It Seems Like Enough…

I know, I know, I’m writing super late. I worked this morning. And afternoon. And I didn’t want to get up super early, so I got the photos resized for the post and that was it. And then I did more work when I got home. So here I am, remembering I was supposed to write today. Which pretty much sums up Summer Break for a teacher. Yes, I did teacher stuff today. My co-teacher and I usually try to plan during the summer, just to get a handle on things we want to change for next year. Sometimes we get paid, but we aren’t this year. I think. Who knows? New principal. No one has a clue what’s going on. We’re backwards planning to make sure we have time to teach natural selection and evolution, the last unit, and then revising the first two units…three units. Well, we’re not gonna get all that done in two 4-hour sessions, for sure. But we’ll have a pretty good start.

So the weekend…I worked on the drawing…finishing up the bottom part on Friday night.

Mostly anyway. Then Saturday evening, I put some planets in the sky…

Bowie was absolutely no help.

Last night, I finished up some stuff around the planets and called it done, although I may change my mind about that tonight.

And then I started numbering, but I didn’t finish.

I knew I had to get up in the morning, so staying up until 2 AM writing numbers would be a bad plan, right? Don’t ask Summer Brain…they’re like all in with Art Brain and don’t give a shit that I can’t sleep in. So I was going to finish numbering this afternoon and totally that hasn’t happened. But maybe after I finish this.

I also finished the binding and sleeves on this during my local SAQA Zoom meeting…

Shitty picture, I know. Ah well. Need a place to hang it up now.

On Saturday, I also finished a present for my SIL…in October or so last year, to test the new Wonder Under, I made a small flying heart. She saw in online and asked for it for Christmas, but like finished, you know. A thing. So I said yes and then promptly lost it. I didn’t really lose it. I hung it up in my studio/office and then hung a drawing up in front of it, so I couldn’t see it and forgot it was there. For like three months. I found it in January when I took the drawing down…not right away though…it took me a few weeks before I saw it. Then I figured, oh, I’ll give it to her for her July birthday, so instead of making something out of it like right then (like a sane person), I procrastinated until Saturday and then finished it.

I mailed it today. It’ll be late. Ah well.

Saturday was also the wedding of a coworker to one of my former students. Weird, huh? Here’s all the teachers…

The bride is younger than my daughter. I’m laughing because Stace is grabbing my ass. She’s smirking in the back. We did not all plan to wear blue and green. Seriously.

And here’s one of my former 7th graders, now a nice young man who cried during the ceremony, making him one of my favorite guys forever.

Seriously…raise your boys to be able to cry at emotional events.

I did some ceramics stuff on Friday…more painting.

I keep breaking things off dammit. So I’m trying to get it all underglazed before more breaks. Not sure when I’m going in again. Tomorrow? Hopefully…if I’m not as braindead as I was today after lesson planning for four hours.

That’s too true.

I love this.

There’s so much negative shit out there right now. I love the little bits of fuck off I see happening. Because I just got my measles booster because of that idiot.

OK, normally this is where I’d say what I’m doing for the rest of the day, but it’s 6 PM and I just fed the dog. I might go do some yardwork because it’s cooled off a little. I did some digging (against the gophers) yesterday. Need more gravel to fix what they did. Sigh. Should probably water first. I’ll be numbering shit tonight and then hopefully starting to trace. It would be nice if I was done with tracing and trimming by Monday, and then ironed to fabric by the time I leave for my residency. Taking stuff to trim is always a good thing. I can’t think beyond that. I want to finish my book? Probably not happening tonight. But soon. Oh I entered a residency for next summer…hopeful?! I think that’s it. It seems like enough, doesn’t it?

A Lot of Pieces

Ooof. Well I am starting to function. Maybe. I was at ceramics yesterday and it was busy and I had forgotten my headphones, so I couldn’t completely dissociate, plus whenever there are people there, they always want to talk about my piece, which is taking FOREVER. I’m getting closer to done with the upper torso piece though. Lots of underglazing, because everything has to be painted three times for good coverage. It takes forever. And I’m not that great a painter, so I have to clean up a lot of the fussy little stuff.

Yesterday, I started with all the things that I thought would be white, moved into gray, then blue, then had to touch up red because of all that. Today, I think I’ll finish those two guys on the right arm and maybe move onto green? We’ll see.

And I broke the hand off again, then two fingers. It’s just very fragile at the moment.

I’ve been drawing every night, trying to get this thing to where I want it. Which I don’t know where that is, so that’s part of the problem. I’ve been penciling stuff in most of the time, because of overlaps and not being sure how things will fit together.

