Why Does the Cherub Have a Jackhammer?

I’m up a little earlier today because I have a friend visiting and we have plans to get the hell out of sweltering East County and probably get sunburnt somewhere, except I can’t get my toe wet. Bad timing. It’s OK…we have plans. We’ll figure it out. We went to middle and high school together…and we still talk to each other. Always good. The first thing I noticed when I got into her rental car was this really useful function…

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve needed to fold a cat while in a car.

We ate lunch, we hung out, we checked her into her hotel. These pillows. No one sleeps with pillows like this. It’s like there were three of them, but there was no logical way to place them on the bed because there are only three, or you know how it’s always hard to get the quilt or blanket to neatly fold over the pillows? Solved it.

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We played some card games, including concentration, which I haven’t played for a million years and mostly lost because we have old brains that can’t remember anything. She’s not blind (well, she and I both are)…

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We’re analyzing the cards. I wasn’t thinking about their being Bicycle brand…I was wondering why a cherub had a jackhammer.

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You wonder how I get all these ideas for quilts. It’s because my brain doesn’t work quite right. I’m OK with that.

After an awesome dinner, I was able to spend about 3 hours ironing. The skeleton, the first of the not-so-invisible women…

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I had the whole ocean folded up still…and ironed the second not-so-invisible woman…

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Then I managed to iron the ocean onto the bottom of that section, so now it’s huge.

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Although I’m not even halfway through the ironing. There was a female figure in the water…so she came next. Eyeball ironed separately.

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Got the face together.

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And put her under the appropriate wave.

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I quit then, 12:30 AM or so, because I knew I had to be up earlier this morning. I’m in the mid 700s, so not even halfway. I’ve got about 11 hours into the ironing. So 25-27 hours total maybe? Yikes. I might finish Saturday…I probably won’t. OK. Well. Rethinking. The first three days we go back to school are just conference (waste of time) and prep (hard work). I am going in this Friday as well, but just to drop stuff and start trying to organize, because I’m going to have teachers in there all day NEXT Friday for the damn conference, so I can’t put everything out. I wish we could trust teachers not to mess with our stuff, but we can’t. I’ll try to get a chunk done though…so I can come home each night and work for 5 or 6 hours on this thing. Aack. And there’s no homework or assignments for the first few weeks.

Gotta go!

She’s a Bad Mama Jama*

OK, speedwriting. I thought I’d sleep in (still not falling asleep quickly) and have a leisurely morning, but first a dog woke me early to pee and then my phone reminded me that the car needed to go in…in 5 minutes…oh shit, rush around, where’s my brain, who the hell knows, maybe in my toe…

It’s OK…trying to deal with a persistent cyst thing. Just can’t get it wet for two days, which is kinda gross, because it’s covered in blood and betadine. MMMM. Lovely. Friend is showing up in minutes and I need to find a bra. I hate bras. Seriously not sure the world is ready for my never wearing one though.

While waiting for the water heater installation yesterday, we were cleaning the girlchild’s room and found these. Tossed the wine. It was vinegar. That vodka is mine though.

For making penne alla vodka. Apparently I was supposed to just be cleaning MY shit out of the room…not finding her secret stash. Well then. She’ll be 21 on Thursday. She can come get the alcohol out of the cabinet. (She’ll be here soon.)

I ironed a little bit in the afternoon before the foot procedure…got her heart and lungs in.

And did the tattered American flag. We feel tattered, don’t we? Not because we need America to be great again…but because the person(s) trying to make it great have a seriously idiotic and skewed view of what great is. Racist, misogynist, sexist, zenophobic, and generally ignorant and insane.

This is the house of lizards and geckos, by the way. Lots of them. This is a baby.

It’s been so hot and muggy this summer. The dogs really suffer. We put them in the pool about once a day. Calli likes it. Simba doesn’t.

Calli fetches pine cones.

Back to ironing? Hands in place.

Doing the face separately…just to get the eye right…

That fabric makes it look like there’s an eye right where there’s supposed to be an eye. Then face in place. There is a world in her viewpoint. I ironed it on later. Basically, here I’m done with the bottom section. So I pulled it off the teflon and rolled it up.

Then started on what’s behind that section.

It’s too big to do it all at once. I didn’t get much done yesterday. And I have a friend visiting for three days. I’m hoping to get a little bit done each night, but we’ll see. I’m freaking out on time. As always. I probably said the same thing yesterday. Gotta find that bra.

