Because I’m Easy Come, Easy Go*

I have all these videos I usually have to watch for school, kids explaining their understanding of this topic or that vocabulary word. It gives me an idea of what they’re thinking, makes them practice verbalizing what they might know, and gives them some experience with talking to others without the chat factor. The kids don’t much like taking the videos, although if you put them on YouTube and get them to talk about video games or their favorite anime, then they’re fine. It’s only school that makes them incoherent…or for some of them, just amazingly intelligent. The kids who would never ever raise their hands in class, who never say a word, are sometimes incredibly competent on video. But I have to watch all of them, and that takes time, and I can’t (usually) do anything else while watching them. Sometimes I can sew, but not always. And I wanted to work on my drawing this weekend…but I also wanted all these videos out of the way. So I watched WHILE I drew. Really, I did, and it worked. I was probably a little slower at both than usual, because I did have to type in scores and pay attention to the words at least (not the pictures)…but I got both assignments done and I feel good about that. One more thing to check off my list. TWO more things…

I also got some of the holiday shopping done, although I’m still flailing on at least two people. So there’s that. I did a lot of grading. Oh! I went to the FIG opening at the Lyceum, although we didn’t stay long (someone was tired)…this is the downstairs gallery at the theater, the play is “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” and this is our Women: Poetry and Art exhibit.

It can be seen whenever the box office is open, apparently. Or before the show opens each evening. It’s a nice exhibit. Each piece is either based on a poem or the poem is based on the piece. Some of us wrote our own, but most used other people’s work.

This is my piece Sweet Delicious, based on a poem I wrote a long time ago.

So the opening was nice…some of the artists read their poetry as well. There’s another poetry reading on Thursday, but I’m already booked that night.

Mostly, though, when I wasn’t grading stuff this weekend, I was drawing…so I added paper on all four sides, some more than others…and started to fill out Head number 4…which apparently needed snakes for hair.

Like you do. That was Saturday night. That was also when I cut this section out because the hand that was there sucked that bad. This thing has a lot of hands.

It’s OK. I came back to it Sunday. But first I worked on the arm of Head 4 and the body of Head 3.

Here’s Head 5 swallowing Head 4, although the size is not that much greater…if at all. And the sun. This whole piece is currently upside down to the orientation of the whole thing.

Mostly I think this drawing is about anxiety and life sort of taking over, feeling like you can’t get it all done and you’re getting swallowed by it all. But it’s also really disorienting. And sort of frightening. The thought of being swallowed by a giant toothy mouth is scary.

I guess that’s where I’m at right now…although she seems to have it all together. Tea, cat…what more could you need?

There’s lots of snakes too. Not sure what to say about that.

There’s the redraw where the crappy hand was before. Much better.

There’s a lot going on in here.

This is the body and the hand to Head 3.

And then I tried to photograph the whole thing. Well it’s not dark enough ink for you to see all of it, but it’s big…and this is the correct orientation. I think. I could change my mind later. Maybe there will be a sleeve on each side, and you can decide how you want it to hang?

I think it’s about 64″ wide x 55″ high. Now.

Of course, the next step was to number it. Well…to START numbering it. I got about an hour in…and then quit (to go to sleep…it was late). I numbered by figure, so hopefully that will make sense when I iron it together. But probably not.

I always try for logic…and mostly fail. I numbered 3 of the 5 heads…and kept track of pieces for each.

Interesting bit that…the smallest does have a lot of pieces for its size. I counted the things that were on it. The smallest one includes a tea cup and a rug and a cat. The next one has a tree, a bird, a bird’s nest, and some sort of ivy.

This is most of Head 5…not numbered yet. It probably has the most pieces in it. It’s also one of the biggest heads. I think technically Head 4 is bigger…

But fewer parts of Head 4 show? Maybe? There is an arm.

Anyway, I’ll finish numbering tonight and hopefully start tracing. Looking forward to this one, even though it’s weird. I like weird.

*Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody

Honey Put On That Party Dress*

Weekends are for recovery and preparation. I’m in the recovery portion now. Still not enough sleep, working a headache, medicating with caffeine, trying to avoid the work stuff, have to read a traumatic book chapter for a staff meeting, already got some holiday shopping out of the way, have more to do in person this afternoon, have to avoid a parade though, and then there’s an art opening tonight, and maybe I’ll be joined by my guy, who was up at an ungodly hour and off to work, so he’ll be exhausted. Typical Saturday in December, yeah?

I forgot to take my sketchbook to school yesterday, so I could copy that drawing right after (that’s the easiest and most efficient way to do that…I like to NOT waste time when possible). So I came home and grabbed it and left the dogs and copied. I enlarged it 250%…it made the smallest pieces a sane size, but some of the big pieces are too big. I can fix that with more pieces (details!).

Oh yeah, and I entered a show last night. I forgot that. I did that before I copied, because I was afraid I would forget. Work my butt off on a quilt for a deadline and then forget to enter. Sounds like a bad dream.

So I started cutting all the pieces apart and trying to fit them back together. This puzzle is confusing because of all of the heads spiraling around.

See, that head piece is too big for one piece of fabric, but I’ll fix that after I add to the right side so I can draw the rest of it.

All taped…full size to the left (well, minus part of a head and a whole ‘nother head)…original drawing to the right.

Somehow I managed to miss copying the bottom left corner. Can’t explain that. Tiredness?

So hopefully today, I’ll add more paper to the left and maybe the right and definitely the top and maybe the bottom. Why NOT make it huge? Well, I do have to finish it, yeah? And there is some size restriction. But I’m in the mood to be big and bold and swallow it all.

That might be a good title for it. I’ve got plenty of time to figure that out.

Calli isn’t sure I have enough time. Yet she’s the one who’s always sleeping wherever I’m working, so she knows I do.

This freaky guy. I was combing his behind-ear hairs.

Apparently that means a goofy face. What a dork.

OK, going to attempt life. Or work. I guess my life is work. But a lot of it is good and worthwhile work. Even when it stresses me out.

*Tom Petty, Mary Jane’s Last Dance

I Should Get Moving…

Well I have graduated to eating turkey sandwiches for breakfast as well as for lunch. I don’t think there’s a problem with that. I froze a bunch of it, so it’s still good. And the oatmeal/fruit thing I ate yesterday didn’t last all the way until lunchtime. I love being dizzy in 4th period. Not. This blood sugar thing…you never get it right, that’s for sure. Change a medication? Relearn everything…from how your body reacts to how to get it through TSA lines. Fun stuff. I may get sick of turkey sandwiches at some point, but they still taste wonderful at the moment. Good thing.

The school days are long at the moment, punctuated by meetings and panic over meetings we didn’t know about and more panic about moving the meetings that were when the meetings we didn’t know about now are so that we can still do ALL the meetings, followed by emails that remind me that not all parents keep track of their kids in middle school and maybe more of them should. Gotta answer some of those today. It feels like Friday and it’s so incredibly not.

The quilt did go to the photographer yesterday, though…so that’s cool. I beat out the other two quilters who are entering the same show…so I’m not TOTALLY at the last minute…just mostly. This sunset while I was sitting in stopped traffic to GET to the photographer was totally worth it. It looked much better in real life. Camera phones cannot handle intense skies…at least mine can’t.

Then again, I think my phone is close to the end of its useful life. It crashed yesterday, randomly. And then popped up a message that I couldn’t read before it disappeared…something about my phone crashing unexpectedly. You’d think there’d be a way to read those messages…but apparently not.

So I was home late and did a union thing and shit I still need to do the union email from before break (ugh), but then I ate late and then was reading my book and then finally decided I should do something. DO SOMETHING. Don’t just sit there. Do. I could quilt a wool quilt (ugh, too tired). I could just sit and embroider on the Folk Tails (Tales?) quilt, but that doesn’t get me to making another piece of art, even though my brain couldn’t handle much more than that last night. So I pulled over the last big sketchbook, which dates back to 2014 (I haven’t been drawing as much in the last few years…more pointed drawing, drawing with a purpose, rather than just random stuff, at least in the big one), and I was going through old drawings, seeing what spoke to me. And it was the heads swallowing heads thing. I started with this one (this is just most of it…not all of it)…

And in some ways, I still think this is the best one. Wait, I think there’s a smaller one somewhere. Huh. Should find that. It might have been the first.