That flag has some tiny pieces in it. There’s some inking or embroidery that’s going to need to happen.

Definitely put the ICE agents in a swamp of their own making. Added some stuff up above.

The sky and the dirt are my current hold ups.

Although less dirt now.

Getting closer. So many pieces though. It wouldn’t be a summer quilt if it didn’t have a lot of pieces.

I’m still cleaning the office, sorting through stuff, trying to finish things. I’m trying to get all the flowers appliqued onto the outer borders…

Not even halfway. But closer than I was. It’s just time-consuming, but not in a bad way. I pretty much only work on it when I’m on a Zoom call or when I’m done with dinner and watching one show with the Man. Hence the slow. I am close to needing to trace and cut out the two side borders worth of flowers. That’s progress.

Bowie keeps coming in the office to harass the old lady, but also to sit in the window.

He’s alternately a sweetheart and a teenaged terror.

There is a constant fight for the space on my left thigh…

It’s popular. Nova left (fear!) and Simba took over.

OK. Today is Friday. I will be back at ceramics this afternoon. I finally found the busy time schedule (there’s times when the lower cost level of member can come in…and it’s more busy because of that), so I’ll be avoiding those days/times if I can. I’m hoping to get this glazing done in the next week so I can get it fired. I might need to build it a base though, and then that would have to dry too. Hmmm. Should have asked for more clay yesterday. Oh well. I’m also applying for a real cohort-based residency for next summer. I was a little wiffly waffly about it until I watched the video of their application process and heard more about the space and the insights from the people who have gone…and now I really want to go, but it’s complicated. It’s not close and the timing is hard with school, which is always the issue. But I’m applying today. I am. So that means writing well-thought-out answers to questions. Ha! Maybe shouldn’t do that? Sigh. I entered a show yesterday and messed up the file names, so I have an email in for that. Sigh. Stupid. Didn’t read the fine print. Ah well, it’s a pretty easy fix, so there’s that. And the boychild is home…didn’t get sent to a big fire somewhere…yet. I’m sure it’s coming. Let Simba appreciate him for a few days more. It’s all good.

Roll Into the Hole…

I really didn’t want to wake up this morning. It’s silly, because there’s no NOT waking up. There’s animals (one is barking his head off right now for no reason…OK, it’s probably something, but really…wait, that was his happy yip so the Man must be back from the dentist), there’s neighbors, there’s neighborhood noise (damn neighbor with his saw…you’d think he’d sawed all the things, but no…there are more things to saw). Really, I should go to bed at a regular time and get up at dawn and work then. Except that’s not how my brain works, especially for the first week or two after I get out of school (it hasn’t even been a WEEK)…I’m a night owl through and through. This morning shit is not fun (yes, I’m aware it’s barely morning at this point…I’ve been up for hours). I didn’t want to wake up because I started cleaning the office/studio yesterday and it’s in that stage when it looks like it will never be done and you will never find a home for all the things you’ve unearthed. I did, however, find the book I’ve been searching for since Thursday (it wasn’t in here, by the way…it was in the girlchild’s room, of course), but I have not found the frames I feel like I have somewhere. Maybe I don’t. Maybe I bought a set of 4 and will need to buy another set? Sigh.

So yes, I am still in the braindead flailing part of Summer Break, where I stare at AI-generated videos of cats diving into swimming pools and wonder why people like war so much. Like if we’re really gonna worry about nuclear capability and bomb people over it, why are we picking on the bottom rung of the ladder…

This is from a video comparing nuclear stashes, and Iran isn’t even on the list. Now, it would be stupid as hell to bomb Russia…and I don’t want to bomb anyone, but seriously, how lame is it to go after a country that was under control until the current president backed out of a deal that was keeping them under control. Idiots. Absolute idiots. But if we’re looking at this, we’re not looking at the protests and ICE and breaking laws left and right and stupid ugly bills, are we.

It’s a lot.

So I had started my next quilt drawing and began inking on Friday night…

You can’t quite see it, but in pencil, on the left, there’s a hand stopping a missile. I inked that Saturday night, after the bombs dropped on Iran.

Added an American flag to it, because it’s ours. The Statue of Liberty was already penciled in. Last night, I inked the ICE swamp…

Because that’s what it is…a swamp of people wearing masks and maybe being legal sometimes? But mostly racial profiling and who knows if some of the people out there are actually ICE or not? They apparently don’t have to tell us. Need to add some swamp trees. Decide what’s happening under the arm underneath them. Oh yeah, added a bomb and an explosion. This drawing is evolving with the current situation. Not sure where I’m going next. Into space? Seems reasonable.

