Scissor Love

Happy Boxing Day! Seriously, if you’ve survived the holidays so far, you’re doing great…just a few more things to get out of the way, right? The year is almost ready to end, there’s still some family stuff to do, there’s post-holiday cleanup, there’s trying to use up all the gift cards and certificates before you forget about them. You have a bunch of books to read, if you’re from my family. I have a lot more fuzzy socks than I did before, which is good, because a bunch of mine had holes in them. It’s all good. Well, just don’t think about deadlines or going back to work or finishing grades, and everything will be fine. I think I’m officially halfway through my Winter Break, and my phone map thinks I need to go back to school. Because it’s Wednesday and I’m not at work yet. Eleven days until back to school? That’s less than half left. Or exactly half. Something like that. So many things to get done before then! I tried to grade yesterday and mostly failed at it. Granted, it was Christmas Day, but in between this and that, I thought I could be efficient. Not so much.

First of all, back to Christmas Eve…I ironed in between the morning event and the evening event, trying to finish up all the bits that belonged to Figure number 2, like this bird.

Meanwhile, Kitten is watching real birds outside.

And in the evening, I drew my requisite, geez, aren’t they getting weirder and weirder, drawing…

There is a second figure bending over on the right. It has to do with how I drew the arm. She didn’t fit with the arm any more.

And then I laid out all the pieces for Figure 3…

I’ve been using a different run of flesh fabrics for each person, but honestly have not paid much attention to what might happen when they overlap, which is really just where the arms are. There’s always ink and thread for that issue.

So Christmas Eve, when I gave up and went to bed, this is all I had used. I have tried to keep the fleshy bits for each figure in a separate box, just so I can see them.

There’s lots of fabric in this one. And here’s all the Wonder Under bits that are not flesh but still part of Figure 3.

I didn’t get to those until Christmas Day…because in the years past, I have managed to stay out of the cooking/food prep part of Christmas evening (mostly) and so I can do art stuff in the hours in between. I would have walked dogs too, but it rained most of the day, so I opted out of outside.

Rushing ahead though. Here’s the pile of stuff to be cut out from Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day is opening presents and cuddling animals…

Animals with chew toys.

Animals who resemble presents…

That tile is from Spain. Or Portugal. Now I can’t remember.

All the animals…

Well, until he’s ready to guard us from the rain. It really did pour for a while.

We got over half an inch. Which reminds me…I need to go turn the sprinklers off again.

Kitten did a damn good job of guarding the bed…

I brought her a catnip toy to entertain her. She’s kind of antisocial.

Rainy driveway.

Today of course is beautiful and sunny. But we have an afternoon thing that will keep me from enjoying it. Oh well.

I did fabric stuff for about an hour in the afternoon, and then we headed off for Christmas dinner, which is a mix of stuff to keep everyone sort of happy.

Girlchild is a good cook. Which is nice.

I worked on the zebra for a bit.

No, he’s still not done. They’re never done.

And then I mostly drew this in the dark. Which might explain my spelling issue.

It might explain a lot of things. This would be a hellish quilt to make. But it was relaxing to draw.

Back to the ironing. While I’m actually picking fabrics, this is what the fabric pile looks like.

It’s a little chaotic. When it gets really bad, I clean up…here’s everything used so far…

I got through Figure 3 and all the attached bits…like this snake…

I’m ready for Figure 4, which has snakes for hair. Complicated overlapping snakes for hair. Yup. What am I, nuts? Don’t answer that.

I’m 12 1/2 hours into the ironing, and barely over the halfway point for pieces…about halfway through the 800s, I think.

The box gets more and more full.

My hours per week are up in the last 7 days, but still not where they need to be. I need to be fully ironed to fabric before I leave for the cabin, and honestly, I’d like to be done well before that and cutting the pieces out already. Done with that by the time I get back, and then ironing down, because then I go back to school. Yikes. No time for that. The next figure is also on fire. I really am trying to use totally different fabrics in each figure, even the reds for the hearts, although the last one had a gray heart. I want to cut into fabrics that have never felt scissor love. I want to use up things that I have large pieces of and that don’t need to be quite so large in the stash. Kitten just tried to turn on toggle sound on the computer. She’s using the keyboard as a pillow. Nice one, cat.

OK, but for now, I need to get ready for the last official family event, which means breakfast and a shower. And then maybe iron a bit before we leave. Figure 4 for tonight then. Some more grading at some point. Ugh. Some exercise some time. Tomorrow probably. Scissor love though. Gotta love me some fabric.

