And We’ll All Float on OK*

You know, sometimes progress doesn’t look like anything. I have almost 16 hours into the cutting out of tiny little pieces, and there’s more to go, and I told you I couldn’t predict how many more, because as I go through the pile of pieces in there, I’m never really sure if the piece of fabric below the one I’m currently picking up will have three huge pieces on it (easy to cut, nice and quick) or be the one with all the finger bones (not easy, pain in the ass, gonna take me an entire episode of Supernatural, if I’m lucky).

I cut for over 3 hours again last night. I’m not bringing school work home at the moment. I will eventually. But not until I get these cut out. So if you look at yesterday’s pile of stuff left to cut out and today’s pile of stuff left to cut out, you might feel as discouraged as I did, because I was sure I was getting closer…

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Except at least two of those pieces of fabric on top are full of tiny fucking finger bones. Or rib bones. Or whatever that’s tiny and curvy and time-fucking-consuming. My hand hurt last night. It’s stiff this morning. Am I closer? Sure. Do I think I’ll finish tonight?

I don’t think I’ll EVER FINISH. OK. That’s silly. Of course I’ll finish. Some day. Probably not today. And it amuses me that this is what one of my quilts looks like at this stage…a pile of never-ending strangely shaped pieces.

Another day in 1 Year of Stitches…I finally Googled it and wrote it on a post-it note and attached it to the computer so I can remember the correct wording. Until the cat takes off with it.

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Yesterday was a curvy line of Palestrina knots, which used to scare the crap out of me, but are really very easy to do. Don’t get me wrong…I still stare at an instruction book while doing them.

You saw my cover page yesterday for the new unit. I do apparently occasionally inspire kids to do their own thing…here’s one of my student’s covers for the last unit (which I’m currently grading, because it’s the one assignment I blew off grading during break).

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That’s a lot of bubbles. Must be a chemical change.

If you’re on Instagram or Facebook with me, you’ve already seen this part of my Christmas gifts…a little late, but blame the post office. I do wear boots to school quite often, so I really can wear them to school…

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(I’m wearing a pair now…they’re kinda inspirational.)

Last night was chilly and the dogs were at the other house, so Kitten ventured out and sat right next to me on the couch. This is a strange thing. She does not do it often.

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So it’s sweet when she does.

*Modest Mouse, Float On

I Have the Technology

The first day back, trying to balance food and bathroom breaks and kids who have been free to do whatever they want for three weeks, and now I want them to sit and do work for a whole 45 minutes. Today it will be 51 minutes and we’ll see how they do. We jumped right into the new unit…but I have three new students today. Sigh.

I do love drawing a new cover page though…and then hiding it so the kids won’t copy it (they still try…”Can you put it up on the screen? I just need ideas.” Use your brain sweetheart. It has lots of ideas.).

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I have to actually research stuff for this unit. I’m a little shaky on energy resources, having never taught it or officially learned it in school. Plus it’s changed a bit since the 70s. So I’ve been reading up…watching videos. Hoping I understand what’s supposed to happen in the labs and, more importantly, why.

I came home relatively early (quick staff meeting, hallelujah) and started trying to straighten up…putting away all the wrapping paper and accoutrement, breaking down all the boxes that came in during the last few weeks, putting stuff away…then I found another rug. My grandfather used to (he’s dead now) crochet rugs out of mattress ticking. They last forever and are washable. Case in point, the one on the left has been in my kitchen forever…and my grandfather died while I was pregnant with my now 21-year-old son. The puppy decided to pull on bits and pieces, though, so now it is holey. I found the one on the right in the closet (don’t even know where it came from)…but I don’t like the color. I realize most of you probably think it works fine with the kitchen (and it does), but I thought about dying it…unfortunately, it’s gotta be mostly polyester, so I’d have to buy dyes I think.

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Like I have time to dye a rug.

Next day of 1 Year in Stitches…I think I change the name every time I post about it. Fly stitches and french knots added to the lazy daisies…are they called that when the anchor stitch is long? Who knows. I just pulled a thread out of the basket and sewed with it until it ran out. That’s all I ever do.

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It needs more colors.

I cut for about a million hours yesterday…OK, for about 4 1/2 hours. I didn’t bring any schoolwork home. I just did some cleaning and then cut for a while and then made dinner and cut for an even longer while. My hand was sore last night, but not so much today. That’s good. This is about 12 1/2 hours of cutting total. As you can see, there’s still stuff in the to-be-cut pile…but I’m down to stove parts. I finished all the body parts.

