Wednesday. March 9, 2022. Hello age 55. Not so bad. I like numbers that are divisible by 11. Yes, I numerology my age. Why not? 54 was pretty…not in reality, but it could have been worse. Hoping 55 includes PEACE ASAP (I know Putin reads my blog…he seems the type), COVID fucking off, kids figuring out how to be at school again, and more free time. ALWAYS with the free time. As I copyedited last night after work. And will do so again tonight. It’s OK. My choice. I do wish someone would clean my bathrooms though. That would be cool.
But for today, the day with a parent-teacher conference for a kid I seriously worry about and who drives me bonkers on a daily basis…oh wait, this is the day I don’t have him in class…so not today. This is also the day of a union meeting, so Zoom for an hour plus. Ugh. For today, though, getting older is not so big a deal.
I now have the overlap of Still Ironing Wonder Under to Fabrics with Cutting Out Fabrics. So I will never see the bin full of ALL the fabrics after ironing, but I am being more efficient with my time. All good.
I ironed a lot of cactus on Monday night.
I had to consider what was in front and what was behind, plus what were the real colors of the cactus (I may have fucked with that slightly…).
Last night, I ironed the rocks behind her arms and up into her hair…
I used that purplish fabric on the left for the first (and probably last) time in the whole quilt. I’m getting close to the end…just her neck and face and then the hawk. So many fabrics!
So many greens really. And browns. Should be interesting to see it all come together. Kitten seems interested anyway.
I feel like the next quilt needs to have a million bright colors in it.
This is true. My new bras are less easy to get off with a shirt on, but I can do it.
Years of practice. Personally think bras should all go away, but I am still a middle-school teacher and that’s a thing. Boobs. Boys. It’s just problematic. The girls worry (WORRY) that I never wear a dress to school. WTF. I don’t think any of their teachers wear dresses to school. Seriously.
And this?
I know who one of them is…the Man falls asleep incredibly quickly. Lucky. So annoying.
OK, today is chaos. Two different labs, teaching art in the middle of that with a new (not new) group of kids (it’s mostly my advisory and 3 6th graders and one kid I’ve had all year). Need to switch out lab materials halfway, for some definition of halfway. Plus the two meetings. Yeah. It’s OK. It’s a sunny day, I have my lunch made, I get a prep period at the end of the day to try to get my head straight (and grade everything). I’d love to come home and go for a walk, but it’s not in the cards today. Or tomorrow. But I’ll have some good food that someone else cooked and I’ll do some cutting and ironing (and copyediting, which equals paycheck). We good.
It’s been a busy weekend…did a ton of grading and schoolwork-like stuff, made it to a quilt meeting, cut out a bunch of pieces, ironed some more, hiked for a bit, drove to a closing reception, sold a quilt (that was fun)…still not done with grading…or ironing…or cutting things out. But I have money to pay for the septic fix now (yay!) and the current quilt in progress is further along, and I should be able to finish grades today, one hopes, because they are due tomorrow.
Meanwhile, acknowledging Ukrainians trying to escape war and/or save their country from invasion while Russia behaves like a big asshole. So there’s that. On my mind, always. I have a newswatcher in the house, so even though I am gone for hours on end, I will get the summary at the end of the day. It doesn’t seem like it will end well. Certainly it has already ended badly for many. Sigh.
Meanwhile, here in San Diego, I ironed a little on Friday night, exhausted…
I’m in the 1000s…getting close. I got home late, because I stayed at school to grade all the art assignments and set up for today. Today’s Kathy appreciates that I did that, but Friday’s Kathy was pretty tired when she got home well after 5 pm. Owl box at sunset…
We’ve been having camera issues. It’s currently charging in here and will go back out this afternoon, if I remember. Simba demanded some play time when I got home too…
Saturday, I had my quilt meeting…nice to hang out and do art things in person. I took pieces to cut out, because I had a huge pile of them and it seemed to make sense. Then I ironed some in the afternoon after we hiked…it was cold out there and rained on us a little bit…
I guess ironing continued into the evening…
Still very green and brown. Which is OK…
We watched a movie with dinner. After the quilt meeting and the movie, I had this many pieces cut out…
The top box is cut. The bottom is not. There are still a ton in the other box that need cutting. Last night, I managed a whopping 29 minutes of ironing…
I think I ironed a rock and a chuckwalla. Getting closer to done.