Crooked Spin Can’t Come to Rest*

Merry Christmas Eve. May yours NOT involve the grocery store, the liquor store, the pet store, anywhere with a parking lot, or anyone under the age of…um…well…I’m honestly kind of at a point of no people right now. Furry beasts only. Cocktails definitely. And pajamas would be my preference. A roaring fire. Except we’re in Southern California and it’s currently too warm for that. Sigh. A good book! I’ve got one of those. But unfortunately, most of the rest was on my list for today, and there’s more coming. So there we are. We all decide on how to do our holidays and it often involves those of the human persuasion.

Furry beast number 1…happily terrorizing the other cat in the house and trying to eat all the people’s foods.

Furry beast number 2…who mostly has been hiding from all of us and kneading the batting.

She’s come out to say hi to me. That’s it. Gone again.

Furry beast number 3…happily chewing Katie’s bone at the grandparents’ house last night for dinner.

Girlchild cooked. I stitched. Puppy didn’t make it into the photos yesterday. Oh wait. He did. There he is…with the girlchild.

She enjoys the furries.

Last night’s drawing, after I shut myself in my office for like 3 hours.

If the head doesn’t fit, bend it. OK, I actually drew the head first I think. Repeating imagery. Only so many things to draw in the world.

I ironed for about 2 hours last night. I finished all the parts of Figure 2 that weren’t flesh…so lungs, hair, heart, etc.

I’m ready to start Figure 3, but first I have a bird, a nest, and a vine that are all attached to Figure 2. And I have a Christmas Eve thing to which I must go, so who knows if I’ll get any of that done. It’s my plan to do some now.

Here’s all the fabrics I’ve used so far. Much more colorful than some others…

I’m trying to make sure I use different fabric ranges in each person. They are all different people.

I did some of the flower bits. I didn’t do two of them because the instructions for them are at home. Here. Not at my parents’ house.

I started the zebra. I obviously haven’t started the official plan for 2019, wherein I work on something different each night. This is easy for traveling to people’s houses. Easier than many things. Stitching is relaxing. I need to do more of it. Right now. Like RIGHT NOW.

Or I could iron. Also on the list. Hope your Christmas Eve includes some calm and mellow times, if that’s what you crave. Or not.

*Elliott Smith, Say Yes

I Wait for the Minutes to Burn*

OK I’m writing on a Sunday because I didn’t realize it was a Sunday because I’ve finally reached the part of my Winter Break when I have no idea what day it is until someone tells me. And this clears my brain and lets me set goals for the day or even the week, although right now, let’s just focus on one day at a time, because more than that makes me panic about deadlines and stuff like that, and that’s not a good place to be right now. Right now should be all cookies and kittens, people. Maybe some puppies or bunnies too, and a cute little sloth or hedgehog would also be appreciated. Plus clean floors. Still don’t have those.

So with that, I spent a lot of time yesterday ironing…for good, not evil, no worries. No clothing was harmed in the process. And I’m totally OK with having all that time to iron. I wanted it. I did not leave the house. And it was fine.

Before I did that, I cut some background blocks for the moons I bought from Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth…I’m planning some of my typical fusing on each block and then a bunch of hand embroidery.

It’s not something for a show…it’s just something for me. What a concept! Trying something new anyway. That’s always a good thing. This is the project that will occupy me on Sundays, so I needed to get it up and running. Fusing next.

Then I hung the drawing for the new piece…twice, because it does have a top, but sometimes I get confused by where that is.

Goddess forbid I label the damn thing with TOP. It’s big…more horizontal than usual. More horizontal than vertical.

There’s a lot of flesh in this. Five heads means five different flesh runs. This is the first and the smallest of the figures. Kitten is fascinated.

Geez. So there it was after I found all the pieces for that person…I think it’s the only one that has a torso down into the legs. They all have arms though.

Some of the biggest pieces in here are arm parts.

For once, I numbered intelligently. I numbered everything in each figure and then everything that touches it that’s not another figure. So logical. This is the third fabric in the flesh run. Fitting all the pieces together. I am giving a talk at my local quilt guild in January and I need process pictures.

I don’t really like puzzles, but I also don’t like wasting fabric. So I’m very thoughtful about how I iron.

Then I started picking fabrics for Figure 2…bigger pieces, but still only a run of 5 fabrics for the main fleshy bits. I have to worry a bit about having enough of each fabric to actually cut out the pieces…the second one was a bit tight.

Or maybe it was the first one. Can’t remember. It’s OK. I want to use up fabric and have them be in quilts. I don’t want them to languish away in drawers, lonely and bereft of admiration.

I did take a few hours of a break and finished grading that big assignment (yay! Yes, there are 6 more, but they’re all smaller, hallelujah) and then drew this crazy thing while watching a movie with the sick man.

I can’t explain it. I just didn’t know what to do with the legs. They were too far apart to put a body on them, and besides, the paper wasn’t long enough for that, and it was really about being underground anyway, and someone was making me watch the news at some point, and that’s never a good thing.