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I wish I could say I knew how many hours are left, but I haven’t got a clue. At least 2 or 3, probably more. And today will be a long day, with tutorial after school. Tomorrow is the union meeting. I’ll be dead tired by the weekend. But hopefully done with cutting, then sorting, and on to ironing. I want to have the majority of the 3-day weekend for that. Progress. I’m feeling stressed about deadlines. Only one way to deal with that, and it’s to get some work done. I have to use time wisely, just like at school. I honestly think I’m more efficient about getting art done when I’m in session, because I don’t have a choice. It didn’t used to be that way, but it is now.

I also need to make a pussy hat this weekend…I’m not knitting. I know how, but it takes too much time that I don’t have, so fleece it is. I wanted to make a banner (or 7) like Stephanie Syjuco is showing on Instagram (@ssyjuco on IG), but I don’t really have time for that either. Patterns are here. You can find her on Facebook as well. She’s an artist and professor, but these banners are freakin’ awesome. Maybe I will bang one out this weekend. I certainly have the technology to do so.

This Chapter’s Gonna Be a Close One*

Back to the post-it-note lists for the weekend. Today is a little crazy. Tomorrow too. Then a week of school. The last week of my kids being home. That part sucks. Although the amount of dishes and groceries has been a bit overwhelming. Plus three trips to the airport in less than a week.

Still debating going to school today. I think I will be fine if I get there on time on Monday…there’s not that much to do. Teachers have to set up boundaries…school intrudes on so much of our personal lives. I will be sending the parent email today…every weekend, I do that. I didn’t grade that last assignment. It’s OK. It will get done. And then there will be more. I meant to do it. I just lost momentum.

I did cut stuff out for about 4 hours yesterday…top left is trash, top right is cut-out pieces, bottom is stuff that still needs cutting (ie, most of the quilt). I’m hoping to do more of that today…maybe get to ironing by next weekend. That would be good.

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I cut for almost an hour at my daughter and my co-hair appointment. She sets up the girlchild’s hair color and then cuts mine and then cuts hers. So I sit there and trim stuff in between. Multi-tasking. I do a lot of that.

I got into a show in Camarillo with two pieces, which is good, and got rejected by another show, which is also good, because I need two of those pieces for my solo show. Seriously need new work for shows! But the solo show is kind of eating that up…which is not a bad thing. I need to draw. I keep saying that and not being able to find the time and mental space.

I think I meditated last night…maybe. I did do this…added the orange.

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It’s a double cast-on stitch. I had enough thread for two of them…but the eyeball asked for it.

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Honestly not sure I can stick with this every-day stuff. Although I blog almost every day. Routines. At some point, they do stick.

Puppy was stuck with me last night, because the girlchild is now in Seattle. She was home less than 24 hours.

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She went to see her cousins…so that’s good.

OK, so the to-do list is scaring me. Best thing to do is just bang it out. If I’m lucky, there’ll be some art involved as well…it’s my goal, anyway. Always my goal.

*Red Hot Chili Peppers, Can’t Stop

Don’t Let the Days Go By*

So I seriously overestimated how long it might take to trim the Wonder Under, which is cool, because now I get to start ironing to fabric today. And I didn’t even think I’d get that far yesterday. Around 8 PM, when I was still grading chemical reactions quizzes, I was sure I’d be cutting Wonder Under into today. OK, well, I guess technically I DID cut into today, but I did it in the middle of the night. Until 1:30 AM. Yeah. And then dogs were up early today, so I’m on less sleep than I’d like, but honestly, it’s more sleep than I get on an average school night.

For some reason, I thought grading the quizzes yesterday was a good idea. I think I just wanted to get them out of the way. Now I only have two assignments left…one quick and easy one (that’s today’s) and one bitch of a fucker. Yup. That one is waiting in the wings. I walk by it and shake my head. I’ll do it…but I won’t like it.

Someone asked me yesterday why all their teacher friends were posting at the beginning of break that they were done with their grading…and I’m still grading. For one thing, my co-teacher and I have basically given up almost all of our prep periods to planning this year, since everything is new and we have zero curriculum from the state or district. So that’s time-consuming as all hell. We also don’t use a lot of multiple-choice stuff, because honestly (at least for me), I don’t think it really shows an ability to think critically. We would have done it with the last quiz, with a short answer or two, but the school takes the kids’ Chromebooks before break, so we had to do it on paper. Dammit. Yeah. Timing. Sometimes it sucks. There’s also a bunch of online questions we do as short-term assessments…honestly, if we don’t give them something to focus on as a goal (answer this question), they often won’t finish anything we give them…it’s frustrating. And those take time to grade. It’s not that they’re lazy…they often don’t have parents who value school or education, or they have parents who are illiterate or close enough to it. If you don’t see education as a way out of wherever you are, then you certainly aren’t going to teach your kids to value it either. You’re going to buy them that new technology for Christmas even though they’re failing every class. When they tell you math is hard, you’re going to agree with them, instead of encouraging them to keep trying.

