It Will All Happen…

Oh my. I knew this week would be rough, but I didn’t know the universe was like, oh hey, here’s some more…but it’s mostly GOOD stuff, it’s just good stuff that takes time to do and you don’t have any of that, so GO!

Anyway, I’m carving out art time on this quilt each night for an hour (or almost an hour, let’s be honest, or I stayed up too late like last night because I got to a spot and I didn’t want to stop.). I’m ahead of my schedule, barely, which is cool. And also good. So Tuesday night, I got her all ironed together except for her face and a few things…

I really was excited about her hair…it turned out so much better than I imagined.

Then last night, after a really long day (union meeting and pilates), I did her face and the earth.

And because I was in the mood and hadn’t done an hour yet, even though it was past my going-to-bedtime, because I’d had to process and upload EM Spectrum lab videos for school, I ironed it onto a background, because it was pretty easy to do.

That said, I’m not done with that…there are about 65 tiny leaves that go in the trees on her head (see where the cat is? Around there).

I wasn’t kidding about them being tiny. And a lot of them. That’s tonight. And then start stitchdown. Of course, that’s tonight after teaching all day (yesterday was HAARD. Y’all need to use your BRAINS…) AND a 2-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting. Ugh. The third afterschool meeting this week. Y’all I am done. And yet grades are due, I had two parents (of the same child) messaging me last night back and forth (do y’all talk to each other? Yes, they live in the same house…did you read last week’s email about how yesterday was the last day I’d take late work?)…this sweet cat was sitting on the things I was grading the other night…

Not helpful at all. Of course, these assignments are crap. My fault. I took them from another teacher, and I think they are workable, but my kids are Google junkies, they don’t process the info, they just copy it, and the rubric is awful. Completely useless. So I’ll fix that for next year. Hopefully. Not like I have time to do anything but write a note on the calendar about that, which is problematic, because the teacher I got them from will eventually see that. O. M. G.

The tree guy is on his way here so I can show him the two branches that still need to come off…

Apparently the highlighted picture was not enough. Also he wants his check. More importantly.

Here’s the soap that’s currently hanging out in one of the teacher’s bathrooms at school.

That’s about right.

OK, shoes, more tea, my brain, go to school. Tree guy first. Torture kids with an academic assignment today, but maybe I’ll get time to grade. I’m definitely rethinking tomorrow…they can do it on their own. I’m not walking them through it. Eye dissection next week, new unit, fuck me, I need seating charts. OK. Deep breaths. It will all happen.

Bring It…

I did not fall off the face of the Earth…I just had a ton of stuff to do. And if you’re my school district, trying to figure out where I went this weekend, the answer is NOWHERE. I didn’t travel anywhere. I really didn’t. I did take a necessary day off though, and they don’t like that, especially before a 3-day weekend. I had a sub though, which is a plus.

There was a lot of art this weekend, which was good and necessary to the processing of my brain. There was also a lot of schoolwork this weekend, which was unfortunately also necessary to my surviving the next month or so. This week, definitely, because I am entering the hell of 2-hour meetings for the next three days, all school-related. Sigh. Not looking forward to that bit. And some medical stuff, which is what it is, and can’t all happen after school hours, much as they’d like it to.

So the quilt in progress went from all ironed to fabric Wednesday night? I think…

98 fabrics…in just under 9 hours of ironing.

Then Thursday night, I started cutting them out…

Finished Friday night? Again, maybe that was Saturday night…yeah, I think I’m off by a night on all of this…

That took a little under 7 hours…I was on a roll. And then Sunday afternoon, I sorted them…

Sunday night, started ironing together…

And this is last night’s progress…

With all those 2-hour meetings, it’s gonna be a fight to get an hour in each night, but that’s my goal. More than an hour, actually. I have about 200 pieces left, so I’m figuring I’ll be done Wednesday, iron to the background Thursday, start stitchdown by Friday. Tight deadline, but I’m going for it. Have I mentioned grades are due next week on top of all those meetings? Yeah. And Saturday is shot to hell by a mammogram and an art meeting. There is no down time.