When the sick guy went to bed (hope he’s better soon…he’s miserable), I went back and ironed down the last of the fleshy bits on Figure 2. Here’s everything ironed down so far.

I still have to do all the non-flesh bits of Figure 2, like the heart, lungs, and eyeballs. I ironed for almost 5 hours yesterday. Perfect! Hoping for a repeat today, but…well…we’ll see. More stuff going on today. I’m not sure where I am in the pieces…I pulled from the 200s and the 300s, but didn’t iron all of them down, so I probably have at least 300 pieces ironed. I’m guessing it will take about 20 hours to iron all of this…so it’ll be sometime this week. I think. I do have other stuff to do, lots of family stuff, which is good, but eats into my artmaking time. That sounds cranky, but I am in serious hermit mode right now and didn’t leave the house yesterday. I won’t be able to pull that off today. I will have to fight holiday grocery store crowds and be nice about it. Ugh. And I should grade something and I will definitely draw again. Hopefully something less psychotic, but honestly, it doesn’t matter, because I’m just drawing to draw…and I finished that sketchbook last night (from 2014), and found another one that I started in 2014 (why? Why two in the same year? I cannot say.), so now I’ll try to fill that one.

But for now, I’m waiting on the children, so I can go to the grocery store and get that over with. Woo! Love it! Yeah! Then ironing. Please.

*iamdynamite, Hi Lo

If You Just Hold in Your Breath*

Another no-art day. Ah Christmas. You eat up my spare time with your neediness. Today will be different. I feel it. Christmas morning will be here at the house, so cleaning, plus we have to deal with grocery shopping for the festivities, but that’s not much…just some dusting, some floor cleaning, and an hour at the store, maybe more. Today I personally have no plans, although there is still a to-do list. I don’t have to do anything on it though…except my daily Winter Break drawing.

Yesterday. Yesterday was a lot of cleaning and cooking and then we walked the dogs to really tire them out…oh wait, but before that, I finished the present wrapping and there’s Kitten, guarding the tree.

She hasn’t gacked up any pine needles yet, but it’s not for wont of trying.

We took the dogs out to Crestridge Ecological Reserve…I keep forgetting about this one, because it’s a longer drive to get there.

It has a beautiful grove of old oak trees though. Obvious rain damage to the trail from the two batches of rain we got a few weeks ago.

We were trying to do 4 miles, but were just short. The weather was perfect…a little chilly even.

The last time I was here, it was too hot.

We wandered around a trail for a bit…

The dogs like to forage. Mostly. Here boychild went to explore a pile of stuff in the brush, and Simba refused to go with him. So we waited.

This is coyote country, so I do pay attention to Simba’s instincts. Although he’s also a rampant barker…but not on leash.

Even in winter, we get flowers…

Although not many. More of that rain damage.

Makes for interesting patterns on the ground. Remember that for the next drawing.

Anyway, then I bathed the big dog. She has skin issues and needed her special soap. Dinner. Picked up girlchild from the airport, which was hellish. Too many people. Three introverts in a car looking for the one extrovert. Then they dropped me at the music venue where my guy was playing last night.

And I upped my daily step count yet again. It was a nice way to end the day…short set, not too late, got a good view up front. Wine was horrendously expensive, so I gave up on that.

I did draw while waiting for the band to come out, though. Got some weird looks and some comments. I was there by myself, so I was OK with it.

This is one of the smallest sketchbooks. It fits in my purse. I did most of the drawing in the 20 minutes before the band came out (shitty lighting), and then finished it while waiting for the man to pack up his equipment. This is 6×9″ I think. I don’t like the bird, but the rest is fine. Filling spaces. Like I said, I enjoy the freedom of drawing without a purpose. One woman wanted to know why I didn’t do it earlier in the day, since I knew I was coming here. I was like, “I didn’t have time. Plus I knew I’d be standing here.” I think the idea of going somewhere by yourself was confusing to her. Maybe if I’d explained that I was with the band? She was all talking about how she had friends in both bands. OK. Well. I go to a lot of these and there’s a lot of waiting around and I like to have my brain busy. So I read or draw. I also danced for an hour, so I’m OK with that.

Meanwhile…did I get anything done on that quilt in progress? Fuck no, I did not. Nothing at all. That will change today. The kids are Christmas shopping and then they will go to their dad’s. The man is sick, so I’m suspecting dinner here or out and that’s it, and I’m OK with that. I’d like to start ironing this quilt to fabric today. I would like to get a big chunk of that done, like 4 or 5 hours. I’d like to do the same tomorrow, but tomorrow gets more complicated. I’d like this shingles vaccine rash to go away (I finally took Benadryl last night…it helped a little.). I’d like more sleep. All these things are possible. I want to finish grading the last of the science units. I got about a third of the way through the last period yesterday. I even did a few at 11 PM after the show, but I didn’t finish. Today I would like to finish, so I can pack that pile up and just deal with the computer stuff. I might change out of pajamas…but I might not. That’s a decision I can make later.