But I keep teaching, even as we face an incoming administration who thinks the 10% of kids in private schools whose parents can afford to send them there have more rights than the 90% of those who we have to take, who we can’t kick out when they don’t achieve or when they behave badly. I don’t know how many kids I’ve taken into my classroom and managed over the years who were kicked out of charters because they didn’t fit what the charter wanted…good grades, hard worker, well-behaved. Yeah. I get the ones who need more help than that. And I teach them. Every day. Please make my job harder with your ignorance. I saw a Facebook acquaintance post about how deVos must be a good choice if all the teachers’ unions were up in arms over her…it was difficult not to respond to his ignorance…living in his rich white community…with no insight to what teaching is actually like, to how difficult some days are to just keep them all from catching on fire…let alone to get them to actually learn something, even if it’s just how to think. His kids have motivation to learn…from him. He is completely clueless as to what it looks like to teach in a low-income public school with limited funding. Why we let politicians be in charge of schools, I just don’t know.

So with that in mind, I’m just gonna finish grading…because for whatever multitude of reasons that I’m not done, it’s gotta get done. Next year will be easier because of all the work we’ve done this year. And that’s something to look forward to in 2017.

That said, I still have quilts to make before that happens. It took a total of about 8 1/2 hours to trim all the Wonder Under…otherwise known as about 12 episodes of Supernatural (OK, I watched some other stuff in there…).

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You get to see my socks and pajamas in that photo…1400 cut pieces in the bin on the right…trash on the left. This morning, I’ll sort them (that will probably take over an hour, maybe close to two)…I’m waiting for the girlchild to leave, so I can watch something besides cooking shows while I’m doing it. Then I’ll grade the short and easy assignment, and then do college financial aid crap. I bought two background fabrics yesterday (couldn’t decide), so I’m ready to start picking fabrics…except the studio is a disaster area at the moment, so I’ll need to do some straightening up. I haven’t even put away the fabrics from the last quilt I finished. OK, so that was only two weeks ago, but still.

We went out to dinner last night…good stuff. Italian. Crazy girlchild face.

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Dogs when cold will cuddle. Briefly.

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But first I need to eat. Did I draw yesterday? Nope. No time. Grading took forever. I’m good at doing the have-to stuff first before the art stuff…unfortunately sometimes. I do need to try to draw too today. OK. The to-do list is made…let’s see where that goes.

*Bush, Glycerine

Only Idiots Ignore the Truth*

Today I am officially halfway through my Winter Break. My chiropractor yesterday mentioned how I must find it difficult to relax, as he tried to fix whatever I’d done to myself in the last two weeks. He’s right, of course. Too much to do. And as teachers, we put off a lot of stuff during the school year because we just don’t have time, so it all gets shoved into our breaks and weekends, meaning much of it never gets done. I’m thinking with the solo show coming up that it’s just that I know what I want to make for it and I don’t know if I have the time…so that’s making more stress for me. It’s good stress, of course, artmaking stress, but it’s not leaving a lot of space for relaxation.

Today is supposed to be nice and warm out (eventually…hasn’t gotten there yet), so I’m hoping to sit out on the deck and bask in some of that warmth this afternoon with my sketchbook, ignoring all the other stuff that’s yelling at me. Hopefully the neighbor who has been building their house down the street from me for almost a year now will have stopped using the tile saw by then. Because that thing is loud. When you’re used to a quiet neighborhood, a year of construction is a lot of noise.

I started cutting out Wonder Under yesterday…probably the most boring task to watch me do…although for me, it’s semi-relaxing. I sit on the couch and watch TV for hours. My hand isn’t even hurting too much this morning, despite 5 hours of cutting yesterday. That’s a good thing. An amazing thing. There were about 8 yards of Wonder Under when I started…and now there’s just a little over 3 yards left. So I did more than half.

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I should be able to finish today, which means I need a background. I was going to do that yesterday and spaced out on it…or thought I would never get that far…I was wrong. The bin on the left is all the cut-out pieces…it’s a lot. The one on the right is the trash, plus the stuff I didn’t finish last night when I decided it was time to go to bed.