*Carl Carlton, She’s a Bad Mama Jama

I Needed to Be Further Along…

Not only did I manage to put everything back into place in the studio/office, but I also managed to start ironing the quilt together. Hey now, there’s the fun part. I did almost 5 hours yesterday, all after 5 PM.

First of all, can you find the cat? No, I’m not sure why that post-it is there. There’s another one on the other side. Presumably to remind me how to do things.

Notice that the O is missing…about half my keys are rubbed off. It makes it hard for other people to type on my computer. I guess that’s a good thing. I should probably get a new keyboard. Eh.

So late afternoon sun is kind of a pain in the butt in here. Plus yesterday there was like no air flow in here in the evening. I even manhandled the sliding glass door open. I need a new screen door and honestly? A slider on a remote control. That would be freaking awesome. OK, so I went and Googled that and apparently you can get an automatic sliding door thing that works on a motion sensor at your dog’s height. But the raccoons can open it too. Hmmmm. Rethinking. Anyway, when I have ALL the MONEYZ, I will retrofit this room. Meanwhile, it’s hot in here. But honestly? I’m ironing. In the heat of summer. Just like every year. Damn stupid.

So this drawing is huge…falls over all the sides of the ironing board. (Notice the cat is still there.)

Ironing went fast. Not easy, because it’s big. Plus there were some weird things going on.

But not here. Here was pretty easy. I especially like my tiny plastic gyre.

Then it got a little more complicated. I have three different ironing sheets on the drawing here…two big ones and one smaller one for the one wave that had to be tall. There was one piece that was numbered wrong and another piece that got cut and ironed twice. Good brain.

At this point, all the ocean stuff is done, except for the mermaid. Yes, I’m binge-watching Scandal. It’s appropriately interesting and unbelievable. Yes, I am keeping a glass of water on the ironing board. Did I mention that it’s hot? At this point, it’s dark and I have to turn the lights on. Unfortunately. (There’s still a cat.)

OK, started the mermaid…I actually got farther than that. There should be another picture. Hang on.

Found it. I quit at the fingers and the heart/lungs combo, because I knew they’d be complicated and it was already well after midnight. So finishing the rest of her today, and then I’ll probably pull this off the teflon sheets and start ironing the bits above the water.

I’m getting a new water heater today (yay!) plus having a weird foot procedure done, so I don’t have the whole day to iron, but I probably have more time than I will for the next three days. I have a friend visiting, so ironing time will be limited, unfortunately, because it would be nice to have this done before leaving for Arrowhead. Oh yeah, and I need to clean the girlchild’s room. Aack. And get ready for school. Double Aack. I needed to be further along. As always. What’s new?

Managing All the Things*

OK. So meditation helps (duh). I managed to stop working last night around 12:15 AM and then meditated (it was hard…my brain was all over the map and trying to fly into space) for 20 minutes. I didn’t fall asleep immediately, but I did much better than I have been. So there’s hope. Still working on it.

Girlchild is worried that her room is not going to get clean by the time she gets home. And she should be! Because I have a ton of stuff shoved in there. But it will get done. Sometime. Mostly it’s sewing stuff that I don’t know how to store or process. I started back in June and then it was HARD. So I quit. Really mature of me. So that’s on the list. So is mailing stuff that needs to get out of here, trimming that damn bougainvillea, finishing this quilt, copyediting, and regular exercise. I had my blood tested yesterday (double poke, thanks to a phlebotomist who was scared of my tiny veins) and my A1C is not better with the new meds, so my doc freaked out, but I read that it takes 6-7 weeks for the meds to kick in…and I’ve only been taking them for 3 weeks because it took me so long to get to the damn educator to show me how to use them. So I think her freak-out is unwarranted, but it means more appointments and panicking, which honestly doesn’t help ME sleep. So there’s that. I’ll talk her down off the ceiling on Monday.

The to-do list grows overnight.

But where am I on the quilt? Yay! Progress to the next step! Hallelujah! This is what a cat looks like when I iron it, by the way…in fact, it’s THAT cat…the one in the very back of the picture.

