‘Cause She’s Gone, Gone, Gone, Gone, Gone…*

I didn’t start ironing until late…after 8 PM. But I still did almost 4 hours last night…they were almost 4 very slow hours, though…lots of small fussy pieces. I started with this crazy peach/hand tree…

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It’s hard to see the hands because the teflon sheet I’m ironing on is white…the background will be a darker blue, though, so it will be clear.

Puppies who will miss all the kids around…

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And then I started on the skeleton…more tiny fussy pieces. Again, this will be on a darker background…

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The skeleton took a good long time to put together. It also has about 150 pieces in it.

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I accidentally touched the side of the iron…more than once, actually. This is the worst of the burns.

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Whoops. You should see my scissors callous.

Now looking at this picture, I think the right side needs a scapula…just a little bit of it under her armpit. Damn. OK. I’ll figure that out later today. I have to go to school and feed a cat and do a bunch of other shit.

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Then I can add a scapula.

I didn’t do yesterday’s one stitch until this morning while I was waiting for the cheese to melt. It’s the stars at the bottom. I had to move the hoop again. I’m going to need to find my spring hoops. They’re in the house somewhere.

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Worst part about yesterday was taking girlchild to the airport. That is her luggage at the top of the stairs. I thought she was following me, but she went back inside to hug the dogs again.

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These guys. Who miss her too.

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Can’t think too much about the part where I’m living alone again. At least I’ll know where the scissors are. And who got that dish dirty. The rest of it just sucks.

*John Mayer, Dreaming with a Broken Heart

Don’t Matter What I Do*

I’m sitting here in my office/studio watching leaves drop from the trees outside my window. I think they’re Ash trees, maybe Green Ash. It doesn’t really matter, though. They are still dropping leaves for fall or winter, yet there are new buds and leaves popping out all over. My previous neighbor thought they were dead every winter, but they are in fact deciduous. And today they are confused. Southern California weather does that to trees. Any water and the slightest bit of sun and warmth and new growth pops out everywhere. And then we’re back to 40 degrees at night and they’re confuzzled.

I suspect I will have to leave before I finish writing this, and in fact, I might not finish until this afternoon. It’s a busy day in the car. I have to drop the girlchild at the airport…she’s going back to school. Then visit a cat left home by himself. I should probably feed and pet him as well. Then lunch out to discuss a show I’m working on with other people. (Do I have a drawing for that yet? No I do not. It is third in line.) Then groceries and I don’t know what. I have a list of things I need the boychild to help me with before he leaves, so I don’t have to be the lifter on everything. Plus grades. Plus ironing.

Yesterday though I think I did mostly ironing. Over 7 hours of it, to be specific. It was nice…my mood’s been low, so it was good to let art brain have time to just do its thing. It’s meditation. It’s calming. It’s productive. These are all good things.

So sometimes I trim pieces in other places, like Barnes and Noble’s Starbucks or people’s houses or cars. These two pieces were in a house and were delivered to me Friday…good thing, because I’ll need them today probably.

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Kitten is eyeing the pieces. She likes to try to sneak over and sit on them, and then the little ones get caught in her butt fur and I lose them that way. She mostly listens when I tell her not to do that, but if I’m leaving them for more than about 5 minutes, I always cover them with the other boxes of pieces. Sometimes she sits in those too, though, so it’s kind of a crapshoot whether I’ll find all the pieces I originally had.

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The whole bottom third of the quilt (or so) is a stove. I was going to write that I’d never put a stove in a quilt before, but that’s not true. It’s been a long time though. No Domestic Tranquility from 2004…

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That was a much simpler stove…

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Most of my quilts were much simpler in those days. I’m not sure what that green thing on the right side is. Maybe it’s corn? Who knows.

So I put a death angel from a gravestone in my stove door…like you do. I’m sure it has a better name than that…in fact, I looked it up at one point, but maybe it was winged skull. That’s pretty descriptive. Anyway. If anyone completely ignores my non-burial instructions, maybe I’ll get one of those (I’d really rather not be buried personally…waste of good land).

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My stove has feminist slogans on it. Doesn’t yours? They’re subtle, but they’ll be less so when I outline everything in a dark thread.

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Then I took a break and went to an art event that was supposed to be focused on women (and it mostly was)…a mural by Panca.

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I watched her paint for a bit, but I think she was mostly done at this point. There were three other muralists painting, but two were men (so much for the Femme Fest part of it…although who knows). These two were already done, either earlier in the day or at a previous event.

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The yard was pretty muddy…but I like watching street artists paint anyway.

I came back to this. No, it’s not on.

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But it was soon after…

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I took a break in the middle to do my one stitch of the day, which was the yellow of the herringbone and the french knots in the blue flowers. I do it more by the length of thread…finish it.

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So I guess I’m really doing one thread a day.

Then I went back to ironing…

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Stove tops…are a little more complicated.