Then I did this one…trying to fit more heads in.

You’ll notice I didn’t fit more heads in. I’m strangely obsessed with trying to get more heads in on the page…this one, well, there’s nowhere to put another head, unless it’s swallowing her elbow, and bizarrely, in my head, it’s all about heads swallowing heads. Don’t get all middle-school on me, people. Heads. Like people heads. Not penis heads. That’s a whole ‘nother type of quilt…one I get accused of making, but really don’t do. Maybe it’s about life or other people trying to swallow us up. I don’t know.

So that motivated me. Looking at old drawings. While half lying on the couch and falling asleep at one point, I tried again…

Maybe 3 is the maximum number of heads I can do on a page this size. I should have put the bird somewhere else and had one swallow from the top, and then I could have fit a fourth head in there.

This is a strange discussion, and yes, it’s all in my head (oh dear)…there’s certainly something going on. I need to draw more of these, I think. There are things I like about each drawing…but none of them is right yet. Five heads is the magic number, but I don’t think I can get there on a page this size.

With that, I have meetings until 6 PM tonight, so who knows what I’ll be capable of by then (not a lot). I should get moving. Really. I should.

Just Don’t Make Me Plan It

You know, I’ve been divorced for a really long time, and they do tell you that if there’s kids, the issues around a divorce will last well beyond the child years…especially around the holidays and special events. There’s too much negotiation and emotional detritus, and then add new relationships into the mix and it just gets messy as hell. It’s at this time of year when I often think about semi-normal families and how it must be so much easier. I know…it’s not…half my issue is that I’m the only one who manages most of it and I’m currently voted most likely to run away and hide in a cave for the week around Christmas. I don’t want to be the only one dealing with gifts (thanks to the boychild last night for trying to help with that). I don’t want to be the in-between person for all communication. I don’t want to be the shopper, the manager, the organizer, the bank. Food is complicated, family is complicated, timing is complicated. Can I just show up somewhere with a big plate of cookies and sit by the fire and stitch? Watch, it’ll be 90 degrees on Christmas Day. But join me! Just don’t make me plan it.

I keep trying to figure out how to delegate out the household crap so I don’t have to be in charge. There’s something there. Damn, I even manage all the animals. Even though I get told all the time that they’re not mine.

Somewhat done right now with all of it. A really long work day (where the parent didn’t even show up for the early morning meeting, thanks very much) yesterday didn’t help. Plus I hate what I’m teaching at the moment. Yup. I said it. Stupid pilot. It sucks.

So I need to find my next art project quickly, not because of deadlines, but because of my sanity…always a difficult thing for teachers during this stretch that runs from Thanksgiving Break to Winter Break. Kids are done, we’re done, everyone’s done!

Anyway, so I went through some of the shows that are coming up and decided (sort of) which ones I would deal with. It looks like I should try to make a larger piece in the next few months or so, but before I decided that, I had pulled some of the smaller drawings I’ve had lying around for a bit. These want to be quilts, but I haven’t had time to make any of them. They’re all enlarged and numbered and ready to go.

I haven’t made a decision yet. I might need to go through the sketchbooks or even draw something new. I can’t decide.

I worked on this for a while, because it required no brainwork…finished this block.

Although I did the hut roof wrong. It’s fine. It’s just different. Not really wrong. The flower bugs me too…it’s not big enough. I think I’m going to add some petals to it.

Then I worked on the tree for a little bit…

Obviously didn’t finish it…

Shared the couch with these two snoring fuzzballs.

It must be cold.

Best quote from Bosch…

That’s two nights with no sleep. Fun stuff. Going to school for another parent meeting…hopefully they’ll show. Then my quilt goes to the photographer…hallelujah. That’s a good thing. Maybe my mood will improve too. Hopefully. Sometimes school is a welcome distraction from all the other crap.