She’s in so many of my quilts. We thought we lost her yesterday…it took 30 minutes to find her new hiding place. She made a cave in my office. In fabric. With a Rubbermaid box as her roof. She got out a few years ago and disappeared for about 24 hours…completely freaked me out and depressed me. So even the boychild was walking around with a flashlight to find her. This morning? She brought me a wool sock. Usually she comes when she’s called and yesterday she didn’t. So I’m glad that turned out OK.

So then, after 27 hours of ironing things down (oh yeah), I had to organize them. I always have to organize them.

There are 192 fabrics (that’s a lot for me) in this quilt. There they all are. The flesh tones run through the pinks and peaches into the browns. The hair runs through the browns into the blacks and then the reds.

It’s a huge pile of stuff to be cut out. But I want it done this week. So if I look back at other quilts to try to estimate time, it’s hard to find a comparable piece, because it took A LOT of hours to iron to fabric because of all the different runs I had to do of flesh colors, but I don’t think it’s any different for cutting…so I’m guessing 15 hours. And I did 3 last night…

The last big quilt took only 19 hours to iron but 17 hours to cut out. I just looked back though and it only had 1350 pieces…so maybe I need to up my hours. Damn. OK. So let’s say 20 hours…17 to go.

Yikes! Things to be cut out on the left, trash on the top right, cut-out pieces on the bottom right. I have two meetings tomorrow, so plenty of cutting out can be done at those. I am starting the copyediting today, but I need to eat and take meds and I was gonna go to the gym, damn. Life just ups in your face sometimes. It’s August and officially I can think about school now. Like I haven’t been thinking about school all summer. I fucking sucked at removing school from my brain this summer. Oh well…on to managing all the things. Oh yeah, supposed to think positively…I AM THOUGH. I finished a task. A BIG TASK. Done. Awesome. On to the next.

Instead I Pour the Milk*

Still no sleep. It doesn’t help that I don’t think about solutions to not sleeping until 1:23 AM. Honestly, I should have just gotten back out of bed and gone and meditated and then come back. Worst case it wouldn’t have shut the brain up and I still would’ve been awake around 3. It’s only around 3 that I remember all the things that help. If I’d done them earlier. So hiking 3 miles at 3 AM is not a plan. Although it would be cooler out.

No. I’m not done ironing. What happened? Ugh. The day happened.

I’m so freakin’ close! Actually should have just stayed up last night and ironed until I was done…except I was tired. Not good to choose fabrics when you’re tired.

So one thing I did yesterday was this flyer…

I’m doing GISH again, the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt. My whole team is not in San Diego…and only one of them is not a newbie. We will not win. I don’t care. I drew the flyer, posted it on Insta (which is why I think it’s OK to post it here…I can’t post the other stuff until the thing is fully judged, which is ages away). It’s basically a week of doing weird things. My goal is one a day. I drew this two days ago, and then posted it in a nearby Starbucks, and then went and found 3 other flyers and pulled tabs to prove I’d completed the task. Then last night, I drew my Mind Palace. Piece of cake. You’ll have to wait to see it.

I did other things, including cooking, but then I finally ironed a bit. Not a lot. The heat is hard. This is the last female figure though…the darks are not up against the background, but I realized her hair will have to be. So I’m considering another cloud to make that work.

Last-minute clouds.

Kitten slept through the whole mess.

So at 12:30 AM, this is what was left. It doesn’t look like much (it’s not), but mentally it was more than I could handle. Lungs, heart, hair, cat, dick pic.

I have this pile of stuff I’ve been using…

Plus all these…

And here’s the box, oh so full. I should be cutting out sometime today.

Really, there’s so few pieces left. Oh damn…another set of leaves…forgot about them.

I’m at 25 hours, so I wasn’t that far off in my estimate. I have no jury duty today, but I have to call again tonight. Sigh.

Before I can iron, I need to go to the chiropractor (ah yes) and get my blood tested. Pretty sure it’s too early in the new diabetes medicine for anything to have changed. So she’s gonna wanna see me again relatively soon. Sigh. Everything has taken so long this summer, and tomorrow is when I start worrying about school officially. Although we did a lot of it already. I just need to rework my warmup process. That’s a big thing. Plus I really need to copyedit this thing I’ve got. And trim the damn bougainvillea. Boychild and I have a plan for that, but it can only happen in the late afternoon. I can’t deal with the heat. Stupid Northern Euro biology. Heat kills us.

Progress though. It’s all about progress.