And I sold a quilt! One of my favorites, but I think once I make them, I don’t need to own them.
They seem to really like the piece…I hope they enjoy her. The California Center for the Arts show is now closed; I brought home the other two pieces. There’s still one of mine at Visions Art Museum, and in April, there will be two more. I’m also going to be doing a Lightning Talk for the SAQA conference, so I’ll be working on that in the next few weeks…I thought I would have through the end of the month, but apparently not. Yikes. And I’m finishing up my copyediting job this week, as soon as I finish grades today. Deep breaths. Everything will get done. Everything will get paid for. I might even end up with some extra to put into savings. One can dream. Thanks to all who support artists though! We appreciate you.
I just don’t know if my computer is going to wake up enough to resize photos and let me post. It’s only certain parts of the computer…this bit is working fine…for now…until I try to save something and then everything slows down into one of those movies where everyone is frozen and you can run in between them all and grab all their food and drinks. Maybe that’s just in my head. It would be cool though. I’d have all the student phones up front before they even noticed. Because that’s half my day sometimes.
I’m bouncing back and forth between the photo editing app and here, because its response time is equivalent to a morning class of 12-year-olds and I can get a paragraph done before its eyeballs even twitch in response. Don’t expect many photos today.
It’s raining here; hence the float to work. Also there may be a gas supply issue here soon. We’ll see. Lots of kids will be absent, because they don’t come to school when it rains. I wonder if there are specific types of businesses where no one shows up if it rains, even though they’re open. Pool stores? Pools? It’s pouring and I don’t even want to drive the piddly 2.47 miles to work because I know it will take forever. There’s construction on two of the roads I take to school. YES, I know it’s a short trip. I just shouldn’t be THAT annoyed by it.
It’s fine. It’s Friday. Grades are due Tuesday. I’m not done. I don’t know when I WILL be done. I will be at school today until I finish all the art stuff, because I have to start with an all-new class on Monday. Ugh. Groundhog Day. Don’t like it.
I ironed a bit more last night because I was on a Zoom with quilting friends…
Actually I think these photos are from the night before…those are agave fabrics…
And last night, I ironed a tree and a bat. I’m in the 800s. Progress! More tonight. Hopefully.
I graded after the ironing, because I still needed to grade. I had a brief moment of kitty love…
Check out that paw. And then the computer took her place. She was nice. Grading until 10:37 pm? Not so nice.
If you’ve been on Instagram, you saw some of my old stuff…this is a lighthouse quilt I started in the 90s sometime…a friend drew the patterns. It’s the first hand applique stuff I ever did.
This is not a whole quilt yet. There are 12 blocks? 10 blocks? They’re all done and framed with sashing; I just need to piece the whole thing together. Maybe this summer. It would be about time, yeah?
OK, there’s more photos but I can’t deal with it right now. Need to swim to work and give an thinking assignment. After showing an 11-minute video of elephant’s toothpaste. We did that yesterday. Set fire to many things. Not the classroom. Looking forward to getting shit done at school so I can have some free time soon…for some definition of the word “soon”.
Still watching news of war abroad. Still wondering what Putin is thinking. I spend entirely too much time wondering what other people are thinking, not in a “I wonder what they are thinking” kinda way, but a “W.T.F. are they thinking???!!!” kinda way. I should work on that. Also, war quilt in my head. I am back to wondering when I will ever be sitting here thinking, “OMG, I can’t think of anything traumatic or troubling to put on a quilt. I should make a pretty landscape!” Not dissing the landscape people; y’all bring us peace and beauty when we need it. Actually, the quilt I’m working on IS a landscape…and it’s not about politics or war or climate change or any of that. It’s just about the desert landscape. So that’s a thing. The last quilt was hard on me. This one is too, but in a different “what freakin’ color is a cholla tree” kinda way.
