I just keep a wait list. They’ll probably all be between $100 and 200, except for the owl and the weird cat. They’re way more complicated. Last year’s owl was $235.

Which reminds me, there are three small bird quilts from last year that never sold. The top two don’t have a binding or a sleeve…they’re finished with a satin stitch and have two small plastic rings on the back that they hang from…they’re each 8×10″ and $100 (cheaper because less finishing time). This is Dove 2, Bird 11…

And this is Diving Bird 2, Bird 13, same size.

This is bound and has a sleeve. It’s Purple Bird, Bird 8, 18.25“ w x 14.5“ h, $205.

And then I’m working on 7 cats, 2 hearts in hands, much like this one…

But not exactly. And a different owl than last year’s…coming up in the next week or so you’ll see them all ironed down. Actually, I wrote this part last night, and I’m hoping to see them all ironed down in the next 24 hours. We’ll see about that. I do have to grade papers too.

And I will be at the Visions opening tomorrow night…posing with my quilt? Who knows…

Time Keeps on Slipping…

Getting there. I am getting there. Despite a long day at work (union meeting went on forever. The only plus was all the grading I got done while I listened to the crazy), I managed to come home and get some stuff done. Not everything I wanted. Never everything I wanted. But sometimes it’s OK to just get a little of what you wanted done. No walking the dog…the meeting went way too late. I did a little grading…figured I did a lot at the meeting. Some days I feel like all I do is grade papers.

And then I got the last of the small quilts cut out…

It’s actually got like 112 pieces, so it’s not particularly simple. But I like it.

Then after coming in the studio and working on computer stuff for a bit, I started ironing…this is Cat 5…

She’s darker in real life…don’t take photos at night!

But she was quick enough to do. Probably took me longer to pick the background than anything else. Oh yeah, and I lost her back foot somewhere. Don’t know what happened with that, but I had to cut a new one. So that was extra time.

I price these little quilts based on how long it takes me to make them, so I’ve been keeping track of the time. I think I’ll have to make an Excel spreadsheet for the data. Last time, I had a hand-drawn table on a piece of paper (so old school). It’s nice to compare them…pretty much it works out that the more pieces it has, the longer it takes, but I had one bird last year that was just a pain in the butt to put together for some reason, so it took more time.

I have another meeting tonight, so who knows when I will start again with the ironing. I’m tired, and that always makes it harder. It’s funny, because at midnight, I’m rarely tired. I get a second wind that actually makes it hard for me to sleep. I’m sure some doctor would suggest I go to sleep when I feel tired, but then I’d be in bed at 5 PM and wide awake at 2 AM. Maybe that’s how my body should work. It’s so foreign to consider living that way though. I have friends who get up super early in the morning, some at work at 7 AM or earlier, and I know I can DO that, I have had to do it for previous jobs, but ugh. It meant I came home and was still braindead until around 6 PM, and then I had to go to bed earlier because I had to get up so early. For someone like me, it was not conducive to an art existence.

I got photos yesterday from two shows where my pieces have landed, part of traveling shows. One was the St. George Museum in Utah, where Celebrating Silver is for the next few months. No photo of my piece. Nice. I’m paranoid because once my piece wasn’t hung due to nudity, and no one told me, until one of the participants went and noticed the two nude pieces weren’t there. The group in charge never told me. So if I don’t see it in pictures, I’m not sure they even hung it. If you go there, tell me you saw my piece. Please.

The other exhibit is in New York, at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts in St. Bonaventure. This is People and Portraits. The space looks nice and open, and I can see one of my pieces…

It’s on the far right (Fully Medicated). It’s way more nude than the other one, so I assume they’re both hanging.

This weekend is the Visions: Interpretations opening, and I will be able to take photos there, so you’ll see those here eventually. And hopefully someone will go to the San Jose Museum opening of Earth Stories and send me photos. I’m not going to Houston this year, because nothing is traveling there. Oh well.

So hopefully tonight I’ll iron more cats or hearts or whatever. Honestly it doesn’t matter what…as long as I’m doing something. And sometime soon I need to sit down and make some decisions about the next two deadlines and what I’m going to do for them. Time keeps on slipping…

That’s All I Can Do…

Woke up to a giant headache, massive, bigger than the space in my head. I’ve backed it off slightly with Motrin, adding caffeine to the mix. The dog was convinced at 3 AM that she wanted to swim. I ignored her. And when I heard the vomiting at 4:30 AM, I put my pillow over my head. Seriously. I’m not dealing with that until I’ve had a shower. Good thing I waited. It’s gone now. Dogs are disgusting but useful.