I did some clay glazing on Friday. Very peaceful.

I did the red.

And some flesh.

I keep breaking the left hand off. Frustrating. It’s a level issue…it’s lower than the rest of it. I might need to make a base for firing. Hoping to be back today or tomorrow. We’ll see.

Saturday was the opening of In the Land of… at the downtown library. It’s on the first floor.

It’s super hard to photograph things in glass cases. Here’s the front of mine with part of Jennifer Spencer’s piece…

And here’s the back…

There will hopefully be a video of me talking about the piece and maybe a video of the whole show. I’ll post if I see them.

I’ve also been trying to applique all the flowers on the borders of the Homegrown quilt…

It’s time consuming. But I’m almost done with the top and bottom ones, so then I can do the side flowers. Until then…

Plus doing a lot of escapist cleaning and reading to try to manage my brain. I have a biopsy set up in 2 1/2 weeks. There were two things they found in the MRI that didn’t show up in a mammogram. Better safe than sorry, but it did ramp my anxiety up. Also, the last biopsy wound hurt for a good 6 months. So it’s fun when they say oh no, it doesn’t hurt. Such bullshit. Then last time, when I called after three weeks, they admitted, oh yeah, it might hurt for a while. But it isn’t the pain I worry about, of course.

OK, today. Finish cleaning this disaster of a room. Getting my hair cut (it’s way too long). Trying to find a dress for a wedding Saturday. I had one ordered, but it was too small in the boobage, and I don’t think the replacement will get here in time. Ugh. I hate shopping for clothes. Oh well. Whatever. Then do some drawing, maybe finally get the binding on that other wool quilt, pack up two quilts for delivery for another show coming up in San Ysidro area. Yardwork of course. Try not to roll into the hole of nuclear bombs and children dying and people being deported who came here and followed the rules.

Hot and Sweaty

Last Monday of the 2024/2025 school year. Also supposed to be 90 degrees and we’re outside for most of it. There was some claim of low clouds for the morning, but there is no sign of that here, 2.74 miles away from school. I have sunscreen, a hat, a change of shoes (color run), water…but I lose my prep period, so when will I eat my snack and pee? No one is clear on that one. The things that count, though…

So. Cool things. I was followed by this art center I’d never heard of and kind of looked at it and went, huh. Why? And didn’t follow back (probably a mistake). Then saw that someone who had bought one of my pieces was having a show of her collection at said art center…go look at it and notice who else’s work is in the show…with mine. Wow. That’s kinda cool. Here’s the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City, Indiana, only an hour out from Chicago (I looked). And the show is Women to the Front (great title)…and here’s the artist list.

Oh yeah. OK. Impressive. Wish I could figure out how to get to that show, but it’s summer and I’ve already spent all my travel funds. Note to self: follow art centers back. Don’t question it.

Did some underglazing on Friday.

Still taking forever. Fun times. I did all the black things. Next? I think red. There also might be more gray (gun, I’m looking at you).

I marched on Saturday…

It was a lot of people.

Apparently over 60,000. All peaceful.

It was a long day…took the trolley in (read my book both directions).

The Man came too…probably a lot more people than he’s been around for a while. But it was good to see that and feel that. The total number of protesters all over the US has been all over the map, from 5-12 million. Still a lot. Maybe someone should listen to that.

We came home and I read to Bowie…

Little cross-eyed bastard. Put him to sleep…

Depositing hair everywhere.

I did a little wool stitchdown.

Nova really wanted to be on my lap, but wool AND cat when it’s hot? Ugh.

I sandwiched and pinbasted Chirp, the next finished Sue Spargo I had lying around.

Might as well finish some things while my brain is processing. I did finally manage to start a drawing…twice…and this isn’t the final for sure, but it’s processing…

I know what I’m aiming for finally. So that’ll be this week.

Yeah this…

And he did say who he was. So much incompetence in government officials right now…and I’m not talking about Padilla.

Astrology stuff always cracks me up. Both the Man and I are different water signs, and incredibly different people. Shockingly.

I think most of those are mine, not his. And barely accurate. Ah well.

