Merry Quarantine!

Have you noticed some of the weird stuff you’re buying? Or thinking about buying and then not buying because money is kind of an unknown for the future? These are things I would never think about or never buy online, because it’s so much easier to go to the store…some of these things I would never see in my normal day, or it would float past me and be gone before I could act on it, because life, work, etc, the way they were before. This is why a 7-pound box of fabric is showing up on my doorstep today. And why I bought a paper-piecing quilt pattern…hell, noez, I’m not paper piecing. I’m going to redraw it as a fusible or hand applique. I’m not crazy. I just like the imagery. And I’m NOT buying all the weird shit my Pilates teacher keeps recommending. I will just make do with the pillow and plastic bag I’ve been using so far.

Here’s the quilt, the Tattoo Quilt by Berene Campbell. You can see all her stuff on her website and Etsy.

The quilt rightfully won awards. I love the imagery and the ideas behind this quilt (although you know me…I will never do an all-white background on anything). So I got it. And if you buy 10 border blocks, she’s currently offering the center block for free, which is freakin’ awesome. We’ll see what I do with it…and if I don’t do it, then at least I’m supporting an artist who actually does some cool things for her community as well as making quilt stuff for us to do. No. I won’t be paper-piecing it. I just can’t get my head around that shit (and I don’t want to…I know I could).

The big-ass box of fabric was a late-night purchase…but a good one. I do worry about money at the moment…because nothing is guaranteed and there’s some expenses coming up that I wasn’t expecting. But it’s coming today and I’m looking forward to it. Merry Quarantine! Happy COVID-19 Celebration! Blessed Sheltering in Place!

So how’s the rest of it going? Five Zoom meetings yesterday, only one social, another four today, but two are social. I’m not sure I need this much connection at the moment, but at least I will be able to work on art or stitching stuff during the two social ones today. I’m tired…I’m not falling asleep particularly easily (shut the fuck up, Brain), and I have to be up earlier at the moment than my body really wants…plus we’re in that three-day stretch when the man gets up at 4:45 AM and then I have to try to go back to sleep after that. My brain doesn’t like it at all. Oh well. We have jobs. And paychecks.

Teaching this way sucks. Maybe some people like it but I hate it. I just want to do science with my science co-teacher and not do all this other stuff where I’m checking four different programs with 70 million clicks to get the info I need, just to see if kids are working on subjects I don’t like teaching. I hate it. But it’s better than nothing. Please don’t tell me we might be doing this for months. I can handle the 9 weeks we’re doing now. After that, I don’t want to think about that right now. I’ll think about that later.

This was yesterday’s meeting number 3…

I did meetings 3 and 4 outside…it was warm, but not too warm. I drew during the staff meeting because it was pretty repetitive. I stopped during the village meeting, because it was not repetitive and I had to do the things. On the screen. With the stuff. I wasn’t really trying for a message in this drawing…just drawing. I need to do a Patreon drawing by the weekend, but it should be smaller than this. Maybe later today. Girlchild is studying and listening to the official crap from my computer, dogs on the deck beside us. Not bad. Could be worse.

So Tuesday, I was tired of the same old walks. They’ve ‘opened’ the parks and hiking areas (sort of), but you’re not allowed to drive to them, so that still doesn’t help. I live in a hilly area, but there are lots of dead ends, so I checked the map and mapped a new hike, streets I don’t usually go on.

I had no idea how long it would be, but I’m fairly physically healthy and figured if it was really bad, I’d call a kid to come get me…but I wasn’t expecting it to be too bad. There was a new hill or two to climb (not that one)…but the best part was just new stuff to look at…

New houses, new dogs, new plants…this one was fascinating.

And the ever-present weeds…

aka wildflowers. It’s definitely Spring. I did 3.9 miles, so longer than the usual hike, but doable. Next time, I should do a Dead-End Hike and just go in and out of all the dead-end streets. It’s in the 80s today, 90s tomorrow. Makes it hard to just sit inside. Hence the outdoor meetings yesterday. I got no exercise yesterday, nowhere near enough steps in. Lame. Today I did a 27-minute Pilates class just to stretch out my neck and back, because they’ve been bugging me. I don’t really have time to walk today, unfortunately. I guess I could go on the stationary bike. That’s a good idea. Because I can read my book at the same time. I’m not getting enough reading in.

So Tuesday, the kids and dogs left early and the cats rampaged for hours. At some point, Kitten gave up, but the kittens continued.

This was her face while she was watching them race around the house, attacking shit. I kept waiting for a time I could trace stuff, but it took their dad coming home and going to bed for them to leave my shit alone enough for me to be able to work. They slept ALL FREAKIN’ MORNING of course, while I was teaching. Yes, this is just like having small children.

Last night was a late start for tracing as well, but mostly because I had book club and then did the dishes and then stitched the Sue Spargo dot for the day (I don’t want to get behind), and didn’t start tracing until 11: 15 PM.

I’ve done about 2 hours in the last two days, which is funny considering the amount of time I SHOULD have to work on quilts. Sigh. I’m in the 400s somewhere…slow slow slow. Hopefully the kittens will chillax this afternoon while I am in my quilting Zoom so I can do some more tracing. We’ll see.

Tuesday’s dot…is the top one on the far left…fourth from the bottom.

It used lots of colors…

The flower-like one on that top row under the thread. It’s pretty, but it was time consuming. They all are. I’m actually OK with that.

Last night’s was the cactus…which is really cute.

Here’s the closeup…yes, all the photos are taken at night and they aren’t great, but I can’t be bothered to leave the thread out (and forget where it came from, because I’m still borrowing from kits, plus the cats like to play with the balls and spools) and photograph in the morning.

