I exercised this morning instead of writing this. And then I ran errands. And now the day is half gone. I still need to fill two yardwaste trashcans and continue painting the hallway. The binding for the big quilt is purchased, though, and in the washer. So that can hopefully happen today as well…I need to trim the quilt first, and it’s big and that means washing the entryway floor again. Lots of physical stuff needs to happen…it’s been really warm, but today is somewhat cooler…a weather front is tossing up clouds and sprinkles, so that’s a nice change. Oh wait, we’re back to sunny and hot. Anyway, I’ll paint for a while (my wrist hurts if I do it for too long), cut gardeny shit up for a while, and get this giant-ass quilt bound (or at least start the binding process, because we’re gonna be here for a while.). I also need to iron and clean up two quilts for delivery to the photographer tomorrow. The next two days are a little overly busy…because we’re going back. To school.
Anyway, Monday night, I managed to ALMOST get all the background quilted…
Just the part where the pins are was not done, but I had to be an adult and get up early in the morning for a dental appointment, so I went to bed. Ugh. And then finished quilting last night…
Just under 14 hours of quilting. I bought binding this morning, so that’s up next.
I already have the next quilt drawn…it’s small (but still complicated, because I am me)…and there’s a deadline for it, so I’ll be working on it as soon as this one is completely stitched.
I went in to ceramics yesterday and did more on the base…
Honestly, I think that’s it…
It just needs to dry slowly and then I need to figure out how I’m going to glaze it. The rest of this piece is done, except for the fabric bits. I put the base of the world figure and the sgraffito piece on the bisque fire shelf. It’ll go in the kiln in the next few days. The top needs to keep drying slowly. And then I need to figure out what I’m doing next. I have lots of ideas from art stuff to needing a new mug because they all have cracks in them. We’ll see.
I found the needlebook instructions from the guild…and cut out all my little pieces…
Now that the quilt is out of the sewing machine, I could sew these together or sew the pieces for that Spargo tree block that needed to be pieced…it’s been sitting around since March. I’ve got a couple other low-priority things that I want to finish up too. And inevitably, I’m going to need to do some school stuff in the next few days. I’ll be at school tomorrow afternoon. Then officially back on Friday with all-day meetings.
Back to barn owls…the sweetheart in the tree from the last post? She leaves me pellets under there with lots of bones…
I leave them out and let them decompose all the fur and goop away until I just have a pile of bones. It’s like she knows what I really want. Best friend.
Oh yeah, I got interviewed earlier this summer. You can read it here…
OK. I took the migraine meds to see if it makes the hallucinations go away (which would make it a migraine)…just a test. It might make me tired…wait, I’m already tired. I’ve been staying up too late and still having to get up. Ah well. I might go read for a while before doing something physical. I had my COVID shot again yesterday in preparation for school…so I’ll be protected for a little bit…maybe. So my left arm hurts. That also might be why I’m tired. I’m accidentally reading a romance novel…I thought my book club was reading it, and it is, but the romance subset, which I don’t go to (one can only be in so many book clubs…and for me, that’s two). But I already had started the book when I realized. So now I have to finish it. It’s the rules. Sigh. Anyway, wish me luck…the school stuff is giving me the heebie jeebies…my team met yesterday and it was already too much. It’ll get better, I know, but I said that last year and it never did. So. I’m eternally positive in the front and a cynical mullet in the back.
OK, yeah, I know, yesterday was Friday. I think. Let me look at the calendar. Fuck, it’s still on July. Stand up, change calendar to August (it’s OK, the one in the classroom is still on June)…cool, pictures of orphaned baby elephants being reintegrated into a Kenyan national park. Seems inspirational…and maybe too real as I start school officially in less than a week. Whatever. Not ready. Never am. Really just trying to finish all the things on the to-do list (ha! oh wait, hysterical laughter because nuh uh…not happening). Really trying to Just Finish Painting the Closet…but this thing…
This sweet little asleep kitten, when he is awake, he is a terror and it is impossible to paint, so I wait until he’s asleep, and then suddenly, he is awake. So I finally got most of the closet done last night, but the doors need a second coat. I would have done it this morning, because I was up early because of that cute little sleeping (not sleeping) thing in the picture and then no, because he was awake. So hopefully later today (after two meetings), I will finish painting and then I can start putting things back in there and to consider what day I am painting the hallway, which will probably also need two coats dammit. Sigh.
So many things to do. Strangely, he does not mess with the quilting process…he’s scared of the old lady kitty because she bops him and hisses quite loudly and he’s unsure of that. And her territory is the quilting room. So that’s a plus.
She has no tolerance for kitten pouncing. The other two do, so he does better with them.
So I have almost exactly 7 hours in the quilting so far, and I am still outlining.
Last night, I got the second figure done and about half of the third figure, maybe, plus all the stuff to the left of her…wait, not all of it, just most of it.
So I’m probably more than halfway done with the outlining, but not halfway on all the quilting because there is a lot of background. I need to be able to buy binding next week…no way do I have enough of anything to bind it in-house. But I’m only getting in 2-3 hours of quilting a day. I need to do more. But now I have a dental appointment next week (crown being replaced), an eye doctor appointment (for glasses, not the hallucination stuff, which created a whole host of new appointments, woo hoo!), and some other stuff I don’t even remember.
Claywise, I finally got this one to fit into the top one, but one hand was kind of in the wrong place, so all of a sudden, the top slipped down and broke again.
I’m going to redo it with a slight rotation of the elbow. It will be fine.
Actually, I already did fix it (two days in a row in the studio!), plus fixed the damn fingers and painted some more.
There’s some cracking going on, and one hand is a different color than the other, but I don’t care about that.
The bottom is dry and ready to fire, but there was no room on the shelf, so I’ll fit her butt in next week. Or maybe I’ll fire them together? Not sure.