So yeah, I’m in the 700s. Finally I can definitively say I am halfway. 18 hours in too. Did some yucca and some cactus on Monday night…
Then last night was the cholla tree and something else that I don’t remember…
Agave…and some grasses. This is super slow. But I’m halfway up one arm. So I’m getting there. I keep discovering more green fabrics that are useful in this quilt. You don’t want all the greens to be the same. I don’t anyway.
I am grading every night too…and last night, I made it to the gym, mostly to read my book (it’s a good one! John Scalsi’s Lock Out…really enjoying it.), but I’m also icing the right shoulder, dealing with tendonitis I think of the rotator cuff. That is painful. Hopefully it will get better if I let it rest and just do everything one-armed. Thus probably damaging the other shoulder. Aach. Getting old. At least my tendons are.
I have made the plan (again, for IDK how many years) to participate (as best I can) in #igquiltfest2022 and #marchmeetthemaker2022. They don’t match up, so that makes it exciting, yeah? Plus a lot of the maker stuff…I don’t really sell myself. I sell quilts, but not as a real business. I did have a conversation with a friend last night about trying to set it up as a hobby for last year and this year…made some money, could deduct some expenses. We’ll see. It might take more brain power than I can handle. A lot of the Quiltfest stuff doesn’t apply because I make art quilts…every one is scrappy, I don’t have favorite tips, blah blah blah. We’ll see how it goes. I might not have a ton of mental space for it. But it’s why I took a picture with the drawing for the most recent quilt. I think I’m gonna put a river in her face. Maybe.
Anyway, slow process at the moment, but I get an hour a night. Grading this weekend will slow down the art, then the copyediting, and then maybe I’ll get a break? Maybe? Hopefully?
Ugh. OK, well more labs at school today. Survived yesterday, only two table groups were totally incapable of listening. Wait. No. Three groups. Sigh. One more class group on that set of labs today, then the rest of the week is demos and watching and reading and writing. They fight the last two. It’s kinda torturous. I have kids who are capable and care and get it done, and they’re just sitting there with nothing to do, and I wish I had the energy to create and set up (and eventually clean up) an extra fun chemistry thing for them to do, but I don’t have that energy. I’ll pop it into the calendar for next year, although I’m hoping the block schedule will go away so I won’t have to deal with it. Ha! The district wants it; I don’t. It’s too long, 79 minutes. MY brain goes into cognitive overload. It’s good for art; occasionally good for science, mostly not.
And more owl video…
Sometimes there’s like 60 videos of bugs flying around, but sometimes it’s owls…so cool. I’m excited. Can you tell? Yeah. I know.
OK, lab setup, grading, more ironing. Repeat. Think good strong thoughts for Ukraine, fuel and ammo shortages for Russia. Plus bad karma. Don’t attack neighboring countries. Bad Russia.
Hey, February. WTF. You were barely here and now you’re almost gone? What is up with that? Pro: Spring Break is coming. Con: Grades are due again. Seriously short month though…will just make March seem vast and massive. So many things have to happen in March. I’m not ready. Like THAT matters!
Sigh. The Man spent a lot of time this weekend watching Ukraine/Russia coverage, and I feel for the people living there, I wish Putin would stop and/or keel over or run out of ammo, and I hope there is a peaceful and less destructive solution to stopping him (Go Ukraine!), but there’s some disturbing info coming out about African students not being allowed out of the country, because of their color…”Ukrainians first”…when OMG those kids must be fucking terrified, let them go the fuck home. Racism everywhere. Like that’s a surprise. Seriously, I get women and children first, but also those who are helping your economy by living there but don’t actually LIVE there long term…let them leave. There should be no race discrimination there. Although even the gender stuff…why do the men have to fight? Some men probably are not cut out for it and some women probably are, maybe are even staying to do that? The assumptions we make…they don’t help society.
It was too much for my brain. At one point, I told the Man that he had seen the same news stories repeat three times now, and I got a glare for that. So I did other things. I had a lot of grading to do though, and I’m missing one earbud, so finally put it in the ear closest to the television and blasted it so I couldn’t hear bombs and more explanation of details. I realize I have the privilege of doing that, living here, but also, I have a job to do and it’s hard enough to do without bombardment of really horribly anxious things in my brain. Small doses, a summary at night, I can handle that. Lots of donation programs popping up for Ukrainians, refugees and in country. Need a shortcut on that info too…donating via a quilt block pattern? I’d rather send what little money I have directly to an aid agency. Keeping my eyes open on that one.