OK. School is weird today. Promotion practice, which usually takes a few hours and a few tries. It’s gonna be hot and sunny. I lose my prep period. Then I probably have kids in Period 4? Admin seemed to think Period 3 too? OK. Never happened in the last two years, so not sure I believe you. But whatever. Three years? How many years have I been 8th grade now? Fuck. Can’t remember. So that. Showing videos if we’re back in class. Not doing anything else. Then lunch, then the last few hours are helping to manage kids with Tshirt signing, BBQ, and color run. Then duty (outside in the heat again) and a staff meeting (UGH). Hopefully I will have the energy for clay afterwards, but it won’t surprise me if I don’t. I sense sweat and sunburn in my future. But we’re almost out! Tomorrow is promotion and my room is almost cleared out, so I won’t have to come back on Wednesday. Woohoo! Summer break, I am ready. To sleep for a couple of weeks (it never happens…there’s too much noise and light for me to sleep).

When AM I Reading Today?

I love that I said I’d be cleaning my classroom this week, because that hasn’t happened. At all. And it’s not likely to any time soon. I’m teaching, talking all the time, for the next three days, then we have a day of practice and crazy antics, then actual promotion. By the end of the day, hell, by prep period, I’m out of it. Today. Today I will use prep period wisely. I will. I swear. My coteacher and I will go get all the stupid signatures we need to check out. That’s my plan. The last of the to-be-graded assignments are due at 3:30 today. I have a union meeting after school, and then I’m grading. I came home yesterday and graded while on Zoom with my stupid school board meeting. Fun times. I had pilates (finally, I got in…I need the exercise and the time to concentrate on something besides school, something that’s good for me), so I didn’t go to the board meeting, but my stalwart coworkers stayed past 8 PM. It’s never an hour with this board…it’s always three or more. No efficiency there. We went to Belmont Park with the whole promoting class yesterday…my coteacher and I rode the roller coaster early (it gets chaotic after that).

Look! Real smiles! Seriously love me a good roller coaster. I didn’t go last year for some stupid reason. It does make for a long, exhausting day though. We combined our classes for the last two periods and watched Into the Spiderverse. We didn’t even start it over for the last period; just kept watching. For the last 30 minutes, there was a big ice cream celebration for most of our kids. We kept 7 and sat in the dark air conditioning. I don’t really know how I managed to stay functional during grading for an hour or so and then pilates, but I did.

The pro is that I’ve had some time to stitch in the evenings. I’ve been trying to get the flowers on the Sue Spargo Homegrown borders finally. It’s a lot of little pieces on a giant thing. During book club on Monday, I worked on her Rooted quilt…

Here’s the June block on top of her Tinsel quilt, which I’m finishing for my mom. It’s taking forever…

Teeny tiny binding requires tinier stitches. I’m finally on the sleeves, so hopefully, I’ll finish tonight. I have two more Spargo quilts to finish up. I did have a drawing pop into my head during pilates last night (don’t ask…it’s how Art Brain works…I’m trying not to fall over and it’s creating shit). I’m not saying I won’t start some art thing before finishing the two Spargo quilts…I haven’t made any decisions, because I literally don’t have the brain power for that.

Monday was ceramics…I painted the torso for the fourth time…this time, I actually covered everything, but I had to reattach that damn hand again.

I saved some of the mix of underglaze to patch the hand…smarter than usual. Friday, I’m hoping to start glazing more of the other bits, which will take forever. At least.

The base has been bisqued, but the colors were a bit much, so I finally decided to underglaze over them. I also want to do a wash over it all, but I can’t wipe that away without wiping the glaze away, so I’m going to have to fire it again. Expensive. That said, this piece has so many freaking hours in it, I’ll never be able to sell it. At this point, I just want to be able to finish it.

The crazy stuff I do for fun.

Here’s a sampling of kid stuff about sex ed…

Made me laugh.

A lot.

Sigh. That one. Literally they had a chart to help them fill this out. I mean, he’s not entirely wrong.

Anyway. I’m putzing along with all the things. I have a lot of things unfortunately. I did book my flight up to San Francisco to see the girlchild and all the art that’s up there, including my piece at Sebastopol. So my two summer things are planned. The rest of the summer is managing all the shit at home and getting things cleaned up and gotten rid of and painted and fixed and trimmed and planted. And sleeping and reading and making art. Maybe not in that order. Maybe sleeping first. For a week or two. Not that the living things (or my body) let me sleep for long. I would rather be reading my book today than teaching about sexually transmitted infections, but that’s not an option. Union meeting after school. Then grades. Then stitching of some sort. Wait. When AM I reading today (most important question ever)? Good question. Always.