Ooh wait, here’s the cutting-out I did on Thursday night. Hmmm. Maybe I finished ironing fast and then cut stuff out?

I’ll ask Nova. She might know.

Setup for a class I took this weekend…

Loads of fun. Totally recommend taking classes that aren’t related to what you’re doing at the moment.

I also went to an opening and an artist talk, and I have photos from that, but no time to process right now. Because I need to get to work, need to beat the tree trimmers out of here.

Friday night’s dinner drawing…

Cute sister cats…

This current quilt is small enough to ALMOST fit under one teflon ironing sheet.

IDK when I’ll have the brain power to do something bigger this year. I’m supposed to be doing a drawing this week as well. Deep breaths. Might have to wait until Friday to have the mental space for it.

My succulents are making cute little flowers…

I hadn’t been paying attention to the plants with all the other crap going on.

I hate that.

Also finished mom’s snowflakes, so this went back to her for embellishment…

Then it’ll come back to me for sandwiching and stuff. Not sure what stuff entails at the moment. Haven’t touched the other quilt I’m doing for a friend…it’s been a rough week. It’s still a rough week.

OK, work today, something to do with light and UV damage (I feel like I should know what the something is), then a 2-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting, then I get to cook tonight (woo!), then more ironing. Full-on survival mode this week. Bring it.

Saving the World from Nothing*…

I used to listen to music every morning, and whatever song I was listening to at the end of writing this blog, I’d go find some part of the lyrics that spoke to me and that would be the blog title. Certainly probably better than most of the blog titles I come up with now. Don’t get me wrong; I love writing the blog. I certainly do it more for me than you, and my future self appreciates me documenting shit so I remember what I did last year or the year before, or how January going back to school really felt (it’s always hard; I’m always tired). For documenting the art process, it’s also good for me to remember where I was at on a certain piece. I’m not sure when I stopped listening to the music…I have a guess, but it’s been a while, and maybe I should bring it back…if just for the title inspiration.

So I’ve now survived one work day with kids and one without. Both were fine. Although the one boy who told me I should smile more probably wasn’t ready for my impassioned sexism speech. I’m OK with that. I started with a lab, which seemed to shock the kids…not sure why. I also have been trying to do more of what we did with 7th grade, when I had a partner to plan and we tweaked things for years to make them easier on us and more varied for the kids. I’m hoping I can keep it up. It takes a chunk of creativity on my part, and I don’t always have the extra energy for that for the day job AND art. Although yesterday’s prep period was a crazy headgame of trying to get 7th-grade teachers all their stuff (I found the damn paint swatches, hidden under another lab in a weird tube of periodic tables we never use and my co-teacher on leave says I should toss. Fuck. I will do that when I get to school today. Really. I will. If no other emergencies pop up.). I was watching a video yesterday of a teacher at our school who posts on TikTok etc, and she’s showing her typed plan of how to use her before- and after-school time and her PLAN (ha! Really? She has a plan period she can actually USE? WTF) so she’s uber efficient with getting things done, and I almost cried. I mean, I guess having 7th- and 8th-grade meet on the same day each week is part of that, but it doesn’t leave much time with all the other crap I need to do. Not everything fits into a cute TikTok video I guess. She’s selling her rainbow template on TeacherPayTeachers, so all the more power to her.

So artwise, I’m really pushing the ironing. I have been coming home and trying to start the ironing before dinner time so I can do more than an hour a night. So I managed almost 2 hours both nights, which is good…I’m thinking I might be able to finish tonight. Maybe.

Monday night, I got up into the torso and finished all the things that were green, which is all the fleshy bits…

Here’s all the skin in the upper torso laid out…

And here’s all the things that are attached to or on her flesh that AREN’T green, like her heart etc.

