The Wind Through the Leaves…

Hmmm. Yesterday was the perfect summer day for me. Some reading, some clay, some fabric stuff. It was warm but not too bad. The day before was pretty good too…more reading, more fabric stuff, a long hike, some drawing with dinner, more fabric stuff. I’m hoping to project this level of enjoyment/relaxation into the new school year (yes, I know some people don’t consider it relaxing to work on stuff like I do). Sunday afternoons at the ceramics studio? Why not? Because school. I need to shorten up the Sunday crazy and figure out how to get more of it done during the school day. I will have help this year; that will be nice. Also more literacy stuff and more sex-ed curriculum stuff. I never filled out the feedback form, dammit. Ah well. Put that on the list.

I guess Saturday and Sunday made up for Friday, when the boychild and I moved almost everything out of three bedrooms into the living room. We left beds, desks, and big dressers. At some point before the carpeting starts (next week; we now have a date), we will have to empty dressers and strip beds (not sure why I say ‘we’…it’s ‘me’), but for now, the living room is a hoarder warren of crazy shit that makes everyone claustrophobic…

Except Luna…who sits on that highest shelf, surveying her domain.

We moved everything early because the boychild might end up on a fire, and then I wouldn’t have been able to get all this moved. The Man can’t lift more than 10 lbs (injury) and I can’t lift most of this by myself. We have a cart, but again, by myself would have been a challenge. And at some point, we might have been doing carpet today instead of next week. So this was the solution. Sunday night/Monday morning will be a lifting event for me (all the drawers), but that’s a lot easier than all this. The real problem is where will we PUT all the drawers…and where will we sleep the first night (it’s gonna take two days). We’ll figure it out…couches and air mattresses.

The stained glass window got replaced on Saturday finally…it looks great!

The window was made by the previous owner. The wood around it was decaying and some of the cross supports had come loose, so the window was in danger of bowing out and/or breaking. I finally found someone who specializes in fixing these (took me like 6 months). They stabilized the window between two tempered glass pieces, my contractor guy replaced all the wood, and then we’re just waiting on the final bits of sealing the wood and window for it all to be done. Although then I need to paint that whole wall…and the other walls, if I want to be consistent. We’ll see how far I get. The wall opposite has a textured wallpaper the cats thought was a scratching post back in the day, so it needs to be removed. That’s a bigger challenge. Maybe not a 2024 challenge. I still need to paint the hallway…which includes 5 doors. Ugh. I have a bunch of sanding on my list for this week as prep for that, priming too if I can get to it.

I stitched down another quilt I had ironed together while waiting for my sewing machine to come back, and for my Art Brain to have enough power to draw a new big one.

It took a couple of days because it was in between all that moving shit and hiking around.

This is from some smaller drawing I did either on a plane or while camping or something. Oh wait, I found the drawing…from 12/20/18…so probably one of those Drawing a Day over Winter Break things I did. Hence the Christmas lights. So a 6-year-old drawing. Last December, I picked about 12 smaller drawings and enlarged them to work on in between things. I had just finished the Supreme Court quilt and another couple of smaller quilts, and my brain (due to school) was foggy as shit. So I started some of these.

I cleaned the entryway floor earlier today, so my next step is to sandwich and pinbaste the two smaller quilts for finishing.

I’ve been cutting things out on the big quilt for a little over 17 hours now…Friday night…

Saturday night…

And Sunday night…

The box on the bottom left is all that’s left…somewhere between 300 and 400 pieces left. I feel like I might get close to finishing that today. Maybe. Then a few hours of sorting, made almost impossible by the piling of shit in the living room. I mean, I could do it, but I would have to unpile and then repile some of that shit. I don’t want to wait a week for the next step though, so I’ll do it. Sometime in the next couple of days.

In clay news, I’m slowly working on the world figure’s upper torso. I have a base it sits into as I build, but I did check it again to make sure it’s going to shrink appropriately. It’s like a 12% shrink.

I’m OK with an imperfect fit, as long as it actually fits. I got one hand put on…holding that up, because the forearm and elbow haven’t hardened enough to fully hold it. The right arm, I got the elbow and forearm put on. At the moment, the whole upper torso is sitting on a separate base I built just to support this.

The support is under the plastic. There’s a sponge holding that hand up as it dries. The right arm is on the base until the hand goes on. I attached a partial version of hair (fire) to the head and then persuaded the head to attach to the torso. That back sponge is holding it up until it hardens. This clay is not great for sculpture, but it’s what I picked (what I used in class). I’ll pick one with more grog next. Maybe a little more? I don’t know. I like the smoother texture of this, which is half porcelain and half stoneware.

I made a heart.

I think I know how/where to attach it, but I need things to stiffen up first. There will be carving on the fire hair and the heart, and the plan is to add more ‘hair’ in the form of smoke from the fire. Yeah. Crazy.

The other piece made it out of the kiln!

Just a few cracks…iron oxide with a little bit of clear next, I think. Only clear on the underglazed bits. Then fabric wings hanging from the arms. And fabric coming out of the things on her head.

I numbered this sweet little thing. It only has 390 pieces.

Can’t trace it until the carpet is done. That’s OK. I have plenty to work on and this has a later deadline.

I also pieced this thing together.

I finished the embroidery on the center panel, and then thought I’d be sewing all the little houses together, whee!, but no. There’s a border around the central panel with 5 flowers on it. It’s fine. I won’t be sewing houses together until 2025.