So I’m not at my best right now. I even went to bed early. Hopefully food and caffeine will help, although there’s some chance this is chiropractic and/or weather-related, both things I can’t do anything about. My chiropractor retired and I had to schedule with a new one and couldn’t get in until next week. Sigh. Damn, I feel it too. The neck and shoulders are a mess. I’m sure it helps to sleep with a pillow over my head to drown out sounds of vomit.

I finally finished grading the first unit for my students, and it was a classified natural disaster in one period…natural only in that if you don’t do any classwork, it will be natural that you might fail. I’m handing them back today, and I’m sure 47 kids will want to know if they can make it up, and the answer is no, do it right the first time. As a culture, we love our do-overs, don’t we? Except you don’t always get a do-over. And do-overs double my workload. I’m already buried. It’s just not realistic to think you can always make it better after completing it. Sometimes you have to try harder the first time and then own the work you did.

Not sure if that’s philosophical or not. I’m still under the influence of that headache.

We went to a talk about the zombie brain last night…it was great. Gave us lots of ideas for future zombie science teaching. Instead today I’ll be teaching boring old DNA. You know, the instructions for life. DNA shows up in a few of my quilts. Sometimes it’s a simple bracelet on a wrist. Other times it’s large and in your face.

So that means I got home late…it was totally worth it, but I sat there again on the couch, trying to stay awake…this time, I managed to cut out some fabric though…

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Except I was lame and missed the two pieces on that strip of fabric that is lying on the couch. Toldja I was tired. One more to go. Then I can iron. Unfortunately, I have a long, exhausting union meeting tonight. I would love to come home and have the energy to walk the dog, but…yeah. Who knows.

This was the morning sky. Some of the headache might be due to the thunderstorms that are supposed to arrive tonight. I would walk in that…totally.

Well, I’d love to consider the things I might get done tonight, and I truly wish that I am able to come home, sans headache, exercise, cook a healthy dinner, and then iron some things together in an arty way. But I have to be straight up and admit I don’t have much hope for all that at the moment.

I’ll do what I can. That’s all I can do.

The Days When You Don’t

Sometimes I don’t get any art done because it’s just a full day. There’s a celebration or a party or I’m traveling somewhere. Or I’m somewhere I can’t actually make art for whatever reason, in meetings or whatever. Usually I’m tired enough by the end of such days that the creative part shuts down, clams up, turns off. For a day or so, that’s OK, but even being able to pull out the sketchbook and make a quick drawing helps in the long run. Because then there’s days when you’re NOT going through all that, but you still can’t, you don’t. You act like the rest of the world, sitting on a couch staring at a television screen, or sitting on a chair staring at your computer (OK, I did do some of that last night). Mostly I worked though. And when I got done working, I realized it was 11:49 PM and I was tired…and much as I wanted to wake up in the morning and feel like I’d accomplished something besides filling in a gradebook or typing up a story, that wasn’t happening. It’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. I made it to the gym for once, which was a plus, although I’m still not sold on reading Dracula. Book club is tomorrow night and I already know I’m not going, because I have a union meeting, but I usually finish the book anyway and I’m not sure I can bring myself to read Dracula as an adult. I had to read it in college (I guess technically I was an adult then). It’s just so heavy and overly dramatic. I’m not sure I need that in my life right now.

So my life is not currently in sync with Dracula. Probably not a bad thing. And I was making money last night…and catching up. Both things that needed to happen. Maybe tonight I can cut out the last two small quilts and start ironing. If I tell myself right now that grading papers tonight is not happening, maybe that will help. Just don’t bring the gradebook home. I do need to finish that other thing though, but maybe I can do that before I go do the social thing. I should admit that I’m going to listen to a lecture on the zombie brain…it’s for work! No seriously, it is. There just happen to be food and libations at such a thing.

My 3 AM wakeup call? I thought the dog needed to pee. Nope. She needed an early morning swim. Sometimes this animal drives me bonkers and I happily watch her leave with her grandpa.

She’s a needy beast. But I miss her when she’s gone. It does not bode well for my getting another dog. She’s currently splayed out on my floor, damp again from another swim (that’s four in the last 12 hours people). And I’m feeling like a mack truck hit me because I was up at 3 AM dealing with her bathing needs.