The Stage We’re at…

Oooh. Friday. Thanks for coming. Nice to see you. Eight days of school left. Finally out of the totally dry sex ed teaching and into the meaty stuff of pregnancy and parts (they forgot all of them) and diseases (they think it’s all Herpes). Definitely at the document-the-shit-out-of-your-behavior time of year. So the really annoying ones can get out if they can’t behave. Also second Eid came early this year, so a ton of kids will be out today. Oh well. I was missing 9 kids by Period 6 yesterday. My coteacher had 10 kids total in her classroom. Lots of opt-outs on her end, parents who opt their kids out of the curriculum…which is FINE, if they do it on schedule, which large numbers of them did not, increasing our stress levels. Fun times. It’s the end of the school year; it’s always stressful. With the adjustment to a Tuesday end instead of a Thursday end, the grade file doesn’t open until Monday and it’s due Thursday…not sure when the heck I’m supposed to get all that done (well, after school, in the evenings, no duh) AND clean my room up to close it out. There’s a field trip Tuesday, then promotion lineups and next week, I think we’re barely in the classroom, which is fine, but usually grades are due after a weekend. So I’ll get everything I can done this weekend, but the early part of next week will be yucky. I guess at least I know it’s coming.

Art is slow right now because of all that. I did manage on Wednesday night to trim the quilt and get the binding machine stitched on…

Smaller quilts are nice because I don’t have to try to go out and shop for binding. I never have enough of any fabric for binding a big quilt.

Then last night, I sewed the sleeves on and started the handstitching…

Didn’t quite finish; I will tonight. Then I’m going to start trying to draw the next big one. Wish me luck.

I made it to ceramics on Wednesday finally…it’s been almost two weeks. The girlchild gave me a stamp for Mother’s Day and I finally had a chance to try it…

Very cool. She had it made from one of my eye drawings apparently. So fun. Much easier than the crappy carving of my name I’ve been doing.

I glazed, after fixing one thing that broke and breaking two more things, because that’s the stage we’re at.

This color is much better, so I started glazing other things, like bombs and tires. Hopefully I’ll be doing more of that tonight.

My banned book piece will be in this show, opening up in a couple of weeks at the downtown library.

It’ll be on the main floor, I think…

The opening is June 21 from 12-2. I have a dental appointment at 11, so I’ll be rushing a bit.

Liars. Also this…

I don’t want to pay federal taxes any more. It’s not doing me any good.

Here’s Nova again, trying to be ON my lap while I read. I’m literally holding her head as she tries to smoosh her entire chonky self under the iPad.

Sweet but demanding (and shedding fur all over the place).

OK. Teaching how to prevent unplanned pregnancies today (aka birth control). More cleaning of the room, although not during classtime, because classtime is all talking, all the time, no rest for the wicked. Or me. Then clay, then finish the quilt. Sounds OK. Sounds doable. No more late work can be turned in after midnight tonight (well, it CAN, but I won’t grade it), so that’s a hard line. It means that in a week, there will be no more grading. I love that for me. No planning either, except for some bits and pieces of stuff I keep tossing out there. My coteacher and I have two days for planning for next year set up already, for the beginning of July…gives us time to mentally reset, but works around our summer schedules. I’m jealous of her travel, but also want to stay home and make art. And I’ve been finding and ordering supplies for the week of artmaking in July for me. Going to do some painting on fabric and some fabric manipulation and some threadpainting. I have avoided Amazon and Target and Walmart and Hobby Lobby and all the other lame companies. I feel good about it, excited even. Not excited about cleaning the garage out, but it is also on the list. So is painting the shed. Fun times. Not. Maybe I’ll even get the sprinklers fixed finally. Ha!

Art Things…

Hi ho hi ho, it’s off to work I go…except I can’t whistle. I really can’t. Never been able to. There are 19 days of school left. I had myself persuaded that because I was missing part of this week and next week is short because of the holiday, that I only had one 5-day week left. But no. My school board, which is barely sentient some days, decided to add some random 3-day weekends in the fall for unknown reasons that just mess up my students beyond belief, so we are not finishing on a Thursday, but the following Tuesday. Sigh. Don’t like it. So two 5-day weeks left. Yesterday was math state testing; today is science (no pressure, no stress!). I have 3 more classes of big science packets to grade, plus one more class of the last academic thing I should have graded two weeks ago (I’m rolling behind). I have one academic thing from this last Monday that I’ll be grading on the plane if the internet holds. Knock on wood. It would be great to take a long weekend in May and NOT grade shit, but that’s actually impossible. Grades are coming up and there’s no leeway on that end-of-year deadline. For some kids, it’s whether they promote or not. A little high stakes. Fun times. Last year, when we went to Maine for my niece’s graduation, I also graded on the plane. It’s a tradition!

Yeah well. So. Trying to keep my art self satisfied as I manage the end of the school year…so I finished ironing to fabric last night…

I’m surprised this took as long as it did; it’s super uncomplicated and relatively small for me.