I’m still ironing the quilt…it’s really slow and I’m so tired these days. I would have liked more time on Saturday, but chose a hike instead, plus a trip to Home Depot so I could prep quilts to ship them out for shows. So Friday night, I did absolutely nothing. I was so exhausted after the field trip…
I stayed at work until almost 5 to get stuff done, went to the chiropractor, got home, and then cooked dinner. Wasn’t much brain power left after grading for a while.
I did iron Saturday night for a short while…
The box is filling up…and then last night, I got into the arms. They’re all sand.
Lovely sand fabrics.
I’m pretty sure I’m more than halfway. I still have more than half of the 600s left to iron, but I’ve done a bunch of 800s, 900s, 1000s, and 1100s, as well as half the 1300s, so I’m getting there. It’s just not fast. Grading all this week (grades due next Tuesday), slogging through the last project unfortunately, and then copyediting a final run through the book I worked on over Winter Break. No pressure! Stressful though.
I finished all the unit packets Saturday morning with help from this doofus.
And this one kept rubbing her head all over the papers…they must smell good.
They smell like middle-school backpacks. Yuck.
I packed up one quilt, the smaller easier one, and then we walked the dog…
He was quite happy to get out. Too much war for him too.
I came back to my ex and the boychild installing a camera on my tree…
A year ago, they installed an owl box (it was my Christmas present). We’d heard owls and disturbed a barn owl the other day, so I guess they wanted proof there was one in there.
There are two actually. Very cool.
I’m excited.
We went out to dinner and I managed to finish a drawing I started in Phoenix…the food came really quickly so I didn’t get it done.
Lots of chomping on things.
Well there’s this…
Same goes for being a teacher, I think. Today is pretty chill…notes and demos. Tomorrow is a bit more chaotic and we’re not quite ready for it. Hopefully between a teacher’s aide and two of our prep periods, we can get it ready. Can’t grade anything though. Never time for that. Too much prepping labs and panicked copying of papers and dealing with kid stuff. I’ll be glad for the end of the trimester this week…getting rid of a group of kids that are mostly fine, but a small group is driving me bonkers. Will not miss those kids. Nope. I might get them again next year, but for now, let’s hope they grow the fuck up by then. Ugh. Focus on the kids who are awesome. Focus on the kids who are awesome.
Staff meeting though. Lots of crazy shit happened last Friday. Stupid shit. Dumb adults and dumb kids. It’s done though. It’s 6 weeks until the next field trip. I can do that, because I get Spring Break after it. This job. It’s hard right now, really hard. That said, it’s not as hard as having a foreign country invading you in a dick move. So there’s that.
Today it is Friday. Today, the entire 7th grade is going on two field trips to close and similar places, but the zoo won’t let us bring our whole group any more. They say it’s always been that way, but that’s bullshit, because we’ve been bringing that whole huge group for the last IDK how many years. So we are split up, which isn’t half the work; it’s twice the work. I appreciate my team for the support and I have been second-guessing all of the plans since some time last week. Yesterday I got to school and the lunches had been canceled (long stupid story, not our fault). We’ve got drama over who is in whose group on whose bus. No this, no that. Multiple kids are losing their minds. So are multiple teachers.
We will be fine once we are on the buses. Coming back worries me…I have to teach 6th period. I never teach on field trip days, but I have 6th graders. Ugh. Their art projects need to get done. So I will be doing that. India ink. Hot glue. Stop yelling across the room. Stop traveling. Plus the grading pile is insane, even after grading every night this week AND just essentially throwing out three assignments. Ugh. Done. So done. Yeah, I had a day off last week, plus two 3-day weekends. Not enough.
The Ukraine situation sucks, by the way. It’s hard to watch, harder I’m sure to live through. I’m hoping some sanity prevails. Somewhere.
The plus is the ironing. I try for an hour every night. This was Wednesday…
It’s funny…I didn’t iron any of those Wonder Under pieces down last night…all I did was a section of the 1300s that I missed on the first round, a piece of the bottom corner with a jackrabbit and some grasses and some flowers. I did that last night. It took 39 minutes and that’s all I had in me.