*Regina Spektor, Genius Next Door

I’ve Got a Head Full of Drought Down Here*

There’s something about the three breaks I get a year as a teacher…work takes up so much mental space that it’s hard to do anything beyond the necessary errands and short, quick self-care, like hikes and art exhibits and music and dinners out with loved ones. Then I get three weeks off, albeit three weeks with the girlchild home and a bunch of holiday requirements, you must be here and there and bring stuff that has to be organized, blah blah blah. That’s not my favorite part of any holiday. And then because I’m a teacher, I have to balance my desire to completely blow off my job for 3 weeks (some manage this…I don’t know how) with the hope that if I work hard enough, I could start teaching again in January with very little backlog. It’s never NO backlog. That’s a joke. But get the big nasty stuff out of the way, for sure. Especially since grades are due when we get back.

But January 1, the new year, is always mentally a place where we evaluate life, love, and the pursuit of happiness, right? OK, teachers do that over the summer too. Plus cleaning…it’s all about cleaning and finishing things, right? I used to always start new projects around Thanksgiving, because I’d have time then to do that, and then with Winter Break I could finish something large. It’s funny…I actually spent more hours making art the last week of school, that crazy-ass week with night-time meetings every day after school, then this week, which has kind of sucked for that, except for the drawings, which honestly are taking around 30 minutes, except that one night I was sick. That took longer. I’m hoping next week has more art time built in, but who knows? Certainly there was no art made yesterday besides the daily draw.

That said, I needed to get a lot of things done…and today will be the same. The bougainvillea got trimmed and the steps swept from when the boychild tossed everything on the roof down. Boychild started working on the disastrous wood pile. I got a bunch of stuff out of the entryway in preparation for Christmas morning here. I put a few more ornaments on my tree. I cleaned the girlchild’s room, which meant putting a bunch of quilts away. I cleaned the studio, so now it’s ready for ironing today, if I get to it. And I sorted through a bunch of started-but-never-finished projects. I like to finish those. I’ve been trying to take on a few each break. I have a binding that’s still not done from summer though! Because that’s hard? No. It’s really not. Just not motivated to finish it.

So I identified 7 projects I wanted to get finished in 2019. Some of them are barely started, one isn’t even anything but a pile of stuff, and on the other extreme, some are very close to being finished. I tried to pick things that could be done while sitting on the couch, in that post-dinner TV-watching time. It’s maybe 30-45 minutes an evening…although sometimes, I don’t do the TV part. And sometimes I grade instead. But in 2017, I made an effort to hand stitch a little every night before grading or other stuff, and if it helps me get these piles of unfinished things done, I’m looking forward to that. So I spent time yesterday finding parts of things that went with all these projects…I’m still missing about 9 blocks of a wool quilt from a million years ago. I know they’re somewhere…I just don’t know where somewhere is. But I have the four borders to work on until I find them.

Now I found this…I think from the trip we took to Oregon? Or maybe this was Sweden? I can’t remember. I wanted handwork…but didn’t get very far. This is not in the Pile of 7.

And I did this after a Susan Sorrell class…

Obviously still needs a face and at least one nipple.

This is block 10 of 12…yes, hand applique. I do enjoy it. This looks really weird at the moment. But with three blocks left…really? I should totally finish this.

Seriously, half the quilt is sewn together. So that’s one of the projects for this year. The Sue Spargo Folk Tails quilt I’ve been working on for a couple of years is also one of them.

This house is 6 of 9…big and colorful and obnoxious use of interesting fabrics (not that you can tell here, because it’s all covered with freezer paper…you’ll just have to trust me). Easy peasy and fun.

So block 7 is already cut out too…so little left to do.

This is an art quilt. I keep finding it and putting it somewhere so I’ll work on it. This is the year to get it done. It’s so close. Really close.

And weird. It’s definitely weird. From probably the early 2000s. I think. I really don’t know. There’s no date on the drawing. But I gave up on hand-appliqueing quilts really early on. And it’s pre-blog. I’ve been blogging for a long time, but not long enough to document this.

What else? A body quilt that needs a lot of hand embroidery that has been sitting around for months. A pile of moons I like but want to make my own. That wool quilt where I can’t find the majority of the blocks. Anyway, I assigned one to each day of the week. Because I was finding it hard to finish things, so if I change it up, maybe I will be more motivated…and obviously, sometimes I won’t work on anything that night, but I figure with 52 weeks in the year, that’s 26 hours or so that might go into that piece. And some of them would be done with just 5 or 6 hours of work. Or at least the handwork would be done and they could go into the machine-work pile. It’s not like I don’t have 4 things already on the list to take their place on the hand-work pile. It’s a plan anyway. Sometimes I’m good at these types of New Year’s resolutions and sometimes I suck.

