Tag: embroidery

Gloom…

It’s dark and gloomy this morning. That California storm finally hit us last night, but not super hard. We’ve had over half an inch of rain and a tiny bit of thunder and lightning…nothing like up north. Enough that I don’t have to water for a few days though. Enough that I don’t feel a need to leave the house today. Wait. I need binding fabric for this quilt…I want to finish it before the 26th so I can contact the photographer and give him more time…and the fabric store I usually shop at has heinous hours these days. Which they say they aren’t changing. So it’s today or tomorrow, and tomorrow is more complicated. I did finish stitchdown on Wednesday…just sat down and did it all after writing the blog. That is one of the things I miss about teaching before COVID…coming home for the weekend and spending ALL DAY Saturday just doing art stuff. It’s hard to pull that off these days. I always have to do all the stuff I didn’t get done during the week. Stitchdown took a whopping 2 hours and 44 minutes, then I sandwiched and pinbasted that night, so I put in 3 or 4 hours.

Delightful. I still haven’t finished putting up Christmas stuff. Or wrapping it. Or putting it together.

But the tree made it into the house.

Yesterday, I was doing other stuff all day…it took 3 hours to put labels on two quilts, clean them up, iron them, and pack them up for shipping. They’ll both be traveling until 2027, I think. Hopefully I’ll see them in the traveling exhibition at some point. So far, they’ll be too far away. So I did that all morning.

Then in the afternoon, I had a couple of Zoom calls, one with stitching friends, so I started work on this thing…

So this is Sue Spargo’s Tinsel block of the month from 2022. I wasn’t going to do it, but mom likes Christmas stuff, so I signed up. I thought I’d just make it for her, but realistically, I wouldn’t finish until 2030, so I did all the applique, gave her three blocks last Christmas, three for her birthday in February (a little late because I got sick), and three for Mother’s Day. She did all the embroidery, which is the fun stuff anyway, right? Then she handed them back to me in September or October.

So yesterday, I trimmed them all.

One of the fun things about this is that the seam allowances sometimes get a little tiny. Luckily, I’ve done quite a few of these and know how to fix that. Sometimes you need to re-embroider something over the seam allowance…like that bottom tree branch on the right, and the bottom of the pot in the middle one…plus the blue bits at the top of that tree. No worries.

I pieced them on Zoom with my stitching friends.

Then there are some bits to be appliqued and embroidered after it’s all together.

Then put the borders on and applique some of the dots…I’m actually changing up the border embroidery. Mom likes it better too. I’ll give it back to her for the border embroidery, hopefully next week, and then she’ll give it back to me to be quilted and bound. Then it’s hers! It’s only taken a year plus. I’m the slow cog in the wheel, as always. I have another quilt here from a stitching friend who finished her part…so next week, I’ll put her borders on, quilt it, put a binding on it, and then hopefully hand it off before the end of break. That’s the plan anyway. We know how plans go.

Meanwhile, I did start quilting last night…did a little over an hour…

I’m going to continue with that this morning, with the plan of buying binding before the quilt store closes today. At 3. Too early, y’all. I probably won’t finish quilting all of it, but I can finish the outlining. I don’t want to be stuck without binding on Christmas Day. Yes. Ironic. There’s a break between morning and evening stuff, though, and a hike and some stitching is the best way to fill it. I know what I want for binding, and I don’t have enough of it in my stash. So shop.

I also finally framed and hung the last two Quilt National posters.

I had to email and pay for shipping to get them, because I couldn’t go to either opening…timing plus cost plus COVID. Annoying. Maybe I’ll get into another one to fill that space on the right, and I’ll make it to THAT opening. Sigh.

Simba’s eyelid seems to be fine. Hopefully the growth will not come back. He’s a good boy.

OK, so I’m outline quilting until it’s done, probably another hour or two. There’s thunder again. And more rain. Gloomy as shit this morning. Then to the quilt store. I have a friend and her son flying in tonight, so I am braving the drive to the airport this evening to get them and drop them at their hotel. Then quilting again tonight, hopefully, at some point. It’s movie night first. I think. Tomorrow is grocery shopping for Christmas, plus a hike, I hope. Finish quilting. Get a binding on probably Sunday? Not sure. Sunday is when family stuff starts for the Man, then mine on Monday. Y’all know how that goes.