But here’s where I’m at and I’m not even halfway yet.
I have some of the 500s left, a little less than half? Maybe? Then I move up into the arms and the desert plants. Before that, though, I have a tarantula, a rattlesnake, and I’m not sure what else. Pupfish? Yeah. So it won’t get done tonight. Today is gonna kick my ass, plus I’m cooking dinner (that was stupid). But I’ll do some of it before I collapse. I have nothing this weekend but hours of grading (not kidding on that) and hopefully a hike and maybe some sleep. It would be nice.
Anyway, gotta get out of here and go find the first aid backpack and make sure I have food and a full cup of tea in me, plus extra masks for the kids who will conveniently lose theirs by the time they get back to the bus. Ugh. Hoping the animals are out and about and my group is not too insane. Looking forward to being outside and walking around with a smaller group of kids; it’s usually a pretty good time. Wish the district people would make it easier for us to do this, but we do have everything paid for…the kids didn’t have to pay anything, so that is freakin’ awesome in itself. OK. Gonna stay off the news…
OK, I obviously made it back from Phoenix and QuiltCon, and there are more quilt pictures, but I don’t have time to mentally (or digitally) process them yet. I came home and went right into school/house mode, which is why I wanted to leave in the first place. We had a good time hanging out, which is nice. It’s been a long couple of years without much of that, and we definitely need more of it. Spring Break! Yeah that’s 44 days away. So is seeing my daughter again! Woo hoo! And hopefully some quilt stuff…then camping and hiking with the man. I think I planned all but two days of my Spring Break, so nothing else will get done…at all. Not a bad plan until I get there and the grading is not done.
Which is part of what I’m panicking about now (again)…grading and an upcoming field trip. Once we get there, everything will be fine, but right now, it’s just crazy.
So what’s been going on? Well here’s my QuiltCon guild in front of that same donation quilt…
A few were photoshopped in…I made it to Phoenix just in time for this photo, but some did not.
The man drove for a bit on the way back, so I got to work on those damn flowers.
Apparently a year ago I was cutting them out of wool, so that’s a year working on this. I am not fast.
That said, I am almost done with the 4th type of flower…then just 2 more types to go.
I’m also still doing Molli Sparkles’ Cut-It-Up quiltalong. This is block 4, can’t remember what it is…hang on…
X Plus…well that bottom one sure is busy. I like it. I cut out 6. They’re not hard to piece, just don’t have a lot of time at the moment.
They’ve already posted Block 5, so shockingly, I am behind. It’s OK. I will survive. As my copyeditor is emailing me about the next readthrough and school is imploding into a mushroom cloud of to-dos. Yeah.
I did come back to my own quilt, which has a deadline, that honestly, I may not meet. I took a picture of these fabrics to remind me what I used for this plant, because there’s another one that’s more complicated further up the body, and I didn’t want to find those pieces now.
I often reuse fabrics in a quilt for continuity. That’s why I keep them all together until the quilt is finished.
I also started working on the sky, which has a sunset in it. Or a sunrise. Nah, it’s a sunset.
Because why keep it simple?
Sunday night’s progress…
And Monday night’s…
I got all of the sky done except for those two and the things zooming around the sky…which I finished last night…
Well, almost. I need to do the actual meteor and the rocket. I did the clouds and flames behind them. Then I get to start on the body and all the plants.
Kitten has taken to climbing the mountain of batting to survey me from up above. She’s trying to get up into the shelves (I’m not sure why)…
She usually hangs out behind that crazy pile. I need to remodel this room: new carpet, pull out the wallpaper, get rid of the popcorn ceiling, new lighting, maybe new slider doors and a bigger, nicer window, plus STORAGE. It’s on my list. Lots of things are on my list, but apparently my septic system needs a new baffle wall, which is probably expensive and will mean I don’t remodel anything.
School is all labs this week. Exhausting but good for the kids. Not as good for us…
But if they are paying attention, this helps them learn.
This is true.