We hiked in the Lagunas on Saturday…we were hoping for cooler weather, but no.

We started hiking around 4:30 PM and it was still 85 degrees.

It cooled down around 6 PM, which is when I would have preferred to start, but we were going to eat dinner up there and the restaurants all close by 8 PM.

It was beautiful, though, even though it was warm. There weren’t a ton of people, which was nice.

I love hiking around the little lakes and meadows up there. Well…unless there’s cows.

We had to walk right through a group of them, lots of calves, so potentially nervous moms. They were standing on the trail for a goodly portion of it, so we did some nervous (but calm) movements of our own to get across the field without pissing anyone off.

A tiny adrenaline rush. This hawk had a snake and was being chased by a smaller bird.

And here’s one of our three friendly crows here at home. I took the dog out in the morning and it was up there squawking at me because the Man hadn’t put out the trays of nuts for the birds yet.

And I am still reading about the period. Good book. I’m reading two books, actually, one fiction and one nonfiction…

This is too real for all the crazy shit going on these days. Like how do you show your Supreme Court is corrupt without saying they’re corrupt? Just look at what they allow and disallow. Sigh. I don’t know that I have another Supreme Court quilt in me. Certainly the bullshit is all still there.

OK, it’s a Monday, but it feels like a Saturday. I have some stuff I have to do today, but first, I am going to pinbaste these two quilts, because that’s sweaty business and I want a shower. Work for it! Also hopefully going to get close to finishing the cutting-it-out phase of the big quilt. I’m sure there’s more on my to-do list that I haven’t remembered, like watering, for sure (it’s been hot and dry) and filling up greenery trash cans (never stops)…but also some reading…and appreciating how quiet it is today with all the kids inside or at camp or I don’t even care WHERE they are, it’s blissfully quiet except for the birds and the bugs. No tree trimming, no sawing, no yardwork, no screaming, no yelling. Just the wind through the leaves. And the Man watching some loud thing (it just got loud…).

Summer Achievement Unlocked

I have officially lost track of the days. Good job! Summer achievement unlocked. Well, except I still have to do things and some of them are on my calendar and sometimes I ignore my calendar, which isn’t very mature, I admit, but there are a lot of books to be read and that’s important.

House update: stained glass not installed (sigh). Tomorrow hopefully. Carpet ordered; hoping to get a start date today, although we are already moving shit in anticipation, because it might be Monday, which is some number of days in the future. I realized at some point that we might not have an actual bed to sleep in on the Man’s birthday. It’s OK. We have blow-up mattresses. We have tents. We’ll figure it out. I am jealous of every post I see of people in the mountains with pine trees right now. I love that stuff. Maybe later this summer.

So clay first. I finally FINALLY put this thing in the kiln.

I gave up on the snake head being attached. I’ll try again at bisque, and if that doesn’t work, there’s epoxy. I started her so long ago…I have a date of 4/19 on the greenware shelf to dry, but then I fixed some things and then underglazed at the beginning of June. I’m pretty sure I started her in March. She’s in now. Let’s hope she holds up. She’s supposed to get fabric wings and ‘hair’. So yeah. Iron oxide wash at the next firing. It’s going to be OK. Or it’s not. I realize I’m so so paranoid about the first kiln fire because of that one firing in college when everything exploded. I can remake anything though.

I have 5 pots on the greenware shelf, drying. I finally got to a point where I was happy with the underglaze on the sgraffito pot. The others are dryer but not dry enough. I’m super paranoid about drying speed too. But they’ll probably go in the kiln next week some time. And then the piece I’m working on, I started in April, the bottom part, then put it aside to work on the sgraffito piece. So I decided because of the height of my shelf and the dryness of the base to make the top separate, to have it slot into the bottom (might be a mistake). So I built a fake base and I’m building off that right now. I had it on the real base, but it’s getting too tall, and the arms need supports, so this is easier. I let it sit for a couple days in between each subsequent build to harden up a little, but not too much.

One arm is ready for a hand. The other one has an elbow and forearm that I’m trying to keep wet enough to attach, but might have to give up on…we’ll see tomorrow or Sunday.

I made the hands on Tuesday…

I need to work on hand construction. These are so blocky and solid, which I like and don’t like. But they’ll do for now. The face, I started that yesterday…

I draw a lot of open-mouthed faces, so I wanted to try that in clay. It’s currently hardening up a bit so I can figure out how to attach it to the neck. Plus hair…hair is weird in clay. So I’ll go in tomorrow or Sunday and attach the hands and/or the rest of the other arm, hopefully get the head on, or decide to do hair first, make sure it all still sits properly in the base. I need to make a heart too. I’m not very good at building with clay but I enjoy it. It’s hard to not be good at something, but I enjoy that too.

In quilt news, I’ve been cutting things out pretty seriously the last few days…

I’ve put in 10 hours and 40 minutes, and I’m more than halfway done. The pieces are put into the box with the lowest numbers at the bottom, highest at the top, and I work my way down. So I’m currently cutting pieces out in the 700 and 800s. So that means there’s probably another 10 hours to go.