There. The cactus one. I’ve seen today’s. It looks simple, but that probably means it’s not. It’s OK. I chose to do this. It’s fun. It’s a challenge. It’s cool.

Kitten has started bringing me my slippers…and then sitting on them.

Well. OK then. My feet ARE cold. But you should keep it. Obviously.

OK, rest of the day? Eat on time. Do Office Hours with kids. Hopefully someone besides that one lonely kid will show up. Hang out on Zoom with quilting friends and trace Wonder Under. Hang out on Zoom with stitching friends and stitch things. Maybe do more exercise. Maybe read my book. Tomorrow is Friday, hallelujah, because I need a couple of days without Zoom and school…although I have a fiber group meeting on Sunday. On Zoom. Sigh. It’s fine. IT’S FINE. I love seeing you all. I’m just tired of sitting so much and staring at tiny pictures on screens. I need like Google Glasses with Zoom so I can go on a hike while I’m talking to y’all. Not gonna go shopping for that. Nope.

A Good Easy Place

I’m finally in a good easy place with this quilt. The torture (not really…I like it, but it’s hard to do if you’re not in the right mindset) of drawing it from my head is done. The man gets irritated that I am always doing something else while watching stuff on TV. He wants me to put all my attention there, probably so he doesn’t have to answer my stupid question that would have been answered if all my attention were on the show. I get it. But I don’t do well just staring at a TV. I do much better when the distractable part of my brain is half-staring at the TV (sort of) so the rest of my brain can do the art stuff. I usually have the TV (or computer) on while I’m making art…but not usually podcasts, because I’m constantly having to go back because I didn’t hear what they said, because my brain was only partially paying attention. I do that with TV too…I just try to pick stuff to watch that’s not that crucial. We want to watch Parasite, but that’s subtitles and those are hard for me. I will do it, because it’s supposed to be good, but it will have to be when I’m NOT tracing Wonder Under. Tracing is easier, less focus on trying to make a drawing fill itself in, but you still have to be watching what you’re doing. My brain likes multiple inputs.

So I have been tracing for 3 or 4 days now, and I have about 350 pieces done. Girlchild in the background…can’t remember what we were watching…

Cooking videos? That guy? Bas-something. He’s funny. I can only trace when the kittens are asleep, which seems to currently be when I am also on the computer for school meetings/class. Which sucks.

Also no one can sit on this couch. Well. One person can, but that’s where I sit and everyone else but Kitten (the grown-up one) seems scared to sit there.

Oh well. This is an art house. I’ve got about 6 yards of Wonder Under going at the moment, most of them with big empty spaces that aren’t QUITE big enough for some of the pieces I’m tracing. I keep them all out so I can fill in all the spaces with smaller pieces.

I’m very frugal with my Wonder Under. Which is funny, because it’s pretty cheap. You can see I’m drawing on one piece and I have at least three others lying around in case I need to try to fit a piece somewhere larger.

This is not a fast process, but it’s relatively easy. I find it very meditative.

So does Calli, apparently. She often is lying there while I trace. This was at night…kittens often sleep at night, although not always.

I’ve been tracing for about 7 hours so far…the bigger pieces take longer to draw, so that makes sense. I’m in the middle of the second and largest figure on the quilt. I’ve done her legs and uterus, and just started the ribs when I realized I need to get up at a reasonable hour to teach these days…so I went to bed. I’m watching Big Little Lies at the moment, in between the girlchild’s Criminal Minds, Bon Appetit, and Virgin River. I’m looking forward to more tracing today, after Office Hours and the panic that comes after that when I realize I don’t know what I’m doing, plus a walk, and making dinner. School is different. It’s not just the three hours on a computer…it’s checking what the kids did and didn’t do, previewing everything for the day, making sure I have everything pulled up and/or assigned, making sure I have a to-do list and have finished stuff for that. I don’t like it, but it’s better than nothing.

I’m still stitching on dots…this is a Sue Spargo thing on Instagram and Facebook. It’s a nice distraction during all this crap. Sunday night’s is the sunflower, bottom left.

I had issues with the bullion knots in the slinky thread…

But it turned out fine. I’m really not fussy.

This is Monday night’s cat…top right…

I didn’t have any cat-colored dots, so I went for green because the brown showed up on it.

But it’s a little chaotic. Oh well.

I also finally bit the bullet and started quilting my first ever wool quilt, a Sue Spargo block-of-the-month named Earth & Twig from I think 2012. It’s been pinbasted for a long time. I can’t say I’m the best quilter of wool…it’s the embroidery getting in the way that’s a pain in the ass, but it will get quilted.

This one actually has a lot of open space on it, so that will be interesting. I kind of want to add some quilting to the larger birds and animals as well, but thread color will be an issue. I don’t have the stash my mom has. We’ll see.

I did more yardwork on Sunday…the goal is to fill the two greenery trashcans every week with whatever seems to need pruning, sweeping, or weeding. There’s always a lot of it. This week, we cut up most of an acacia bush we liked but that had been knocked over…to see if it will come back. We also (wait, what’s this WE shit…I did most of it)…I also trimmed the bougainvillea and one large honeysuckle bush on the road, and then weeded sort of randomly. No one in their right mind could get all the weeds and grass that’s out of place, so I just go for what makes sense. I found more caterpillars…

This morning, the milkweed had three. I want more milkweed, but am not shopping at garden centers right now. I can; I just haven’t. And the avocado tree we planted has new growth…

It’ll be a few years before we see avocados on it.

I had one helper yesterday in my Office Hours…

They are not actually very helpful.

He gets a lot of cuddles…and sometimes he gets tired of it.

Like maybe there…

He is a cuddly sweetheart except when you’re combing twigs out of his tail. Then he bites.

This one kneads any sweater or sweatshirt I leave lying on the couch.