Hey! My owl box has an actual OWL…a Barn Owl. We were going to pull it down to see if it needed cleaning, but then an owl swooped out. I’m hoping it has babies. And the bunnies in our yard are annoying me by eating all the new green leaves so they will have to run fast. Sigh. Predator/prey relationships disturb me, but I also recognize their necessity. It does make me worry about trimming the trees though. It’s not like I can afford to do that right now anyway…not until the baffle wall is solved.
Anyway, the owl part is exciting. School today is an exhausting mess of move this, clean this, move that, listen to instructions (them, not me), then a meeting I really didn’t want but let myself get bullied into. Fun stuff! Do everything for your students! And then more! Yeah, it’s not sustainable…we keep saying that and then we keep on sustaining it. But more ironing tonight (after grading)…that’s a good thing.
I am in Phoenix for QuiltCon. I got here by getting up at holy shit in the morning and packing the car and leaving by 6 AM. Hence my face.
It’s a 5-hour drive to Phoenix, which always seems doable until you’re doing it. Luckily the man came with me, so it wasn’t just me in my head. It’s a drive we’ve done all too many times. There are some interesting rocks and some ups and downs of the road and there was a moment of “did I wait too long to get gas?” (I did not…it was fine) and then we were here and I got dropped off and took my tired and sort of brain-weary self into the convention center. I bought caffeine and then they wouldn’t let me take it into the show, so I downed it one (bad plan) and headed in for my guild’s official photo (I don’t have a copy of that) in front of our donation quilt.
Later, I took a photo of ME in front of it (I think I made two blocks…couldn’t tell you which ones), because I was supposed to be posting all these pictures for our guild challenge, and I pretty much failed on all of it.
I’m going to blame my brain and/or Arizona time change. But there’s that.
One of the first quilts I saw, I looked at it and thought, “That looks like a Sheila Frampton-Cooper quilt.” I was right. This is her Dragon Dance.
Unfortunately, there was someone standing there and I was trying to get the right angle and fucked it up, so in the way of ALL quilt show photos, it’s crooked. I still love it, so there we are.
I have a ton of quilt photos, but I’m going back and forth between the iPad to get the photos and the laptop for easier typing, so I’m not going to add all of them now. But there were some…this is from one of the Social Justice Sewing Academy quilts…
It reminded me of some of the politics going on right now.
This is one of Latifah Saafir’s quilts, We Still Matter, made for the family of Steven Taylor, who was killed by the San Leandro Police. Saafir used pieces of Taylor’s clothing to make memorial quilts for his sons and grandmother, and couldn’t stand to waste any of his clothing, so this was the leftover pieces…
The quilt is beautiful in its own right, but as a symbol for Steven Taylor, it is even more stunning. The worn-out parts of his jeans as the knuckles…
Truly amazing.
I appreciate that the Modern Quilt Guild makes an attempt to showcase local groups and people of color, in this case, indigenous quiltmakers. This is Missing and Murdered Indigenous Children: Robbed of Their Innocence.
If you haven’t heard about the shocking number of indigenous children (and women, and men) disappearing with very little news coverage and/or police assistance in finding them, well you should read up on it. I’m fairly sure most of my readers are aware, but it’s something that makes me wonder. America is so obsessed with children and bad things happening to children, but only certain children…or certain women. Let’s change that. I appreciate how so much seems to be happening underground in this quilt by Susan Hudson, a Navajo/Diné artist.
We did hike on Saturday morning at Papago Park…these are the buttes.
It wasn’t a super long hike, about 2 1/2 miles, and not much elevation gain. We were testing out the man’s knee, which got injured last weekend. It was nice to get out though, after spending most of Friday in a car or in a convention center.
This mural was painted down the street from our Airbnb.
My Saturday class got canceled; the instructor tested positive for COVID. So I moved my Sunday class to Saturday. This beautiful art glass piece was in the classroom area…
It had a partner, but the sun was in the wrong place. This is Southern Exposure by Einar & Jamex de la Torre.