*Suzanne Vega, Tom’s Diner

It’s No Better to Be Safe Than Sorry*

This summer, the heat is really getting to me. I don’t have a lot of extra money in general…even less so during the summer…but I’m sort of currently obsessed with installing A/C in my office for NEXT summer…and maybe the bedroom as well. Although I think my lack of sleep is more about noise (of the ceiling fan) and my brain not shutting down properly than about temperature…so A/C in there won’t help. It’s hard to say. I’m currently fighting heat rash on the inside of my elbows from ironing…I think if I could get my sliding glass door to open in here, that would help at night. I’m ironing more at night because (in general) it’s cooler. It’s at least dark. Sometimes there’s a breeze. So today, my plan is to get the sliding door to open and to finish the ironing. Then I go on to cutting things out…and YES, I’m a good three days behind where I wanted to be, but that’s reality, so you just suck it up and move on. I have no jury duty today, but there’s no guarantees on the rest of the week, and after this week, things get hinky. Sigh.

Anyway, I did manage just about 7 hours of ironing over the weekend…not great, but progress. My total is currently almost 22 hours, so maybe I will finish at about 25 hours. Hard to say at this point.

So let’s walk through the weekend. I entered another show on Saturday morning and did some techy stuff to help with that group. Kitten helped.

Calli also helped. She’s especially helpful when I’m trying to walk across this small room to get to the drawers of blue fabrics. Usually she leaves after I do that a few times.

More sleepy Kitten. She’ll be 10 in two weeks.

So the first thing I needed to do was pick the fabrics for the hill behind everything. I did finally decide on greens (no florals though)…and I dumped the last one…the lightest one…because it was too busy. I found another interim one and bumped the second-to-last one down.

I really like that fabric, but busy isn’t good for backgrounds…usually.

This is a lot of fabrics for what was two tiny figures on the hill.

I’m having to pull a different flesh run for every body…in this case, only a hand. It means I’m using a lot more fabrics than usual.

This was the pile before we left on Saturday for the man’s show…

And this is the to-be-cut pile. Growing growing growing.

Interesting wall near the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. I really like this wall…wish I could afford to put one in my yard.

So we had to be up there early so the band could set up, but I wasn’t allowed in (no problem)…so I found a coffee shop and drew. I have a piece that needs to be done by the end of October.

This drawing is pretty close actually. There’s some things I would change.

I ate and read my book and then walked back to the show…this wall was on the way.

No doubt about that.

Announcement board…

Here’s that drawing so far. Tree needs stuff. I think the whole thing needs more space. Not sure about the bottom leg.

In the Belly Up, we had an hour wait for the opening act…so I drew some more.

And another one…

The show was great…they did well. Hopefully it will turn into more shows for them. I don’t get to see all of the shows…the next two are high school reunions, so those are harder for me to get into (I do crash some things). I guess that means more artmaking time. On a Saturday night. Ugh. I do like to make myself get out of the house and do stuff, but sometimes, making art is easier.

So I started ironing late on Sunday. Got up late, did a bunch of stuff, groceries and all. This is the run for the next human…a light one.

I had to move 3 of the now 5 boxes of fabrics being used in this quilt so I had enough room on the ironing board…it’s the three smaller boxes on top of the grays. I’m still pulling from those boxes.

One of the fabrics I picked had a piece ironed to it…from I DON’T KNOW WHAT. Seriously. I obviously forgot about it, and probably had to cut it from something, but it’s a very low number. Strange. Maybe that small quilt with the hand?

Kitten is still holding down the fort. She likes to be near me, but isn’t keen on being out in the living room. This feels safer for her.

At some point, I looked at the clock and went Huh. OK. Well past bedtime. Wide awake, brain racing along, but I knew I’d have to pee both dogs and I’d be woken up at 6 AM and you’d think I could fall asleep that late, but no…my brain was going overtime on the next figure and how to make it stand out from the background. Sigh. I need to get the brain under control before school starts.

So the pile grows.

More today. I think I’m in the 1400s at the moment. I lied. I’m in the 1500s…about halfway through, but a huge chunk of that is leaves, so they’re all chunked together and will get ironed in one fell swoop. So I have about 350 pieces left. Easy peasy.