The piles are logical. I start out with everything in number order, in piles of 10, but when I’m pulling the flesh out and piling it on the fabric, I’m sorting the others into what they are, so I can just pick up one pile and iron it all at the same time.

Here’s a video of the setup…I stand between the table and the ironing board and turn from one to the other…one of the benefits of a room that is relatively small, I guess.

Then last night, I started in on all those little piles…

I made a rainbow snake. I was looking at the drawing and thinking, well, I often make green snakes, but the main figure is already green, so that won’t work. And any snake with black in it won’t show up against the really dark background, and brown was just out…the legs are all brown. So rainbow it was. Rainbows make my brain happy. I also realized there is very little pink in this quilt. Usually the figures run in the pink to brown range, but this one is reminiscent of the Supreme Court goddess, all earth colors, because I wanted to explore that a little more. Maybe the Supreme Court quilt had way too many normal-colored people, because I’m rolling in purple and earth stuff, maybe a rainbow person is next. Although the next one is a collaboration, so who knows what that will look like.

Meanwhile, I guess I really do need that template from that teacher (not)…because I spent 45 minutes after school processing videos and pictures of the lab we did for all the absent kids (lenses and refraction). And that was NOT on my to-do list until I realized it needed to be. The slides exist now, so future self will be happy, but fuck me, this year is full of this crap.

I came home and meant to (a) go to the gym (too exhausted after trying to find my insulin at any pharmacy, and getting dog food) and/or (b) read my book, but I opened my computer and processed planning shit for about an hour before reading one chapter of my book, then getting my exhausted ass off the couch and ironing before dinner, which luckily I didn’t have to cook.

Today? Today the kids are going to do an independent assignment so I can do some planning. I’ll roll my chair around with my computer and check in at tables while working for a while at each table. Tomorrow too. Tonight is pilates and IRONING. I do have to cook tonight, but it’s easy. So IRONING. Finishing. Hopefully. Also hopefully finding insulin.

*Long Way Down, Robert DeLong

Never Gonna Dance Again

Woke up to Careless Whisper by Wham!. Not sure what to think about that, on the first day back to work in 2024. Can’t get it out of my damn head though. So there’s that. Hey you know there’s 74 days until Spring Break! You know the worst part about coming back is when you don’t feel rested and refreshed, and everybody is all asking you if you feel rested and refreshed and please share one relaxing thing you did over break, and I’m like I READ 78 BOOKS BECKY precisely because that was my escape from not feeling rested and refreshed. Also I’m just a cranky old lady sometimes, and today is one of those times. Not enough sleep. Not enough shit got done. As always.

Speaking of not enough time, I really am trying to up the ante with this quilt, getting it done in an insanely small amount of time. How? Grabbing minutes when I’d normally do something else. I had 45 minutes yesterday afternoon before driving out to an art meeting, so I ironed instead of lesson planning. I had 30 minutes waiting for the Man to get dinner ready…same deal. I got the room cleaned Saturday in the hour before going to see his show, and when he sent me an updated start time (later), I sat down and got half a really complicated exhibition entry done. It’s good, but it feels like I can’t ever just sit down and relax. Hence my post-break feeling of no, not rested, not relaxed. My fault, but semi-necessary at the moment. I’m not letting another year of school fuck up my ability to make art. I’m gonna figure it out.

So I had everything laid out and ready to go on Saturday…wait. Stop. I need to be chronological about all this.

First of all, on Friday, I ran a million errands. I even wrote the blog late because of it. I spent about an hour staring at this asshole…

Which is the slow annoying one, because our faster one has been broken down most of the fucking school year, so we’re stuck sharing this with the front office, who keeps telling us we’re not allowed to use it. Uh huh.

Fast forward to Friday night (I did other stuff, very little of it art related)…I drew at dinner.

I was in a pretty positive mindframe at that point. Except she is holding her head. Legit position. Then we went out to see a friend’s band play…

Sonic Moonshine…ironically, we’d be back here on Saturday night for the Man’s band, Radio Thieves. But some drinking and dancing happened, probably too much of both.