Simba is looking forward to laptime while I sew.

He’s not a fan of the chair.

Another thing I’m going to try to do is use up more of the larger pieces of fabric I have stashed away for backings. I can piece. I hate it but I can do it. I need to clear space out in my drawers for new stuff…like these.

You’d think I use up a lot of fabric, but I buy more than I use up in a year, I think. OK, I know. But it’s my palette. I don’t use very much of any one fabric in a quilt. Sigh. So going into the drawers and grabbing all the yard pieces of fish fabrics (why so many? I don’t know.) and piecing them into a backing…that’s a thing for 2019. I already have been trying to do that with the bigger fabrics in 2018…all the weird bits I’ve picked up over the years when people clean out and/or die. I’ve been using them. Christmas fabrics too. Good place for them.

A friend of mine grabbed this poster from Mesa College…they were cleaning up. That’s my (sold) quilt on the poster! I love it!

Nice decoration for the door.

So I had all these leeks to use up (still have one giant one left)…and I have this risotto I make that I love, but it takes forever to make. Because risotto. So I always do something at the same time…

And that something is often grading…I’m really happy to say I only have one more class of these to grade.

(And then 6 more assignments, but none of them is as big and hefty as this one.). Stir in broth, grade one kid’s science unit, stir in more broth, grade the next one. Tasted great.

Then I did my 6th drawing in a row…it was late though. Because I was still trying to clean up too.

The days just fly by on break. I try to be efficient. I think I’m efficient. There’s just so many things to get done.

It was midnight when I started cleaning up in here. I was wired by then. Not sleeping. And I wanted it clean in here. So I did that.

Found homes for all of it, straightened up all the Christmas and birthday stuff that was everywhere. Wrapped some of it. Moved some of it. Wasted some time with calendar stuff for the year. I needed to get my head straight over some things. You should stay up until 2 in the morning at least once in a while to remind yourself how quiet and peaceful the middle of the night is. Ignore the morning headache you will inevitably have because you can’t sleep in due to daylight and hungry cats. You will survive.

Girlchild is on her way to the airport! She’ll be here tonight. I’ll be at a show though. I’ll see her at the airport first though, before they drop me at the venue. And tomorrow we’ll start the holiday grocery list.

So I didn’t iron anything yesterday. I didn’t make any progress on the quilt at all, unless you count cleaning the studio. Which I don’t. I mean, it had to happen, but it’s not making art. It’s work. But I’m ready to iron now. I need to grab the drawing and pin it up and sort the first 100 pieces of Wonder Under, and then I can iron. But first? Ha ha ha. Yeah, that to-do list is kicking my ass. Today? Yeah. Maybe some of the things will shift over to next week. We will be walking dogs and hopefully cleaning floors. Some of them anyway. Although it might be better to wait until cooking has happened. Hmmm. Don’t want to do things twice if I don’t have to.

Shingles vaccine is down to just the rash…which is unfortunately worse this morning than this last night…

It’s complicated by some allergic reaction I had to something that bit me last week. But the top two red bits are now connected and growing. Hot and painful to the touch. Fun stuff. No fever or fatigue after the first 24 hours though, so I’m counting myself lucky.

Oh yeah, and I took Christmas cards and a letter off my plate for this year. I can’t deal. I might write something here instead. It’s not a task that anyone helps with, so I’m too overwhelmed this year to deal with it. There’s other stuff that has a higher priority. Sorry. Not sorry. You can read my parents’ letter instead. Oh wait. I kinda got left out of the letter. I have a bunch of people that show up places, but that’s my only mention…Kathy’s bunch. My contingent. We might need to print a revision…the Seattle crew and I have already discussed how to rewrite. I’m sure Dad will be pleased that we critique his version of the State of the Nida Conglomerate.

OK, with that, I’m going to eat something and shower, and then figure out what’s next on the list. I think I need to go to the store. Since I didn’t leave the house at all yesterday, it means I will have to put on real clothes and maybe a bra (I really think those should be optional). May your holiday prep proceed in a timely fashion. And involve cookies. Definitely cookies.

*Sneaker Pimps, 6 Underground

Something Small and Frail and Plastic*

Awesome news! This time around, the shingles vaccine is NOT kicking my butt like last time. I felt like crap the first night. I still have a rash on my arm. I’ve had a few bouts of fatigue and chills and headache like last time, but it’s the 2nd day after the shot and I’m not conked out on the couch. Last time, I was sick for 5 days straight and almost ended up in Urgent Care (knock on wood). This is good! You know what’s bad though? It’s only good for 5 years. I didn’t know that. That sucks. It means I have to do this again in 5 years. Ugh. That’s annoying. I guess it makes sense though. I do the flu shot every year (and I don’t get the flu…which when you teach in a middle school is kind of amazing). Honestly, I don’t even get colds very often. I had pneumonia about 4 years ago…that kicked my butt. You’d think with the small amount of sleep I get and the stress from school that I’d be sick all the time…but I’m lucky that way. Immune system kicks ass, even though it’s “compromised” by diabetes. Whatever.