Anyway, enjoy your holiday however you can/need to. I know for some it’s not enjoyable, so do your best. Read a book. Drink some spicy something-or-other. Cuddle up with a blanket if appropriate. Southern hemisphere, do what you need to do. Make some art if that’s a thing for you. I’m working on a fellowship application due January 4. Plus all the other things on the to-do list, including grading, unfortunately. It has to be done. But also doing some things that make it easier to get through the have-tos.

Bits and Pieces of Time…

Ladies and gentlemen and folx of all designations: we have reached that time of the school year when kids are checked out because this three-week time period is squashed between holidays of sleep, food, and nonstop videogaming. There is the additional pressure of gift-buying, plus meetings about something and nothing, add in the holiday gatherings that all seem to happen on one day. Now figure out how to buy nails that are iron and not coated with something. Because science labs. I spent way too much time in Home Depot yesterday. Then figure out what all the emails from admin and people who don’t live in the classroom mean to you personally. Do some grading and planning, get frustrated with the whole mess, shove your computer in your bag, and tell the day job to fuck off for a while. Like that works. It just comes back and reminds me why I can’t ignore it.

So day job aside, I ironed for some bits and pieces of time this weekend…Friday night…

Pink wings and a red heart.

Saturday night…

Lots of factory buildings and nuclear towers.

Details

Sunday night…

Water. Fire. Oil spills. And that bottom right fabric…that’s a Tula Pink with pink squirrels on it. I won it at the guild party, and someone said they couldn’t imagine me using it in one of my quilts, which makes sense…the fabrics work together to make the image, so an image on the fabric might detract from that. Anyway, I used it in her pubic hair. Fussy cut a squirrel to fit in that. Good times.

I wish I’d had an entire afternoon on Saturday to iron away, but I didn’t. Two meetings and a hike, more like it. The afore-mentioned guild party, there was a sweater block challenge. So on Friday night, under pure exhaustion, I pieced a block.

I generally don’t piece…

But this one wasn’t bad. So everyone was supposed to bring some number of sweater blocks and you got a ticket for each one you brought, and then they divided them all in half and pulled two tickets, and those two got to take home a pile of the blocks. And as I was sitting there in the meeting and seeing the blocks, I was like, um, no, I don’t want to win. Because then I will feel obligated to DO something with them and bring that back to the meeting and I don’t wanna do that. I don’t want to make something coherent out of all that chaos. So of course…I won. And handed it over to someone who brought 7 blocks and obviously WANTED to win. Yup. Not taking that pile of blocks into the universe. I already have all these other blocks that I didn’t do anything with (not pieced, just a friendship square swap). No guilt!

I stitched during the meeting…

I finally finished her arms and am onto the head. Green hair it is. I enjoyed the people I was sitting with. So that was good.

When I got back, we walked the dog…

It gets dark so damn early.

I drew at dinner, but didn’t finish…

Mid-tree.

The cats must be cold…

Sisters, yes, but not friends in the summer. Winter brings it on.

OK, I have to say that this week has brought on some serious overwhelmed feelings and just general frustration with the job. Like that’s new. I have a ton to deal with this week, and I haven’t figured next week out at all. I’m hoping for some actual time to get shit done at school this week, unlike last week, when every time I turned around, someone needed something. Plus I’m back to having stuff to grade. It was nice to have a week off. Now suck it up. And with that, I’m off to get through a bunch of stuff today, probably unsuccessfully, so I can do a lab tomorrow that may or may not work. Fun times. Wish me luck.

Feels Different

Hey. It’s later than usual. It’s Friday and I’m not at work! And I’m not sick! And a veteran is coming over later to help me do some work around the house! That’s how you celebrate THIS veteran. Make him help you do work. Plus he has way better tools than I do. What other exciting things am I doing today? I’m getting three vaccines (like a nutball) and two MRIs. Yeah! Do not try this at home, y’all. I’m fully expecting them to tell me I can only have two of the vaccines. Three might be too many. Kitten has already drawn blood on my right hand (IDK what I did, but she didn’t like it). I braved nasty traffic last night to hang out with my stitching friends…got very little done on this…

I think some window sashing and 1 1/2 shutters, plus some running stitch. I’m impressed by the people who can stitch one of these in a year. I guess I have a lot of other stuff going on.

The literacy meeting on Wednesday allowed me to get some small things done, so that was good. It also netted me stickers.