Saturday dawned early, as it always does. I had a quilt guild meeting, so I worked a little on her face.

Slow stitching forever! Might finish in 2030.

Then came home and focused on cleaning up the art space, putting fabric away, even cleaned the floor because there was something on it that made it very slippery in one area (don’t wanna know what) and I was afraid I’d fall and break something. Like my leg. That would make life fun right now, right? Oh wait! Before I cleaned up in there, I had to deal with this. So we have this older friend who isn’t a quilter, but she had these blocks she cross stitched, and then I sandwiched them for her and she quilted them (the white threads are all my basting threads)…

And then I couldn’t deal with the sashing on a quilt-as-you-go, so we mailed it to a friend who used to live down here (she’s retired) and she put it together, mailed it back to me, and then I took it BACK to our friend and she hand-stitched all the sashing sides down (I taught her ladder stitch…she’s really NOT a sewer). Then it came back to me and I put the borders on and shoved some batting in there on Friday and Saturday, and then I removed all that fucking basting thread I put in last summer or whenever it was (2022? this has been going on for a while).

See pile of threads in the top right? So that happened before and after the quilt guild meeting. I needed this to get off the ironing board so I could use it for ironing.

Then I quilted one of the white squares on Saturday…

And one on Sunday. Yes, I could just do it all in one go, but it would take a few hours and then I would feel like I got nothing of my OWN done, and I cannot abide that at the moment. Nope. So my goal is 1-2 white squares a day and then the damn sashing and borders. I’ll get there. It just won’t be quick.

Then on Saturday, I laid out the first 100 pieces (after cleaning the whole room, floor, etc).

It’s not a big quilt.

Then I went to see the Man’s band play (more dancing, a little drinking, learned a lesson there I guess).

Home again. Spent Sunday getting ready for school, but also carving out time for ironing. I’m in the mid-100s, I think…something like that.

I got almost 3 hours in yesterday. Good times. You’d think I’d have more ironed, but there were a lot of little things going on and they took some thinking.

I also went to an art meeting and sewed down (during dinner) 9 of the 48 circles I need to stitch down for my mom’s thing.

See, I AM doing all the things. I’m just cranky about most of it. Except the ironing for my quilt. That is joyous and not cranky at all.

I’m sure everyone has seen some cool art or fabric in a TV show and screen shot it…this is the wall art from an episode of Suits.

Fascinating. I had some stuff burst into my head from this. Too bad I have to go back to school today instead of nurturing my Art Brain with some drawing time. Luckily there are no kids today…just adults and the bullshit the district wants us to do. Am I still burnt out? Oh yeah. I am. Do I have some plans for keeping myself from fully burning out? Uh huh. I do. Watch this space. Still got that damn song in my head.

Gloom…

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

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

But the tree made it into the house.

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

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

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

So yesterday, I trimmed them all.

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

I pieced them on Zoom with my stitching friends.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shopping and Shipping

Just listening to @underthedesknews about university admissions and the Supreme Court…legacy admissions could be out! I’m good with that. And that is how I am spending my Winter Break? Listening to social media news? Nah. It’s been a little chaotic so far. Let’s start with quilt progress, which has not been as much as I’d like, but whatever. I’ve been ironing…here’s Friday night’s progress…

Then Saturday night…

And Sunday night, when I stayed up way too late…

Because I was ALMOST done and then I felt like I was too tired for the last half hour so I didn’t actually finish. So yeah. I thought I’d be done ironing yesterday, but I forgot how much time having both kids around takes, and you wanna hang out with them, so there isn’t as much time for other stuff. So I suspect I’ll be done tonight. Hopefully. Stitchdown tomorrow. Quilting by Thursday? Maybe. IDK.

I’m still not done with shopping and shipping, and that will be an issue, so I need to get my act together on that front. Ah well. I did do some today…and passed by these weird things…

On the walk to the used bookstore.