So my arm is painful and itchy, but I can stand up and do stuff! I’ll take it. It’s a good thing, really, because I remembered yesterday that I need to clean the girlchild’s room before she shows up tomorrow. I store my quilts on her bed while she’s gone…it’s easier than pulling them out of storage 10 times a year. So I’m going to deal with putting them all away today. I also need to clean the studio up, because it’s time for ironing! Yay! One of my favorite parts of quiltmaking…when I get to pick the fabrics. I’m totally going to enjoy that for the next 5 days or so.

So I finished cutting stuff out in the early evening. I did some in the morning, while the windshield guy replaced my windshield. It’s a good thing he didn’t replace anything else, because obviously he’s the windshield guy. I shipped stuff to Seattle for Christmas, I went to the quilt store and got background fabric that I think I’ve used in another quilt. I really tried to get something that wasn’t dark blue, but my brain wasn’t having it. I got some other stuff too, including this one fabric with eyeballs on it that the nice woman cutting my fabric said looked like something I would use. Um. Wait. So you know who I am? Apparently yes. Weird. And then I got my hair cut shorter, hallelujah, because it was bugging me. All THAT! And some other stuff. Big pile of pieces on the left, trash on the right…wait, that’s not even the done box…because there’s still a yard of uncut Wonder Under underneath it.

That must have been before I went for the haircut etc.

So then I came back and the dogs were all needy and shit…

Because they like people and all. So then I cut out the last yard…and here’s the two official last pictures of that endeavor…a little over 10 hours of cutting. It didn’t feel that long.

So that was around 5:30 or so. Then I graded another class of that huge assignment. Three down, two to go…the two smallest, honestly. That’s a good thing.

Dear WordPress, when I add a picture, you do not need to pop yourself back to the top of the post. That is fucking annoying. It’s gotta be a bug. I thought you fixed that one. Sigh.

So then I started a drawing that popped into my head of a woman with an arm ending in a cactus.

Is this number 5? I don’t know. Yes it is. Well done. Five days in a row. Keep it up. I think there are 23? days of break?

Then I sorted the Wonder Under under the tree lights. OK it’s not a very big tree, so not really UNDER it. But next to it.

It took a little over an hour to do that. OK. Closer to an hour and a half. It doesn’t have a ton of pieces, like it’s not over 2K, but it’s still 1559 pieces. That’s not really a small quilt.

All sorted and ready for ironing.

Ah, if only the rest of the house were ready for that. Today’s list includes another period of science units, cleaning the girlchild’s room (which is mostly quilt organization and rolling, plus laundering bedding), making risotto (like you do), a phone call about an upcoming solo show (that’s exciting! More on that later), cleaning the studio so I can iron tonight, finishing any Christmas crap, and apparently going back to the grocery store for the girlchild. And another drawing. If I look at my to-do list, there might be more things, but that’s enough for now. I think I wanted to go to the nursery for a plant or something. And maybe the pet store for doggie gifts. Plus cat food. Ugh. Even on break, there’s so much to do. At least I got more sleep. And that damn shot didn’t fuck me up as badly this time. Good stuff.

*Cowboy Junkies, ‘Cause Cheap Is How I Feel

Here Come the Planes*

I’m sitting here waiting on the windshield guy. The crack in the window was too big to fix, so the replacement is coming. Exciting stuff…made more exciting by the second shingles vaccine reaction. Woo hoo! Oh yeah! By about 9 PM last night, I had chills and a fever. You can count on my immune system to react to the crazy vaccinations. It was a rough night, but I woke up fever free…at least for now. Can’t say that I’m 100%…or even 75%. Laughing..well, I knew it was probably coming. The nurse was like, oh you know it’s not usually bad the second time. Yeah. That’s what they said about childbirth.

Anyway, I’m vertical. I’m still in pajamas (I’m on break. That’s acceptable.). I’m functional. I have a to-do list, even for today.

Yesterday, we took the dogs for a walk in the afternoon. I did that on purpose, because I was still feeling OK post-shot. Arm hurt, but no other symptoms…and I didn’t know if that would continue.

Only two coyote sightings, and they might have been the same coyote.