I finished a good book last night, Shoot the Moon…it did not go the way I thought it would, which was delightful.

I finished that last night…came home after stitching group and just sat there for an hour and devoured the last half. I need more of that.

Then I quilted for an hour…because I knew I could sleep in this morning. So Wednesday’s quilting…I refused to work that night, so I did over an hour…

Got the torso done, and then started on the justices to the left (when upside down…when right side up, they are to the right, which makes more sense…not sure I planned that? But maybe I did).

In the longer time frame, I got through three justices that night…

Then did the other two last night…

My camera recognizes the faces as faces, which is weird. So now all I have left is the arms and head of the goddess and everything above her, PLUS all the background quilting. I’m at about 10 hours in…and I was figuring 15 or so? I think. And I still think that’s valid. There’s a lot of little fussy spaces to be filled. I’ve done some of it as I was outlining, but not all of it. So hopefully this weekend? I’m going to have to go buy binding tomorrow anyway, or I won’t get to until next weekend, which would suck. And it looks like I might be starting a new quilt over Thanksgiving, which is good, because I have two deadlines coming up, and one is coming very quickly. Yikes.

I’m so proud that I have finally been able to color in a unit packet cover page…so many of last year’s didn’t get done because two grade levels, and I never finished Unit 2 this year either.

My students say he looks lit. AKA stoned. I said it’s daylight savings week…he’s tired. Also asked them if they’d looked in mirrors lately. So yeah. Great.

Nova in the air biscuit competition. Still winning.

Will I have to work this weekend on school stuff? Of course I will. I’m also quilting and trying to install these lattice things to replace the old broken ones so I can plant a viney thing to grow up it and also clean some stuff and quilt…did I say quilt? Yeah. That. But today is kind of busy. My fault of course. It’s nice to have a day off though. Really nice. Feels so different than a regular weekend. Fully appreciating that.

My Bandwidth Is Low…

Well I’m feeling better about grades right now. I managed to get some serious work done in the last two days, at the expense of making art and reading books, but yeah, that’s how it goes. I’m down to two assignments (both academic and reading) and whatever late work I’ve missed so far. I’m not totally ready for next week; I need a pretty substantial sub plan for Monday afternoon. It’ll probably take me at least an hour to put that together this weekend, plus the grading, plus the pre-eval worksheet, which I can’t even get my head around. My bandwidth is low, much like my computer at the moment, which keeps cycling and cycling. I’ve got two websites up and keep bouncing from one to the other to see if they’ve finished loading yet. I don’t have time to restart the router. Ah well.

So I will be spending a huge chunk of the weekend dealing with school. It sucks. That said, I finally finishing sorting pieces into boxes…

Two hours and 16 minutes total. Not too bad considering the number of pieces.

And last night, after my stitching meeting, I barely started ironing…

But I started! That’s about 30 minutes worth of ironing. These are the big pieces down at the bottom. It just gets tinier and more detailed as we move up. I’m looking forward to ironing for the next two weeks…maybe more. I have some stuff coming up that will take up weekends…the Interpretations opening at Visions will be in two weeks. Plus it’s not like school will go away. I’m just hoping it gets a little easier. It’s unlikely to at the moment, but after this weekend, I’ve got a bit of a break I think. Maybe. Knock on wood. I do need to revise a project and an assessment, which I’ve kind of been ignoring, plus set up at least one lab. Plus start doing this literacy stuff in science, which is fine…I used chatgpt to write a paragraph for my part of the literacy. Use the resources y’all! Use them.

Meanwhile, I’ve been reading The Humanity Archive and have images of African fighting queens and slave ships and plantations and revolts in my head. Not sure where to go with that, but it’s percolating. I have a deadline in January for another show, but it may just get whatever’s available. I feel like this Supreme Court piece is going to take another 6 weeks before I’m done. I drew a small original of this in Seattle in July. I came home and enlarged it, then taped it together on July 13, then started the full-size drawing on the 14th. I’m 3 1/2 months into this. That’s crazy. I might need a smaller quilt as a palate cleanser before jumping into slavery. I don’t know. We’ll see.

I did make it out of the house for NOT work last night…stitching meeting with the friends. I finished this June Homegrown block (Sue Spargo).