Poor Santa in a cage…

So Saturday, we went on a friend’s birthday hike…

It was warm for December…high 70s. Warmer than you would like. But a winery solved that issue afterwards…

Sunday was family stuff…

I finished one book on Saturday…

Light fiction…I finished a harder one, nonfiction, on Sunday. Well on my way to finishing one a day? OK, probably not…

Sleepy cold kitties. We are also babysitting the puppy so that she doesn’t chew her foot off. She’s been pretty chill. Apparently she is depressed because of the cone and the wrap on her foot. She tore part of her claw off. Whoops. Silly girl.

Yeah, that’s been going on for a while. Needs to stop.

OK, I need to do some schoolwork and set up the tree so I can get the cats out of the needles and maybe clean some stuff. And figure out the rest of Christmas. Ugh. At least there’s no school in that. I can appreciate that.

Absolute Delight…

Hey. Friday. Before Winter Break. I love you.

Actually, I’m stressed at the moment because of the next 8 hours, but then I love you. My brain at 3:30 in the morning was not helpful. My teammates helped me write a difficult parent email this morning (no thanks to 3:30-AM brain), so that’s done. Now I just need to juggle potential issues in advisory (which is short, hallelujah), then get everyone to be quiet, turn in a huge packet, and answer a simple question. While I get the room cleaned up enough to leave after school (they’re doing the floors over break…which is good…they look like crap). Today is, of course, an assembly day. Plus pajama day (it’s going to be 80 degrees) and Santa hat day (I don’t have the patience for itchy hot head today). And I have duty after school. Then a work party.

The girlchild arrived just before midnight last night, but I haven’t seen her yet; she went to the other house. But she’s here! Makes me happy.

OK, I haven’t been ironing much. I got an hour in on Wednesday night…

Scissors for scale. Those are my small scissors.

This is not a huge, complicated quilt.

I got nothing done last night, because I had my monthly stitching meeting with friends, which was nice…I worked on shutters on crooked windows…

Then came home and finished cleaning up the girlchild’s room, ran some laundry, packed up some gifts, and dealt with some art paperwork. Then it was 10:45. So I got ready for bed. Not sure if tonight will be any better? Who knows.

This is coming up…which is cool.

We picked a current piece and something that was at least 10 years old (mine was from 1993, I think). Mine is 2nd row down, 4th from the left. Screenprint with drawing.

My advisory holiday door: Fortnite Winterfest.

They did OK. I drew Jack because the kid in charge of that was absent. He colored it though. The tree coloring is particularly nice. We’re not going to win. To be honest, we never win. Some adults get way more into this than I do. It’s strange how proud they are of it though. This is one more thing I have to do after school today: take this down. It’s funny the party starts at 3:30 and I have duty until 3:45 and then have to get my room in order. Who knows when I’ll get there.

Yesterday, I met with my co-teacher-on-leave to try to figure out some stuff she wrote on the calendar last year. It was lovely to plan with her, even though it was 7th grade and I don’t even teach that right now (I will in 2025? I think?). So yeah, we spent an hour on stuff we don’t even teach. It was an absolute delight and relief though. To have someone to plan with and see the big ideas. I miss that. I cried on the way home…missed that. She’ll be back. It’ll be better. I refuse to say when, so the universe won’t slap back.

Anyway. I hate these days before break, but a lot of kids will be absent because of that. Pros and cons. I was really angry with my advisory for an incident on Wednesday; I’m still pissed off at a couple of them. Made it hard on a couple of classes for their behavior with the sub while I was in a literacy meeting. That said, I have the next 20-some days off (although, yes, I will have to grade and plan). So that’s not bad. I can do that.