But Not Right Now

It’s morning. Early. OK. Brain not functioning much…enough to make lunch and breakfast and feed animals and even shower, which includes shampoo and conditioner in that order. At some point during the night, someone (or thing? Creepy) scratched a long red mark on my arm. I don’t remember doing it (Kitten?). Who knows. I do know I didn’t sleep well…second night in the last two weeks when I’ve laid there waiting for sleep to come. Adjusting the body, thinking it’s a comfort thing. Maybe if the position is right, sleep will wander over. Nope! I think most teachers don’t sleep well the night before we go back after a break from school. Running lesson plans over in your head, trying to keep everything straight, remembering your routine, what do I have to do in the morning? That’s me anyway.

The awesome news is that the quilt is done. I can deliver it tomorrow to the photographer and get it back and make the deadline.

I do have a painful bit on my middle right fingertip at the moment. I remembered a thimble finally (and even found one). I finished both sleeves by 11:30 PM. I don’t have a total time yet…will figure that out tonight, as well as what I might be doing next. I looked up a few deadlines…one is a definite, but I need a size range. The other two are still up in the air. I do have two wool quilts that need quilting…I can work on those until my head figures out the rest. I can draw. I can embroider on the body piece that’s been lying around for years. I can finish that hand applique piece that’s also been lying around for years. Plenty of stuff that pops up when the to-do space empties out.

This was a tense moment. Simba is not always pleased by cat attentions. This one makes him nervous. He loved Midnight, but for some reason, Satchemo is nerve-wracking.

It was cold, though…they eventually settled, but only briefly.

This guy. I don’t post about him much, but he’s about to start 12 days of work with no break, and I suspect that smile will be gone. He does allow his niece to braid his beard at family gatherings…except for the one time when he had shaved it off…she was so disappointed.

Here’s to mostly tolerant guys who (and I’m quoting an artist’s husband here) put up with the crazy quilters in their lives. It’s gonna be a rough 2 weeks for everyone in this house (well, except the furry beasts and maybe the boychild). I’m looking at early starts every day this week, as all the parent meetings in the world got scheduled this week.

But art. I’m looking forward to maybe just drawing tonight. That would be nice. I think I have to stitch two fish eyeballs on the quilt tonight (OK, it’s not QUITE done). And there’s plenty of school stuff to deal with…always. I think I graded 6 things over break, but I have a ton of lesson planning still left to do. It’s just gonna suck for that stuff for a while, until we get through piloting new curricula. Blech. Not a fan. And I’m not even really piloting this. I keep thinking I should dump it and run for the project-based-learning hills. Next one. Totally not doing the next one. I think. Sigh. I don’t know what I’m doing next.

OK, well it’s only 3 weeks and then a break again. We can do 3 weeks. But I always have a big project for over break, so I’ll need to figure that out. But not right now.

You Let Your Feet Run Wild*

It’s interesting how short 9 days of vacation feels. Like that’s a good chunk. If I’m driving places and camping and hiking and cooking in 50-mph winds, then it feels like a long time (sorry, just channeling the last trip). But when I sit at home and eat a lot of pretzels and popcorn while running some lame errands and basically make an entire quilt in a week, then it feels like nothing. In the last week, I’ve spent 28 hours making this quilt. In the previous week, a school week, I spent 10 hours making this quilt. So I guess that’s the difference. Close to full-time job (I haven’t done anything today yet…give me time) vs that’s why I don’t sleep much because I do it all after work hours.

Speaking of sleep…I didn’t sleep last night. Seriously I was awake for hours. I don’t know why. Weird though and I feel mostly shattered this morning. Good start.

So the news on the unknown batting is that it worked just fine…a little loftier than what I usually use, but it quilted OK. No bearding, no freaky behavior that I noticed.

I didn’t have enough of the one color of blue thread to do all the outlining and the background quilting, but it did last long enough to do the outlining, so that’s a plus.

There were a few thread hijinks. I said “You bastard” a lot. IDK whether that’s the thread or the bobbin or the quilt itself. But I said it. In general, though, there were not a lot of issues once I switched out the old needle.

Although that nest was pretty impressive.