It’s been sitting around for a long time, maybe since Seattle. I haven’t had much time for stitching. I save the free time for the quilt in progress. So I have four more houses to do and then the centerpiece. Should be done in 2026. Or 2027. I’m still sitting on the half-quilted Bird Crazy (not its real name). That was supposed to be over the summer. Didn’t happen. The day job is nuts, has been for too long, so I don’t get enough art quilts done and they all get pulled to shows right away, which is awesome, or sold, which is also awesome, but then I feel like I have nothing to enter anywhere. Which is silly…I know. But as I’m staring at this pre-evaluation for school, I’m just struck that what I really want is more time for art, and what they really want is for me to spend more time on school. MORE time. I don’t have that. Not unless I give up the hour a night for art, and I’m not going to do that. As it is, I’m supposed to be doing this decoding/encoding training online, and I’ve made it through the first 15 minutes of 5 hours, so I need to start doing that while I iron. Which I can do. Plus the shooter training for school is at least an hour…need to do that video too. Maybe. Maybe my brain needs a break from school so it doesn’t make me want to give up on it.

Thinking that through.

Meanwhile, my co-teacher, who I miss every day, is cleaning out her parents’ house (something I dread that will inevitably be in my future) and she’s been driving around with some recycling in her car for two or three days. She challenged me to get my thrift shop bags (which have been in the girlchild’s room since August and the entryway since she came to visit) into the car. Which I did…

There’s more in the garage, but I can’t deal with that right now. So now, whoever gets them to the center first is the winner? It’s certainly more likely to happen if they are in the car. She’ll probably beat me.

OK. Today we are doing a lab. It is a pretty fun lab, so I’m hoping it goes OK. I’m hoping I’m totally efficient today and get more grading and organizing done. Same with the weekend. It would be nice to have grading done a bit early so I could get ahead on the planning, but also maybe read my book and relax a bit. Ha! I’m pretty sure that’s not happening, but I will try. It’s almost October, usually one of my favorite months, despite the lack of days off. The weather mellows out, although it’s been OK this month (knock on wood), the chaos of the beginning of school chills out a bit (two weeks from now looks like hell on wheels; let’s not think about that). Not thinking about doing another two months (or more) without my co-teacher/planning person, but it’s good for her and that’s what counts. I’ve seen progress in one of the newbie teachers, and that is a good thing. Plus today is Friday, and that is always a splendid thing.

Do Something Else

WTH July? Where are you going? STAAAY. It’s OK. We can do more things, hike on the beach, go to a wine bar, sit outside and read our book. You don’t need to leave. PLEEEAAAASE. Yup. Here it is. August. In your face. Though the school district has never stopped sending emails. Ever. Nope. Hasn’t. Stopped.

I’ve been doing a pretty good job ignoring it though. I needed the Visa bill to post before I could afford to order stuff for school. I don’t think I need a lot, luckily. Just folders and some minor stuff for me to start the year. I don’t get paid from the end of June to the end of August, so it’s a stretch getting through that period. Always. Although it’s been OK this year so far (knock on wood). Getting close to the time I need to think more seriously about school. Some planning, some copying. Ugh. Not in the mood. Don’t have to be yet, but it’s coming.

The copyediting is slow. Mostly that’s because of me, I think. I ran a bunch of errands yesterday that needed doing, and I was supposed to go BACK to the copyediting after, and I didn’t…I entered an art show instead. I have two more to enter in the next few days.

So I started tracing Wonder Under on Wednesday night…

Not fast. Uh uh. Not sure why. Bottom pieces are bigger…they take longer. Landscape stuff takes longer. Maybe. I got through 100 pieces in almost two hours. Man that’s slow.

Last night was no better…my goal was to finish tracing the swamp and I did that…another two hours for about 100 pieces. I think.

Three hours and 46 minutes in, got to piece 206. SLOW. Everything is slow at the moment, though, except the days and the weeks and the damn month. Getting things DONE is slow. So I have about 1832 pieces to go. I had to add 8 pieces because I forgot to number them. Wait. Actually. I think it’s 9. or maybe 10. This is why I stop keeping track. I’m barely in the 200s. There is no actual point in counting right now. I need to finish copyediting so I can do more of this every day. Ha! Yeah. Well next week has a bunch of stuff, appointments, meetings, etc. So I am way less efficient than I’d like to be. How is it Friday already? Damn.