Read…

Big deep sigh. You know what I WANT to do today? Stay home and iron this quilt together…in between reading my book while curled up on the couch with a dog or cat or two. I am mentally exhausted. And today is LOOONG. Hate those days. Things before and after school. Ugh. 8 AM to 6 PM without stopping…the plus is that we are in literacy group this afternoon, so not full-on teaching, but also I know my kids in the last class of the day won’t do their work and may destroy the classroom. So that sucks. I warned them yesterday, but you know how that goes. Well, if you’re a teacher, you know how it goes. If you’re not, you probably think if you’ve built a relationship with them and gotten down at their level and shared some respect, that they will be perfect angels. Well, try a title I middle school three days before Winter Break and tell me how that goes. Yeah. I thought so. Stupid time for these meetings. They really didn’t think it through. I think one meeting is the day before Spring Break. A Friday. There will definitely be an assembly. Are they on crack? Possibly.

That said, I’m pretty proud of myself for getting mostly caught up on grading. I finished last week’s academic assignment last night. I have one batch of homework I’m hoping to do today and tomorrow. There’s a few easy things that need to go into the gradebook. Then on Friday, they hand in their packets, which I will need to take home, and one homework assignment. Plus warmups. I’m still debating an easy question on Friday. I should do it, but IDK if I’ll have time. Playing it all by ear. I hate that. I want to know exactly what I’m teaching when, at least 3 weeks in advance. But no. Not for the last four years. Not without a significant amount of replanning and juggling and rewriting and shit. This is why I set a retirement date. I’m just tired of that part of it. The actual teaching? I can handle that. The rest? Ugh.

So the current quilt…I finished cutting things out on Monday night.

It took a little over 7 hours to do that. Longer than usual, I think. Not sure why.

Then I sorted them last night…

Such an easy sort…

Just under 500 pieces. I do think I need to wash all my bins over break though. The pencil lead is transferring onto them. I never noticed that with older bins, but these seem to show it, and it’s probably transferring to fabric. Weird things on my to-do list.

Then I started ironing…

I didn’t get very far. These are tiny people. I should have put something in there for scale, but just trust me, they’re little. I had to set up the room a little, move stuff around, then sort out the first 100 pieces by 10s. I’ll get more done tonight. I’m hoping to be done ironing Sunday night, then stitchdown, quilt, bind next week. We’ll see. I have some other shit to do. That whole Xmas thing. And the next quilt is waiting…it’s been enlarged and numbered for a few years, so it’s my last quilt of the year, assuming I can finish it in time. Not huge, not complicated. Then I can get my head around the next one. I have a deadline where I need to work with a collaborator and I’m not sure what that will look like, since we don’t use the same media and we don’t live in the same city. Minor issue. We’ll figure it out in January. I’ll probably start something else at the same time.

I spent some time cleaning up the girlchild’s bedroom last night; she arrives late Thursday night. I still need to put some quilts away and figure out where to store all the ones I know need to ship out in the next few weeks. Then maybe persuade her brother to store his packs elsewhere. He has a lot of them. Then make her bed with everything I washed last night, which is probably where I got the weird ring of spider bites around my elbow/arm.

I finished a book yesterday that made me cry. And then went to school, still crying (not good), but since I often drive to school with the urge to sob and/or scream, it was nothing new. Just discombobulating. And it had an essentially sort of happy ending; it was just all the shit before it that threw me. Then I started right away to read another book, and that one is also seriously speaking to me about quitting and becoming a full-time reader (is that a thing? Please let it be a thing.)…

But no, I have a parent meeting this morning and a union meeting after school, so no books until 6 PM. WHICH SUCKS. Oh wait, I can read at lunch, but I’m also supposed to be reading this book for school and I haven’t gotten very far. Ugh. Yeah. It’s a pain. My responsible teacher self is NOT going to let me bring the other book I’d rather read. Although it’s on my phone. So there’s that.

OK. Do the 10-hour day. Come home and READ. Then do some work and hopefully the Man will let us finish the movie we’ve been trying to watch for days. I wanna know what happens! Dammit. And then ironing, which is fun and relaxing and I love seeing the image come to life in color. So that’s cool. Three more days of school and then more reading! Woo hoo! Don’t look at the to-do list. READ!