And this one needs attention whenever she’s awake. Luckily, she’s old, so it’s not often. She does follow me wherever I am sitting/standing.

This is from the book I finished yesterday…in general, I enjoyed this book, but this was heinous.

Does this mean the author doesn’t understand knitting? Because they aren’t sharp enough for that.

OK. Lots of tracing today. Some exercise. I’m not sure what else. I know I bought a bunch of stuff for painting that will be arriving by the weekend…well, and I just ordered something else that won’t be here for another week, but I can start with what I’m getting. I got a bug. An itch. Something. It’s a paint itch. Don’t question it. It’s related to a bunch of markers I got for Christmas. So I’m looking forward to all the supplies showing up. But first, I need some lunch before Office Hours. Hopefully they will be better today than they were yesterday, but it’s doubtful. Too much staring at a computer screen.

Last Friday…

Hey. It’s apparently the last Friday of Spring Break. What does it feel like? A regular morning. I’m a little tired because I was awakened by a cat banging on the window blinds because there was a bunny out there, followed by one of those tree shredder things that sound like the branches are screaming when they go in. I’d be really irritated if it were a real Last Friday of Spring Break, like the last day before I had to go back to the stressful classroom and getting up at godawful (for us night owls) times. But in reality, most mornings at the moment, I get to sleep to a decent hour…it’s just a matter of how late I go to sleep the night before, which I do have control over. I’m not getting 8 hours a night, even now, with no real constraints.

I start school Monday. It might actually be easier to have that started and deal with it. I get the most anxious when I don’t have a plan or routine and I don’t know what things will be like. And I’m pretty chill at the moment, for whatever reason. I still don’t have a real great routine, but I’m doing things, making plans/lists, and trying to give myself what I need. When I look at my teaching team, some people are like me and not able to even look at the stuff, let alone figure out how to do any of it. And then some are banging out slide decks and check-in forms, and I’m impressed and thankful that they’ve done that. My brain just isn’t there. Maybe it will get there, but I don’t know when.

So Wednesday, I worked at school again, and remembered to grab a white board, pens, and a notebook. Sometime next week, I’ll grab some lab materials, or actually DO a lab at school and record it. I guess it’s a demo, not a lab, but whatever. It’s way more interesting than the dumbassery the district provided. Then I came back and spent some time on a friendly Zoom with other quilters. I worked on the drawing…

But Nova wanted to be involved…

This is right before that fang went into my toe.

“But I’m so sweet…”. Yes, you usually are, unless you want pets.

When that call ended, we walked the dogs…the old lady seems to have conquered her limp…the dog, not me.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures on that walk.

We did a lot of movie watching that night, so I did some stitching. I did order some dot-specific threads for this project, so I could stop raiding all the block-of-the-month packages. I needed brighter threads too.

I do wish I’d gotten a better royal blue. Turquoise is nice, but…maybe later. So I did the bee dot…

Which was fun…

Kitten was in my space, as always…

I’m really trying to finish the Folk Tails top…so the monkey got embellished…

Girlchild made these awesome conchas…

I’ve been keeping my eyes open for these guys to come back.

I found about three of them. We never got any chrysalises last year…I suspect something is eating them.

Yesterday was a school Zoom and a bunch of work related to it. But afterwards, I sat on the deck with these two watching me.

And I finished my drawing…

I also have my first mosquito bite.

My next Earth Daughter, COVID-19. I couldn’t work on the big drawing because the couch was occupied. Maybe today.

Then we finished the third season of True Detective while I stitched the flower down at the bottom.

A closeup, right side up…

And more work on Folk Tails…I did the hut embellishment and the flowers by the road from a previous month. I needed to sew everything together before I could do that.

The last bit of flowers is down at the bottom. I spent about 30 minutes trying to find instructions for those flowers, and I can’t locate them, even after searching emails from 2015 (it was probably answered in the email group we had back then, but it’s closed now, 5 years later). I can look at the drawing and color picture and figure it out, though, so I’ll get it done. Then I get to add all the grassy bits tonight during gaming. And then put the borders on. Wow! Finishing!

This is last night’s cat convention. They were all considering coming to bed with us.

We have a lot of calicoes here.

OK. It’s Friday. Remember? I want to finish the drawing and do some exercise and write the parent email and make sure everything is done for Monday. I should start with a shower. I’ve been up for a few hours, but I still don’t feel awake. Next week will be interesting with an advisory class every day and office hours four days a week. I’m hoping to take that down to two or three a week…we’ll see. I’m trying not to think about going back to ‘normal’ with no testing. I need information to feel safe. I can’t imagine being in a classroom right now without testing being part of the decision-making process. I understand the financial issues people are having, but when you say ‘only 2-3% fatalities,’ you have to consider that those are real people with families and loved ones, and 2-3% is an awful lot of those. Plus with opening schools, the majority of those fatalities will be teachers or adult staff. We already don’t have enough substitutes. How will that work? Sigh. Whatever. Can’t think about that. Gotta go do the things that help my brain process. That’s art. And exercise. And stitching.

Not Feeling Super Magical

I’m overwhelmed. It’s funny, because I’m not even going to work. We haven’t even started online teaching yet. I just went to two Zoom trainings yesterday and sat through explanations and zoned out, because that’s what a lot of random talking does to me…meanwhile my brain is like, “Well, how is THAT supposed to work?” “How am I going to do THAT?” “What is THAT going to look like?” Much like everyone now is doing about whatever it is they did before and now are doing differently.

Here’s how I Zoom train…

Seriously though, if I have problems concentrating in these things where people natter on for an hour plus and it’s useless, it makes me look seriously at what I might do with my kids. I don’t do a lot of direct instruction in science…because they zone out. But this is a different world. And I’m not just teaching science. I’m barely teaching science. I’m teaching a bunch of other stuff, some of which I think is really lame. Sigh. OK.