I’m hoping to be done with the tracing by next weekend. I figure that’s plenty of time. We’ll see. I also need to clean out my clothes, but I feel like that’s gonna take a big chunk of time, so I need to finish copyediting first. I just don’t feel like it. It’s haaarrddd. God I’m whiny. Gotta go pick up the dog; boychild is back to real work. Then shower, then copyedit until the cows come home. Whoo!

I had my stitching meeting on Zoom last night and finished the third June block of Homegrown.

It’s cute. I started the last June block. So then there are only 3 or 4 houses left after that, and then the center and the borders. I might finish in 2025. Maybe. I was supposed to finish quilting the Bird Crazy (not its real name) quilt this summer, or maybe even over Spring Break. Nope. Not done. It’s half done. I really should just do it, but it’s hot and the damn thing is wool. So I would quilt even faster!

I don’t really want to be extinct. I just like paintings where dinos are yelling at each other. “Did you vacuum today?” “No, dammit, I was playing with my dinner!” Someone needs to vacuum. And clean the kitchen floor. And put a bunch of shit away. Seriously. Summer is never as productive as I need it to be.

OK. Dog. Then shower. Might wake up. Copyedit. Lots. Then trace. Pro: it was cooler here yesterday afternoon. Lovely clouds. The really hot day next week, I might just take the work computer somewhere air-conditioned and do some schoolwork there. Like SCHOOL. Summer school is out of my room finally. Pros and cons. Until then, ignore that job. Do something else.

Reminder of the Line…

So I have about 27 minutes to write this. Not really true. I have 27 minutes (26) before I need to leave, and I like to finish things before leaving. We’ll see how that goes.

We got back Friday afternoon, the most trouble-free trip I’ve ever taken. Uber, then light rail, easy TSA, flight was not delayed, flight was easy, got off, picked up baggage right away, walked out front, and there were my parents, ready to pick us up. No problems on the way home, walked in the front door. Ahhh. It’s nice when it works out.

I managed to do some stitchdown on Friday night…

Kitten spoke to me clearly about how she felt about my being gone for so long…

Not pleased. Saturday I had a short meeting that I stitched through…

I feel like I will never finish this.

Then it was the Man’s birthday and he wanted a short hike/walk and dinner with a good burger, so we wandered through some trails I’d never been on at Balboa Park…

Had dinner at the Balboa (good burger, weird drunk guy)…

Selfies are not something we’re good at…

But this one wasn’t bad. Getting older and having birthdays is weird. This one was pretty quiet and chill. He says he was OK with that. I get it. Plus we’d been gone for a while and were just tired.

There was a confused bird…probably a fledgling or a mom trying to take us away from the nest…

I stitched more that night and got close to the end, but finished it up Sunday afternoon.

The last views of the back…

Before it gets shut up into the quilt…

A reminder of the line drawing…

Then I pieced a backing, found the batting, and had to clean a floor and wait for it to dry. So I cooked a complicated dinner that I never have time/energy to cook during the school year, but that I like to eat, then watched a show with that and finished one June Homegrown block…

And started another…

I finished about 1 1/2 blocks on the trip, compared to the 7 I brought with me (wishful thinking). I also brought 4 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of jeans, a pair of leggings, and a sweatshirt that I never wore. Plus a pair of shoes I only wore once. It is what it is. You never know.

After dinner, I laid it all out, sandwiched…

And pinbasted it.

It’s not a particularly big quilt, because I had a deadline.

And then I started quilting it last night.

My goal is to finish quilting today, bind it tomorrow, have it done Wednesday. We’ll see how that goes. Then turn those two Supreme Court drawings into something usable. Combined with what’s in my head.

Sleepy Kitten. But first, I have to pee a puppy and go to lunch with a friend, and maybe figure out a dog walk in the afternoon. We’ll see. Certainly the dog needs it. I probably do too.

Dumplings of Fury

Still in Seattle. Trying to be relaxed and all. Apparently I suck at that. If you know me, you know that already. I have been drawing…at first, just a little bit every day, just because there wasn’t time. But after everyone left, there was more time. And normally I would have written yesterday, but I’m off. No clue what day it is.

Wednesday was graduation chaos.

Wednesday night (?) I managed some more on that drawing…might have been in the afternoon, now that I think about it. I stitched a little on the Sue Spargo Homegrown block at graduation. I finished one the day before, and then started this one.