OK, it only took a little over two hours…I was just doing a lot of other things at the same time; hence three nights to get it done.

I put a second coat of underglaze on this…

Definitely too much. It’s a good underlayer though. I guess. I had to fix a couple of things again. I seriously think people bump it as they’re pulling their stuff out. Next layer will be more neutral, I think, to match the base. but that’ll be next week. Then I need to do all the details, which will take a million years.

I find this amusing…Amazon misses me. I’ve significantly cut back on my Amazon shopping, either finding it locally or somewhere else that’s independently owned or just not buying it.

Same with Target, but their response was to discontinue my store card. Ah well! Also, not sure what that’s a picture of that I’m gonna like, but I’m not clicking on it. I did panic and buy some Wonder Under last week. It’s already gone up in price and it’s made in Spain. So. Yeah. I think I have a couple years’ worth now.

Sigh. Stupid world. Stupid country. Stupid government. Stupid white men. Watching The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6…dark and sometimes you wanna slap June, but there’s a lot of oh hey, we could do that.

One of the things I’m grading has these snowbaby drawings the kids made. These are both by boys…

But impressive. I told both of them they should take art in high school.

Because it’s such a lucrative job, right? Ha.

This is a little close to home. People give me tea; ironically, I mostly only drink one kind.

But I understand this. There’s always a cupboard.

The Man’s carnivorous plants are cute but deadly.

That bug is living dangerously.

OK. I started packing last night. And panicking. Oh wait, no, I’ve been doing that for days. It’s fine. I’ll get to the airport and be fine. I’ve mostly resigned myself to having some random center seat for both flights, but maybe I can wangle an aisle. I’m also resigned to being half asleep for days. Also was joking last night about what to wear to the slightly fancier artist reception and banquet…probably jeans and a t-shirt were out. The Man says, well black. With black. I said but fancy. He said Fancy Black. I said, oh hey, also cold. Fancy Warm Black. But sometimes it’s warmer inside and cold outside. Fancy Warm Black LAYERS. Yup. That’s me. Although I found one thing that’s not black. For once. PACKING. Plus that’s after school and prepping for a sub and grading all the things and pilates. So good luck to me. And then up at Fuck It in the morning and getting on a plane to art things. All good. Should do more of it, but it’s expensive and stressful. So there’s that. Balance! I suck at it.

Trying to Live a Full Life…

OK, so this week is just plain weird. State testing for two days, so 3+ hours with kids for two days, then they leave and I hopefully am super efficient and finish grading everything (ha! hahahahah.). Then I leave at some ungodly hour on Thursday for Quilt National, knock on wood, everything goes well. You never know. I certainly don’t. Looking forward to it though. Seeing the art. Talking to artists. Fun stuff, really. It’s one of the things I appreciate about the art quilt world. In fact, I was at a local SAQA meeting on Saturday, and it’s cool to see people present their work and talk about what they do. It makes me feel like I don’t do much, though…they’re all starting philanthropic groups and teaching classes and writing books…and I just make quilts. It’s OK…I don’t want to teach quilt classes and I don’t know what I’d write a quilt book about that would actually get published anywhere, so for now, I’ll just keep making the work. Which is, in fact, the part I like best.

So on Friday, I had to put two heads back on, and finally decided that the clay coathanger was not gonna work, so I made a new hand with a hole in it, and I’ll make a metal coathanger to go in there. That’s a better idea anyway. I got everything reattached and put the first super light layer of underglaze on…

It’s a bit too pinky. I’ll work on that. I’m gonna be underglazing for a while, no matter what. I’m hoping I don’t have to keep fixing things, but I’m sure I will. There’s a lot of things attached to this.

I finished tracing the last of the pieces for the new quilt, which is small (for me), on Friday night. And then I cut them all out.

It’s only got like 137 pieces, so it was fast. I was going to start ironing to fabrics on Saturday, but Kitten had some major pee/poop issues and it involved some fabric bins. She’s decided that’s where she lives now, and I had them covered by towels, but that’s not enough in this case. So I ended up washing two bins of fabric with the pee remover stuff and then sorting through about 8 bins of fabric, culling fat quarters for donation. I never made it through all of my fabric over a year ago when I last did this, so it was a good time to do that. I keep the stuff I use the most, and because I use super small pieces with most fabrics, those are the ones I cut in half, donating some to Social Justice Sewing Academy and some to the Navajo Quilt Project. It allows me to keep buying some fabric (I like a huge palette), but not be drowning in fabric. Here’s some of what I sorted through.