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I did over 7 hours of ironing yesterday…

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I’ll be lucky to get 3 or 4 hours in today unfortunately. Oh well. It’s a good start. You can see the cat-shaped space in there. It was easier to iron it separately and then put it on top as a whole piece.

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So there’s the stove top done. I have one more side of it…

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Which I didn’t start last night because it was already 1 AM and I knew I had to get up to drive the girlchild to the airport. I got into the 500s though. So that was good for one day. I’d really like the whole thing ironed by the end of the long weekend, but I don’t know if I can pull that off. We’ll see.

And the girlchild’s plane just took off. So there we are.

*The Style Council, Long Hot Summer

At Citibank We Will Meet Accidentally*

Back to school sort of this morning. Need to set up the classroom and do another training. Hopefully this one will actually have something I don’t already know. I’m never ready to go back. I always need more time. Such is the way of these breaks…we spend so much time grading or prepping anyway, or doing all the stuff we can’t get done when school’s in session. It’s hard to go back.

Anyway, the good news is that I finally finished ironing down all the fabrics for this quilt. It felt like it took forever…almost 25 hours when there’s only 1400 pieces? But then I figured out part of it yesterday…148 fabrics. That’s a lot…although looking at this, it’s a lot of grays and variations on white.

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The next stage requires a decent pair of scissors (always an issue for me…so many of them are very stiff, so they don’t work well) and a lot of time on the couch. Maybe 20 hours or so on the couch. OK.

Here’s the boxful of pieces…

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I wasn’t kidding about the full part.

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I should be working on that later tonight. Training, then hanging out with long-time friend. But the girlchild’s plane doesn’t come in ’til late tonight, so hopefully I’ll have some time to trim. When might I be done? Sometime next week. My three-day weekend just got full of ironing stuff down if I can get done trimming in time.

Yesterday during the day, the boychild and I did a ton of work…installed one rain barrel, although we still need some help attaching the gutter back to the wall…

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Noticed this problematic situation…don’t know when that happened.

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Took this wee beastie to the vet and then had to shampoo her with special stuff and sing songs to her for 10 minutes while it sunk in.

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Someone should redo my bathroom (ha! and the rest of the house…can’t keep up with any of it). We also did a ton of yardwork, pulling stuff down and out. Filled the two trashcans we had and left the rest in the driveway, pushed to the side, for next week. Spread all the extra leaves from the side of the house on the weeds in the front yard. Still one water barrel to install and a few more branches and volunteer trees to take out. I don’t know when that’s happening…after school (in the dark?) sometimes next week? Who knows.

So many things I’d like to get done over break that I didn’t get to. Organizing, cleaning, tossing. But my focus is on trying to get quilts done at this point…and survive work…and take care of the animals…and myself. Doing the best I can right now. It’s not great, but it’s what I can do.

*Cake, Short Skirt/Long Jacket

It’s Where My Demons Hide*

I keep thinking I’m going to get done with the ironing, but it’s taking a long time to get through the last of the fussy little pieces. So even though I ironed for almost 4 hours yesterday, I’m still about 100-150 pieces short of done. They need to be done today. Of course, today is full of other crap, as is the next day and the next day. Aargh. One assignment has still not been graded (oh well…it will get done eventually)…I need to find time to draw. I need to get this quilt to the next stage.

I couldn’t find piece 1103 for a while…turns out I thought it was piece 1193 instead and ironed it to the wrong reddish fabric. So I retraced it for the right fabric, and found 1193 and ironed it onto the red fabric. Silly stuff like that is why I’m almost 22 hours in to the ironing. That’s a lot for a 1400-piece quilt.

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I had a lasagne interlude and then some companionable TV watching…so I did my one stitch for the day, a whipped something or other. I should be better about documenting, but I can’t be I guess.

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Then back to the ironing with the cat. Hi Kitten…

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The fabric pile was getting seriously out of control…if it takes me 5 minutes to find the one yellow I know I already used in the quilt and want to use again? Then that’s wasted time…

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So I stopped and organized. That’s a lot of fabrics. This is part of why it’s taking so long. It took a run of 6 greens to make the small intestines, another 6 of browns for the large intestines.

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Complicated as shit. Anyway, all the innards are now ironed down and I’m on to the head…in fact, I just have the head and the two heads in the cloud left. Even the cloud is picked out (you can see it lying largely on top).

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So that’s good. But today is already designated yardwork and rain barrel day, so it’s gotta get done. Seriously, because the kids are gone in a week and a half, and then I’m back to no help at all. So much as I hate walking away from the quilt at the moment (especially with the deadlines crowding my brain, I need to get out there and hook this shit up.

*Imagine Dragons, Demons

Another Nail for My Heart*

Hello 2017…you came in half-assed and with a scary hug from a stranger in a sparkly bodysuit (weirder things have happened to me, honestly)…there are some things to look forward to this year, and some things that terrify me. I don’t have any resolutions that are new, just bolstering old ones. I didn’t pick a word for the year, but if I did, it would be loud and protesting and feminist and activist (not those words in particular, but some one word that incorporated all of that). I turn 50 this year, full-on cronedom here I am, ready and willing to kick ass. My doc brought it up for my next checkup, and I was like, yeah, yup, bring it, I’m here. I can do this. No fear. Stress? Sure. No fear.