I worked on it yesterday too…I feel weird sitting in the house when the cleaner is here, so I sat outside and stitched.

I finished the bottom part of the house…still need to do the roof and the tree, plus I missed a flower. Whoops. Not sure how much of this will be happening over the next week. I don’t usually draw when there’s an audience…I can handle the Man, but not a lot of other people. So once they all left, I could draw. So here was what I added Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday, everyone left except me, so I planted myself on the couch and realized that’s where the dogs like to be too, and I drew some more.

I also went for a walk…

It’s so light here, late at night, at 4 in the morning. I’ve been sleeping with a pillow over my head.

This drawing isn’t done. There’s a blank space in the top right. But another one popped into my head, so I started drawing it yesterday.

Also not done. Summer break has had some issues so far that make me feel like I’m somewhat out of whack, maybe even incompetent or out of of it, so working through that? In drawing?

Saw some friends last night…and this place…

Dumplings of Fury. Perfect.

So today is my friend’s son’s graduation party (she’ll tell you it’s her party), so we’re going to that. My niece will be showing up at some point to pick stuff up. We’re planning hikes for the next two days before it gets super hot here. Not sure what happens after that. Hikes? Touristy stuff? We’ll see.

It’s a Dream

Made it to Seattle, where it’s a different level of chaos for a few days. Lots of family interactions, which is alternately nice and overwhelming. I stayed up late last night just to read for a while…I think this last school year, or at least since January, reading every day has allowed my brain to rest, to stabilize. This explains the number of books I’ve been able to bang through so far…this current one is 900+ pages long, though, and there are a lot of people here and very little down time, so I’m behind on my reading…hence spending time with my book last night at midnight. Like a weirdo.

I did some quilt planning at the airport while drinking awful chai tea.

I mostly read on the plane. It’s not a hugely long flight, so it’s not worth it to pull stitching out, although I did draw, just to be doing something different with my brain and eyes.

I feel like complicated drawings that fill all the space. So that’s what I did.

Yesterday was busy with people and errands and talking, so I managed some relaxing stitching. I can never just sit, y’all. I need something to do.

I finished one block of Sue Spargo’s Homegrown and started another. I’ll probably take one to graduation just because there’s so much sitting-around crap and see above: I don’t sit around well.

I drew last night after everyone went to bed, watching some Alaskan reality show. I just needed some down time.

It’s not done. It needs more stuff. I’m not sure what.

There’s dogs that need walking.

And lots of pets…

Anyway…..gonna go shower and walk the dogs, then read, draw, and/or stitch through graduation. It’s pretty chill here, except for some interrupting school stuff that has caused some stress storms here. Next year will be um different. I’m channeling positivity from somewhere. Tomorrow is a bunch of trips to the airport with Zoom science teacher interviews interspersed. Then hopefully a chill afternoon and evening with just me and the dogs, plus a retirement webinar…I’m not retiring yet, but the level of insanity school has become is why it’s so much on my mind. I’ll probably still have to work after I retire from school, but I’m hoping for something I don’t have to bring home every night, that doesn’t dominate my weekends, and that I can actually take a vacation. It’s a dream.

Doozy…

This is the last full week of school. It’s a doozy, of course. Nothing like next week, but still a ton of stuff going on, both at school and in the evenings. Fewer kids turning in late work this trimester. A blessing for me; maybe not so much for their grades. No more lesson planning really though. That’s a plus. Spent so many hours over the last school year trying to do that. Desperately doing that. Can’t teach if you don’t know what you’re teaching. Glad that’s done. Mostly. Yeah. This week is pregnancy and STIs, plus bridge building and maybe breaking, plus a field trip, but coming back and teaching afterwards. Ugh. It’ll be fine. Right? It will? It will be something.

I did get some significant progress done on the new quilt…traced a chunk of time on Saturday…

Before a hike and after dinner. Made it more than halfway.

Then last night, I was going to grade another thing (I graded all afternoon), but then a kid, two kids really, cheated in a truly annoying assholular way, so I quit. Did not have the mental stamina to continue. So I traced instead, which may always be the healthier option.

There’s only 60 pieces left for tonight, and then I can start cutting.

Simba curled up on the couch. Yeah, I had hoped to be done with the tracing yesterday, but I did other things instead. Got a lot of things crossed off the to-do list, which is good. Feels less overwhelming at the moment.