I just had to write up a summary for one of my art groups of all of my current or upcoming exhibits. I was rejected from yet another show last week…but I have quite a few in the world this month and next, plus a 2-person show coming up. I am trying to focus on those things instead of the continuous rejections that have been coming in for the last year. Most of my newer work is out there in the world, so that’s a good problem to have. All I can do is keep making the work, when I can make it off the couch or out of the chair, and if I have work that is getting in the way of that, I can fight the good fight to keep it under control. The plus with nights like last night is that I wake up with a renewed intent to not do that again, not let inertia keep me in one place for so long. Not let the day pin me to the cushions. And the need to make more money so I can pay for college…I sometimes need to let that slip…even just a little…so I can keep my sane hat on. Most of the time.

Tonight? Zombies and art. It’s all good.

A Brightly Colored Cat…

So yesterday was a giant time suck of catching up on everything that didn’t happen on Saturday…because I really did go to a baby shower and then found a coffee shop and graded and then went to an amazing opening of Bhavna Mehta’s paper-cut work. The exhibit is called Gush and it’s currently at the Oceanside Museum of Art.

I have more photos, so I can write a post for our group’s blog. I saw Bhavna’s work years ago, well before she joined the group. It’s amazing stuff. Her brain works in these incredibly intricate ways. And I’m so glad she’s in our group now, because that means I get to see her work all the time.

Actually, before I got in the car, I managed to finish cutting fabrics out for the weird cat…because I was already halfway done.

That’s a lot of fabrics for such a small quilt.

After the museum opening, I kamikazed back to my home town, where I did this drawing in a bar watching a band play.

Then Sunday, after de-installing the 17-foot woman, going grocery shopping and to two other errands, taking the trash out, dealing with laundry, cooking for the whole week, and grading a bit (all that took until 9:30)…then I finally got up, stood up, stopped staring at screens (there were three of them)…and made it into the studio space for some real stuff. I decided on Saturday to trace this one again and make a brightly colored version. I really wanted a brightly colored cat. What can I say? I cut the Wonder Under out on Saturday too…so last night, I got ready to pick fabrics.

There’s the selection! Yup, it’s a little crazy.

I was in a mood apparently.

It doesn’t take long to do these little guys.

And even to cut them out.

I got another two small quilts cut out last night as well…

It’s fast…but I still have two more to go.

Hopefully tonight I can get those done and maybe start ironing these together. I’m already tired, though, and it’s still supposed to be hot today, although it’s not so bad right now. Plus I need to get exercise back into my regular routine. My life is kicking my butt at the moment. I know y’all are like “OMG how does she get so much done?” but I’m like holy hell, why am I not more efficient? I do need to do some major cleaning tonight after the mess I made last night, but at least I have lunches for the week and one dinner in there already made. That’s the shit that saves me during the week. Then I’m aiming for two days at the gym and one hike with the dog if it cools down. Plus ironing all those beasts down. Plus catching up on grading, whatever that code phrase “catching up” means.

Every year, I donate to SAQA in the form of buying one of their small auction quilts…this is what I bought this year…

It’s even nicer in person, a silky organza-type fabric that shimmers a bit. It’s by Daniela Tiger and is called Let’s Chat. Soon it will join the other pieces hanging around my house. It’s hard for me to simplify enough to work small. I appreciate others who can.

Melty Brain…

I swear the hot weather sucks my brain out of my head and spits it out on the ground, where it sizzles and bursts into flames. We took 140 kids to the zoo and it was over 100 degrees. Significantly hotter back at school even. By the time I got home, I just wanted to sit, and then I napped. And that’s how you know you’re old. A nap on a Friday afternoon/evening. But after that, I graded papers (took way too long…couldn’t focus). And I finally got my act in gear and headed into the studio…

I didn’t get very far…

So this is the weird cat. You can’t even see all the weirdness in this photo. But it’s weird. But I like it. So worst case? It’ll be mine.

I started ironing these pieces down and then I hit the mental wall of exhaustion…for like the third or fourth time in one day.

Man, even the camera was tired and couldn’t focus. Ugh.

I’m not a whole lot more awake this morning, unfortunately. Boychild texted me for a turkey burger recipe, girlchild is at work, bored stiff, and I’m trying to wake up enough to deal with leaving the house for about 12 hours straight. I have two events up in North County, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, so I’m just going to take my grading with me and find a coffee shop in between and sit in air conditioning, instead of the heat I have at my house. Then I come back down here to a show. Somewhere in there I need to eat a couple of meals maybe? Or maybe survive on baby-shower food and art-opening snacks? Probably not going to be enough.

And hopefully by tomorrow it will cool down, because I have to go take down the 17-foot woman, and it was incredibly warm in that space last time. I should remember the ice water this time.