So I didn’t get to draw on Monday at all. There was a lot going on during the day and then the kids required family time. Well, the girlchild did…the boychild showed up as well, but he never really requires it. At least not verbally. So I stitched instead. The plus is that I finished the damn road on Folk Tails…

So I need to embellish a monkey and a hut, do some guinea hen legs, and then add a ton of grass and flowers. And I’m not allowed to make fun of the characters in Pride and Prejudice…though how can you NOT?

Maybe then I will learn to quilt wool, because this will be the third one of these that I will be finishing. Not any time soon…it also has borders…pretty simple borders, honestly, but they do exist. The other two are pinbasted and ready to go.

Yoga/exercise is difficult in this house without the animals being involved.

We’re lying down. They’re lying down. Monday night also meant doing the top middle dot.

I think the new threads I ordered are coming soon. I hope.

Last night’s was the trellis stitch one…it was so nice before I added the stuff on top that I wanted to document it.

And all the cat/dog hair that this piece attracts. It still looks nice with the stuff on top…

And here’s all 16 so far…

On Tuesday nights, the kids leave for their dad’s house, and the man doesn’t get home until late, because he’s working crazy shifts…so I went for a walk by myself…

It was finally warm today…

I know I’ll complain about it later, but it felt good yesterday.

Here’s where part of the flume trail fell down the slope with all the rain last week.

I got to climb past some major equipment to get here. I did get my three miles in though. Felt good.

Then I started dinner…some potatoes needed using up, so they needed to boil. While that was happening, I did this…

The start of a COVID-19 Earth Daughter. Turning out well. Plus I played some music and tried to ignore the screaming children outside. They eventually went in to bed. Plus it was ‘cold’. I heard them yelling about that. When it’s nice and warm, I should do this more. It’s peaceful. It helped me NOT think about school and how to do things and what kids need and how to get them that. I’m not feeling super magical at the moment.

I did finally get to the big drawing around 11 PM. It’s quieter then. The cats are down or playing elsewhere. The adults are mostly gone to bed/room.

So progress on torso of one and head of the other. Her tattoo says Flatten the curve. I’m still debating the background.

He’s not debating anything.

Except whether the pets and loving make up for us wanting to comb out all his tangles.

Yesterday, after the first Zoom training, which was way too early, and yes, I stayed up way too late the night before, I tried to take a short nap…first one of the quarantine, but then this happened.

He’s on my chest y’all.

Kitten interacting with my sock…

Yes, pajamas. I did not take them off yesterday. I did shower. And put them back on. Whatever. I changed my shirt. And my underwear. Don’t judge.

Our sourdough starter is finally starting.

It’s hard when you don’t pay attention to it.

The mom of one of the girlchild’s friends is a food blogger, and apparently thought we needed these. We will appreciate them, that’s for sure.

She must like my kid a lot.

I found this while doing yardwork on Sunday…

Definitely a hummingbird nest.

So. Things are happening. As with all of you. We are healthy and fed. Some of us are cranky at times. We are all trying to coexist. I’m not sure what this will continue to look like, but for now, this is what it is. I’m distributing lunches again today and then doing a stitching Zoom, although I’m not sure what I’m actually going to work on for that. Or where. That’s the hardest part in this house is WHERE to Zoom. This room has iffy internet, but the other one has people who make noise and/or want to watch movies that yell FUCK all the time, and there’s going to be some issues next week I think. But we’ll figure it out.

Hopefully today I’ll get closer to done on the drawing, get another walk in, and I don’t know what else. That’s all I can commit to at the moment.

Mostly I’ve Been Drawing…

Mostly I’ve been drawing. I’ve also been stitching on wool. And currently I’m watching a hawk in the tree outside my window, because that’s more scientific than some of the stuff I’m supposed to be teaching starting next week. It’s OK. We’ll fix it. It’ll give us something to do. I’m thinking during my online office hours, I can offer short draw-a-longs instead of science…or video of the hawk outside my window. Or the hummingbird nest I found while doing yardwork yesterday. Tomorrow I have two trainings on some of the online stuff we’ll be doing for school. I need a plan. I might have a plan. I certainly made a video for my students yesterday about my plan…which is funny. Because I don’t think I have a plan.

Anyway. Life moves on. We seem to be staying healthy, San Diego is not hard hit (yet?) by this disease, and the grocery stores are getting closer to normal. Not normal, but closer. Still can’t buy flour. We managed toilet paper though for the first time in a month. It’s OK…we had a lot. Cat litter will be the next issue. Although I think I can order that online. It just won’t come for a while.

The weekend was quiet…I did go for a walk on Saturday…

It was a nice day out…there’s that plant that makes the dog smell like maple syrup.

This part of the path had turned into a small stream…

Luckily, mud doesn’t hurt hiking boots. I saw bunches of people out on the street, but on this section, there was no one. Nicer that way. Easier than negotiating what side of the road you’re walking on.

Before I walked, girlchild was smart and sat out and enjoyed the sun.

Hopefully there’ll be more of that this week. The dogs like it too. Although yesterday, the neighbors violated stay-at-home orders and had another family (I suspect cousins) and grandparents there, screaming for hours. Ah, Easter. When God wants you to infect your family. My mom stopped by to drop off handmade Easter cards…but she opened the door and dropped them in (where we disinfected them…not really) and then briefly talked to me from the deck/driveway conduit. Which is much more than 6 feet away. I’m afraid we’ll get them sick…we have two essential workers in constant contact here. I don’t want to be the viral conductor. And today, I’m going back to school to distribute lunches…now with a mask and gloves.