I did some Palestrina knots on the hippo last night at the parentals…

Almost done. OK, need a shower, some food, finish ironing, do some GISH stuff (google it), wash a sleeping bag, try to clean a tent that was immersed in Madagascar mud (yup, it’s been a while), and maybe check some other stuff off the to-do list. Running out of days. I start looking at school stuff August 1. I need to put my classroom back together too. Ugh. Don’t wanna.

*a-ha, Take on Me

I Know You Can Make It Good*

Hey world. It’s a Saturday morning. Looks a lot like all the other mornings except one of the household is still asleep. What have I done so far today? Perused the GISH list (google it…too late to enter) and decided on a few things I might be able to do today, transferred money so my mortgage payment won’t bounce (ah, the month with no paycheck), balanced the kid money output, and ordered about 250 folders for school…which will show up just in time and end up on the NEXT credit card bill, which I might actually be able to pay, because I will have a paycheck. Oh wait, I did get paid for that one day of jury duty…not covering the mortgage or the folder order. I’m not off the hook for jury duty either…I don’t have any duty Monday, but they didn’t release me from the whole week this time, so who knows. I’m hoping it’s a no go next week, because I don’t have time for it, but I don’t get to decide those things.

I know, really, all I’m doing is running errands, planning for school, and MAKING ART. Not really civic duty. Should be ready to serve. Blah. Pros: doing my duty. Air conditioned. Cons: the rest of it.

Tonight I’ll be watching the man at his first ever show at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach…he’s very excited. I think it’s cool, having seen a lot of amazing music there. I do have to be there 2 hours before the doors open, though, so you can find me in a local bar with my sketchbook, trying to draw the next piece and finish some GISH stuff if my brain can get there. I should find some food while I’m doing that. My requirements for a drawing bar? Food, wine (not just beer or cocktails), and a big enough table that I can draw on, or prop the sketchbook on, without people staring too rabidly at me (well, that’s a thing). So I have a couple of choices…none of their Yelp reviews tell me if I will get what I want, although I already pulled two off the list for no seats or not enough space. We’ll see.

Ironing yesterday was a total fail. By the time I cleaned up and ate and bought cat food, I only got in about 3 hours before I had to leave for gaming…I did stitch at gaming though…

I got the sun done and started working on the hippo. Almost done with this month…this month being July 2015, just to be clear.

It’s taking forever though. But gaming ran late. I thought I might be able to get in an hour or two, but was too tired and went to bed. Today is also going to be a little like that…oh well. Goals shattered. What’s new?

Here’s the heart of one of the female figures.

And I took this picture of the piles before I left for gaming, sure I would come back and straighten them up for the next batch of pieces (I didn’t).

And the box so far. Yesterday, I ironed graffiti, two walls, some bits and pieces on one woman…and that’s it. I’m just under 1100 pieces done. So almost 800 to go. Sigh. I wanted to be further along by now.

Oh well. Today? More pieces. Goal? I have to leave in 6 hours. I need to shower and eat at least twice in that time period…so that’s a lost hour, plus pack up stuff. It would be realistic to say I could get 4 hours done today. I won’t be done…but I’ll be more done than I was yesterday.

All the animals today…Kitten in her safe spot (she leaves this spot when I’m gone…).

Satchemo trying out the sink. Kitten does it, so why shouldn’t he?

Simba with his sad face on.

Calli after her first dunk in the pool (she had two)…

Poor old lady. The dog, not me. My feet hurt and my hips were bugging me last night (just a sign I need to walk more often). I couldn’t fall asleep last night…I remember 3 AM. I’m a little groggy this morning, but that’s why I drink tea. Got more milk yesterday so I can keep doing that. Looking forward to some drawing time tonight, some significant ironing progress today, and watching the band play. Sounds like a good Saturday.

*Peter Gabriel, Don’t Give Up

Sat by the River and It Made Me Complete*

So I just realized it’s Friday. And I go back to school in 3 weeks. I’m not ready. I never am. It’s not that I don’t like my job…I actually do like my job. I’d rather do my job than a million other jobs. It’s the time commitment. Every summer, I read a hundred articles about how to be a more efficient teacher, to spend less time grading and more time connecting. Last year sucked for that. I need to do better at that this year. It’s not the kids who are amazing or even not so amazing but will actually respond when you work with them…it’s the ones that refuse to do anything even after you’ve used everything in your teacher toolbox to entice them to actually turn something in. Those are the ones who suck it out of me. I spend so much mental energy on them. There were a lot of those last year. After 15 years of teaching, I still don’t have the magic solution to those kids. Frustrating.