100 Bullet Points…

So I didn’t write yesterday because it was our 9th anniversary of hanging out together, which we do a lot of, but is really hard to buy a card for because (a) we’re not married and (b) we’re not happy-go-lucky young people who have stars in our eyes (not a bad thing)…we are grumpy old people who sometimes barely tolerate other life in the house. ANYWAY, the Man made me breakfast before work and that seemed nicer than sitting here and writing, so I put it off a day. To today, which will be incredibly stressful until it’s not. Good times.

The continuing story of weird shit I do for school…

Note for next year: get solid core copper wire, although I’m not sure how I could have figured that out from the cryptic codes at Home Depot, let alone from the cryptic codes from my co-teacher. Also, when she says 3″ nails, she means 5″ nails. (HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT…IT’S FINE. IT WORKED. It was just a pain in the ass, which might be the way all of this year goes.)

I finished ironed to fabrics on Monday night…I haven’t counted these yet, but there they are anyway.

Turned out to be a lot of gray, but I think it’s mostly clouds and smoke and concrete. I think the blue and purple end up being a heftier part of the quilt. But we’ll see.

Here’s the box of stuff that now needs to be cut out.

And all together now! If you haven’t noticed, I like to document.

Then Tuesday night, I started cutting things out. Straight up, I have a nasty assignment I’m trying to grade each night as well, which sucks, because I’d rather be cutting things up or stitching them or drawing or honestly ANYTHING but grading this thing, but nope. That’s a big fat no.

I didn’t get far on Tuesday. Less than an hour. I went to the gym, so dinner was late, and then grading that thing. So yeah. Went to bed too late too.

Then last night, I got a little more done…

Doesn’t look like much. Never does. I think I spent about 10 hours ironing stuff down; I suspect I can cut it all out in 5 hours. Maybe. Tonight I need to grade TWO classes’ worth of that heinous assignment (it’s not really bad; it’s the kids’ answers that are bad), so although I have nothing going on tonight (oh thank goodness), I might not get more than an hour to cut.

I got this in email yesterday…

Um. Well. I’m doing whatever my brother and/or dad told me to do, so I guess I need to carve out some time to figure that shit out. (writes on to-do list, which has stuff that has been on it for over a year)

Also, when thinking about retirement…

Probably on the couch and not in bed, but otherwise, yes, that would be nice. Unlikely maybe, but certainly I’ll be doing something different. Which is an interesting thing to think about.

Today and honestly the next 9 days are gonna kick my ass first. Today I have a meeting before school with the principal and other union reps, then need to deal with some sort of counseling thing in my room instead of the door decorating I’d planned (love that last-minute shit). By the way, because I know you love the door-decorating sagas over the years, we’re doing Fortnite Winterfest. Not my choice. Obviously. Then an official observation of my teaching skills, which the boss accidentally tried to do yesterday (wrong day) in Period 2 (wrong class), which was exciting for me! I’m like, whatever, and then he gets up 10 minutes into it and leaves, saying, whoops, wrong class. Good times. Today’s lesson is not what I would have chosen for an observation, but whatever. Something I’ve never ever taught before that I didn’t pick, during the 1st period of class, which means they’re the guinea pigs I test stuff out on and then modify during the day. I have sent a wish list to the gods for who I need to be absent this morning.

At some point, some of the stressful job things need to go away or lessen or something. I laid awake last night with about 100 bullet points bouncing against my forehead: do this! don’t forget that! What about this? Fuck me. At some point, the stressful job things will be PUT away and I will cut out nice pieces of nonstressful fabric again. Around 9:30 PM tonight, to be precise.

Bits and Pieces of Time…

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

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

Pink wings and a red heart.

Saturday night…

Lots of factory buildings and nuclear towers.

Details

Sunday night…

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

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

I generally don’t piece…

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

I stitched during the meeting…

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

When I got back, we walked the dog…

It gets dark so damn early.

I drew at dinner, but didn’t finish…

Mid-tree.

The cats must be cold…

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

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