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I graded stuff too, one of the more time-consuming assignments. Five down, three to go. One of those three is a quiz and one is Unit 3, which is going to take more than a day to grade. Unfortunately. I’m not looking forward to that thing. Hence my pushing it to the end of the grading. I want to start in January with everything graded though, so I have a week and a half. I’m also ahead of my prediction on the quilt (well, right now I am…give it a day or two)…hopefully I’ll be ironing on fabric as of tomorrow. That would be awesome. Especially since that copyediting job from November is rumored to finally be showing up in January (I’ll believe it when I see it, honestly).

But if I draw today, maybe I can get the next two pieces on paper, at least started, well earlier than I need them. That might help my brain with the stress…

I brought home another office chair…it’s better than some of the ones I have…plus Kitten likes it. So that’s how we decide whether chairs stay here or not, right? I didn’t even get it into the room. It’s in the entryway. With a cat on it.

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OK, the kids showed up with the dogs, muddy feet and all. I have to drag one to the vet, and then I can do the two errands earmarked for today. Then some grading and/or time in the sun. Then Wonder Under cutting and sorting. Easy day, right? Dinner in there somewhere. Yeah. Got this. Still on vacation (whatever that means…well, it means no students, no bells, can pee when I like)…

*Adam and the Ants, Dog Eat Dog

Into Pieces Over Reasons*

This is a weird Thanksgiving. My kids are both together in Boston. My parents are at Arrowhead. My brother and his family are in Seattle. And I’m here. With the dogs and the cats. I needed the time though. Still do. I’m so far behind…and I know how bad the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Winter Break are for teachers…so I’m more than a little panicked.

That panic made me grade stuff yesterday. I still have some more to do…some today for sure. I realized the next progress reports are due in like two weeks. Because they’re trying to kill us, I think. Whatever. I woke up this morning with a massive headache…there’s some weather coming in (hot Santa Ana winds…not snow) and that does mess with my head…but my eye sockets are pounding. This is not good. I’ve got some meds in me and I’m drinking tea. We’ll see if that kicks it.

I did better yesterday in the efficiency games (Think Hunger Games without the killing). The grading was part of it…and I’m still two days behind where I wanted to be on the quilt. I can’t really explain that. I did finish cutting out though…10 hours total…

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And then later, I sorted them all. That was about an hour.

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I couldn’t bring myself to start ironing though. I was tired from being woken up early by American Airlines calling me to tell me the boychild’s flight had been moved yet again. I hope he has an easier time getting back to school.

So I do want to start ironing today. But no way am I going to finish in one day, not with Thanksgiving dinner in the middle of that. And tomorrow, I’m supposed to be helping do my own yardwork. So that’s going to cut into ironing time. Plus I bid on another copyediting job. Because I’m crazy. That’s why. Because I’m afraid there won’t be enough money to pay all the bills. That’s why.

I think ironing will take at least 12 hours. Who knows. Maybe I’ll be really efficient. Ha. This week. Not an efficiency tale.

I washed the puppy. He was muddy from the weekend. And then I trimmed a giant knot out of his butt hair. Pomeranians are the worst-designed dogs ever.

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He doesn’t like water. He gets the rips (an original doggie blow dryer) and rubs his body all over the carpet.

I also made brine for the turkey I bought for myself. Yup. I’ll cook it tomorrow and pull the meat off for turkey sandwiches. I’ll freeze half of it so it’ll last a goodly portion of December. I did this last year too. I’m a little weird that way. But I love post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches.

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The dogs played a lot yesterday. Although I think this is Calli trying to sleep while Simba tries to play.

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Certainly they sleep well together…

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Turkey brining away.

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So I’m thankful for time to make art. Thankful for a break from school. Thankful I could get the kids together at least. Thankful that someone will take me in for dinner tonight. Thankful for working internet. Thankful for a warm sunny day…although I would also be thankful for rain. Thankful for sleeping in this morning (let’s not talk about the middle-of-the-night raccoon barking fit). Thankful for music. Thankful for Netflix. Thankful for the animals. Thankful for tea. Thankful for my sketchbook and a handful of pens. Thankful for the 1000-page book that I feel like I’ve already read but I’m reading again? Except I don’t know when or how I would have already read it. But it sounds so familiar. That’s it for now…

*21 Pilots, Forest

Even If the Skies Get Rough*

Aargh. So I was not very efficient yesterday. I could blame missing the kids, I could blame post-school brain. I could just say…hey…sometimes I can’t do what I need to do. I did walk the dogs. That was good.

And I started one drawing…just in pencil, because it’s not very high on the list. It’s just in my head, so I needed to start something.

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I don’t usually start in pencil, but I needed to for this one.