So drawing…I spent over 8 hours ‘drawing’. Because a lot of it is just staring at the paper and trying to decide what goes where next…not actually putting pen or pencil to paper. I am still sketching it out in pencil before I do the ink.

At some point on Sunday, the cats started trying to eat the paper. Because that makes sense…

So I have a bunch of taped bits now. Thanks to this sweet biatch…

She is a sweetheart. Really. Except with paper. Her sister is more predictably evil…

So we have a big piece of paper that looks a lot like a kitten playground.

Mostly fixable. I kept drawing Sunday…

Not my first bat…actually did a lot more on Sunday…

The thought process is slow…but it’s moving.

The top half is done…at least as far as I know, it is. Now I’m in the bottom half.

At some point, the drawing starts to talk to me, and this becomes easier. It’s talking now. I’m thinking another couple of days of drawing and I should be done. Tracing Wonder Under with these cats will be interesting. I do a lot of it when the kittens are asleep. It’s easier than fighting them over the excitement of the big paper. Speaking of excitement…

Well, there’s Calli. She’s old. Toys are exciting though.

Two more dots…the snail on the bottom right…

That cat is so helpful…

Every night, I clear a space for her to sit in all the stitchery madness. Here’s last night’s dot…

Top right, basket of flowers.

And I also worked on the road on Saturday night…

Got a good chunk done while watching True Detective. I just need to connect the bits now, then put some feet on that bird, embellish a monkey and a hut, and then add ten tons of grass and flowers. No worries.

OK, so today I distribute lunches, plus draw some more and make a mask for a desperate friend. Then exercise in some way and stitch some more and tomorrow get my ass out of bed early for some school training. Woo hoo!

After the Rain…

I once again meant to write yesterday. But I have no real schedule at the moment, so everything is just hard to fit in apparently. And it rained all day, nonstop, gray and dropping water from the sky, mostly a lot for us. We don’t need 2″ of rain in a day…let’s spread it out. Some years, that’s all we get. We’re over 19″ for the year. Today is lovely and sunny with big fluffy clouds, though, so I’d better be taking a walk at some point. Remember that thing. Walk. Hopefully that’s the last of the really bad rain. A little rain once in a while would be nice, but yesterday was just cold and wet and damp and never-ending. Well. Until it ended.

Speaking of, we walked on Wednesday…I remember that. Here’s where the kids are blaspheming against my taking pictures of them…

I think today I will be walking by myself. Which is OK. Although a local hiking area I’m often in had a guy with a gun threaten a young female runner. Because now that we’re all wearing masks, rape is OK? Or easier? There are still assholes out there. Always. I’m not actually hiking there now because we’re not supposed to drive places and then hike there. We’re supposed to stay in our neighborhoods. Yes, I’m tired of my neighborhood, but so be it.

I’m still stitching dots…one a day…like an apple but more fun. Wednesday on the right, top.

I finally caved yesterday afternoon and ordered some threads, so I can stop stealing from all the other unfinished kits. Thursday night top right, with cat butt.

She wouldn’t move. And then my favorite this week, Friday night’s on the top right…

That’s 12 done…78 to go. Ha! Makes tears come to my eyes. Someone asked about purchasing this. I don’t think that’s happening. Sue Spargo says it’s 30-45 minutes per dot, and some are, but some are much longer than that. So let’s just say 50+ hours of work. Yeah. At my normal rate, completely unaffordable. I’m OK with that…I’m just doing it to occupy time and my brain and give me a focus each day. And hopefully, when it’s done, 90 days from now, we won’t be quite so socially distant? Maybe? Sigh. That shit scares me. Send the teachers back to school, without testing to see who’s had it and who hasn’t? Nah. But they probably will.

In other news, I started the new drawing. I just randomly cut and taped paper to get this size. It’s a little big for moving around, but I wanted big. I want something in your face. I started drawing in pencil on this one. Couldn’t get my head around it in pen to start.

I usually start with a smaller drawing and enlarge it, and then add around it. But with no access to the copiers, this is what I’m doing. You can see bits and pieces of it have started to appear in ink (there is pencil on there as well). I spend most of the drawing time just staring at it…

Or yesterday, just staring out the window at the rain. So this drawing will take a while. Also, the kittens like to play with the paper, so I try to draw when they are asleep…it’s just easier. Nova already took a bite out of the middle. Art in the time of kittens. So expect to see me drawing this for at least a few more days.

I also continued working on this little quilt and the video of making it.

I think there’s about 20 videos I have to put together and then timelapse or something. I’m not actually sure. I do know it’s at least 2 hours of video…so something has to happen to it.

I did finish it yesterday, so now I can move on to something else. Or keep making little quilts. I don’t know.

All my socializing seems to end up in the end of the week…here was Thursday night’s stitching group…I was working on the road for Folk Tails, which needs a flat space.

I’m in the middle of the big piece right now, which is kind of a pain in the butt.

Then while gaming last night, I did one of the Spargo dots and stitched all these pieces down.

It’s brainless, so that’s easy. There were lots of pieces though. And now I can do embroidery or do more brainless stitchdown. Hard to say which is better for me right now.

This is what gaming looks like at the moment…

Puppy likes girlchild love…

At least he seems to…

Kitten follows me wherever I go. And plops down near me.

Girlchild finally made a dessert/bread without chocolate in it so I can eat it. It’s very good.

There’s been a lot of Bon Appetit in the house in the last few weeks.