I finished grading the second period of the big assignment. It’s a large pile…

Those are the two biggest classes. Three more to go. I already had a kid email me about grading his late work. Dude. I am on break. Back the fuck off. I do have a lot to get through, and I know at some point, I won’t feel like doing it at all. Every year I handle it differently. Sometimes I start grading right away. Some years I wait until the last minute. I always have a unit that’s due right before break, so it’s always an issue. What did I say? Seven assignments? Ugh. This job follows you into the bathroom.

So it took me a while to finish grading that period. It was about 9:30 PM when I settled down to draw, wrapped up in a wool blanket, a sweatshirt, a sweater, and pajamas. I was freezing. Kitten came out to help.

I could have blown off the drawing, but I think it’s an important practice…and I didn’t feel up to cutting out Wonder Under. Probably it’s interesting to see what my overheated brain comes up with…

Apparently drawing requires less manual dexterity than cutting.

Good times. Filling in spaces without worrying about how I would make it into a quilt. It’s a nice thing, that mental freedom.

Kitten watched over me. Making sure I finished…

So today, I’ll work on the Wonder Under, while waiting for the windshield guy. The plan is to buy the background fabric this afternoon and ship the Xmas box to Seattle AND get my hair cut. Hopefully the fever will stay away and I won’t collapse from exhaustion like the last shot. But if I do, the world will continue. And I might get a nap out of it.

*Laurie Anderson, O Superman

Wild Horses, We’ll Ride Them Someday*

Well Hello. I am alive. For now. My paranoia about the 2nd shingles shot notwithstanding (the boychild has been notified that if I pass out or collapse, he is to call 911, but while he’s waiting, grab my iPad, the charger, and my stitching, in case I’m in the hospital for any length of time). Yeah, my body doesn’t respond well to these crazy vaccinations. I’m hoping it’s better this time. Just in case, my to-do list for today is 10 miles long. Windshield fix is scheduled, oil change is scheduled. All good.

Why so quiet? I survived the colonoscopy (no cancer! no polyps! Yeah because I eat all the Brussels sprouts in the world) and more importantly, the prep for it. Diabetics on no solid food…fun! Not. The plus is that I read 17 chapters of my book that’s due any day now in the middle of the night. Plus I don’t have to go back for 10 more years, and maybe by then, they’ll have figured out how to do this better. Seems unlikely though.

So what else have I been doing? Some holiday shopping. Some drawing. Some trimming of the Wonder Under. Lots of animal cuddling.

Christmas shopping at the Liberty Station Public Market, with murals by Hugo Crosthwaite…

Hey those weren’t there the last time I was there…

Nice.

I also got this clipping and a letter…which is most undoubtedly some sort of Christmas mystery thing…

No Professor Sherman Nida in this family. Yes, I Googled it. I know it’s a thing. I don’t want details. Let me experience it as if I did not know how to Google. (I stopped reading about it online as soon as I figured out it was a thing.) Exciting!

So I have this goal over Winter Break to do a drawing a day. They don’t all have to be big and fancy, but this one was, because we were watching a movie. This is the big sketchbook, 14×17″. Saturday night’s drawing.

I’m not aiming for stuff that needs to be a quilt. I’m just drawing. I do have two big drawings I need to do over break, but I haven’t started yet, and one of them, I won’t be able to show anywhere for a while. Which is hard for me. But Imma gonna do it anyway (in the words of my students).

When I was done drawing, I cut this stuff out for an hour or two…this is two yards of Wonder Under done.

Doesn’t look like much. Trash on the left.

Sunday was no food day. I picked this piece up. So I mentioned before that I’m doing this as a collaboration with a prisoner at Donovan State Prison with Project Paint. I picked a word (relationships…trying to keep it no-nudity for the prison crew) and they started the piece on canvas paper.

So this is the first layer, he says. He is Steve. He says this is the conscious relationship of playing the game a Barrel of Monkeys and the subconscious relationship of picking one’s nose. At the same time. Multiple relationships…hmmm. Not where I thought this was going, but the organizer matched me with Steve for a reason, she said. Uh huh. So he’s left space on the right (presumably for my part? He doesn’t know I don’t paint.). I could also add a strip or border, but nothing bigger than 6″ square, because they could use it as a disguise. Huh. OK. But a border is OK.

My collaborator states that he “will not be held liable for any detriment, ill effect or monetary damages to [my] career as an artist by [my] collaboration with [his] project and or so called art.” Also good. No worries, Steve. We’re good. He likes out-of-the-box abstract, he says. Me not so abstract. So I have a few weeks to put my part together and then it goes back to him to finish. I think I need to go buy some canvas paper because he’s gonna need more space. I think. Letting it percolate.

Sunday afternoon’s drawing (evening?) while experiencing the first of the colonoscopy prep liquid. Blech.

This is part of another idea. You’ll probably see stuff like this again.

Our tree grew…it’s a good thing it’s bent over, because it wouldn’t fit otherwise.