And then I started a base for the winged woman piece.
She’s not entirely stable, so she could sit in that space in the middle and be glued in, I think.
I’m in the process of drawing her wings and deciding what goes on them.
Anyway. I obviously like the endless MAKING of the clay (I started the winged woman the end of March?) and the never-finishing of the clay. Process over product. Always.
More announcing stuffs.
They have Jan Soules on there twice…
I’m sure they’ll figure that out. From a design perspective, I can see how it happened. From a copyediting perspective, I can see they need one. But I’m grateful to be in the show. Also what was the logic for the order? Random? I’m sure that makes sense. Sigh. So critical. I am.
Heart-Shaped Box also got into the SAQA special exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show.
Strange piece. But I like that it got in…it definitely tells a story.
OK. Today is Saturday. I have dueling meetings, so I picked the one I knew about first, my quilt guild meeting. I will stitch there. I think. I could actually Zoom into one AND attend the other one. No. Nope. Then I will head over to an open house for the art show at Liberty Station, mostly because a muralist I like, Panca (I guess I like her work; I’ve never met her) is doing a group painting session at the same time and place. Also it might be cooler toward the beach and then I have shown up for the other group, even though I didn’t do the now monthly meeting that I can’t do. And I’m trying to not be irritated by people who don’t read emails or listen or understand how email groups work, because I am always saying the same things and the same people aren’t listening. As always. Then there will be some painting and quilting and a date night with the Man who had the same or less sleep than me (see note about kitten above), so we are both tired and cranky. Plus it’s supposed to be 97 degrees today and that’s not a good thing. But art will happen and so will reading my book. Hope your Saturday goes well and you get some good sleep and reading in. At least my calendar is on the right month now.
Straight up, I started this yesterday (well I downloaded a bunch of photos and cropped and resized them) and then totally forgot about it in the overwhelm of doing things. I thought I had written it…or at least part of it…nope. None of it. And I need to leave in like 10 minutes to go work on ceramics until my doctor’s appointment. And there is no way I’m finishing this before I go. I still need to finish the closet (that damn closet!)…we got the doors shortened (thanks to my ex) yesterday and back in…I was going to paint them outside, but installing them was enough of a pain in the ass that I will be painting them in place. Let’s not discuss the hallway, or the fact that I will be at school twice next week before I have to be back for real, and I have to be back in 7 days. And I am (as always) so incredibly not ready. I got 17 emails about required videos I have to watch (again. for the 22nd time…oh I guess sometimes they change over the years.) and who the new hires are districtwide (APs and principals). My principal’s email will probably come later today…or not. I’m not sure it matters. It only matters in how many meetings I’m going to have to attend. So far, one hour, plus a morning of professional development, plus another day of who the fuck knows what. And prep time. Although I didn’t have to take my room apart this year, so prep will be pretty easy, I think. Maybe. Y’all know the copier will be broken no matter what.
Anyway, I got home from San Francisco late Tuesday night and spent yesterday trying to be functional…kind of like all summer. Here’s some of the San Francisco stuff…back to PIQF…a few more things I didn’t post before…this by Carmay Knowles.
This bug is a detail on a piece by Ann Horton…
OK, I guess I’ll show you the whole thing (although the bugs were my favorite part).
There was a whole series of older pieces by Marilyn Bedford, created from paintings she had done.
And I know I posted some of the Social Justice Sewing Academy quilts earlier, but here is one of my blocks…I only did the embroidery…
There was another one but I didn’t notice it until someone else posted the quilt. I think I’d seen it before.
My fabric haul before Britex…mostly African textiles and aboriginal prints.
I was hyperfocused on owls and feathers apparently. Plus some kantha samples. Not sure why. Don’t question the artistic brain. The boychild sends us fire photos sometimes…although there’s no actual fire here.
He’s still at the Park Fire today…33 days? I’m not sure. By the way, I did start this in the morning, went to ceramics, was manhandling the top part of the piece to make sure it would fit in the bottom part, did fine, until it slipped and the damn left arm broke again…in a different place. Fixed that, painted more of it, set it to dry slowly, and went to the neurologist. Interesting that. No, he doesn’t know what the visual disturbance is (but he’s calling it a hallucination, so I am crazy, right?), so I’m getting more tests. One of them requires me to sleep only 4 hours the night before and we are starting school and there are only appointments Monday-Thursday AM. So I do the thing and then go teach on 4 hours of sleep? Ah shit. OK. Fuck me. ANYWAY.
The girlchild had made me a dog water bowl (the cats are enjoying it) in her ceramics class…
She didn’t want to ship it–afraid it would break–so I took it back in carryon. It’s cute!
More street art.
I love all the murals.
Saturday, we went to MOMA…I posted a bunch of stuff on Instagram, but really enjoyed the Kara E-Walker installation, even though two parts weren’t working.
The Zanele Muholi exhibit was also amazing…great photographs, but I did really love the bronze piece.
I had never seen any Yayoi Kusama in person and there were two, so that was cool.
Also, I was really bad at taking pictures of people, so if you know the girlchild (or her SO), there they are.
The tunnel was by Olafur Eliasson…
Definitely prettier on the way back. An interesting version of a flag…by Marlon Mullen.
I really enjoyed the 15-20 minutes we had in this…
I almost went back on Monday, but got kind of stuck in Golden Gate Park (mentally stuck really). It was very cool. Plus here’s a video of a Bruce Nauman neon piece…
Monday, I had some plans. Girlchild was back to work, so I was on my own. Headed out to see some contemporary quilts in an office building in the Financial District…I do love Margaret Fabrizio’s work…
Fun to look at.
There were two other artists, Joe Cunningham and Adia Millett; I posted pictures on Instagram of those too. From there, I shopped at Britex and then headed to Golden Gate Park…I wanted to see bison in the city.