My goal for the small quilts this week is to finish ironing Cat 6 (above), finish trimming all of them (5 are done, 4 to go), and then iron them all together and down to backgrounds. The bird backgrounds were obviously blues. Not sure about the cats. And I kinda still want to do one crazy-colored cat, but I did them all normal so far, so I’m considering retracing one and doing it in crazy bright colors. However, I don’t think that’s happening today.

I guess it could, but I’d have to get my butt organized. Saturday mornings are not my strong point. Hell, mornings in general aren’t my strong point.

OK. Focus Kathryn. Get up and do stuff. Yes, it’s still hot. Your brain is still in your head. Get on with it.

Moods Are Weird

Moods are weird. They hide in the shadows. They swoop down without warning, clipping your ear. They surface in the middle of something where they don’t below. Ask me enough questions about what it’s like to live alone with my kids at college, and eventually the mood attacks. Plus I’m tired of working too many hours…although it’s not likely to change for a long time.

I did blow off work last night. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was significantly frustrated by some of my classes yesterday. Field trips always bring out the bitchy-girl attitude and whiny little boys. I’m not in the mood for either. So when I went to my stitching meeting, I chose art.

I actually shoved 8 of these tubs into a bag and grabbed a coupla pairs of scissors, and I sat there and cut stuff out.

Which was probably the smartest thing to do. I was interrupted by girlchild walking home from work (which I told her not to do, but you know how that goes) and mom calling with news that my great-uncle had died. He encouraged me to be an artist, but I haven’t seen him in a while, almost two years. Every time I saw him, I assumed he’d be dead by the next time (horrible thought, eh? But he didn’t look well), so it wasn’t a surprise. It’s sad, yes. But he’d been in the hospital for months and I didn’t even know that. I’m outside the loop.

I got three bins done at the meeting. Then I shopped a bit, because we do meet in a Barnes and Noble. We’re all readers, so it’s probably a dangerous place to meet, but whatever. It makes me happy.

Then I came home and sat on the couch and tried to motivate myself to do anything at all. I had a couple of conversations yesterday about needing a vacation. You know, the kind where you go somewhere and sleep a lot and maybe do some stuff and sleep some more and eat, but you don’t have any errands or work or anything like that. I don’t ever do that. Can’t afford that anyway. Don’t have time for it right now. But now I’m dreaming of it.

I couldn’t finish all the bins though. Too tired. And the movie I was watching was unexpectedly sad. Or was it? I don’t actually think it was. I think I was unexpectedly sad. Or emotional. Or all of the above.

If you’re trying to figure out what I’m doing, last year I made about 15 small bird quilts and sold them. They’re quick and relatively cheap, and people seemed to like them. So I decided to do cats this year and meant to do it over the summer, but life intervened, so I’m doing them now. And there’s only 6 cats (and one is significantly weird), and then there’s an owl and two versions of the heart in hands that I did for a cancer donation earlier this year. I’m hoping to have all 9 done by the end of this month.

Ann Scott asked me some questions about art and quilts; she asked other artists too. You can see their answers here on her blog.

Julie gave me these, in honor of my educating children about zombies…

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I can’t decide where to put the stickers. They are just too awesome. So that was a cool thing. Ending on that note. Going to the zoo today. Can’t think beyond that.

Walking in the Dark…

I took the dog for a long walk that ended up being in the dark last night. Apparently she doesn’t like to walk in the dark. I don’t mind. It’s cooler. The cars get annoying on certain parts of this walk, but that’s only at the very end. Most of it was fine, except I had to put her back on the leash, because she was way too interested in the bunnies, who were coming out with the waning light. I had spent all day with people, trying to get them to do work or listen to me, so it was nice to not have to talk to anyone. Just walk. Just look. Just listen to music. OK, I had to talk to the dog a few times. She gets nervous sometimes. If and when I’m ready to hike with other humans again, I will. For now, I need the silence.

Then I came home and I didn’t even sit down. I cooked from scratch and THEN I sat down. After food, I graded papers, because I’m so far behind. Again. Still. Hate that. Hate how it feels. But I tried to be efficient. It takes 2 1/2 hours for me to grade one medium-sized assignment. The Unit 1 journals that I’m grading at school? About 2 hours per period, so 10 hours. I had a couple people tell me that my job is not hourly, that it’s salaried, so I can’t complain about all the extra hours I do, but I know what salaried people get in terms of salary and perks, and I don’t get that. So it’s not OK. And I don’t get paid during the summer, which is hard. I work as a teacher almost every single night, every Sunday and many times Saturday, and almost every holiday. Sometimes the workload weighs on me so heavily, I wish I could be a barrista…just make coffee all day on my feet (I’m already on my feet all day) and then come home and slough off the job and not have to BE my job for another 3 or 4 hours.