OK, well, it’s Saturday. In my future is a walk, some video creation, some drawing, probably some more dot sewing. Tomorrow, we attempt the purchasing of toilet paper…we’ve made it this long without buying more, but now we need it. Hopefully it will not be an issue. Ha! Next week includes a bunch of school stuff in preparation for going online for realz on the 20th. That’ll be different. A schedule might be a good thing for me. We’ll see. Oh yeah, and my credit card had a fraudulent charge on it last night. Fun times. Remember what I said about people still being assholes? Yeah. And no, it wasn’t a grocery store…I’d have some sympathy for that. Anyway, it’s handled. Hope you all are staying well, getting exercise, making some stuff, whether fiber or food, and not stealing people’s credit card numbers. That would be wrong.

The Day Ran Away…

Totally writing this at the wrong time of day for me. I meant to start it much much earlier and then the day ran away from me. Don’t you hate that? It just gets up off the couch and books it down the driveway, and then all of a sudden it’s 8 PM and I don’t know what happened.

Neither does he, if that makes anyone feel better.

So yesterday, I started this video of how I make a quilt from start to finish, using this small spacecat design that was in the last finished quilt. It’s been on my list for a while. I’m going to make a long version for my Patreon followers and a timelapse version for the rest of the world. I get asked a lot how I make stuff, and it’s all over the blog, but I’m going to attempt it in one go. I say that and I’m like 40 videos in and still not done, so WTF am I on about? ONE spliced disaster of a video. Because.

So there’s the drawing I did from the original drawing from some months ago, and there’s the pile of trimmed Wonder Under as well…

This is small, about 10″ square, with only 24 pieces in it. Here are the 13 fabrics I used in it…

And here’s the pile of trimmed pieces…

Oh wait. Those are not trimmed. Whoops. Missed a photo. Oh well. It’s in the video.

And here it is, ironed down to a background.

I stitched it down this morning and then sandwiched it and pinbasted it and all I need to do now is quilt it, trim it, and bind it. And then splice 3,000 videos together. Twice. Unless I can figure out how to timelapse it using the program I use to splice. We’ll see.

I finally started feeling well enough on Monday to exercise again…I started with cat yoga.

It’s not really cat yoga. It’s yoga where my cats stare at me and try to figure out WTF I’m doing. Same, cats…same. I also rode the stationary bike yesterday, and then graduated to a hike today. Exciting stuff.

I got two more days done on these…this is the star-shaped one.

And last night’s total pain in the bullion knot ass…

The lower one, not the upper one.

I haven’t done tonight’s yet. That’s next.

I also finished stitching everything down on this…

My official photographer will get this eventually.

For now, notice Simba in the left corner, and my daughter’s expert fingers, plus Calli in the lower right. It doesn’t have a name yet. I’m working on it.

My SIL sent me a bunch of fabric and I washed all of it and then had to re-iron a ton of it because the dryer folded it all up.

Ironing can be very meditative.

More fabric for the stash…

And then on a stitchy Zoom this afternoon, I was sewing all these pieces down…

And I actually finished…

So now I can embroider on it if I so wish. This is Applique Stories fabrics by Anna Maria Horner and her bimonthly challenge of sorts. Wherein I take some wacky fabrics and use them to make a nude. Like you do. (Most people make flower bouquets. I am somewhat strange in my fabric application.)

I also panicked all over the place about school and being an online teacher and just life in general. So there’s that. I have showered and changed my clothes though, so I feel like I’m doing OK for now.

What’s up next? I’m starting the next quilt. I’ve spent two days now procrastinating about Just Picking a Size of Paper to start drawing on, so there’s that. I can’t do a smaller drawing and enlarge it without going out into the world like I normally do. I did go into the world today. I delivered a mask to my dad so he won’t get arrested driving up to the mountains without one, and then I put gas in the car. That’s all I did. Well, we walked. There were a lot of people (and dogs) out there. I don’t blame them…it wasn’t raining and it was OK out and we all needed to get out. OUT. Yeah. Out.

It’s Perfect I Said

It’s funny that with all this extra ‘time’ (mentally, it does not feel extra, but it is), I can’t manage to write every day. I can’t get my focus on. I’m not the only one.

Today would have been the first official day of Spring Break (well, it still is, but it doesn’t feel like it, right?)…and the man and I had three National Parks lined up. Right now, we’d be 8 hours into a drive to Yosemite, so maybe almost arriving, ready to set up a tent and cook tonight. We were looking forward to the trip, as was everyone who planned a trip for any time between the middle of March and who-knows-when. We only do one big trip a year, always during Spring Break. It makes me glad that we made an effort in the last few months to go to Portland, Joshua Tree, and happening Escondido wine country, because those trips will have to last in our heads for a while. We will just reschedule for next year, although Spring Break will be earlier next year, assuming next year is anything like normal…and this is already happening today…in April…

So we’d be driving into a small bit of snow, setting up a tent in snow, cooking in snow. It could be pretty. We had this issue last year, where we thought we might have snow and it never actually snowed ON us. So it could have been fine. Or amazing. Or miserable. Last year was fucking cold in Bryce. That’s the fun part about camping, is making sure you have enough alcohol and warm clothes to survive all those possibilities. Either way, we’ll plan it again.

Life continues here. I am feeling more human each day, after last week’s whatever-the-fuck-it-was, although my digestive system is still not in fine working order. It is working though, so that’s better than last week. On Saturday, I actually had enough energy and brain power (mostly) to quilt…so I did! Although I had planned to use a totally different thread. I even bought (before the world shut down) thread that went with this background, who-the-fuck-knows-where-it-is-now though, because I was braindead and just kept using the thread I was outlining with.

Which is darker than I would normally use in this situation, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to say that a lot from here on out I think.

It’s the right color in the really dark areas and a little dark in the really light areas and so it’s perfect.

IT’S PERFECT I SAID.

Really it’s just me arguing with my own brain, and that’s a losing proposition at the moment, as it spaces out and wanders off to do something else.