I had two Zooms yesterday, which helped. Today, I’m supposed to be moving a lot of stuff, but I don’t have all the medical stuff I had yesterday…I am approved to lift things, though, and I don’t have TB (teachers have to be tested for that regularly). All good. The Dermabond glue on my boob scar is finally starting to wear off…pro: it will look better, con: it’s still sore. Not as bad as the biopsy though. The doc said all good, no need for more than the normal surveillance. SURVEILLANCE. Yeah that’s not what I think of when they say mammograms and breast exams. This thing wasn’t palpable anyway. Only found in a mammogram. Fun times.

Speaking of fun times, we have crows and hawks constantly squawking. This one was loud as heck yesterday afternoon.

Probably wondering where that other big tree is that used to be in my neighbor’s yard. They cut it down, Hawk! Cut It Down. I know, WTF?

I’m in the third book in the Alchemical Journeys series by Seanan McGuire…really enjoy this world.

I’ve finished 7 books since school ended on the 14th. Well, 8 if you count the one I finished ON the 14th (I didn’t). I love to read. I love to lose myself in other worlds. I love that I can read before bed and not worry about having to be up for work, although there is no sleeping in…someone started tree trimming at 8 and I was already half awake…and there was no sleeping through that shit. Ah well. Still more sleep than I would have gotten during the school year.

I do constantly say “I’m here” in response to those questions. This might be what I mean. I actually find it very difficult to come up with a pat response to that question.

Anyway. Today. Breakfast, more tea, more moving shit, putting quilts away (might need help with some of that). Cutting things out. I have two art shows to enter, I need to do stitchdown on that other quilt so I can pinbaste both of them, and I finished the center piece on the Sue Spargo Homegrown piece. I was all excited, thinking it was time to trim all the houses and sew them together, but no. The center piece has borders with big ballsy flowers on it. Hmm. I see. Wasn’t expecting that. Found the pattern and fabrics (that’s an achievement in itself right now). So I’ll get that process started (because now I won’t be putting those things together until probably Winter Break!). Ah well. It’s a process. It’s fine. Probably gonna go read something first. Reading sounds nice, doesn’t it?

Knock on Primed Wood…

OK! Progress on all the things. Summer is feeling pretty good today. The carpet installation is a go, waiting on me and mom picking carpet later today, the stained glass is supposed to be installed today, the wood finished on Friday. I got the spackling done, NOT with Luna’s help…

It’s now sanded, needs another wash, then primer and paint…not first on my list at the moment. I got the paint done on the window opening for the glass that’s being installed (finally!) today…knock on wood. Primed wood. Carpet guy measured everything today; we don’t have to move ALL the furniture, which is nice. Who knows where we will sleep the first night, but hey, whatever. I think the Man has claimed the couch and we do have a blowup mattress or two. We’ll be fine. Furniture moving is first on my list for the rest of the week, then paint, if I have time before they come. Might be better to do paint after they do a bunch of work though. I don’t know. The yardwork is slow and painfully hot, as always. I found another cocoon, but this was either dead or busted out…

Hopefully the latter. Yes, this is on a trashcan. Not the best choice. Sorry guy.

Quiltwise, I’ve cut some stuff out on the big quilt…

Slow progress. Because I also finished the stitchdown (started in March) on this…

I’m going to do the stitchdown on the other one and then pinbaste both of them. Maybe later today? Today got nuts.

I got an email a couple weeks ago from another artist I follow about an exhibit she thought my work would be good for…so I printed the prospectus, which was based on a play/movie concept. I watched the movie (Chiraq) and started reading the play (Lysistrata). And then my brain fuzzed for a while, couldn’t see it, but she messaged me again with updated info, and the picture popped into my head. I love my brain for that! So last night, I spent a couple of hours listening to a ceramics course and drawing this piece…

Which has to be a specific size (of course) and related to the play/movie. I tried to keep it simple (ha!), then took a picture of the inked drawing.

Some hand embroidery going on there too. And emailed it off with a statement and samples of my other work to the organizers. Got the email this morning that I’m in! So now I get to make this sweet thing for a group called Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse…I love the idea of making work in response to other types of art, in this case a play/movie. But also in response to current events. Awesome. I’m excited by this. And many thanks to the artist who thought of me.

Yes, I still have three other quilts to finish. Shush. I got this.

I did actually draw a rough sketch first, just because it was a compressed space.

I don’t always do that. But this one called for it.

Still reading the Period book…

I love this though. I draw the ovaries a lot. Ovaries and uteri. But it’s penises and vaginas I get busted for. Whatever.

I did do clay yesterday, but again, forgot to take pictures. I’m going in tomorrow to load the kiln with the winged woman…hoping she survives the kiln.

OK, so I’m waiting on glass guy (he’s on Mexican time y’all…he said ‘around noon’, which means 1 PM…cuz he’s still not here). Then carpet with mom. Then pilates. And some form of art tonight (maybe all of them!). Stitchdown, cutting out, numbering…it’s all here. I can do it all. Love that it’s summer. I needed a break from school. Really did. Whoopee!