Details…

Tiny little eyeballs…

All the stuff that I love about making quilts…

I also made a turkey and mashed potatoes and the family Swiss green bean recipe for dinner…turkey is a little too salty. I didn’t rinse the brine…because one recipe said to rinse it and one didn’t. I should have. But I have turkey for sandwiches for the next two weeks (some in the freezer…don’t panic). I’m happy about that.

At 5 hours and 45 minutes of quilting, I had finished the outlining. That was before dinner…I think? Maybe?

I took a break, ate dinner, graded one assignment, and then went back to quilting. At this stage, I need a lot of breaks. My back was hurting. It’s hard to keep going…until you’re close to the end (I almost gave up many times)…then it’s race away until you finish.

Sleepy old lady with her toy…

She’s a good girl.

There’s the whole thing, all squished up for the last bit of quilting the background.

It was only 8 1/4 hours. Not bad. More than I thought it would be, but that’s OK. Lots of details will do that. So now she’s ready for trimming and binding. I need to go out this morning and buy binding. I will not be going to a big box store for that. Still avoiding JoAnns. She goes to the photographer on Tuesday, so that’s enough time for me to hopefully get the binding and sleeves on and dehair the beast, as well as deal with all the school stuff that needs to be done by Monday (yikes!). And then? I have no idea what I’m working on next. I’m sure there’s a list somewhere, but I haven’t looked at it in months. Maybe something short and fun? Or another deadline. Who knows? Someone should figure that out.

*Kaleo, Way Down We Go

Happiness Hit Her Like a Bullet in the Back*

No, I’m not shopping today. Well, I did a little bit of online shopping for Christmas, because I’m starting to panic about that. But otherwise, I don’t think I’m taking off these pajama pants or leaving the house. Well, I might walk the dogs…or myself. That would be a good plan.

So yesterday, I got up and finished the stitch down…

I was on a roll. It took about 3 1/2 hours total. I’ve found the fast part of the quilt, I think.

Or I was motivated to finish. I like this quilt. I want to be able to enter it. I emailed my photographer this morning. Next week is a crazy psycho space of school meetings and crap, but hell…it will be finished.

All stitched down before Thanksgiving stuff started. Well, I made deviled eggs in the morning…

I’m using the new WordPress editor right now. You can no longer add all the pictures at once and then type around them, which is what I used to do. Now I have to click more buttons. Sigh. Not how my brain works.

When we got back from dinner, around 9 PM, I was tired but motivated. I decided to use the unknown batting. I pieced a backing, because the one batik I used for the front was wider than anything else I had for the back. Oh well. Done! Laid out. Looks good. Batting was big enough.

That might have been all I cared about at that point. Ask me how I feel about it after quilting with it. I swear, I know I did another quilt with this batting. Wish I could remember which one it was.

Pinbasting took about an hour…and then I vegged out for the rest of the evening. Like an hour. Then bed. Ugh. Tired.

I didn’t grade anything yesterday. I need to grade today. I need to quilt today. I figured it will take me about 6-7 hours to do the quilting. I need binding fabric, so that’s a trip to Rosie’s…just not today, I don’t think. I don’t even want to be on the road today. Maybe tomorrow? I have something in the afternoon tomorrow and a bunch of things I was supposed to do (but probably won’t) tomorrow night. Quilt today. Finish if possible. Trim. Bind tomorrow? Maybe? Hand sew binding Sunday while getting ready for school starting again (aargh). Deliver to photographer Tuesday. Hopefully.

A gift from the fam last night…

For my Christmas tree…from Ljubljana…where I actually went in 1988 at Christmas time. Long time ago. I couldn’t have afforded anything there at the time. The stock market in the US crashed and my university had sent my aid checks late, so I had about half the money I would’ve had for the winter break if they’d sent them on time. Whoops. It was a starving month. I remember that.

I’m not quite ready to do Christmas yet. Maybe when it’s actually December. I have a week at least.

Girlchild is in Canada right now. And still alive. All good. We are having MY turkey tonight, so I can have turkey sandwiches. I did not get pie last night. I could have had pie, but I don’t like pumpkin pie. So maybe I will put clothes on to buy a reduced-price pie at the store today. Or not. I don’t really need a whole pie.

