Tag: desert

As I Was Falling Asleep…

Proof I wasn’t ready to go back to school? What am I talking about? We’re always braindead on the weekends. I spent Friday night doing almost nothing but reading; Saturday, we hiked and I drew; Sunday, I panicked a little about school and did some grading and recorded a video, but I still have to post everything and check the calendar and finish up contracts for this week. I tested negative on Friday, but we’re pretty sure we had a positive case in the classroom on Thursday. They don’t even tell us anymore. Just assume? I’m hoping the omicron thing peaks soon so we can go back to whatever version of normal we were on in this iteration. Here’s one crazy thing in my head…don’t get tested in the morning on a lab day, because if they pull you out for testing positive, who the hell is gonna cover your labs? Some poor resource teacher who doesn’t have a clue? The superintendent? Yeah. Well, they are sending people out from the district office to cover our classes. Doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing.

Anyway, stay healthy, stay sane. And for MLK, let’s work on voting rights and white people.

The drawing is progressing, although I had to take a break last night, because I couldn’t figure out what to do with the next section, and I know I had an idea right as I was falling asleep, but I don’t remember what it was. It’s OK. It will come back. It’s in my brain somewhere.

On Saturday night, I managed all this…

Inked the rest of the arms and added a few creatures, then penciled in some animals below…and then moved half of them again and redrew most of the others because it was just kind of random placement and size and didn’t work at all, which is how I end up with freakishly tiny pieces.

Ah well. So yeah, moved and shrunk the tortoise, moved the bunny to the other side, redrew the bobcat because it was too fluffy and too diagonal.

The bunny was too big too. It’s still too big really, but I’m not sure I could go smaller. It will work.

The center part is the section I’m flailing on…

It’s OK. Whatever my brain had going will come back by tonight. So there’s just this bit and the sky to do, and that’s it. Then numbering all those pieces and into the tracing. Sounds lovely.

Nova is not sure about all that.

So I’m also doing the Molli Sparkles Cut It Up challenge, which is just some piecing stuff, cutting into fabrics that need love and that might be hard to cut into. I don’t usually have a problem cutting into fabrics, but I do have some that never get used because their details make them hard to use in an art quilt like the ones I make. So I’m trying to use those. So far, most of the fabrics I’ve cut into have never been used. Success! I did this block a few weeks ago…

And then the directions of the curves were bugging me. I thought if I pulled two of them off and switched them, then it wouldn’t look like each side was going the same way? I don’t know if you can even see that. My brain can’t UNSEE it. Anyway, I took one triangle off and tried holding it up to the other sides and there is no way to make this work with the triangles I have. I even did some fancy drawing to check…

Yup. That’s technological wizardry there. Anyway, I could recut triangles, or I could just accept this, because it will be in a quilt full of wildness and it won’t even matter. It’s a good thing I came to this conclusion, because the next step was making a bunch of flying geese, which I don’t think I’ve ever made before, but I didn’t work very hard at directional fabrics and I’m OK with what I have so far.

Oh honey, those aren’t very directional…

THERE we go. I have three more of these to make and I’m totally OK with how it’s going. Why do I do silly piecing and strange challenges when I have so much else going on? The very left brain activity of piecing helps my right brain relax a little and then I can focus on the other stuff, like what to draw in the belly space. Plus it’s something I can control. Well, obviously, not completely, because I can’t figure the directional stuff out, but let it the fuck go. I’m good. We’ll see how far I go with it.

I took my sewing stuff to school to fix a kid’s stuffed animal.

He didn’t seem as appreciative as I would have thought? Ah well. Whatever. Weird skills for a weird job.

Saturday’s hike included an exploratory bit where we tried to find another loop in this park…

But the little section to get down to the other road is apparently private. In the middle of nowhere. So we turned back.

More noticing of the things. It’s not spring yet.

Hey guys. What’s up?

Always being watched.