They were pretty far away and very much not mobile at the time. The girlchild had recommended the Japanese Tea Garden, and I knew the DeYoung Museum was in the same area, so I headed in that direction…this is part of how I hit 9 miles of walking that day. Yes, I did figure out the bus system, but there isn’t always a bus. The park has a golden mile that is longer than a mile and has bits and pieces of art along it. A series about California climate decisions…this is the bad choices direction; the good choices had that sequoia living to 250 years old.
Meanwhile, the Park Fire is raging.
This piece was part of a series…I never saw the artist info, but this was my favorite…
Also the favorite of small children and teenage boys. When I got to the garden, I decided to buy the gardens ticket and go see all of them…I thought the botanical garden would be the best, but it ended up being the one I got lost in (should have gone back for the map); the Japanese garden fed me lunch at 2:30 PM…
Damn good tea…also, yes, I did read my book for a while.
And the conservatory was the most interesting, with all the carnivorous plants, mostly Nepenthes…
And like I said, botanical garden…take the map…
I realized my phone was dying and I needed to meet the kids for a soccer game (I wasn’t playing; they were)…
So I mapped things and there were locked gates where the map told me to go…
So I mapped again and got some chai with a plug in the wall…
Got the phone back up to 50% (yes, I have a charger brick thing, but I couldn’t find it…read back to the post about moving everything out of the bedrooms into the living room and there’s a bunch of stuff I still haven’t found)…then ran (not really) for the bus…if it had been on time, I would have been 30 minutes late to the game, but it was early, so I ended up in a Lyft.
I do still love watching her play.
I do not miss 4 games a weekend though.
It was a long, exhausting day. I packed up all my crap and stitched for a bit…
This is Sue Spargo’s Rooted block-of-the-month…I had appliqued everything down last year (it was easy to do that), but hadn’t done any of the embroidery. My stitching friend said I should take 6 blocks with me; I took 3 and barely worked on this one. I’m still appliqueing stuff onto the center block borders for Homegrown, so it wasn’t ready for embroidery.
I was up early the next morning so the girlchild could drop me at the train station…I went south to visit a friend who happens to own some of my quilts…I had never seen them hung in her house, so that was cool.
Very colorful hallway…
Nice to see them again…
We hung out all day and ate and talked and walked…and then I flew home. And it’s taken me all day to get this post done. Yikes!
Bowie in the tent, playing…
And this…yes this…
I did quilt for a while during a Zoom this afternoon. I am going to go patch the holes on the closet doors so I can either prime them later tonight or tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, there is nothing…oh no, I lied. Pilates in the AM (not my favorite day or time, but the only time I could get) and dentist in the afternoon…I think one of my crowns was loosened during surgery (breathing mask instead of tube). Eye doctor on Monday. Then school stuff Tuesday and Thursday, in for real on Friday. So I need to finish quilting this weekend and figure out what binding is going to work. I also need to do a couple of school-related things (ugh). And yardwork and painting…because the hallway still isn’t painted dammit. Ugh. UGH.
But this evening, I have a lovely artichoke for dinner, plus I’m going to quilt some more and read a bit and maybe paint. I don’t know. Painting in the dark is difficult for me.
I have appreciated this summer…although we didn’t really go anywhere and camp, and I did have to deal with a lot of house stuff, but I did lots of ceramics and fabric and reading. I got to hang out with the girlchild, which was cool. I didn’t work. I was so burnt out after the last school year. I can’t say I’m ready to go back (I’m not; I never am), but I am hoping this year will be less of the bullshit and more doing what I know and am good at…we’ll see if that’s how it rolls. Also I need to change the damn calendar to August.
Sitting in an airport, drinking tea, waiting to board. I may or may not have enough books or stitching for this trip. I always bring too much of everything, but my bags seem very light. I’m going to San Francisco to see the girlchild, which is cool.
Yesterday, I managed (in the sweaty heat) to paint the closet, sew a backing together, wash and dry batting, clear out the entryway, wash the floor, and pinbaste that big quilt.
Yes, that’s a cleared out entryway. You should have seen it before.
Ready to be quilted when I get back.
I also spent some time underglazing this piece…
There are a couple of cracks…it dried too fast. I shoved a bunch of damp paper towels in there so hopefully it won’t be too bad when I get back. The bottom of this is already on the green ware shelf and will probably be ready to fire when I get back.
Speaking of fire, the boy child is now at the insanely huge Park Fire near Chico. I don’t expect him to be home any time soon. This fire was started by some dumbass who has already been arrested. Humans can be really stupid sometimes.
So my plan for today includes PIQF and dinner with my kid and her SO. Probably there will be some reading on the plane. It’s too short a flight to try to draw or stitch, but we’ll see. I’m looking forward to cooler weather for sure. and a new view for a few days…
Oh hey. It’s some day. In the week. During summer break. Most summer breaks, I take on extra paid work, mostly copyediting, but nothing came up this summer (thank goodness) except the house stuff, which is like another whiny job that never goes away. I stared at the closet for a long time before finally deciding I really should just paint it. And then I stared at it even longer before starting the process. NO, I haven’t painted yet. But it’s cleaned out and washed, and yesterday, I finally made it to Home Depot (procrastinated for a week, y’all) to get what I needed. Today is prime the unprimed/bad paint sections. Maybe paint. Maybe. I hate painting. Really. I do. But I want the closet done so I can put stuff away in it. The house is still a freaking disaster. I put 5 pillows away yesterday. Why are there 5 more pillows? I really don’t know.
I didn’t make it to ceramics on Monday because we puppysat, so I ironed a big chunk instead and managed to finish.
There were a bunch of pieces that were loose on this piece, couldn’t be ironed down until I got to the background.