Speaking of, I should go plant some sunflower seeds right now. Before the rain starts. The boychild and I moved some compost and some dirt and started on the other composter, because the girlchild has filled one with all her happy veggies and it got overloaded. If she lived here full time, we’d need three to cycle through our compostables appropriately. But two is normally fine. We built a small hillock in the front yard. Down with flat front yards! Up with hillocks?

You see? Some people are counting the days of social distancing…this is Day 24 since school got out, but we weren’t very good about it the first week, so I’m not counting it. Last week, we went to the grocery store (three of them) and picked up food from two take-out places. And dumped stuff in the parentals’ dumpster without contact. That’s it. My car did start yesterday after going nowhere for a week, so that’s good. This week will be the same, I think. The man is still essential and goes to work three days a week for long and horrible shifts, which is why when he’s home, the cats love him…

But he sometimes looks like this…

Which is kinda how we all feel about this.

I didn’t finish writing about the quilting bit, did I. Well, I finished quilting yesterday…or maybe Saturday. I can’t remember. Days are fluid.

Naw, that was Sunday. I finished quilting. And then the man had cleaned the floors, so I trimmed it.

It’s not very big…about 43″ high by 53″ wide. As always, there is cat assistance to be had.

The next part was finding a binding. So I have lots of fabric…I just don’t usually buy more than 1/2 yard of anything, and usually binding needs more than that…so I was thinking this would be an issue. I did some math, though, and realized if I used a batik for the binding, because they are usually a little wider (44″ wide instead of 40″ wide or so), I should be able to get the binding for this piece out of a half yard. So all I needed was something that would work that hadn’t had anything cut out of it yet. Hmmm.

And I was lucky in that two of the fabrics that I actually used in the quilt, well, I had brainfarted (and really really liked them) and bought them twice in half yards, so I had a spare half yard of each, and one of them worked for the binding. It took almost the whole half yard…

But I got it bound. And there was enough of the backing, a lovely lime green with a fade mark in it and some hippos, for the two sleeves, which had to be pieced anyway…

I’m pretty sure this came from my SIL, but I’m not positive. No way I bought this gem. You can see the quilting pretty well on the back here.

And then I pinned it and started hand-stitching all the way around.

The girlchild and I stayed up late and binge-watched Unorthodox last night and I didn’t get all the way around, but more than halfway.

I also worked on these…one dot on Saturday night…

The one on the far left…with cat assistance…

We love our kitties.

And one last night…

The seed-pod-like one…again, I bought nothing new for these. I had all the wool and I’m using threads already in my stash. This is Sue Spargo…she’s posting one a day on Instagram and Facebook and doing wonderful videos explaining how to stitch these. The woman is a creative force.

The cats are bug watching.

Or birdhouse watching…

I drew a little Friday and Saturday…mostly unfocused. Hopefully I’ll get focused starting today.

I have an idea for a big piece and a little piece.

We planted this mallow bush and it might not make it, although it seems to have new growth and a new moth as well.

Sweet fuzzy thing. That is a moth, right. Fuck.

Sigh. This is the bathroom. It needs lots of work. Realistically, it needs to be torn down to the studs and redone. It is also a cat convention area in the morning. Hi guys.

How can I help? Better than Zoom meetings. Cat meetings.

Last bit. I’ve been doing hand applique since I was 22 or 23 years old. Back then, I bought a bunch of thread, so it’s all maybe 30 years old. Sheesh. But I finally got to nearly the end of a spool. I’m hoping I can finish the binding before it runs out.

It’s so old that Mettler decided to renumber everything, so to find a replacement spool, a $3.25 item that has lasted 30 years, I had to find an online conversion chart for the old vs the new numbers, and then find someone who carried it. Then I felt bad for not buying more stuff from them because who am I keeping employed with my $3.25 purchase? No one. Sigh. Money is scary right now. Which reminds me, I need to pay the property taxes. Because that hasn’t gone away.

OK, my plan for the day is to watch the rain fall from the sky, maybe plant those sunflower seeds in the hillock we just created, finish binding, and start the small and the large projects in my head. I think the small one might become something public-ish. I also should shower. And remember to eat and drink things. What else? I don’t know. Function. You too. Be well.

That’ll Do…

Hi. How are you all doing? I’m on day 6 of not feeling right. No fever, no cough, just a fun conglomerate of other symptoms that might be something and might not. So I’m just drinking a lot of fluids and hoping whatever it is goes away soon. I suspect a bunch of you feel the same way at the moment. Or not…

I spent yesterday’s school Zoom meeting lying in bed with a cat and the computer…there’s a quilt meeting today, but I don’t know these people, so I don’t feel like I can do the same thing, although my head’s a little slippy/slidey at the moment. Spacy. Headachey. All good.

I have moments of feeling fine, like Thursday night, when I walked almost three miles without any dogs for once…

It’s not because I didn’t want to walk with the dogs…they had gone over to the other house and I still wanted a walk…which is good, because yesterday, I so incredibly did NOT have the energy for walking, and today isn’t looking much better…hello Hawk.

I even finished my book.

Sitting in the sun…with Christmas socks on. Good choice.

My school team got our twinsies shirts on for the school social media…

And I did a bunch of stitching to get caught up on the dot embellishment…Dot 1…

Dot 2…

I’m just using whatever thread I can find at the moment…not always the right stuff.

Dot 3…

And Dot 4…

Then Friday brought spacey head and lots of digestive issues, continued over for Day 3 of Digestion Bingo at that point…now on the All White Food diet, trying to stay hydrated…plus during gaming last night, I did Dot 5, horribly over flashed, but there nonetheless…

She says each one will take 30 minutes. That last one took more than 30 minutes.

I’m caught up. For now.

I finished the outline quilting on this quilt…

I’d like to finish the background quilting today as well, but I’m not sure of energy and I’m supposed to do a Zoom in about 15 minutes. Ugh.