Sweat…

OK, it’s officially the first week after the first week after school gets out. That first week goes through like a blur on a good year; add surgery into the mix and I’m surprised (or not) that I made it through 5 books and 11 interviews and not much else. Ugh. Not recommended. This week starts to feel a bit more like reality, a bit more like the summer I knew I was in for…the one where I want to punch people when they ask me what I’m doing this summer. I’m repairing my house post January flood. I had guys come in and fix the outside wood and the inside drywall, plus install gutters, which should make it never happen again, but I still need the carpet installed and paint in the hallway and potentially other places, and please let’s get the stained glass reinstalled…it’s been out since April, I think. Last night, I sanded old trim (oil paint previously…I never painted in the entryway, so it’s at least 26 years old), washed it, and put on a primer coat. The contract guys strangely painted the inside trim brown (outside color) without really consulting me, so I’m covering that with white. I had to pick a white for that whole room, since it had never been painted. I don’t mind painting, except when it’s hot and a lot of prep work needs doing, like here. I hate sanding. I can’t even reach the top part of the wall with the stool. I’m gonna have to get the ladder. So it’s a lot of that kind of work all summer. I need to get another coat of primer on today and then hopefully one coat of actual paint, so when the glass guy comes back on Wednesday, it’s ready to go. I also need to wash the hallway (on my hands and knees, love you Callie dog, but jesus, what did you do to the walls in there) and see if I can find the spackle. I know it’s here. I bought it last summer to do this and then just flailed. I can’t flail this time. It needs to get done. I need to move stuff out of the bedrooms too. And it’s hot, y’all. So that doesn’t help. It is going to happen though.

I haven’t posted since Thursday because of all those interviews plus just plain tiredness. I took a lot of naps last week. That’s normal for the week after school gets out. I’m feeling a little more with it now.

So what have I been doing quiltwise? I managed to iron at night (and maybe during the afternoon).

Thursday night…

Friday night…

Kitten guards the chair quite well. This was the last picture, must have been Saturday night I finished. ALL the fabrics…

24 hours and 5 minutes of choosing and ironing. 202 fabrics. An awful lot of browns and grays.

I started cutting out last night…

This is also going to take forever. That’s OK. It’s relaxing. I enjoy it.

I did get my sewing machine back on Friday, finally. Three months! It was a distribution issue mostly…but frustrating. And free. So there’s that. I haven’t had time to use it yet…hopefully today. I’d like to get these two smaller pieces done. They won’t take long.

I also finally made it back to ceramics. I did one day last week, but the rest of the week was hellacious. I started this piece back in April…

Last week, I added the spiny bits to the serpent and the ribs inside the torso…

This section is pretty leather hard…so I had decided to make the top of the torso a separate piece…

It won’t fit on my shelf otherwise. So there’s that.

Lumpy bumpy body. So yesterday, I started building the top part of the torso. Hard to do with this clay…it’s not very supportive. But I’m using it up!

The top of the torso slots into the bottom, which means adjusting for shrinkage (12%) plus trying to support things until they are able to support themselves. So it’s wrapped up and I’ll either go by this afternoon for an hour for the next bit, or tomorrow. We’ll see.

I’d like to build something like this next…

This is my piece, The Way Out, with its owner, Sara Vance Waddell, in the Dayton Art Institute exhibit Riveting, which runs through September 8 and includes some great feminist art. The exhibit is all work collected by Sara and Michelle Vance Waddell. It’s intriguing. Wish I were closer.

But I’d also like to make a ceramic version of this. Again, it’s probably not gonna fit on my ceramics shelf. Ah well.

Friday night, the Man’s band had a show at the Belly Up.

It was short, but high energy.

Unlike me. I napped before it (after 7 AP interviews) and went home without watching the second band. I was exhausted. I had a seat, though, thanks to the lead singer and his wife. Appreciated that. I don’t think I could have stood for 2 hours.

We dogsat Annie this weekend. She and Simba sometimes need to be way too close.

It’s hot and y’all are furry. Annie’s gone now…

Saturday night we went out to a place that has pretty good food, but some time ago (years y’all), the Man was pissed off about a rude bartender/staff person, so we just didn’t go back. Until now.

Not much room to draw, but it worked with this sketchbook.

Gutters got installed at some point and they had to cut some branches. I said I’d do cleanup on that (don’t trust them), and I’m glad I did because I saw a caterpillar clinging in that distinctive J shape that looks like it’ll cocoon, and sure enough, it did.

This branch will sit here for a while as whatever it is remakes itself. Not a swallowtail…it was a fuzzy black caterpillar. Should have taken a picture before, but I was hot and cutting things up. I have two trashcans full, and the next one requires gloves and a lot of up and down stairs.

Another picture of our ballsy rat friend and its stash of nuts down there.

Fat. I’m not feeding it. It’s the Man, and it’s only because he’s feeding the crows.

SpaceX again last night…we missed it but the owl cam got it.

Funny.

Still reading the Period book…you know, I didn’t know this about preeclampsia. Fascinating.

Science!

I’m not sad. It’s OK. I am slightly unfocused this morning. Hopefully I’ll find some focus after breakfast and another cup of tea. Plus reading. Maybe a shower. Painting first, because that’s sweaty. Enclosed room with no window. Oh wait, I said washing walls too. All that before shower. I mean, what’s the point in showering if I’m just working all day? And it’s hot? I’ll do it at some point…but not right now. Artwise, definitely cutting more things out, maybe ceramics studio for an hour, and I’d really like to do another big drawing for fun. Plus stitch down those poor quilt tops. That’s a lot right there. Moving furniture. Pre-shower. Definitely. Ugh. Eat, do sweaty things, shower, do less sweaty things. That’s really it.