Which is why the art is so important. It’s where I get that sense of peace that I need to get up the next morning and sometimes drag myself to school, to yet another meeting where they will take 90 minutes to say in one sentence what we want to hear: Yes, we will help this needy child by providing services. Holy god, yes. Say that more.

I ironed well last night…not long, just well. About an hour and 10 minutes on art…I ironed the more complicated heart in hands…

It had quite a few fabrics because the hands had fingers. What the fuck was I thinking? Simple? Not quite.

They’re ready to be cut out. Trying to decide if I’m going to take these to my stitching meeting tonight or just take grading.

Because either I’m going to grade there or I’m going to come home and grade. I can grade there and then come home and cut stuff out, or if I have enough energy, I can iron the last one, which is bigger and more complicated.

Then I did the owl…

I did three owls last year, but they were all the same pattern, just three different colorways. This is a different drawing.

We’ll see if he’s popular.

Kitten was in there the whole time, my inspiration for most of the cats in my quilts. Before her, it was Juniper, also a calico. Apparently I have a calico personality. Friendly, but a little feisty…known to bite or attack if provoked.

Here though she is kneading my batting into submission.

OK, another early start. Tomorrow is a field trip. I’d like to say I’m going to the gym tomorrow after school, but I suspect the field trip is gonna kick my ass and I’m going to come home and grade stuff until I can stand up again. At least this time I will have leftovers in the house if I need them.

One more to iron, and then I can start cutting them out. I’m hoping to be ironing them together next week.

Just a Thought…

I have not achieved school/work/life balance yet this school year. I’m either grading or working on some freelance job or making art, but it seems a decision to do one means I can’t keep up with the others. And I tend to prioritize the freelance stuff first, because…deadlines, and then grades and then art, or sometimes art and then I’m horrendously behind on grading (like I have been the entire school year so far). I come home too tired and then have to cook or deal with crap and then I look at the clock and it’s holy-fuck-o’clock and I need to think about sleep. So I might desperately spend a whopping 26 minutes doing art stuff at night (literally, that’s how much time I had last night).

I did the next cat…

Decided to make her a ginger. Not quite a tortoiseshell…not dark enough by far. But more like Rusty, a rescue cat we had years ago, back when we let cats roam. She was a coyote dinner at some point. Too bad. She was a sweetheart. I don’t let the cats out any more.

Rusty had more pieces than I was expecting…

So I did a gray, a black, and an orange kitty, and a couple of calico-types.

Some blue eyes and some green eyes. I think there’s only one more cat, and it’s a weird one. A Kathy quilt for sure. And there’s an owl and another heart in hands. I would have done another smaller one last night, but the last three aren’t small. They’re complicated. So I knew it would be another 45 minutes and that was well past midnight, so I stopped. I have another freelance job I’m working on this week. I’m trying to get enough money together to make the first of about three college payments I have to do for the boychild. I think if I spread them out instead of trying to do three months in a row, I’m going to be better off. It’s just too hard for me to come up with that lump sum in one go.

This is another early morning arrival day for me, unfortunately. I have 21 minutes until I need to leave for school. Yes, I try to write every day before school. For a while, I did it at night because it cleared my brain and I could actually sleep, but this seems to work better now. I can set goals for the day and try to wake up (I really don’t morning well). I eat my breakfast and drink my tea while I write. I try to reflect on the last 24 hours, on what I got done and how I feel about it. Ugh. I feel tired. And stressed. And overworked. Progress reports go home tomorrow and parents will start to panic. One parent yesterday wanted to know why we didn’t contact all parents when a kid didn’t turn one piece of work in (um. Lady. I like to sleep occasionally.). And then proceeded to tell us how busy she was, too busy to check her kid’s grade. Really? It was an interesting meeting. There was another one after school. Another one today. Don’t get me wrong; I love when parents give a shit. But give a shit and take some responsibility yourself for your child, and then at the age of 12? Make them take some too. I will make these kids more capable in the classroom. Or I will die trying.

So. When I get home from what is likely to be a contentious, stressful meeting today, I will hopefully have the energy (and time before dark) to take the dog for a walk, and then quickly do dinner, and do some grading, because I need to. And then I’m hoping to iron the last three quilts. It’s probably 2 hours of ironing, so I should start by 9:30. Just to be safe. There’s the schedule I need in my head. And honestly, if I have that? I am a million times more likely to actually DO it.

Just a thought.