The next goal is to be totally cut out this week and ironing to fabric by the weekend. Hopefully. Gotta put a lot of stuff away in the studio for that to happen, and I’m not sure I have a background fabric that will work. We’ll see.

I drew a little at dinner…

I don’t know if I posted this one, from the last two weeks of dinners…

Some places serve food super fast and I don’t have time to really finish a drawing. This sketchbook is almost finished. It’s a perfect size to fit in my purse. I probably have another one in my stash that will fit.

I went to my quilt guild meeting and worked on this. The never-to-be-finished scarf.

Almost got the body done. Still need to do the face and then decide what else I’m doing. I’m not covering all the black. I think.

We also hiked the dogs…mostly trying to tire out the puppy.

We tired the old man (the dog, not the Man) out pretty quickly…

But Annie was still zooming around at the end of 3 miles.

She was pretty good…a few moments of chewing stuff and she peed and pooped in the house in the first hour, but then figured out how to tell us she needed to go out. Good thing; she’ll be back in two weeks when the ex helps drive the girlchild across country. I’ll be off school, though, so hopefully that will help. Or not! Who knows.

Lots of blooming going on in the yard…

Lots of my chipping away at weeds, cleaning up the yard, trying to make it nicer. A little bit at a time. It probably needs more than a little bit, but that’s what I have time for. That and reading and making art. Lots of reading to do…looking forward to more of that. I do have a school training I have to do in July, and I really should plan things (but not sure how that goes…probably need to meet with my 8th-grade team at some point, but one is a newbie to our school and the other one is as burnt out as I am). Hmm. Not worrying about that right now. Maybe later this week.

Annie meets Kitten. Pretty sure I have scratches from this meeting.

9 days y’all. I might actually survive this school year…it felt pretty desperate last November…but I seem to have managed it. Not sure how. OK. Monday. Go to school.

Up High…

From Organ Pipe, we went up to 5500′ in elevation, higher where we hiked. It was cooler, but not enough during the day to really matter. We considered (and deconsidered…unconsidered? Removed from consideration) one hike due to the climb with the heat. We’re out of shape and heat is hard. But it was still a nice place to be, Chiricahua National Monument, which might be a National Park by the next time we go. Which will be hard for it, because there are only 26 campsites or something like that. We had a great campsite when we were there in 2018 (minus the loud kids in the two sites next to us), but I couldn’t get that one, so this is the one next to it.

Not as good. Lots of sun issues during the day, lots of moving chairs to get shade. But not bad. The amphitheater was right next to it, though, and people kept going there to have private conversations and/or entertain children. Notes for next time.

The last time we were there, we had the energy to hike after we set up camp (WTF, who were those people?); this time? Not so much. We did sit through an hour-long presentation on paws, pines, and poop that was totally worth it. I know more about animal poop now than I ever did before. Did not help at all when I was on the trail, staring at scat, trying to figure out who had left it. Ah well.

There were many Mexican jays in camp.

They were pretty ballsy about being on the tables…

Good reminder to put shit away, which is good, because this is bear country…and jaguar, mountain lion, and bobcat territory, plus!!!

Our first time seeing a WHOLE coatimundi in the wild (last time we only saw the tail disappearing into the brush). This is a single male. We still haven’t seen a whole group of females wandering around.

Last time, we also saw deer. We saw them while driving this time…

But our evening attempt to hike to the meadow they like to hang out in turned into a mostly dark night hike, not so good for seeing deer. We were really bad at timing dinner this trip…either too late or too late. Really, we were always too late even when we tried to be early.

The first night, after the very long poop talk, we ate freeze-dried things and then the Man tried starting a fire, but it wasn’t in the mood and neither was he. I did draw by the dying fire…

The wind picked up while we were there.

The last time we were here, we missed a shuttle up to the top with a hike down to the visitor center (we only camped one night), so this time, we wanted to do that. The shuttle picks you up in the campground and drives you up to Massai Point, so you don’t have to come back to your car.

Last time, we went down into Echo Canyon and then had to climb back out in the heat, which was not fun. So this was more fun. Although it was still hot. So we have saved the longer hike for the next time, when we will either have to start earlier in the year or earlier in the day. Not sure which is going to be easier to pull off. PLUS be in better shape going into vacation, so no job shit that takes up tons of time, no scarlet fever or nasty colds. You know. Ha! Because we have control over all that.