The Now Feeling

Happy Eid! If you celebrate it. I have a chunk of kids who will be out for the next three days. Unfortunately, I can’t quit teaching for those days, so I’ll need to record some videos at some point to explain what they’re missing. Because it’s a lot of my high-level students. I’m not sure WHEN I’m going to record those videos because my to-do list for school hit epic proportions yesterday. EPIC. Ugh. I drove home in a daze, on the verge of tears just because I didn’t know what to do or ask next, so many threads to an uncontrollable ball. So I came home, had a snack, read my book for a bit, and called my mom to ask if I could come borrow her sewing machine. I hate sewing on unfamiliar machines…it takes longer to learn it than I want to spend…especially when I know this step shouldn’t take long. Mom’s isn’t the same as mine exactly…it’s the fancier version, two releases past mine, so it’s close enough. I quilted…

Lots of tiny things. I finished quilting in a little over an hour…

Then I trimmed it and put the binding on. I usually zigzag the edges after putting the binding on, but it would have meant replacing the plate, and I couldn’t find the zigzag plate, and I was tired and it was 8 PM and I hadn’t eaten and the day was a shitshow (well, not teaching…it was fine, successful even, but the adult crap just sucks), so I didn’t zigzag (don’t tell…I’m sure it’s fine and that’s some Type A shit I do sometimes when I sew and the quilt will be fine). I went home, started dinner, honestly I should have just reheated leftovers, but I didn’t eat that artichoke last week, and they go bad, and I love artichokes so I cooked it. Nova guarded the quilt…

I pinned it before I went to bed and will sew it starting tonight…

Progress! It has to be delivered next weekend, so it needed to get done.

Monday was the eclipse. I stole two pairs of glasses from the boychild because I forgot to buy them at the store, and pulled two of my classes out to see…

Some of the kids were like, oh, ho hum, and some of them were like WHOA. So that was good. I told them I’d meet them here for the next one in 2044. That seemed to jolt them a bit.

After the 2-hour staff meeting on Monday, where we had to be able to concentrate and read and take a test (not MY brain in the afternoon), I went to the ceramics studio for 90 minutes and made a head.

The chin is an issue, and I haven’t dealt with the top and the lips need some help, but this clay isn’t groggy enough for me to do much. I need to let it solidify a bit. There’s paper towels inside and I built a little cradle so it could harden up in a round shape. We’ll see how that goes, because I can’t go back until probably Saturday. Ugh. It’s too tall for my shelf now, so once I put the head on, it needs to be ready to go to the drying shelf. Which is crowded at the moment. It’s fine.

Monday, I also finished cutting these out.

I sorted them too…

So that one’s ready to iron together. Then I need a machine. I’m not used to having so many in-process things at once. My brain is not happy. I also need to start a new big one and I’m waiting to hear about possibly needing to make another one…I think some people don’t realize how long it takes to make my stuff. Especially when I’m teaching. And having surgery. And work on my house. And and and. Well, making clay too.

Anyway. Today. Gotta get things done. I’ll be binding tonight. I already know that. So that’s progress and it will feel good when it’s done. I like to check boxes. It makes me feel less like a chicken running around with their head cut off. Which is very much the now feeling.

55% Eclipse

OK. School. 48 days of it. With an eclipse today and Eid tomorrow. I think half our kids will be out for the first 2-3 days for one of those or some weird combination. We only get 55% of the sun covered today, so I’ll pull out the class that starts right after the peak…I’m not sure about the class before, because my prep period is the first 40 minutes or so…I don’t know that my 2nd period will be able to see anything. We’ll see. Also they are ‘fun’, so I’m not sure I want to deal with them outside.

East Coast gets an earthquake…we had a 7.something a week or so ago that I didn’t even feel. Californians. Seriously.

I did buy some weird plants last week…so we’re fucked.

Anyway, should be an interesting day…mostly an exhausted day…ending with a 2-hour staff meeting about literacy. Ugh. What are the odds that the woman in charge of literacy will have any interesting things to say today? I’m so not in the mood. Don’t know if you can tell. Pro? I slept last night. I don’t usually sleep well the Sunday before we go back.

OK, let’s do the art stuff. I cut stuff out Friday night but forgot to take a picture. Actually, I thought I had taken a picture, but it was not on my phone, so did it ever really happen? Here’s Saturday night’s progress.

And last night…I’m almost done.

I’m hoping to get my sewing machine back today or tomorrow so I can quilt that piece that has to be delivered in less than two weeks. If not, I’m probably going to Mom’s. I should probably tell Mom that.

I also finally remembered to take clay pictures. This was at the beginning of yesterday’s session…

The sponge was supporting the arm after I attached it. The wings are for support only. I have holes in the arms to support fabric wings I’d like to make. I wasn’t sure how big to make the supports in the beginning, so I erred on the side of way too small, so yesterday, I added more…

They’ll be hidden from the front by the fabric versions, which I obviously haven’t made yet. Let’s see if this thing survives the kiln first. And we’re weeks away from that happening.

Here’s the chest…

And the back…

I started a head/face, but I’m not sure about it.

It definitely needs a lot of work. And more head stuff. This clay is pretty soft and so I left it to harden up a bit. I’m hoping to go back today to work on it some more.

I also had started to make a mug and realized very quickly that it was way too big to be a mug, so now it’s a planter. I feel like that’s how clay works sometimes. That sculpture also started as a mug. So there we are.

It’s currently upside down so the lip on the top will dry mostly flat. Otherwise it starts sagging.

Those are clouds. The next clay I buy will have more grog in it. I already know that. Although I like how smooth this is. So there’s always trade-offs. The real trade-off at the moment is how much time I can do ceramics each week and still have time for everything else. Augh.