Then Monday night, I ironed everything down…
There were 5 pieces I never found, so I made new ones.
Usually with a piece this big, I’ll iron it down on the entryway floor so I can see and place the whole thing. There were two major pieces and then a lot of smaller things. But the entryway floor is a fucking disaster (see closet discussion above), so it wasn’t an option. So the pro is I did it on the ironing board. The con is that it’s not straight on the bottom, but I’ll fix that when I sandwich and pinbaste it. Here’s the whole thing, late at night, in the dark…
And then yesterday, I started stitching it down. I looked at how long it took to do the Supreme Court stitchdown (8 1/2 hours about). This is a similar size…it’s about 54″ wide and 80″ high.
My goal is to be finished with stitchdown before I go to San Francisco Friday, so I figured I needed to do at least 3 hours of stitchdown a day. I managed more than that yesterday and got the entire base and I think two whole figures done? I think I’m more than halfway, but I could be wrong. I think the Supremes had more pieces by quite a bit, and that’s kind of what decides how long stitchdown and outline quilting will take.
If I finish today, I’ll try to sandwich and pinbaste tomorrow, although that means clearing space on that damn entryway floor. Ugh.
I also finally finished the handstitching on this one…
So that’s two ready to go to the photographer. There’s Bowie too. He likes quilts. All cats do.
Not going to ceramics on Monday meant my phone told me I needed to go on Tuesday. OK. I’ll go with that.
I finished the glaze on this and put it on the shelf to dry.
It’s all underglaze. And then I went to unwrap the top part of the figure I’ve been working on. I hadn’t been in for a long time, due to my schedule and the classes in over the weekend, and it had dried too fast. Two parts cracked, so I wrapped them while I was finishing up the other piece and then reattached. I’ll go in today and/or tomorrow to check on it and start underglazing it to match the base. There were a ton of people in the last two times I’ve been there. I prefer quiet. Honestly.
This one is kind of refusing to come out to eat. Poor kitty.
There’s her half-toothless face. I try to bribe her with treats. She must be eating something, though, because she’s not super skinny at the moment. It’s warm and she doesn’t like that. I worry about her lots. Leaving her for 5 days…ugh. She won’t take her meds if I’m not here. But she’s fighting taking them now. So there’s that.
In other quilt news, I’m on this poster, as my quilt is in this exhibition, opening this weekend.
Nice to be invited.
Ah yes…
Sharknado? I’m good with it…although I don’t think he can run that fast.
Anyway. Today. I need to think about packing for the trip. I already found a few books and downloaded them, and decided what stitching I’m taking with me. The piece I’ve been traveling with is not in a good stage for that at the moment. And I’m unlikely to have the time to get it into a good stage. However, I had a series of 9 small blocks that are appliqued but not embellished (another Sue Spargo, shockingly), so I grabbed a few of those. It’s unfortunate that the place I’m staying does not have a comfy chair in the room (this type of Airbnb never does…annoyingly), but I’m not really expecting to spend much time in the room. If there’s down time, I’ll go to a coffee shop or something. There’s only about 20 within a short walking distance. Tea, snack, stitching, while watching some videos. Need to remember my headphones. Girlchild is working some of the time I’m there, so I do have some options for down time. Maybe some fabric, maybe some art, maybe a boat ride. Who knows? We might go visit the boychild if he gets stationed far enough south. Right now, he’s about 3 hours north of San Francisco, and that’s without traffic. That would be a long day. ANYWAY. Also today, at least 3 hours of stitchdown. Priming a closet (ooh exciting. not.). Plus maybe ceramics. If not today, tomorrow definitely. Yardwork! I’ve filled 1.5 trashcans and need to fill 1.5 more. Fun times. Bush from hell around the pool. It just takes forever to trim this bush. I would totally pay someone to take this bush down to 6 feet all the way across. OK, IDK how much I would pay them, because yeah, this summer has not been cheap. OK. Eat breakfast, more tea, change into painting clothes and do the first step of getting this closet put back together. That’s a plan.
Oh hey. I’m not sure what day it is again. Pros and cons to that feeling. It’s Monday! Best to avoid Monday feelings. What a crazy weekend, eh? I’ve been saying for months that I’ll vote democrat no matter what, because the alternative is evil Satan (not satin…although satin has some evil qualities). I’m really pro voting for a woman again and for a person of color again. When I look at the small portion of Project 2025 I’ve seen (no, I have not read all 900 pages…yet), I realize that my retirement plan would be sidelined by them…I wouldn’t be able to afford to retire when I want. Insulin costs alone would make it impossible. But it’s not just about me…I heard someone explain the difference between the current Republican party and the Democrats as one party cares about money and power and one cares about people. I wouldn’t be a teacher if I didn’t care about people. I wouldn’t make the art I make if I was in it for the money and power. So I guess it’s always obvious where I roll on that. That said, I’m putting my vote in for Kamala Harris…but if the Democrats nominate another candidate, I’d still put my vote in for them. I won’t vote for rapists and pedophiles. I won’t vote for a party that is so incredibly clueless and careless about anyone who isn’t rich and white and male. I’m hoping voters come out and make it happen. I have friends who don’t vote and I don’t understand it. Anyway. That’s where I’m at right now. Flabbergasted a little, but rallying. Still not voting for the orange asshole, no matter what.
Artwise, I presented some bug demonstrations at the Oceanside Museum of Art Street Level event on Friday. It was good…not a ton of people, but I was busy explaining and ironing all night.
They set me up right in front of my own quilt, which was cool. I brought some quilts and pinned them to the table (thanks to the Man and some bystanders for helping me with that idea).
And then I spent an hour demonstrating and talking.
It went fast. Yes, that’s my pool noodle. Meant to shove that under the table. Never happened. Oh well.
The Man hung out in a bar until near the end, and then helped with photos and cleanup.