OK, time to quilt. I have most of a cup of tea in me. I almost feel human. That’s good enough.

*Florence and the Machine, Dog Days Are Over

Better Than Pie

Things that keep me up at night: wait. Happy Thanksgiving first. Happy day of eating and family and friends and eating and maybe football or whatever. And sleeping and drinking and avoiding political discussions like the plague.

Things that keep me up at night: my kids. Seriously. They do. Where they are and whether they will survive. Also worrying about whether or not I have enough batting to quilt the damn quilt that is trying to get done. Because today is a freakin’ holiday, duh, and I should have checked that yesterday and gone out and bought batting if I didn’t have enough, because I’m probably going to get to the sandwich stage today and delaying until tomorrow to wait for the store to open (on Black Fucking Friday, oh god) and then buying it and washing it and drying it and THEN sandwiching, and I’ve lost half the day right there.

Damn. Well. I should check now if I have enough, because maybe all that worry is beside the point. I should have maybe gotten out of bed at 3 AM when the rain woke me up (ah beautiful rain, thank you for existing) and done it then.

So the answer is sort of. I have lots of long narrow pieces of Warm and Natural, which is what I prefer to quilt with. I just checked JoAnns hours and they’re really not open today. Tomorrow at 6 AM. Which implies sales and crazy-ass people lining up like loons. So back to the sort of answer. I have a batting remnant that IS big enough…I just don’t know what it is. I used to take classes way back in the day and they would recommend batting types and I would try them out, but I love the W&N because it sticks and I don’t have to quilt super close together and it’s not super lofty. This is not W&N. It might be bamboo, because I remember someone saying how wonderful it was for wall hangings and maybe I bought a small one, and if I did, then I used a piece of it for a smaller quilt, because there is a piece gone. No labeling at all, of course.

On January 10, 2014, I also pulled this piece of batting out (yes, I’m mining the blog for answers to my brain right now)…and I chickened out and didn’t use it, because unknown results! I hate unknown results when I’m on a deadline. It has a weird edge, plus a scrim or something inside it.

OK, I officially skimmed the entire blog for mentions of random batting (I talk about batting a lot), and there’s nothing. I also checked for the word “bamboo”, but apparently I use the word “bamboozled” a lot, so that was unhelpful. So I’m gonna use it. Seize the day! Even if it might fuck up everything! Of course, I’m not actually ready for it yet. Plus, it’s batting. How bad could it be?

Yesterday, I rolled up the bottom bit and put it aside for a while so I could deal with the head and resultant plumes from that area…

Head start. Ah ha ha ha.

Plume to the right is done…plume to the left is started…

Working on a net full of fish…

And a boat…most of the plume is done here.

I did eventually find all the eyeball parts that were missing, but never found the fish part, so I had to recut it. I also found a missing tree part from the 200s…so I inserted that as well. No waste! Well. There’s waste.

And ironed her down…before dinner even. It was a productive day. For art quiltmaking. Not for life in general. It took 13 hours and 46 minutes to iron her together. Not bad.

She’s ready for stitch down. But first some grading…two assignments down and input into the system, plus a sleepy puppy. And I brined a turkey and hard-boiled a bunch of eggs. But that was earlier. I even put a bra on and went to the store, where I forgot the Miracle Whip but remembered more cheese.

Cheese is always good. Turkey is in the fridge in the mop bucket. It’s clean (plus it’s in a plastic bag for the paranoid among us). Then I started stitch down. No wasting time! Must finish!

I got a good 2-hour chunk of it done. My goal is to finish the stitch down before I have to be presentable for social interactions with other humans.

Besides the two antisocial beasts I live with. You know. They ignore me anyway. Oh, I made deviled eggs this morning. Because I wanted them. So there. Tomorrow I will make turkey and some other stuff so I can have turkey sandwiches for a couple of weeks (I freeze it…don’t panic). But today, I stitch down and hopefully sandwich and pinbaste and maybe even start quilting, if the tryptophan doesn’t kill me. That’s the goal anyway. Better than pie. Well. Pie is pretty good if it’s apple pie.