I took Activist Quilting, taught by Sara Trail of Social Justice Sewing Academy and some other members of the academy. I came in with a brain way too full of things I care about, but my table helped me realize that a lot of it was stuff I carry in my head as a teacher. I took this class (and the other one I was hoping to take) because I want to try to give my students an activist voice of their own. Although as the pandemic continues and some of the true beliefs of staff, superintendent, and school board members have become more apparent, it makes me realize I will have a hard time ever getting permission to do so. I always figured it would be an after-school club of some sort, once COVID is less of a restricting factor, but even that might be an issue in the district I live and work in. That said, I am training to be a facilitator of the workshops anyway, and it was nice to hear Trail and the others talk about how they do these workshops with kids and communities. It won’t be about what’s on MY mind, but what’s on theirs…and that’s what I’m interested in. I can make my own political and social issue quilts–I already do–I’m interested in helping others do the same.
Anyway, my block…
And as I look at it, there’s more I want to add, but I already handed it over. Someone else will embroider it and then hopefully it will end up in a quilt somewhere with a bunch of other blocks. That would be cool.
I also look at it and think, hey those aren’t even all MY issues, but those of my students and they have other things on their minds and it isn’t MY place to document them, but honestly, as teachers, some of our burnout comes from carrying the emotional trauma of the kids we teach. It’s hard to stomach, it’s hard to walk away from at night, and it’s hard to drive away and think you don’t have a resolution of what happened to that kid. And we do it all the time. So for me, in the space I was in, this was my social issue.
Here was my table and their blocks…strange and somewhat awkward to have these conversations with people you have just met, but it happened. The woman next to me is from San Diego and knows others in my guild, so small world?!
It was a good experience. I didn’t do any schoolwork for three days (well, mostly), which was great. I talked to cool people I’ve always wanted to meet at the Quilt National and SAQA booths and met Richard the kilt guy from Global Artisans finally, plus have some new thread and fabric to try out and two big hefty books to read. All in all a good thing. We need breaks. I do have to go to school tomorrow to grade art things and hopefully my classroom is not in disarray…well TOO much. And maybe this little break will help me get through a few more weeks of school without feeling like I’m losing my mind (definitely was the last two weeks).
It’s weird that after having a longer weekend than usual, with more opportunities for rest and relaxation, that I felt so incredibly tired and worn out yesterday. Welcome to burned-out teachers, a good 6 weeks earlier than we usually burn out. Shit. Make that 8 weeks. The stretch from here to Spring Break is long, y’all. We will all find a way through it, to be sure, but yesterday’s multiple hits on kids moving from here to there with no discussion and no warning…I could do without those surprises. I feel for the kids as well. It’s rough switching teams midyear. And I still don’t have a sub for Friday…suspect that will still be the case on Friday. I had a sub. I planned ahead. This is only the second day I’ve taken off all school year. I keep saying that…honestly, teaching shouldn’t be a competition like that. We should be able to take days when we need to without worrying about what we’re leaving behind. Certainly with what politicians and some parents keep spouting to scare off future teachers, the shortage isn’t going away. I’m really looking forward to this weekend…being able to see quilts and people who like quilts and doing stuff away from home that aren’t school-related. Yes, I will come back to an insane pile to grade, but whatever. That’s always the case.
The insane pile to grade is why I’m not getting much ironing done on the new quilt…just 45 minutes each night, and it’s been mostly staring at fabrics, trying to figure out how they’ll all fit together in a pile of rocks against a pile of sand with an owl in front of them. That’s a lot of earth tones that need to work together. The next quilt needs to be all wild and crazy colors, whatever I want, to make up for all this realism. I have a pile of themed shows coming up that need stuff. I’ll look at it eventually, decide what to do.
Swallow Me Whole is at the Virginia Quilt Museum…Excellence in Quilts opened yesterday…
Talk about anxiety in a big-ass quilt.
Monday night, I managed a little ironing and then pulling these rock fabrics together.
I ironed those last night…along with some owl stuff. Nothing is going quickly…
But there is always more fabric to use. I think there’s 7 in there for a tiny owl, plus the 7 for the rocks in an area that is maybe 5″ square. I’ll reuse them in other parts of the quilt…or at least I’ll try. There’s a lot of thinking going on, thinking about colors and shades and how they contrast (or not). Tonight is a bunch of rocks (more!), a coyote, and a lizard. I think the lizard has some color in it (blue!). Anyway. It’ll all get done eventually and it will look really good and I’ll be really pleased with it (I hope), but right now, I can’t see that yet.