It was an experience. I had overthought it completely in my head (how my anxiety helps me?), and it worked really well. I didn’t do hardly any embroidery, but I did iron three or four bugs down to backgrounds. Everything is still in the box…so I should probably get my act together and figure out how to finish the rest of them. Certainly binding them is really time-consuming and makes them really expensive, so I think I’ll change that up and toss them all on Etsy. The embroidery also makes them expensive, so maybe that’s something I could do by machine as well, but I think it really adds to the piece. We’ll see. It’s not super high on my priority list.
I didn’t iron Friday…Friday was too busy. Saturday, I went to a friends and stitched for a while and then came back and read a book. So braindead. No pictures of that apparently. But I did iron an owl and some bombing planes…
Sunday, I finally got it together again and started ironing for real…
So the crone figure is part of a tree. She’s standing behind the other three figures. She’s missing her head here and a large part of her lower torso, which is behind the figures. But I got most of this part done. Fussy as shit. So what’s left? Her head, a cat (gotta be a cat), and one of her very complicated hands. I’m in the 1400s, but oh no, wait…I’m in the 1500s. So hopefully I finish today, pick a relevant background, and iron her down. I wanted stitchdown to be done before I left for San Francisco. That MIGHT happen? Certainly it will be started.
I got no clay done in the last three days, between my schedule and a class being in the studio. Hoping to get over there today. Yesterday, I measured the pieces I want to add fabric to and made notes in my journal about what I wanted to do. I have plans! I did pick up the winged woman after her final glaze and I am really happy with her, but now she needs fabric and a base.
This is some awesome artistic photography here…barely cleared space for her.
Love that cat…
Definitely some burnout of underglaze that wasn’t covered by the satin clear, but man, those arteries rock. By the way, there is nothing quick or cheap about how I am making ceramics pieces. But I am enjoying the journey, so that’s the plus.
Other crap that happened this weekend? I bought a bunch of milkweed to supplement those in my yard, which were grown from seed two or three years ago. I got some narrow leaf, but also some special kind and some woolypod, which is what grows in our mountains. Two of the plants came with caterpillars…
Butterfly starter kits…
So I got those in the ground yesterday evening. Too hot before that.
I’m having a hard time balancing the stuff that needs to be done (I really need to paint and I really don’t want to) with the stuff I want to do (read, clay, fabric). I’m doing my best.
The boychild got released from one fire and sent further north to another one.
23 days gone? 24? Not sure. I need to wash his fridge out (I just put it outside, hoping he would come home soon) and move one of his furniture pieces out of the living room that the cats are just way too interested in…need energy for that though.
This thing wakes us up early though, so I’m tired…
And then he sleeps half the day. Like a kitten.
That’s a yawn, not a yell.
Meanwhile, I’m listening to the mom behind me screaming at her kids. I think she said she would paddle one of them into the next planet if they didn’t get over here right now. She’s fun. I get being frustrated as a mom. I was there. I know. But she is a screamer.
THIS.
Man, even those who didn’t teach for very long, or, and this is key, haven’t taught post-COVID. My lord. Y’all know nothing. And we don’t just have one class…there’s five of them with a four-minute break between…max. I remember my principal saying we needed to be at the door immediately after the last class came out, no shutting the door in between. Dude, sometimes we need a reset…of the classroom, the materials, our BRAINS.
We need a few of these here.
Love that.
And from the book I’m currently reading, A House with Good Bones, which is already good…
This is exactly how my brain works. If you’re wondering how I got from here to there, because you can’t see the path, this is what’s going on inside my head. ALL THE TIME.
OK. So. Monday then. I need food and a shower, possibly in opposite order. Then I’m going to go work on ceramic stuff…I know I’m going to be gone for 5 days, so although I want to start the base for the winged woman, I think it’s better if I wait until next week, when I get back. I have one piece that’s ready to go on the drying rack and another piece that needs a few hours of underglazing. I should focus on that. I love starting new things, but it will just dry out while I’m gone, and I don’t want that. I’m also planning on ironing a lot, and dammit, I’m going to at least wash the closet and prime the two parts that have no paint or wait, three parts, need to be primed so the paint will stick. I’d also like to plant a few more things, but I’m a little concerned about the Man watering while I’m gone. So maybe wait on those. We’ll see. It’s already a lot for the day and I’m losing time just sitting here typing. I’m also still not awake. Not enough tea. Never enough tea. And I have a Zoom call at 1 PM, so I have to work around that. Ugh. Get going.
My brain is so discombobulated. It’s not Saturday? It’s Friday, but afternoon. I feel like I need a nap already. OK, so I was up kinda early to take family to a soccer game (my nephew’s in town, playing in a tournament). And there was sitting in the sun and then eating lunch and I’m a little out of it. And I’m going to have to leave in a couple of hours and drive BACK the way I went to the game, through that hellacious traffic we saw going north. Fun times.
I used to have a blog FULL of soccer photos. I don’t miss that.
Where is everyone going this Friday? It’s Pride weekend…so they’re all going to LA? I don’t know. It was crazy traffic, and I don’t think it’s going to get better as the day goes on. So we’re going to leave pretty early, I think, just to be safe. I’m still a little paranoid that I don’t have enough stuff to demonstrate, but then I will have these bugs afterwards that take too much time to make to be able to sell well. I did one with a regular binding…the others may get a satin-stitch binding (half the time). We’ll see. Or I’ll sew them all together into a bug wallhanging unlike anything else I’ve ever made. Who knows?
I am tired though. Kittens have energy. One kitten (Kitten, the almost-16-year-old) started Netflix up this morning and woke everyone up. Usually I’m smart enough to change the tab that’s up on the computer (because yes, she’s done this before…she’s the Queen of Stepping on the Keyboard), but not so last night. Up too late, didn’t fall asleep quickly, up too early. My own fault. Ironing at night is cooler. Like less temperature cooler. So I do that instead of sleeping.