With rumors of San Diego going into mask requirement, I started trying to find materials in my office. Fabric is not the issue, but the ties…but I have a weird stash of truly old stuff…

I made the first mask from some pattern (please don’t ask me which one…they’re all over the internet and I only have half my brain functioning at the moment)…

I used batiks because they are a nice tight weave, but straight up…

I can’t wear this. I get claustrophobic in it and can’t breathe. Everyone else says it’s fine. So I guess this one is for the girlchild.

I then tried a basic surgical mask…much easier to breathe, but this is only one layer. Not very protective…

So I did a second one yesterday with two layers…not perfect…it only stays on if I have my hair in a bun or ponytail.

But I can breathe through it. Boychild doesn’t like the ties. I haven’t offered one to the man yet, because now that I think I might be sick, I’ve breathed into these and need to wash them before anyone else uses them. Sigh.

No, I can’t make masks for you. I can barely handle making these at the moment. Straight up, sitting up for long periods of time in an actual chair makes me dizzy. So I love all of you…go make your own please or go on Etsy, and if you’re making them for hospitals and medical workers, I love you more; please respect that I cannot. Sometimes we can only do what we can do. As I chug more Gatorade and wonder why it has such an awful aftertaste.

Have a cute cat picture…

And another one….

Plus this wide-awake one…

And lastly, this dog, NOT helping me review curriculum that decidedly does NOT cover photosynthesis.

Ah. School. You still drive me nuts.

I drew for a while last night. It was hard because I was pretty spaced out.

Yes, I am drinking chicken broth. All I really want right now is some really good chicken soup. I will probably settle for mashed potatoes and canned chicken again.

Usually I put my goals for the day(s) in this last paragraph. I’m tired. I don’t like food right now. I want to feel better. I want to finish quilting. That’ll do.

I Can’t Remember Where to Be When…

Ahhh. Yes. So. This new world order of school online and trying to figure all the bits and pieces out (there are a lot of bits and pieces). I’m supposed to call three families back and try to get them to get free internet. It’s like sales calls except the families are so embarrassed that they don’t have it already. I remember saying something in class about it, and one kid was like “WHO? WHO doesn’t have internet?!” and I’m like, whoa kid, lots of people, you privileged doofus. Which is funny, because I’m at a Title I school and there’s not a lot of privilege there.

So I’ve had too much stuff to try to get done in the last few days. And more today. Plus eyeballs on what’s happening in the country, on more horrors and do I need to make masks and why can’t we get the military folks off the carrier and WTF is going on with Florida or why do I care about that? In all that, I’m trying (like many) to do my job in a whole new way. Online meetings and trainings are fine, but they tie you down to where the computer can go, so there’s a lot of sitting. There were five of them yesterday, three for work and two social, but they were too long and too much, so I need to figure that out. Sooner rather than later.

I need a routine. For food, for work, for art. For life. Don’t we all? Here’s one of the social meetings…I’ve only been kicked off a few times, which should make it interesting when I’m doing school stuff with kids in a few weeks. I got kicked off this one a couple of times…or at least paused.

I’m currently listening to another training while writing this. Then I’ll shower (I hope) and try to get a hold of the rest of the kids I’m missing.

There’s been some stitching…I mindlessly sewed all 90 dots down…

For like 3 nights straight. Maybe 4. I don’t actually know what day it is.

Really, the hardest part was finding a color of wool thread for each dot. I have tons of it, but I kept missing one green here or there. They’re just whip-stitched down.

Why am I doing this? Because Sue Spargo is posting an embellished dot a day, so I thought I would add that to my crazy shit.

I finished yesterday during Zoom number 4. I find sitting through Zooms without something to work on just sucks.

My last Zoom was book club, and it would have been nice to have something to work on. So I need to be prepared for that shit.

Now I am four days behind the embellishment, so that’s today. Maybe. Plus I want to walk the dogs and sit on the deck and draw.

I finally FINALLY got my head around quilting last night. I’m getting close…

Got the arm done and the sky around it…

Easy stuff…just needed the mental space for it.

Realizing I’m not going to be able to go out and buy binding…huh…

Well. I guess we’ll have to wing that. WING. Ha. Ha.

Sigh. I still don’t feel particularly well. I’ve been dealing with something for about four days now. Headaches in the beginning, hot flashes and chills, minor, very minor fever (really, it’s hard to tell with me), plus digestive stuff showing up now. I think we’re all turning into hypochondriacs.

OK. Well. Then there were lots of animals involved with everything, because that’s how it is now.

They are on us and in front of us and next to us…

Which is mostly fine. This one can be a pain in the behind…

But cute, nonetheless…note that they are sleepy once you are up and out of bed. Before that, they are rambunctious and climbing the blinds.

Fuckers.

All three cats are in this photo…because my office is the best play space ever.

Disaster waiting to happen.

Guarding my thread…

Or playing constantly…

And lastly, the comfort foods. Yesterday, three of us each made one…boychild top left, girlchild fancy ones on the right, and mine on the bottom left (I don’t eat chocolate)…

There must be a need for comfort.

OK, I have no official duties today, besides finishing all the things I didn’t get done yesterday. I’m hoping to finish the outline quilting and move on to the background…maybe even finish it. Plus do the four embellishments (or at least two of them). And draw. And walk. First shower…and hopefully get my digestive system to behave. Sigh. There’s a sense of twisted normalcy here…but no routine. I gotta figure that out in the next two weeks. It will be easier then, in two weeks, I think because there will be required meetings every day. It’s just harder to keep track of these things. There’s no bell between homeroom and 2nd period. I don’t know when to eat lunch. I can’t remember where to be when. New world.