I found this while doing yardwork the other day…

Happy owl pellet.

We had Annie for 24 hours…

Yes, that’s a quilt she’s cuddling with.

A sighting of one of my sold quilts on social media…

Always cool.

And a Saturday evening hike…

Lots of water, lots of flowers…

An alligator lizard…

And some dumbass version of an alligator…

Why do we have to spray paint nature y’all?

Baby bunny not quite smart enough to realize we can still see it.

Does not bode well for its survival.

Well, we’re back. Mostly to crazy rat-race tendencies. Not enough time to do anything. Ugh. Gonna go take my meds, pack up my lunch, find a sweatshirt, make more tea, and gird my loins for the sleeping and whining and phones out and hopefully a cool eclipse experience and a chill staff meeting (ha…that last one). Then time with clay and fabric, and maybe sewing. Hopefully. Yeah.

NOT Being a Teacher…

(groans) What is this early morning hell? How much tea can I get into me before I start to teach? I didn’t even finish posting things for class yesterday. Why? Because I tried to spend a chunk of my weekend NOT being a teacher. Mis. Take. Well, not. But sheesh, this job. Last week. Deep breaths. I think I can get through the next two weeks. I’m gonna hafta.

Friday night, the Man had a show at the Music Box. Before that, I had made it home and was slumped on the couch, trying to decide what dinner might look like. Glad to say the boychild is a good cook, because he fed me…

Also luckily, the singer in the band, his wife had a table and let me sit at it, which is good, because I was exhausted. And they were the openers, so they only played for an hour. Much nicer than the four-hour show that’s coming up this Saturday.

Saturday morning, I crazily got up kind of early and took an online class from Nicholas Ball, who was in Wales…

At some point, he said, OK hold up your fish, and I had been diligently taking notes, NOT sewing. So I only did two and one has its fins in totally the wrong place (oops) and some people made like ten and I feel like a fish loser, but I will survive. Then I drove to Oceanside to drop off my piece for this show…

I’ll be at the opening on March 30. Hoping it’ll be a cool show.

Came back and persuaded the Man to go for a short birthday hike…

Three miles. But it was beautiful out. Spring has sprung.

And I love being able to make it outside like this.

Then boychild had the suggestion of San Diego Restaurant Week for dinner, so we picked a restaurant and navigated shitty parking…

That was in the bathroom. The food was good, different, which was nice. I drew a little, but the food came out too fast to finish.

Then we came back and I trimmed fabric pieces.

Sunday was full of all the normal get-ready-for-school-week things, but we ended the day going out to dinner with my parents…

And then I finished trimming everything.

On to the next step. I also shipped a quilt off to this show, opening March 24.

The Man is delivering another today for a local show. I have that announcement somewhere too. Sigh. I’m discombobulated. And buried. Two weeks until Spring Break…

I will have to speak to people unfortunately. Need to get the house fixed. And this will be the next two weeks…

Maybe not die…just internally die. I have books to read, though, and art to make. I should commit to making a fabric fish a night, and then I’d have 10. Except I can’t commit to that this week…3 out of the 5 worknights are going to be late and doubled up. Whoops. Oh well. No plans. Just wish teachers luck today. You know how tired YOU are? Imagine a bunch of 13-year-olds. Yup. It’s gonna be crap.

Do Not Touch Gimbals

Hmm. I am drop-dead exhausted. Hoping I’m just fall-slowly-to-the-ground exhausted once I get this cup of tea into me. We should never do field trips on Thursdays. Coming back to teach on a Friday seems like a mistake for everyone involved. And yesterday was a doozy. Not violating any kids’ rights here by saying that. But if you see a teacher today, you should just spontaneously hug them and tell them it will all be OK. They may push you away and stare at you funny, but most of us would just lean into that hug.

When I think about teacher training, I realize how little of it actually helped me do ANY of the things I do now. I haven’t been trained on most of what I do. It’s instinct, or I figured it out by trial and error or with my teammates or coworkers. Some of it is common sense. Sometimes Mom brain kicks in (or caregiver brain for those who aren’t moms, because some people have that and it’s not because they gave birth) and we do the things to make things OK. Or not. We do the strict things that aim for OK in the future. I just know that I had planned to take my book to the gym yesterday after school and I did not. I came home and just sat on the couch, staring at pictures, for a good hour or so before I started working. Because I don’t want to work this weekend (I’ll have to anyway, but I’m trying to limit it).

So I graded one thing and fixed the final grades on another thing and then input them for the parent meeting later today, which may be contentious. Imma be chill. I hope. I don’t have a lot of filters at the moment. I’m trying to rebuild them by drinking tea. Nova is being very helpful, by the way. She is actually lying ON the gradebook. Which I realize is her way of saying, mom, stop working, but I needed to get that done. It’s OK. When I got up to heat up the 17th cup of tea (not really), she took over my spot.

Cute toes kitty. I won’t usually move her. She snores lightly. I just sat next to her and finished stuff. Hopefully I’ll have a prep period today to finish other stuff.

Art stuff: I finished ironing on Wednesday night…

It took a little less than 3 1/2 hours…for 313(?) pieces. Not bad. Then last night, I started cutting them out.