I Suggest You Switch Your Mind State*

Well, my perfect-laid plans of finishing the ironing yesterday and starting the stitch down did not come true. A shock! Holy crap, is it Wednesday already? Sheesh. This quilt. Life! It takes time, doesn’t it? I’m debating a longer hike for Friday morning, but realistically, it depends on how much I get done between now and then as to whether I can do that. Sigh. Deadlines. Grades. Stuff.

Yesterday I ironed for close to 5 hours. I also graded one assignment and recorded another one that a program graded for me. We walked the dogs. I picked up two of my quilts. I didn’t do a lot of things.

Ironing this quilt has been a challenge. I numbered it in logical order for ironing Wonder Under to fabrics, but it doesn’t iron together in the same order. Hence having to iron the feet (in the 400s) into the 100s of the landscape. So that continued as I ironed upwards from the ground…I got the legs done up until the hips…

And then started working on the rest of the hill to the right…

Bobcat and mule deer…

Some manzanita. And Satchemo…asleep in the sun. He’s there again now.

Wait. I didn’t iron the cat.

The hill…minus the poison oak.

The poison oak went in, bridging the hill to the leg…

Then some dog walking…we did over 3 1/2 miles…

Mostly trying to tire out the little one…

Back to the ironing. So when I got to the torso, it was all in the 500s, but the plume of water and trash coming out of the chest is in the 800 and 900s. I couldn’t make sense of trying to iron the whole body without putting the plume in, so I started pulling from the last two boxes.

And then continued the body above that plume. So I’m about halfway through the 600s, plus I’ve ironed all the 900s and about half of the 800s…although there are a few of those still floating around. Haven’t figured out where they belong yet.

And I’m missing parts of two eyeballs. Plus a piece of a fish. Huh. Well, hopefully they’ll show up sometime today. So I think I have about 200 pieces left to iron. I think. Honestly, it’s hard to say. I’ve been ironing it together for 9 1/2 hours…at least 2 or 3 hours left, I think. So I should be able to finish ironing today and start stitching down. That’s the plan anyway. Plus grade an assignment or two. And maybe an errand. Sigh. I really don’t want to do anything else…but there’s stuff that needs doing. Hate that. Oh well. Moving on.

*K.Flay, So Fast, So Maybe

Not Sold on That…

Seventeen things on the list for yesterday. I think 5 got done. Not bad. Love the kid who is currently complaining that I haven’t finished grading her late work yet. Nah, I’m doing the on-time work first…all 8 assignments of it. Strangely, every time I finish a task, it seems two more jump up to take its place. I need to be serious about ironing today though…so maybe I do that first. I know from experience, though, that if I do that, I rarely get anything else done. Sigh. Quilt must get done. Grading must get done.

I just read my blog from last year’s Thanksgiving week, and I’m not going to Costco today. I did it last year on this day. It will be hell. It was hell. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe I’ll do a drive-by. We need toilet paper. But not that bad.

Calli wants something here. You can tell by the way she’s looking at me.

So I ran errands and graded on and off, and then I went to the gym, so the day just sort of slips by. And then I made dinner, but at some point, I started ironing a coyote together. I think it was pretty late, actually. Like after 9 PM.

I got the hill done behind her…well, not all of it. There’s more on the right. I just decided it would be easier to iron some leg parts in there first.

Coyote landscape. Fire. Yeah, I drew this before all the fires last week. California fire season…

Unfortunately inevitable…but not that bad. Not as bad as it was this year.

The other bird. A hill…

And then I started ironing legs. Up to the knees…actually, I think I got up to the hip on one side, and then realized I hadn’t cut out the other side. I have no idea how that happened.

Kitten is surveying it all…this was bedtime. After midnight.

That’s why I’m tired. I go to bed late and then people and animals are up early, and it’s hard to sleep. But late at night is when I get a lot done.

Today I will iron. I will grade one assignment. I will go pick up my quilts. I might take the car in for an oil change. I might go to Costco. But I’m not sold on those two at all.