Grays and blues mostly. It’s also nice to reacquaint myself with fabrics I haven’t seen for a while. There’s some in those bins that will be hair in the new quilt, I think. The blues, not the grays, just in case you’re thinking I’m normal.

Last night, I finally started ironing the pieces of the new quilt down to fabric.

Not so exciting in the color ranges at the moment. This won’t take long. I might even finish tonight. We’ll see.

At the SAQA meeting on Saturday, I recognized this artist, Ellen Ann Eddy…

I’ve always loved her work; I took one of her classes early on in my art quilt development, but obviously, her method didn’t really stick. I do have a baby I made in her style way back in the day that I meant to make into something bigger. Maybe should pull that out.

That is how I feel some mornings, but I’m definitely not 29. My knees are not anywhere close to 29.

Anyway, art tonight, grading all day, kids complaining that they still have to work…all day, every day. Book club tonight! Yes, I finished the book, thank goodness. I actually really liked it, although I’m blanking on it right now. Not really awake. Lots of meetings today. Gotta write sub plans. All good. Trying to live a full life means I have bits of bougainvillea in my thumb right now, a quilt in progress, many shipping dates coming up, at least one thing I need to enter, cat laundry to do (yes, more, but not pee this time), and four thousand things to grade. Or throw away? It’s possible I will do that. Shhh. Don’t tell the kids. Must go to work now.

Wherever There Is…

Oh my. I know it’s Wednesday. It’s the nonstop day. I have one of those a week, it seems. Might be two or three this week. Next week…next week will be crazypants. Going to Quilt National! Haven’t been since 2017. Looking forward to it. My quilts were there without me. Not this time…

Artwise, I’m not doing much. It’s not because I don’t want to…or I’m burnt out on art. I’m not. I just needed to finish a big quilt for a friend, and now it’s done. I need to dehair it, because cats, and I think there’s one seam I need to fix, for some definition of fix. And another one that needs something, some restitching. But otherwise, it’s done.

I got the handstitching done in two nights.

Cats love it when I’m sitting on the couch for hours. Me too sometimes. It’s relaxing. Meditative. I just watch some show and stitch. Ideal.

I did some clay on Monday night…

Gave the priest a head…

And a cross. But as I was putting it away, I felt something fall off. AGAIN. It’s fine. I’m glazing as of Friday; I hope. Glazing will be a challenge. There’s a lot going on. And I’ll probably have to fix some things. I’ve found that’s been a constant with this piece. I’ve been working on this piece since November…mindboggling. I might actually finish it this summer? Maybe? And hope it all goes together and doesn’t fall over. Ha! Need to get better at modular building. Or working smaller…oh that’s not gonna happen.

Anyway, tonight I’ll be thinking about the next art piece and probably sorting some fabric out for donations…to make room for new stuff too. It’s been a while since I’ve done that. Today is busy, so we’ll see how all that goes. The left eye is twitching now. Last week, it was the right eye. Yesterday, I had a blood sugar incident. I’m trying to follow doctor’s orders for more protein in the morning, and my body is just not happy with it. It’s also harder to make dietary changes when I’m teaching because of the fallout. Ah well. I’ll get there, wherever there is.

My quilt War Zone got into the International Fiber show at Sebastopol Center for the Arts.

It does cost money to get in. I was debating the opening, but I have another one the day before here in San Diego (assuming I get in) and if I go up to see my daughter, this is a long way on a Sunday for her. I don’t know. I’m waiting for all sorts of notifications to make decisions about things for the summer. So this is one of them.

And this is real.

With a pillow over my head to kill the light and the noise. I really don’t see sleep in my future. Maybe late June.

OK. More testing today, not state, but district. It’s what kicked my blood sugar butt yesterday. Trying to do it differently today. Then more state review (ugh). Then union meeting and pilates (fun times) and grading and counting supplies for egg drops. Wait, that’s earlier in the day. More tea, for sure. More chaos. More grading. READING A BOOK. Or three. Because that’s kinda where I’m at right now. Don’t ask how many I have checked out from the library right now. It’s bad. I have some plane rides next week though. I could finish a book or two. Maybe. Art. I’m gonna work on something new. That’s fun. Exciting. Deep breath in and deep breath outting. All good.