So quiltwise, not gonna be done by tomorrow…here’s Wednesday’s work done, two of the three main figures done.
Last night, I finished the third…
And started on the things in the sky…
That doesn’t look like much. I have about 450-500 pieces left to iron. Not a small amount.
I also made it to the ceramics studio for more coloring on this…
I think it’s done? Ready to dry?
Get it ready to bisque fire?
This is another art technique that takes a ton of time. Ah well. It is what it is.
I also made it to the native plant nursery yesterday and bought some different native milkweed.
Those will go in the ground as soon as this heat wave (minor) fucks off.
Meanwhile, I don’t have a picture of last night’s skunk, but here’s what I caught Luna eyeballing from inside the house.
And I saw this beauty while watering…
From a book I just finished.
Too real right now. Too real.
OK, I’m going to take a quick nap, pack stuff up, panic more about not having enough (it’s one of my common anxieties, often proven wrong), decide what to wear to this thing, and hopefully have a good time tonight. This kind of thing is always stressful, but I think I’m prepared enough for whatever might happen. Until I’m not.
I do love the middle of July. Well, except for trying to pay bills with no paycheck. That’s stressful. In my district, we get paid at the end of June and then not again until the end of August. Now we go back to school on August 9, so it’s a challenge to pay August’s mortgage and other bills with the one check from June that already paid all of July’s bills. Forget traveling…I start panicking about having enough money for the summer sometime in February. This year I’m OK, despite the huge construction/remodel expenditure, although the August credit card bill includes the carpet costs (oh ouch). Deep breaths.
The part I love is when days start popping up that have NOTHING scheduled on them. No meetings, no exercise class, no Zooms, no nothing. Yesterday. That was the day. There’s one next week too, I think. Today, I only have pilates, which is fine…good for me, actually. It’s such a relief to get up in the morning and think, there is nothing you HAVE to do. There is nowhere you HAVE to go. I mean, my brain has a to-do list, so it’s not REALLY nothing, but I’ve been working super hard on carving out 6-hour art days from these. I do yardwork as breaks, I move furniture and crap back into bedrooms in between bits and pieces of art, but it feels so much better than the crazy that is my work life. This is what Saturdays used to be like. Pre-COVID. I need to find that Saturday vibe again.
Meanwhile, I’m totally enjoying these parts of the summer. The rest of this week gets a little whack-a-doodle, but it’ll be cool. Monday, after the news program, I was pretty tired, but I rallied and ironed. This is part of the left side…about reproductive rights (what’s left of them).
And the right side is about the war in Gaza (and everywhere else…sheesh).
There’s bombs falling all over this piece.
Monday night, I ironed a lot of toes…although I may have ironed just as many on Tuesday? It was just a lot of toes. And an unwieldy large piece, which seems to be how I spend all my summers…delightfully.
I really wanted this ironed together by the weekend, but I think I just lost part of Thursday and a big chunk of Friday, so we’ll see. I did manage to get the legs done in the early afternoon yesterday…
And then started into the torso of the left figure last night.
I’m missing some pieces…one seemed to just have been missed completely from the piece it should have been attached to, but the other five are just not there. I was missing two pieces in an earlier part, and they showed up in the wrong box (I need new glasses, y’all), so I’m just gonna wait it out and see if they show up. If not, I’ll retrace and cut them: two nipples, one elbow, and two heart pieces. Weird to be missing so many.
None of them are crucial to continuing to iron. There was an arm piece missing that was more crucial, so I recut it. So I’ve ironed all the way through about piece 650, but I’ve also done a chunk of the 700s and 800s, with one in the 900s. So I’m close to halfway with almost 12 hours in. I’ve been putting in about 3-4 hours of ironing a day (depending on the day…Sunday was a cluster). Another 12 hours at the same average is about 3 days…but there’s challenges coming up in the next few days, some art events, some people events, some family events. So like I said, end of the weekend? Then iron it to a background, stitchdown, etc. My goal is to finish it by the time school starts for real (August 15…ignore all the prep beforehand, even though it will suck up time). We’ll see…I’m in San Francisco for 5 days next week, so that’ll slow me down. It’s good to have a goal though.
I made it to ceramics yesterday and spent a delightful 2+ hours cleaning up the lines on this and adding more…
And then clearing out the background…
And starting the color…
I really like the black and white, but I also love the color…
This is for a series of garden poles/stakes that my studio is making. It was a test for me to see if I could make a roundish shape (I can). Also a test of this new-to-me clay (which was free). All good. I really need to go in tomorrow and work on underglazing the top of the other piece too, since its partner is on the greenware shelf. The winged woman finally made it into the glaze fire…woohoo! After getting mansplained and whatevered by a couple of people. She IS unstable, yes. Imma have to do something about that. I’m thinking of making her a base of some sort to extend what’s there. Not sure how. Gotta think about that. One of my favorite parts of the clay stuff right now is that I rarely know what I’m doing.
The new kitten finally got a name…Bowie.
He’s a sweet baby except at 6:52 AM when he wants to play. In the bed. By jumping on all the sleeping things, including me, the Man, the dog (not pleased), and all cats. Toes especially. And then he crashes and I’m wide awake. Ugh.
He strangely lies on the floor like he’s a dog. Anyway. He’s a good eater, has a chill temperament, except when he’s got the rips, and is very accepting and interested in all the other animals. Kitten is still ignoring his presence, but her 16th birthday is in a few weeks and she’s pretty happy sleeping most of the day, hidden in my office. The other two are still negotiating how they feel about Bowie. They like the smell of his food, but that might be it.