But I have three weeks before I have to start dealing with all that. Three weeks when there is no way in hell I won’t know what day it is. So I should use that time wisely. Making art, really. OK, I have a copyediting job too and a bunch of house and yard stuff I haven’t even touched. As always. I still have one more week of jury duty call-in. I don’t think I’ll get called, but you never know.

On my mind today? The over 700 kids who couldn’t be reunited with their families…due to some mealy-mouthed crap from the government that really didn’t plan this shit out in the first place. So some of these kids have now experienced significant trauma that might continue for the rest of their lives. Thanks Repubs. Appreciated. You know they train teachers in trauma now? How to deal with trauma, shooters, abuse…fun stuff. Is it the government’s place to cause more trauma? I would hope we would be on the side of alleviating it instead of creating it.

So my original goal this week was to iron 6-8 hours a day and hopefully be done today. Ha! OK, so not going to be done today. Maybe tomorrow? But doubtful. I did iron almost 7 hours yesterday…I have almost 13 hours in…so about halfway in the guesstimated time, but no way am I halfway through the pieces. I’m in the 800s, but there are a bunch that aren’t ironed from the last woman.

I totally forget to photograph stuff while I’m ironing to fabrics…it’s just piles of stuff. Oh yeah, I walked the dog when it got cooler too. The other dog went with the boychild to his dad’s house. But this one needed exercise and I keep forgetting to do it.

It’s good for me too. Although my foot is really sore this morning. Damn foot.

Here’s the run for the third woman I ironed last night.

Usually there’s maybe 2 humans in a quilt…this one has 9 I think. Not counting the baby. The mermaid earth mother was purple and green. Then two shadow women were gray. One has a baby, also gray. Then the woman in the water, sort of pinky purple, black hair, green eyes. I looked at the other people and tried to decide how I would do each of them. I didn’t draw them originally with particular races or genetic traits in mind…well, except for one of them. I just want a range of womanity. So the next woman I ironed is the browns on the left of the picture below. I kept them out, because the hill behind her was going to be brown as well, but I have just now, right this second, questioned that. Why brown? Why not green and florals? Seriously? Some of what goes on in my head is contrast…how to make the figures pop. But this is a really busy quilt and maybe it’s less about the figures popping on what’s behind them and more about the overall look? I’m not sure. I color these in my head as I pick stuff…so it’s recoloring right now as I type this. I think it’ll be a while (hours?) before I get to the hill behind her, so maybe I’ll change my mind. Or not.

I’m going to have an issue with one of the women on the top of the hill, to make sure she shows up on the background. We’ll see. That’s 900 pieces away, I think.

This is all the fabrics I’ve used so far…plus the box of all the ironed pieces.

That is not a small number of pieces. This thing is big.

Not thinking about school. I’ll get some official email next week about school stuff. Even then, I planned ahead. I do have to put my classroom back together, but I’m pretty sure it’s not done yet (the floors need 6 coats). So I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do that. August 10th? Maybe. Hopefully.

Today? I’m not going to get 7 hours of ironing in. But maybe 5? That’ll be my goal. Another 5 tomorrow? I still don’t think that will be enough. Hmmm. Well, I’m progressing, so that’s good.

*Keane, Somewhere Only We Know

Every Day Should Have Art

I woke up to 49 texts between the kids about Vitamin B12 and some weird gourd plant. There are worse things.

Still working on the list. Things take time. My brain takes time. I had limited artmaking time yesterday…much like today. So I got right on the making part of it…

These are two small quilts that will be in boxes for a wall exhibit this fall. This one has only 30 pieces in it.

And it took less than an hour (just) to iron together. Most of that time was actually cutting out the little tiny pieces, because I’ve learned not to cut those out until I’m about to iron them…they just disappear.

And this one has 90 pieces. I lost two leaves and about four of the leaf stems. I don’t know how. It happens. This one took just over an hour to iron together.

I like it though.

Today they can be stitched down, maybe…I want to sew the other binding down first. I hate changing thread and machine feet, so I just try to get everything done that needs to be before I change. So binding first and then stitch down.

Meanwhile, I need to finish weaving, sew a binding by hand (well two, really, but one isn’t crucial), and then embroider a bunch of balls. Plus finish that damn drawing so I can start tracing. So I might finish it before the end of August. A plan!