Saturday dinner drawing…

Not sure what was happening with the hands.

OK, so there’s a to-do list, like always. Some of it’s art-related, a lot is work-related, and there’s a bit of Go-for-a-Walk-related. So I’ll start with packing a quilt to be shipped and work out from there. Hopefully the missing idea from falling asleep will come back and maybe I’ll finish the drawing tonight. We’ll see. It’s nice to have the day off, either way. It’s also nice that the neighbors are quiet (for now).

Very Specific Dreams…

Damn. It’s a good thing it’s Friday. I’m exhausted. I haven’t been sleeping well…last night was a dream about a cleaning lady (man, that would be nice…) who looked a lot like our new science teacher, and she tracked me down because the vacuum died and charged me by the minute ($18.63) but I didn’t have any money, and in fact, I’d forgotten she was coming, so I sent the man to find some cash and I had to go to work, which somehow involved buying a roll of film from this weird store and then the line was too long, so I gave up, but after the cleaner tracked me down with her two ragged friends for the $18.63 that I didn’t have, I went back to the store (which really sold coffee and pastries) for the film, but I’d thrown it back at the cashier, yelling, I can’t wait in this line!, and she made me crawl around the back area where they were making fancy coffees, trying to find this roll of Kodak film…not the normal types, one of those really old cartridge types, and when I got home, I noticed the cleaner just gave up and only cleaned until the vacuum died, and there were so many things she could have cleaned without the vacuum and she didn’t do any of them.

I have very specific dreams.

Anyway. It’s Friday. I’ve survived three whole days of school, fire alarms going off after school (they were testing the system), which caused the 14th headache of the day, and IDK how many pandemic contracts for kids because I lost count and possibly my mind.

Meanwhile, a drawing is regurgitating out of my brain, the part that doesn’t have a headache, and it’s fast and easy enough that I have to remind myself to check the clock to go to bed. Late two nights running.

I am sketching things out in pencil and then using ink to completely change them as I draw them. Which is normal. So Wednesday night, I inked the hawk and then started looking up and figuring out plants.

The arms are holding a lot of the plants…

Although I changed some of this while inking, and I do need to add some animals to this layer.

So last night, I had the joy of mostly inking…

I’m getting in about an hour a night. I changed the hands three times now, which is why they aren’t inked, because I’m still not sure about them. Plus I want to add some animals and they might end up there? Most of them will be in the bottom layer, I think. Yes, this is longer than what you can see. Yes, there are lots of details. Yay! Yes, it will take me forever. What you see is about 4 hours.

Luna has not been particularly helpful with this stage.

Few cats are. Luna and Kitten like to stand on it. Nova likes to eat the paper. Not helpful.

Last night, we pivoted (ugh, hate that word) back to Zoom for our stitching meeting…I’m still trying to finish the 24 highly embellished flowers…

All I had to do was chain stitch last night, which was good, because I almost laid down on the couch for a nap during the meeting. I have all these plans for tonight; we’ll see if I have the energy for them. Thank goodness for a 3-day weekend. I have 78 million things to do this weekend. Pack up two quilts, ship one, deliver another to the photographer, finish moving gravel to the side of the house, hike, meet up with one friend about a commission and just to say hi, grade a ton of stuff, decide what quilts I’m going to put on sale this month, finish the drawing.

Unit 4 cover page for school…very disjointed and random.

I almost restarted it, but I figured future self deserved to know my brain situation in January 2022.

OK, so today’s science assignments are pretty easy. Today’s art assignments appear to just be a challenge for these sweet little widgets across the board. We start something different on Tuesday, thank goodness. I need to get tested at school…too many positive cases. I need to copy a bunch of stuff (hopefully there’s paper) and grade another bunch of stuff (hopefully there’s brainpower). Next week is also a short one. A blessing, for sure. Grades due soon. That’s all the shit in my head, now on the blog, so hopefully I can get things done today.