In politics…WTF, USA? Like really. I don’t understand ANYTHING that’s going on in my country right now, although I’m amused to see my district is being cited by the state for removing LGTBQIA from the sex ed curriculum. Hmmm. I’m not going to comment too much, because I’m on that committee, but here’s a link to one news story…and a link to another. That’s the first time I’d seen the ‘more palatable and proper’ comment. I say, let’s go! Hold us up to that standard! I know we’re rewriting this fall anyway (ugh, I hate two things: this committee and creating curriculum by committee. I LOVE that we’re going to get the chance to add to it.).
But also this…
Not my religion. Also this…
I won’t say his name, but he’s not more important than elementary school kids and their teachers. And if you think he is, we aren’t friends.
Also this…
Not a fan of Project 2025, not a fan of the RNC, not a fan of the crazy states who regulate the uterus more than guns. I’m sure if you’ve read this blog for a while, this is not a surprise…but just wanted to be clear about it. I can’t watch/listen to much of it (it’s OK, the Man is doing it for me)…but when we put power and money ahead of humans, it’s never going to end well.
OK. Today. Fabric. Ironing. Lots of it. Still moving/culling things in the living room that need to go away or find a home. I might be able to move the table back today. Depends. Boychild is still on the Lake Fire. He rode in a helicopter yesterday to his worksite…apparently that was fun. I’m sure he’s exhausted…he doesn’t think he’ll be back until next week…so it’ll be over 3 weeks since he left. He’s rocking a cold at the moment, so I don’t want him coming back until he’s not contagious. The fire is getting under control, a little every day. Hopefully he’ll be home by Monday, so he can see his cousin and uncle…they’re coming in for a soccer tournament, so that’s my Friday morning. I haven’t been to a soccer tournament in a while (don’t really miss them). Gotta find my chair and my sunscreen. But for now, more tea, some breakfast, some ironing. More yardwork (got one more trashcan to fill by tonight), more moving things. Pilates later…
Am I awake? Sort of. I’ve been UP for 5 hours, showered, fed most of the animals, drove to a news station, and did a live session about an art demo I’ll be doing at the Oceanside Museum of Art on Friday evening. Here’s the TV thing…
I’ll be doing my demo from 6:30-7:30 PM…it’ll be the bugs! I have some I’ll be ironing together (LIVE) and some I’ll be embroidering (also LIVE). That stuff is way easier than standing in front of a camera. Then I came home, changed out of real clothes, ate breakfast, moved some more furniture (endless, right?), and wrote some stuff. My plan is to iron stuff together until I need a nap (all the others are already napping)…
Simba was napping until the kitten (still nameless) grabbed his butt.
OK, it was obviously a busy weekend. Quiltwise, I finished Why. Not. after quite a few months’ lag.
It’ll go to the photographer once I finish the other one.
Then Friday, I made some bugs…cut out some Wonder Under, ironed them to fabrics…
I left one as just Wonder Under to use in the demo. I also made two of each, one more realistically colored and one colored for San Diego Pride Weekend…
I’m saving some to iron down at the demo on Friday, but I did iron 5 of them…
Yes, that’s 4…I think I hadn’t finished the outlining on the 5th one yet. This was Friday’s finish. Saturday morning, I outlined the 5th one and then quilted all 5.
The rest of their legs will get embroidered on at the demo (or after…depends on timing).
Then I finished one all the way with a binding and a sleeve…
Note to self…easier to embroider legs before the sleeve is on. And last night, I embroidered this one’s legs…
They seem like they would be really easy to make (they are), but they are still time-consuming. That sweet little bug took 2 hours and 19 minutes to make. So yeah. Not sure they’re saleable…but they’ll go on Etsy eventually. I’ll post all of them when they’re done. If you’re local and want one, don’t wait for it to go on Etsy. Just a heads up.
Here’s all the fabrics that got used on the bugs…
ANYWAY. So that was bugs. Not on the Bingo card for Summer 2024; neither is the microwave dying, and that’s also definitely happening.
I finally started ironing the Crones quilt together on Saturday…my goal is to have it done this week…which I have now lost Friday, so Imma do it quick.
The bottom was full of some fussy tiny pieces, which look awesome when done but are a fucking pain in the ass to iron.
Gaza war on the right side…
Loss of reproductive rights on the left. I have about 4 hours in and I’ve done about 250 pieces. I’m planning to do a bunch over the next 4 days. And also move furniture, do yardwork, paint things, possibly sleep, read my book, and maybe eat. I’ll be ironing as soon as I finish writing this thing.
I did do clay on Sunday…picked up the four finished clay pots for the Man’s bog garden. These two were pretty basic, although the glazes didn’t do what I thought they would (they never do).
These two were a test of a satin glaze, which turned out much better than the first test run.
So I’ll probably do this on the big sgraffito piece that’s on my shelf at the studio right now.
Meanwhile, I finished underglazing the bottom half of the next sculptural piece…
The colors will change a bit in the firing.
Flesh colors are always fun.
This is drying out right now, getting ready for the bisque fire. That sea monster is hysterical.
Here’s video of the whole thing…
Hopefully I’ll be underglazing the top this week. And working on that other sgraffito piece. Gotta schedule clay time into the ironing time.
We also hiked Saturday…it’s been warm, but not AS warm…and that’s the first deer I’ve seen at Sweetwater.
I’ve seen their prints in the dirt, but never the actual animal. So that was cool.
This California horned lizard was not AS cool…because it was unfortunately dead…but a good-sized one.
Oh yeah, Imma need more caffeine today. Lots more.
The older ladies are still unsure of the little beast.
There was some play yesterday and today, with a lot of consternation involved.
Not from him. He does not give a shit that they are all bigger than him. He is a sweetie, very loving, very people-oriented. But also a scratchy hyper demon. No name still. We have until tomorrow (self-imposed deadline).