Yesterday, we celebrated the man’s birthday with a history and wine tour of San Diego’s Little Italy. It was nice. It was more wine than history, but that was the plan all along.

We hadn’t been down there for about a year or more, since the last Artwalk we went to (not sure what year that was…not this one), and there were some significant changes. It’s a nice area for eating and walking. I think they’re doing more to make it that way.

We were at an art opening last year down here, but I don’t think we walked around much. There’s a whole new fountain and plaza. Here’s the neighborhood sign and accompanying mosaic…of TUNA. Lots of tuna emphasis.

We had a nice time…although were mostly useless for the rest of the night. I seriously don’t know what I did…spaced out, watched music videos, read articles. Didn’t make art. That shit happens. That’s part of why I write so much…it reminds me to make work, make more work, don’t just space out all the time. I suspect that’s always good advice.

Today is full of parents and food and groceries. And art. Every day should have art.

Beat Me Up with Your Letters*

Late post today…wish it was from sleeping in and relaxing, but I’ve been up for hours. Took one car into the shop…I’m tired of the driver window not working. Then drove to pick up another quilt…well, quilts, because some little ones were in their shop for the last year, and they just gave back the three that hadn’t sold…so those are back on Etsy. I’m never sure Etsy is working very hard for me, but since I sell about one small quilt a year on there and the expenses are much less than that, it can’t hurt. I don’t work very hard at my Etsy account though. None of the larger quilts are on there. They’re too expensive for that market, I think…and I suspect even some of the smaller ones might be too. Probably most of my stuff is too weird for Etsy too.

Anyway, I also bought the binding fabrics for the two quilts that are now ready, because Yes! I finished quilting the long skinny one yesterday. I finally managed to sit still for like 3 1/2 hours (it’s been hard folks) to finish. Here’s the heart and boobs…

The whole thing stretched out over my chair…

Did the face…the pin is another place I forgot to stitch down. Done now.

And then I went right into quilting the background…there wasn’t much of it.

So there’s two ready to be trimmed and bound. Maybe later today? I have a lot going on today.

Then I realized I had quilt class today and nothing really to work on. I have a bag I could finish, but I’m missing some materials and haven’t had (made) the time to get those. So that’s out. I could take the binding with me, but I’d have to take all my stuff with me to do that, and it’s too much to deal with. So I remembered those two little quilts…last week at class I trimmed the Wonder Under. So I spent about an hour and a half last night ironing it to fabrics…I think this more complicated one has about 23 fabrics in it (but 90 pieces).

I am keeping track of time on these, so they’ll be for sale after they’ve been in the exhibit they’re getting made for…so December maybe? I can’t remember when the exhibit closes. It’s a California Fibers’ exhibit at Soka University in Orange County. I have four larger pieces in the exhibit, and then these two small ones will be part of a wall display our whole group is making. It should be cool.

I just used the same flesh fabrics from the quilt I just finished. It was easier. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on these.

The second piece only has 30 pieces, so it will be quicker to get done.

I may have underestimated my time with thinking I could finish them in a couple of hours. It’s going to be a bit longer than that. But now I can take them to class with me and get them cut out. That’s a step in the right direction.

So I didn’t get time to draw last night, because I was doing those. Plus I had book club last night. It was an interesting conversation about The Power by Naomi Alderman, especially in light of watching the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale and dealing with politics over the last few months. We spent a lot of time talking about social implications and nature v. nurture…always interesting. My book club is sci fi and fantasy based, so we do spend a lot of time on the science of things, which I really enjoy. I used to review the books I was reading on here pretty regularly. Honestly, I’ve spent most of the last 5 months reading the Expanse series…I have one novella left, and then I’m totally caught up until the new one comes out in December. I’ve really enjoyed the stories but also the portrayal of women in this series, which seems to be a bigger issue for me now that I’m old and mostly invisible. I read one of Philip K. Dick’s books, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and spent the first three chapters just chafing at his women. Sigh. It makes it harder to read…and watch, honestly, when they turn them into movies. Maybe I’ll try to write more about what I’m reading here. Again.

Anyway, so getting some more stuff done today, although probably more hobby stuff than art stuff. That’s OK. There’s progress…that’s all I need.

*Squeeze, Is That Love?