I predicted it might be too tall this year. Next year, it will need to go on the floor. I might have to plant it out after next year, but maybe a 4th year in the house? We’ll see. That was the original plan.

After the prep was fully ingested, my body calmed down enough for me to cut out two more yards of Wonder Under…

I was freezing, hence blanket. No food equals cold body.

This is after 4 yards is cut out. Does it look any different?

Not really. What about sideways?

A little.

Maybe.

Monday, after the procedure, I tried to grade some stuff, but fell asleep for 3 hours instead. Then I got up and graded one period of the largest assignment. Start with the big stuff! The dogs were oh so helpful.

Mostly. My driver conked out at 8:30 AM. This was even earlier, I think.

He had animal support.

After grading, I drew…faster this time.

Combining some older ideas with a newer one that’s been rolling around in my head.

Then I started cutting out Wonder Under again. My cat never comes out, but that Christmas tree lured her out. And then she stayed! She doesn’t usually…

She’s on my right side. And the other one is on my left side…

Understand they do not like each other. They do not like to share space or humans at all. When I got up to pee, I put the box of trash between them so they wouldn’t freak out over the other’s presence.

Strange animals.

Six yards cut out, only three to go.

Side view? Should have taken one. I only have 3 yards left. I’ve cut out for almost 8 hours. It takes 2-3 1/2 hours to cut out two yards, so I probably have 3-4 1/2 hours left. Tonight? Maybe. I’m trying to grade one period of that huge ugly assignment every day. If I do that, I’ll be done by Friday, maybe earlier. Then finish cutting these out by tomorrow…sort tomorrow night. I need to go buy background fabric, but I’m sitting here now, waiting for a quilt to be delivered that needs a signature. Then walking the dogs. Tomorrow morning is replacing the cracked windshield…then haircut in the afternoon. I need cash for that. I need to cut some matts for Christmas gifts today, so I can ship this silly box. I set up the oil change for the car. I ordered a French press for the girlchild. Not sure if there’s coffee, but WTF. AND a drawing a day, every day. Plus hiking. Plus yard work. Plus clean house. Plus wrap shit. Plus sleep more. That’s a crazy thing. Suck at that, even on vacation. But I want to be ironing to fabric by Thursday. That sounds reasonable, yeah? Probably going to be about 20 hours of that…so I could be done by Christmas and then cutting stuff out then? Maybe? We’ll see. I love being able to see whole days of maybe getting art done. Maybe.

*The Sundays, Wild Horses

Another Page in Your Diary*

I fell asleep last night trying to organize today’s school assignment in my head, trying to figure out who gets what and how, and how I will manage the different groups, and whether I’ll have enough copies, and whether they’ll come in time, and holy crap, even sleep is not sacrosanct. I guess I should know that by now. And I still don’t have it all figured out in my head this morning…but I know what I need to do if I can’t get it all done. It will work out somehow.

I’m looking forward to teaching stuff I have more control over…notionally. Not stuff where I’m trying to do the same thing an online system does, but without the online supports. January. It’s coming. What’s also coming? Rainy times. Not the end of times (although it may feel that way after another inch and a half of rain in drought-struck California…Rainy Times.

(did someone forget a word?). Speaking of droughty California, I came home yesterday to a neighbor who had a raging bonfire in their backyard, smoke barreling off into the sky, sparks flying up. So first of all, where are you from that you don’t know better than that in fire territory? Plus pollution? And laws? A nice little firepit when we’re not in fire season is fine…a bonfire that reaches to your neighbor’s second story? Dumbassery. Yes, I called the sheriff, who put me on to the fire department. I hope they fined their asses. Seriously stupid. Lots of wood around here and it just takes one spark. People don’t think.

Two meetings after school yesterday. I drew through the first one. It’s random stuff.

No logic at all to it.

Then I came home and numbered the rest of the heads. Not bad, actually…

I didn’t hit 2000. That’s good. A nice big solid piece to work on during the holidays. It’ll be my first 2019 finish, knock on wood.

After dinner, while finishing up the last episode of Castle Rock, I worked on sewing wooly bits down.

October blocks? I think.

And then I started tracing. I worked for a couple of hours, I think. I’m in the 100s, around 175, I think. The first figure is almost done. She needs a head and a tea cup or something.

She’s the tiniest one in there. Fussy little finger bits. I’m going to be doing this for a while…it’s very meditative, so I’m OK with that. I might be done sometime next week…although there are some bitchy meeting days next week. I think there are three days with 2-hour meetings. UGH.

This is what about 175 pieces looks like.

Not much. That’s about a yard of Wonder Under.

And that’s a sleepy puppy.

And a sleepy eyeball of a cat…

Tonight I’m hoping to add the gym to the mix, so maybe not as much tracing. We’ll see.

*Yazoo, Nobody’s Diary

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