Chiricahua is known for its hoodoos.

It’s different than Bryce, if you’ve been there. But still cool.

That said, it was warm and we were glad to mostly be going downhill.

Lots of different pine trees out there too, a nice change from saguaros.

Also these things are fun to consider drawing.

So this was about 5 miles down…

Mostly exposed…

Reminded us of home, honestly. But there was a breeze, which made it bearable. It really was only in the 80s, but at 6500 feet starting, the sun just feels hotter.

There was still water in the stream at the bottom though. We did another mile and half at dusk to Not See the deer, so we got our 5-mile Hike to Health pin from Chiricahua too. Cool beans. And we have reasons to come back.

I worked on this block in the car from El Cajon to Organ Pipe, in the campground at Organ Pipe, in the car from Organ Pipe to Chiricahua, in the campground at Chiricahua, and in the car home to El Cajon…

I go back and forth during the day between stitching (mostly brainless) and reading (requires slightly more brainpower, depending on the book)…nighttime is for drawing.

I finished it somewhere outside of Gila Bend, I think. Or going into Gila Bend. Hard to say. It all looks the same.

Is that Interstate 10 or the 8? And then I started the next one…got about that far in the car…

And almost finished it…

Crooked tree trunk and all.

So when we got home, we were there for less than 24 hours, and then left for a They Might Be Giants concert at Humphreys. We had reserved a room as a treat, and they gave us a balcony overlooking the venue! So I stitched there a bit…

If we’d been smart, we would have watched the whole show from the room, because it rained and rained (drizzle, but solidly wetly constantly drizzling)…

It was fine in that picture…

But no. We wanted to hang out and bounce around down where we could see the whole thing.

Although trying to see over the people in front of me got harder and harder. Ah well. And this video was because everyone was singing along to this, but you can also see the rain going sideways through it.

Amusing. And no, we didn’t bring raingear. This is freakin’ San Diego, y’all. In Spring. So I think I had 4 layers on, including a hoodie. The Man didn’t. We didn’t think it through. It was fine; we had fun.

Foggy/cloudy view of downtown.

We wanted to test out some of the AI art apps, just to see what they did. I find them frustrating, and gave up pretty quickly, but from that picture of us above, and the text “woman covered with cats”, I got this.

I couldn’t get it to do anything with my art. Ah well. I went back to stitching. The Man has 20 tries with mice with mushroom hats.

Here are better pictures of the four drawings I did on the trip…

Some were more complicated than others. Oh wait, there were five. But I abandoned this one.

It was after I’d seen a bunch of news articles about shooting and pregnancy laws and stupid political bullshit. Like this shit…

Which then turned into this one…and anytime they want to pull Viagra? I’m good with that.

Which I might make into something.

Here’s the windy night drawing…

I was reading about all this space stuff, which might explain her head. Might not.

And the last night, when we were both in pretty irritable moods honestly…

Although it’s not apparent in the drawing, unless you look at the really bad coatimundi drawing. Ah well. Shit happens.

I also managed to find the energy to quilt on Tuesday night…

It took a lot of caffeine…

And a certain amount of panic about the end of Spring Break always coming much faster than I’m prepared for. Yesterday, I spent most of the day working on a artist’s grant application. My CV is now up-to-date, I’ve found some relevant press releases, and I submitted the whole damn thing around noon today…probably about 10 hours in that thing, but if I get it, totally worth it. If I don’t? I can try again. I’ve done the hardest part already. Plus maybe it’s time to try for some artist residencies too, although they would need to be paid for in some way.

More quilting last night after staring at that damn CV for about 5 hours…

I’m more than halfway through the outlining. More today. I was expecting to be done with this by today, but reality is always a slap across the face. I have four things to grade, all the makeups and redoes to grade, lesson planning for 8th grade, posts for 7th and 8th…ugh. I will have to do some of that today or tomorrow, but the goal is to finish the quilting, pack up another quilt for a show, do some house and yard work? Maybe. Eh. Floors need cleaning. I want to go on a hike tomorrow. We’ll see.

Kitten has been stalking me. She’s very glad to have me back.

The other two are as well…

I’ll finish off with this…

Made me laugh.

OK. Yard? Because it’s still daylight and a little moving around won’t hurt me. Then quilting. I’m not cooking tonight (hurrah!). Then more quilting. Yeah.