I Could Be Reading…

So state testing has started. Some years, it’s easy, the kids are into it, it’s chill. Some years, it’s not. This year? Not. Fun times. Today will be worse…it’s the performance task. Some kids will just skate through it. Some will pretend and then hit submit after writing one sentence. Some kids will just repeatedly lose their minds that they’re being asked to test at all, to sit still, to be quiet, not disrupt those around them, not bang on the table or pile up all their snacks and drinks (that did really happen yesterday. All of it.). So by the time 12:15 comes around, all my patience for the day (and possibly three or four days afterwards) is gone. Not great, because we’re testing again today. And I still have to teach for days until the end of the year. One kid was already like, why do I still have to do work? Because they know they’re promoting (probably) or not and they think we’re done. We have 29 days left, dude. Don’t stop now. Sigh. My stress levels are high…my face is breaking out…my blood sugar is a mess. And today is my 500th pilates class! Not sure it matters. It’s not like I’m stopping now.

OK, artwise, I’m in a weird place. I did finish the book piece. I managed to construct it properly…

The first two pages are shoved into that envelope of the last two pages. There’s certainly a few things I would have done differently, but it’s done now.

I need official photographs so I can enter the show, but I’ll do those when I’m home in daylight.

Eventually, I’ll have my photographer take photos, but I don’t have time for the thing it’s being entered into, which has a tight deadline. If it gets in, it’ll be in the downtown library for 5 months. I’ll let you know.

So what next? Well, I don’t have my head around the next big quilt, although I know there will be one over the summer. I was thinking of doing something smaller just to keep me mentally going through the last weeks of the school year. I haven’t figured out what that is yet, though, because I’m trying to finish my friend’s mom’s quilt. I was diligently working on it in January and February and then a random deadline popped up and I got sidetracked. I mean, I did purposely put this one away to finish the other thing. So I’m finishing this…I’m almost done anyway. Well, for some definition of ‘almost’.

Her mom made the quilt and sandwiched it, but unfortunately was unable to quilt it before she died. So it’s here and I’m quilting it. I’m in the outer border at the moment, with the rest done. I think. Honestly can’t remember if I finished the center panel. I think I did.

I did. So I finished outlining the symbols in the blue border and will overall quilt that starting tonight. Then I need to outline the reddish brown and black borders. Some things have happened to this quilt over a long time (fabric replaced, not by me, possibly already partially quilted? I just don’t know). And then I’ll put the binding on. And hand it over. And then, like I keep saying, not offer to help ever again (which is really not in my nature…sometimes I say no and then go back and say yes; please don’t take advantage of that). So when I’m done with this, I’ll start something new. Or maybe in between. We’ll see.

Clay is going. I made most of a priest and 3 handmaidens on Monday…

I was thinking when I went in next, I could start underglazing, but no. I still need to give him a cross and a head. Most definitely a cross. Head? Hmmm.

We watched the first episode of Season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale last night…made us both cry. Good times. So Friday, I’ll go in and try to make a head. And a cross. And THEN I can start underglazing.

The bees left yesterday. I figured they would. I came home and washed the composter lid and side, then sprayed it with citronella, hoping it will cut the bee pheromones. They keep coming back. Not sure what to do about that. I have a bee-friendly yard…maybe a bit TOO friendly. And no, I haven’t fixed the damn sprinklers. I think I need two solenoids now. I don’t know. Maybe I need a new controller.

I had two cats on my lap in rapid succession last night. Luckily the chonk here didn’t stay long.

He’s a year old now and solid. Sometimes sweet, sometimes not. Like all calicos. I have a hole in my right hand from his morning whack. He’s harassing the old lady, who basically needs to be carried into the litter tray and food multiple times a day. She can get there, but he attacks.

OK. Testing. Afternoon is science planning. I’ve managed to grade quite a bit so far, so that’s good. I had to get a loaner computer Monday after school because my screen just went black when I was at lunch. Fun times. So Monday was stressful. I guess the good news is the eye with the vitreous humor detachment is fine (as fine as anything with a big blob rolling around in it is), but she thinks the other one will detach too. Except the right one has always been worse, more nearsighted, with an astigmatism. The left isn’t as bad. So let’s hope it doesn’t. She does think the blog will wander south with time and only show up when I first get up in the morning. Sounds good. Somehow I found the energy to go to ceramics after all the running to the IT department (not at school) and getting a new computer. After school, I have a telehealth appointment with my doctor where she will tell me I need to get my numbers down and I will ask her how to do that and she won’t have an answer. So there’s that. Then my 500th pilates class and book club. And someone else is cooking dinner. I’m already exhausted because I didn’t sleep well, so I’ll be quilting after that and going to bed. Oh! Also trying to finish my book before the library sucks it back from me. I went to the gym last night to help me finish it, but I’m at 86%, less than 100 pages. I’m up early to go to the meeting my principal just canceled. I could be reading. I should be reading.