I’m probably halfway? I have a bunch of letters to cut out next. They’re time-consuming. I need to pack a quilt tonight to deliver tomorrow, and the Man has a show at the Music Box. Thank goodness he’s the opener, so I can be home at a decent hour…to collapse into bed, because I signed up for a quilt Zoom class tomorrow morning. Like an idiot. Like an idiot who wants to do fun things and not just work. So that is why.

Yesterday’s field trip was to the Midway, which is not my favorite.

I prefer animals to badly posed mannequins.

Although, if I were more of an abstract artist, that would be fun to make as a quilt.

I could have used this in the kids’ bathroom.

And this just made me giggle…

Mostly because I don’t know what a gimbal is. And it’s such a weird sign if you don’t know what the things mean.

It’s a military boat. It’s a lot of walking, lots of ups and downs. It’s not the most exciting thing. I had a group that would not stay together. I lost one kid and found him (well, he found us) and then lost three at the end, which was a problem. So I walked about twice as much as I needed to (knees held up), and then came back to school to a major issue that sucked. Still sucks, but less so. Wasn’t how I planned to spend the last 90 minutes of the school day, but whatever. It’s All in a Day! Perky smile and face and tone! Oh I don’t do those well.

I did read for about 45 minutes last night. I do love this character.

Ironically the same name as the cat who was lying next to me. Weirdly appropriate.

Here you go.

Anyway. Meeting this morning. Teaching all day, which will be hard, I’m sure. Probably talking to some kids/classes about yesterday’s events. Duty after school. Contentious parent meeting after that with principal and team. Then home to pack a quilt to be delivered. Then eat something. Then show…home…sleep? Maybe fabric trimming somewhere in there. I’m not gonna feel bad if that doesn’t happen though. It’ll be OK. It’ll happen tomorrow.

Bring It…

I did not fall off the face of the Earth…I just had a ton of stuff to do. And if you’re my school district, trying to figure out where I went this weekend, the answer is NOWHERE. I didn’t travel anywhere. I really didn’t. I did take a necessary day off though, and they don’t like that, especially before a 3-day weekend. I had a sub though, which is a plus.

There was a lot of art this weekend, which was good and necessary to the processing of my brain. There was also a lot of schoolwork this weekend, which was unfortunately also necessary to my surviving the next month or so. This week, definitely, because I am entering the hell of 2-hour meetings for the next three days, all school-related. Sigh. Not looking forward to that bit. And some medical stuff, which is what it is, and can’t all happen after school hours, much as they’d like it to.

So the quilt in progress went from all ironed to fabric Wednesday night? I think…

98 fabrics…in just under 9 hours of ironing.

Then Thursday night, I started cutting them out…

Finished Friday night? Again, maybe that was Saturday night…yeah, I think I’m off by a night on all of this…

That took a little under 7 hours…I was on a roll. And then Sunday afternoon, I sorted them…

Sunday night, started ironing together…

And this is last night’s progress…

With all those 2-hour meetings, it’s gonna be a fight to get an hour in each night, but that’s my goal. More than an hour, actually. I have about 200 pieces left, so I’m figuring I’ll be done Wednesday, iron to the background Thursday, start stitchdown by Friday. Tight deadline, but I’m going for it. Have I mentioned grades are due next week on top of all those meetings? Yeah. And Saturday is shot to hell by a mammogram and an art meeting. There is no down time.

Ooh wait, here’s the cutting-out I did on Thursday night. Hmmm. Maybe I finished ironing fast and then cut stuff out?

I’ll ask Nova. She might know.

Setup for a class I took this weekend…

Loads of fun. Totally recommend taking classes that aren’t related to what you’re doing at the moment.

I also went to an opening and an artist talk, and I have photos from that, but no time to process right now. Because I need to get to work, need to beat the tree trimmers out of here.

Friday night’s dinner drawing…

Cute sister cats…

This current quilt is small enough to ALMOST fit under one teflon ironing sheet.

IDK when I’ll have the brain power to do something bigger this year. I’m supposed to be doing a drawing this week as well. Deep breaths. Might have to wait until Friday to have the mental space for it.

My succulents are making cute little flowers…

I hadn’t been paying attention to the plants with all the other crap going on.

I hate that.

Also finished mom’s snowflakes, so this went back to her for embellishment…

Then it’ll come back to me for sandwiching and stuff. Not sure what stuff entails at the moment. Haven’t touched the other quilt I’m doing for a friend…it’s been a rough week. It’s still a rough week.

OK, work today, something to do with light and UV damage (I feel like I should know what the something is), then a 2-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting, then I get to cook tonight (woo!), then more ironing. Full-on survival mode this week. Bring it.

Happy Wonton Lunch…

OK. Self realizes last real day of Winter Break is upon us. The to-do list is heinous. The month is ugly. I’m still feeling burnt out from school…not a good sign after three weeks off. But it is what it is. What I can have in place is a giant pile of books to read as a reward for doing whatever yucky thing is that I had to do to earn the reading, a solid exercise plan that moves for nothing and no one (almost), an art project that has a deadline, so it cannot be shunted aside. It would also help if I had a cook and a cleaner, but I’m not holding my breath for those. Best I can do today is cross off a bunch of stuff. I’m dropping my school computer off this morning and getting a loaner so that I can actually use it in class. At home, I’ve been projecting it to another monitor, but I still can’t see the login box (I don’t need to see that to get in, luckily), and a goodly chunk of the doc and tabs are unavailable. So I’m glad they were available to get me a loaner today. I’m also shipping the Supreme Court quilt to its new owner. I made some videos before I packed it up, so I’ll be hopefully getting those processed and on the blog this weekend. I’m picking up another quilt from a show; I’m glad they were open today so I could do that. Trying to do all this stuff during a regular work week is really challenging…half of these places aren’t open late enough for me to even get there. Frustrations aside (is that even possible? I feel like it’s a daily occurrence to be frustrated these days…ask me after today.), I have today planned pretty solidly. Hoping to get a hike/walk in there, but we’ll see.