Then I started one that’s been in and out of my head for about a month…maybe more.

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This will be part of my solo show at Visions next year. I’d like to get it to a point tonight where I can enlarge it to draw the rest…because no way is it going to fit on one piece of paper. I guess I could enlarge it now…maybe. I’ll think about it.

I was supposed to spend all day yesterday cutting out pieces and then starting the ironing process. That didn’t happen.

If you walk dogs, they sleep.

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I spent about an hour with Expedia and the kids trying to reroute the boychild to the girlchild. I couldn’t make it work last night, so he’s going today. Hopefully. If the universe doesn’t fuck with us again.

I did eventually start cutting stuff out…

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And honestly, I got a lot done. All that’s left are the flesh fabrics and the sun and clouds. That’s not much, but it was more than an hour’s worth, I think. So I didn’t finish it last night. Puts me behind. Sigh. Giant sigh, actually. I still need to actually grade things. So I’m going to try to double up my efficiency today to make up for yesterday’s brain.

I miss my kids. Did I say that already? Yeah. Well. Three weeks. They’ll be home then. I can do that. And hopefully sometime today I’ll start ironing this thing together. It’s easier to stay on task when I’m ironing than when I’m cutting stuff out. Cutting just feels like it takes forever. And it doesn’t.

*Jason Mraz, I Won’t Give Up

Please Don’t Bother Trying to Find Her*

The reality is that if you leave me alone long enough with the furry beasts, I will start having long philosophical discussions with them. I’m particularly perturbed that none of them thought it was their civic duty to vote in the last election. I believe I have chastised them appropriately and that will not be the case in 2020. Of course, it’s too late now. They understand that. They are sorry. They will do better next time.

I have to admit that I’m not getting much but art stuff done. I don’t feel like grading things. I don’t feel like yardwork. I don’t feel like anything.

I did about 8 hours of artmaking yesterday, in between…um…what? Well I ran two whole errands. And I cooked a little. But that’s about it. Thanksgiving break is always like this…it’s not really long enough to recover from school AND be a productive human again. So we try to recover and manage all the family stuff, which this year, isn’t much. Last year, I was in Seattle this week…so no artmaking then. I could have gone there again this year, but honestly just needed to hunker down, finish this piece, and start the next five. I think it really is five too. Crazy.

I finished ironing the Wonder Under down to fabric in about 13 hours…way longer than it should have taken for 800 pieces, but whatever. I’m sure there was a good reason.

I made a small body cell in the last piece…and I used ALL the colors.

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The last thing I ironed was the cat…

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The fabric cat…not a real one…

Here’s all 117 fabrics…also more than I would normally use in an 800-piece quilt.

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Not a lot of blue…a lot of gray and brown.

I guess I did clean up the light table. And then I went through the drawings to see if there was another bathtub drawing in there (yes…but I don’t know if I want to make it next…I think it should wait.). And I cut a 24-inch square of paper for a piece that needs to be done in March or April…can’t remember which. I need to look at the calendar and make some quilt plans too. Maybe I will do that today. It’s finally sunny. I could sit out and draw today. Maybe.

It was cold last night, so when I finally sat down to start cutting pieces out, I had three animals at one point…some WAYYYY too close.

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They kept moving around. Occasionally dog parts would be on my lap.

Simba needs a bath…but I’m waiting until it warms up a bit during the day before I do it to him.

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Like maybe today.

So then I cut stuff out for hours…well, 4 1/2 hours anyway. Which explains why my hand hurts this morning.

I got a lot cut out…although it never looks like much, does it? Trash in the top one, stuff that still needs cutting in the middle one, and cut-out stuff in the bottom one.

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My goal today is to finish that and start ironing it together. Finish ironing tomorrow and get to stitch down? Maybe? I hope so. Quilt Thursday? I should check the batting stash, huh. (check. Got batting.) The binding will be another issue, but hopefully that will be Friday. Maybe. I’m still debating the weekend. The copyediting job got kicked until mid-December (not looking forward to having three fewer weeks to complete it)…so Saturday might be a drive and a dinner and another drive. Still debating that.

I’m totally taking the dogs for a walk today though. A long one. Out in the middle of nowhere. Because they need it and so do I. Although the one outside barking at me is currently standing in a pool of water…like that makes sense. I suspect I should also do laundry. I did buy a turkey. I’m going to start brining it today I think. Maybe do that and then walk the dogs. I got a lunch invite. Not sure I’m in the mood for that. I’d have to find the part of my brain that socializes appropriately. Not sure where I put that. Mislaid for the holidays.

*The Zombies, She’s Not There