I gave my SIL such a card for her birthday.
I hope she’s better at it than I usually am.
Also, need to go to this national monument. Put it on the list.
OK. Drink LOTS of tea today. Also maybe nap. Iron a lot. Maybe go to Home Depot…I was gonna go Friday night and then just didn’t (it’s open until 10 PM…avoid the contractors and go late). Contemplate the state of the union. And 20-year-old boys with automatic rifles. And crazy-town conspiracy theories. Consider the future of my country (that’s a big one…a scary one). But mostly iron. Looking forward to communing with some fabric.
It’s delightfully overcast this morning. I will take this July gloom (which will probably not last) and do nothing with it. I really should do something…yardwork when it’s cooler is smart. But NO. I have a ton of art stuff I need to do today. I’ve been putting off the bugs and the ironing of the new quilt, and I can’t put it off anymore. I’m spending three days doing that (and some other stuff, no worries). I’ll do some yardwork, but probably in the evening. I’m not awake enough yet. I have a friend who gets up at 6 AM on a Saturday to do yardwork, and I’m like, um no? Not. I must have had a look of absolute horror on my face, because she laughed. Yes, I’m a night owl. She is not.
So progress here is slow because it’s progress on 1700 fronts. Today will include a trip to the garage to check if I have any roller painting equipment that is in decent condition…if not, I need to go to Home Depot (AGAIN). I did write the final check to all the contractors for all the work they’ve done. Just a reminder, it flooded here in January, and because it came from the ground (I am up on a hill, y’all) and not the roof, insurance covered none of it. Total was just over $22K to fix everything and replace carpet and put in gutters so it wouldn’t happen again. I only had that money because I started saving to remodel my circa 1980 bathrooms and kitchen about 5 years ago. I’m back to saving for those…things I wanted done before I retired. It’s OK…we’ll see how it goes. So now all the remaining work falls on me, because I didn’t have 3K for painting, so I’m doing it myself, and I’m not doing it all this summer, because I hate painting. And there’s a ton of digging in the entryway that still needs to happen. I’ll get to it. I have many ideas and not a lot of time to make them happen, because I’m also trying to recover from the school year, read 40 books, and do a bunch of art. Like you do. And then put the house back together. Yesterday, I emptied 6 boxes of books and organized them and culled a little and put them all away…
This was when I still had two more boxes to open. I was on a Zoom call during this and then a phone call at the same time. Took about 2 1/2 hours. I have two more boxes in the girlchild’s room to do today. Then all those boxes can go in the garage for whenever someone might need them. Oh, I also have a box and three bags of clothes to put away in the bedroom…I did one bag last night because I needed a bag to go to my stitching meeting. None of it is hard…it just takes time and energy. I also want to paint the closet this weekend and buy the paint for the hallway. Because that’s next week. After the boychild moves all his shit. Which hopefully he’ll be home next week to do. Ha! He sends us beautiful pictures…although scary, because fire…
We get daily (or so) reports. It’s hot, there’s a lot of firefighters up there.
So far, most structures have survived, so they’re doing a great job. This is the Lake Fire in Santa Barbara County.
I finally made it to ceramics yesterday…kept getting sidelined by moving stuff. I got these out of the bisque kiln fire…
The red clay fired so pale! I was surprised. It’s our studio reclaim clay and the little bit of red clay really colors the white, which is mostly porcelain I think. So weird. It’s an OK clay to work with…very sticky, but carving works well. So I dipped the two coil pots in glaze…and then I glazed the inside of the two outside pots, with a thin, watered-down layer of clear on the outside. Clear is problematic…it gets cloudy, sometimes it burns out some of the colors. So this is a test. I didn’t clear glaze the big one until the test is done. I like it too much.
I added a cloud of hair to the world figure, and of course, forgot to take a picture. I think it’s pretty much done for adding clay…I just need to underglaze everything.
And then our studio is making some garden stake totem things. I hesitate to call them totems, because I think of that as belonging to specific cultures. But I made a ball with holes in it, underglazed, and carved some yesterday.
Here’s a video so you can see the arms.
Fun stuff. I used some clay someone left out for free (I’m a clay slut apparently)…it’s a Longhorn with grog, I think. It’s definitely sturdier than the other clay I’ve been using. I appreciate that. On the one hand, I really like carving like I draw…but I also like the meditation of building things. So I guess I’ll keep doing both at the same time? If I can go in tomorrow or Sunday and finish underglazing the base of the world figure, it can go on the greenware shelf, and then that’ll clear a little space on my shelf…it’s packed right now with three boards of stuff. I’m an overachiever sometimes.
Speaking of, I got binding and sleeves machine-stitched on both smaller quilts and started handsewing one of them.
It’ll take me a few nights of sitting and watching stuff to finish them. That darker blue one is hard at night. It would be smarter to do it during the day. Oh well.
So yeah, kitten still is unnamed. We are trying names out. Earlier, I heard a lot of “ouch no ouch no” coming from the living room.
Kitten is sharp and pointy. He does sleep a lot.
That pic seems to have some Siamese inclinations. We’re pretty sure dad cat was at least part Siamese. Sisters are both orange, mom is calico. His face and ears and coloring are all different from them.
This is legit…
OK. Plan for today. It’s already 10 AM. Love the summer for that. Gonna eat something, then start ironing bugs (need them done by Monday, or at least some of them). I’m also going to start working on ironing the crones quilt together. I saw the deadline I’m aiming for and it’s closer than I thought. Summer does that…contracts in weird ways. Too much work, never enough time. I have a book I’m reading, I want to draw tonight. Will I? Don’t know. Maybe sometime this weekend. I have three days with not a lot of outside influences, which I appreciate. I’m hoping for maybe some relaxation with the Man in the next few days? We’ll see. But definitely art.
Kathy Nida 