So I’m on the speedy track with the first quilt of 2024. Why? I have a collaborative project I’m supposed to be doing in the next few months, and I also need to (want to!) make a baby quilt for a good friend having her first. Also there’s a deadline and I don’t have anything at all for it, which is weird and frustrating (there’s that word again). So I traced the whole thing in just three nights, I think…

Spending more than an hour a night, obviously staying up too late, sigh, those are the hours I am most efficient, but also the hours I need to be asleep so I can get enough sleep so I can get up at ugh in the morning. It was less than two yards of Wonder Under. I started cutting it out Wednesday night after finishing the tracing…

Didn’t get far, but did the rest of it in a couple of hours last night…

Today, I’m going to sort it, make sure I have a background, buy one if I don’t, and start ironing to fabric, which means putting everything away from the last quilt first, and honestly, I need to put the borders on the other friend’s quilt I have had for a over a month first, because I need the ironing board and table for that. So do that first. Realistically, that’s a lot, considering everything else I need to do today, but we’ll see how it goes. You know me; I’m all about progress.

OK, I’m going to have to write the rest of this later; need to book. *** Time Passes *** So I wrote that at around 8 AM and now it’s 12:15. I’ve been productive. I have a loaner computer and mine is winging its way (well, probably driving) to Apple for repair. I copied all the papers needed for the first two weeks of school (one copier is already down, so I stole paper from it and went to the office copier, so that reduces my Monday stress). I picked up my quilt from Visions, because the show ended. I shipped the sold quilt with insurance, which is why I had to drive into a part of town I never go to…it has to go to a customer center, not a UPS store. Annoying because they’re not open past 2 PM, so doing it during the school day is impossible. I might even have partially solved the insulin shortage problem; we’ll see about that. Why am I short insulin? Long story involving a defective pen months ago that still isn’t solved. Yet.

I also washed my storage bins that I use for sorting fabric and Wonder Under. The pencil had been transferring off of the pieces onto the boxes, and I didn’t want the fabric to get dirty. To be honest, I only washed the first 6…because that’s all I need right now. So later today, I’ll be sorting fabric. I also checked my background stash and I have something that will work well for this quilt, so there is (unfortunately) no need to go shopping. Wah. But also, that’s probably a good thing. I’m waiting for the loaner computer to finish updating so I can go lesson plan for a while…not my favorite thing to do, but I have a chunk of time when I’m not super tired, so I should do that now. My future self will appreciate it.

I’ll take a break while lesson planning to put the borders on that quilt and clean up the sewing room, so I can start ironing to fabric later today. The Man and I have a date night planned, since he has a show tomorrow night, so we’ll be going out to dinner and to see some music for a while. Tomorrow, I’m planning for more lesson crap and more ironing joy.

Last night, during my quilting-friends Zoom, I made wontons from scratch, to provide me with three days of lunch joy (and last night’s dinner). It’s too time-consuming to make during the school year, but it’s one of my favorite meals, so I make it once during break if I can. Then I started pinning the snowflakes on the borders of mom’s Tinsel quilt. Oh, I put the borders on the other day…

We changed the snowflakes to two different sizes of circles…

And then changed the borders from the pattern, only using 6 of the snowflakes Sue Spargo planned.

One of the other participants did it this way and added a bunch of different embroidered snowflakes randomly throughout the border, and I liked the way it looked better than the original. So my job is to applique down the 48 circles. Then I hand it over to mom and she does the embroidery. Then back to me to sandwich and quilt…she could probably do that, but that’s OK. I’ll give it back to her to stitch the binding down by hand. Then it’s hers. And when she’s gone, it’s mine. Unless my SIL or some other close family member wants it more. Then it’s theirs.

So those circles are my evening stitching after eating dinner. It’ll be a week or two to get done.

Here’s where I’ve been lesson planning. It got dark last night while I was working.

It’s kind of chaotic, but it works better than sitting on the couch. I did finish grading that last academic assignment, so that’s good. I have progress report grades due in a couple of weeks, and I don’t want to stress about it. I don’t have TIME to stress about it. Every weekend from now until February 10 has stuff on it. Some of it is art or music, but that doesn’t make it any less busy (there’s also tree trimming and mammogram, so it’s not all fun and games). I’m eyeing February for camping or something, because I’m gonna need it.

Kitten is such a good baby. Fifteen and a bit. Definitely likes the sun.

And to be near me. Sometimes annoyingly so. But sweet here.

The composter in the front yard has a visitor.

Probably rat. Need to put more water in there. They don’t like it when it’s super wet.

Also, she’s touching me. Make her stop touching me.

Anyway. Coping mechanisms in place. I’m on some new supplements and hoping they will help with sleep and energy. And hot flashes, which may never go away. We’ll see. But for now, I’m going to eat happy wonton lunch and plan for a while and then not plan for a while. The art is what saves me, on a daily basis, y’all. Without it, I’d be bonkers, seriously nuts. I’m so glad I have that.