I came home to a rainbow…
In my neighbor’s yard, it looked like, although someone from work posted a picture of it from there (bigger and better). A reminder that beautiful things are out there even when the daily stuff is hard. Meanwhile, I’m getting texts about the stupid mask shit that’s coming down from our district. Don’t get me wrong, I hate masks…and eventually we’ll probably stop wearing them everywhere, but I’d really like to see more of my students vaccinated before that happens. See sub shortage commentary above. When teachers stop testing because they can’t afford to be out for 10 days? What is the issue here?
OK, school calls. Presentations today…yesterday required a lot of cajoling and assistance, and in one case, I had to hug her and repeat everything she said to the class because she was losing her mind, and I remember losing my mind in exactly that way in middle school. Now I don’t have that issue, but I’ve had lots of practice in between.
It’s Monday. It’s Monday but it’s a holiday for me, which is like a gift of love all by itself. Yea through the piles of work and giant-ass to-do list I do wander with an extra day off to prep food, grade things, panic about taking one freakin’ day off this Friday, and try to pull a weed or two. Oh yeah, and it’s V-Day, which I don’t really do. My mom made me a card, which was nice. The man and I will avoid today’s crazy entirely and go out to dinner tomorrow night, because he’s been backpacking and tonight is not a hoop we want to jump through. But love to all of you, unless you’re an insensitive jerk who doesn’t have an alternatively neuro brain, in which case, I’m probably going to cut you a break.
The pro is that I started ironing the quilt to fabric, which might be my favorite part of the quiltmaking process. It’s long sometimes…this one definitely will be, because there are a lot of realistic living things in it that I want to be their real-life colors, so I’m using a lot of photos to help me do that.
I hang the full-size drawing up so I can refer to it…that’s where all the pieces are numbered. Then I lay out the first 100 pieces in groups of 10 on my table to make it even easier to find the pieces I need.
I do sections…all the creosote at one time…
This is all of the bighorn sheep parts.
Slowly I get through the tiny animals this way…they are all at the bottom of the quilt, mostly.
I didn’t get much ironed on Friday…had to finish cleaning up, plus bordering on exhaustion.
Saturday was a little better…
And then Sunday night…
Mostly earth tones, which will be true of a lot of the quilt. Blue skies, brown everything else with hints of green and some floral colors. This will not be fast. But that’s OK.
I hiked Saturday…lots of new growth popping up…
Amazing that after so many years, I can still see new things on the same old hike…
It was hot Saturday, 87 degrees at 4 PM when I left…
But as soon as the sun popped down under the ridge, it cooled off a good 10-15 degrees.
I’m debating exercise today…go to the gym now (cooler) and finish my book (need and want to do that) or wait until later and hike (pup needs exercise). Not sure I have time for both.
Sunday’s hawk yelling at me. I think it’s out there again now.
I warned the dove in the nest that she needed to build further into the tree for safety. Last year, the hawks definitely found the nest.
Simba wanted to lie in the sun, but Luna isn’t that fond of dogs, so there was a minor issue.
So what else do I need to do today? I managed to make lunches and breakfasts for the next two weeks while grading and setting up posts for this week and part of the next. I leave Friday morning early for QuiltCon, so I need to do some prep for that, both in terms of packing and writing sub plans. My sub got canceled, so I have to assume whomever is in my classroom won’t know diddly shit about art or science. Science is an easy plan…do these three things, be quiet, don’t bug the teacher. Art is never an easy plan. I told my co-teachers that if they got stuck in that class to bring backup. I need to set up a septic pumpout (fun stuff) and cross another host of shit off the to-do list. Plus finish my taxes and decide if I will ever have enough money to get the trees trimmed. Let alone anything else. Probably not.
Well bless the neighbors for being quiet today. Or gone. Whichever. I appreciate it for whatever reason. No screaming children, no lawnmowing, no sawing or drilling or other noises of industry. Just a quiet Monday listening to the birds, including the one I just ID’d with a new (to me) app recommended by a reader: Merlin. I have a loud and boisterously singing Song Sparrow (what a name, eh?). Good to know. OK. Book calls. So does the laundry unfortunately.
Kathy Nida 