Looking back at art in 2016, I made 11 things I consider art…10 quilts (although one is still not wall-ready) and 1 nightstand. There’s definitely some things they have in common: lots of dark blue, lots of staring-you-in-the-face…which makes sense. One commissioned piece, another already sold, although it’s touring for another two years. Five of them have been in shows already and one is committed to another show in Sweden. Not bad.

I had more quilts last year, but a lot of them were small. May 2017 bring more work! More sales would be nice too, but honestly, it’s not why I make it. I make it because I have to…because to stop listening to the artbrain would make me ill. And I want to be as healthy as I can be.

I ironed yesterday…I kept thinking I was close, real close, to ironing the body parts, but no. I’m not. I spent about 4 hours ironing and then got to the skeleton. Looked at the clock. Nope. No time to do all that in one go. Not before I had to be somewhere. So I stopped. Here’s some stove parts…not the rings themselves, but the silvery bits around them.

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I was ironing while watching the second season of The Man in the High Castle…too close for comfort, I think. Hard to watch.

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Here was the layout just for one of the two cats in the piece…

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I pick one thing and then choose all the fabrics for that one thing at a time. So next is the skeleton…which has quite a few parts…seen mostly below…

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With the box of already-ironed parts. I have almost 11 hours into the ironing so far. I wish I were further along. But I’m not.

I had a monster of a pile going, fabrics that I’d used so far. I keep them all together until the quilt is done…

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While I’m ironing, so I can reuse certain colors and patterns throughout the quilt, and after, in case I lose a piece, so I don’t have to go searching through my entire stash looking for that one grey I used in a tiny piece. I have learned some lessons over the years.

I did organize them before I left…not by color, but at least in boxes.

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See? Colors. Still a lot of greys though.

Then it was out for NYE. I’m with the band. I wasn’t really in the mood to be out with a bunch of strangers though, so mostly I watched…tapped my toes a bit. Sang along a little.

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And drew. This one…there’s a more complicated version in my head, but harking back to the nuclear bomb drills of the 80s. That shit is still in my head.

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And then a pre-drawing for the next piece in my solo show…not quite what I want, but it’s getting somewhere.

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And somewhere is all it has to go right now. I have some drawing I have to do in the next few days…I do have one week left before school, but it’s a crazy week. Lots to do in very little time. So panic sets in. As always. Nothing new there.

*Squeeze, Another Nail in My Heart

I Can’t Sleep ‘Cause My Bed’s on Fire*

It’s cold and wet again today, like most of your winters…last year, at this time, we were looking at 3+ inches of rain coming in just one storm…so this little piddly pissing of water is nothing really. We need more. We’re just over 4″ for the year (July to July), so although that’s more than some years, it’s still drought level. So although it’s gloomy and cold here, I’m trying to consider the benefit to my landscaping and my water bill. Plus it helps me appreciate the warm days.

Until then, it’s a sweatshirt and flannel and even the damn socks aren’t keeping my feet warm. And now my knees are wet, because I finally went out and unclogged all the pool equipment…3000 leaves and pine needles. I think the pool guy is on vacation this week.

So I spent a good chunk of yesterday trying to deal with college financial aid…it’s earlier this year, but the plus is it uses the previous year’s tax info, so I didn’t have to do all that first. This year, I can relax a bit (well not really, because that’s how I pay for the next batch of college payments…with the tax refund). And I did run a few errands…but then ironed a bit here and a bit there, getting another 3 hours done. It didn’t feel like much, though, because I’m still in the 300s (although some of the 400s and 500s are already done). I did pick out the flesh fabric run, though…7 different fabrics? Maybe 8. Can’t remember. I used them for two smaller hands, but I haven’t gotten to the full body yet…that’s later today.

It’s funny though when I realize I bought the same fabric twice…I liked it that much…

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I always have my eye on fleshy fabrics.

Kitten was happy to curl up and sleep…for hours…

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This is the start of something…maybe. I’m debating it. Will let you know if it sticks.

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That’s the thing with New-Year stuff…lots of it doesn’t stick. I have two things I’d like to implement, but mostly it’s not new stuff…just being better about the old stuff.

The bin is filling up with pieces…

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And the colors are starting to show up…

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That pile is not very organized. Much like my brain.

See, it was a sleepy day…

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OK, well, I think the wet knees on my pajamas are going to force me to clean up, and my belly talking to me is going to force me to eat up. And then I can iron. For hours. Until tonight…much as I’d love to sit curled up on the couch in front of the fire and watch a movie or something, that’s not how my world works. But that’s hours away.

Hope your New Year’s Eve is exactly what you want it to be…

*Talking Heads, Psycho Killer

There in Your Car Where I Said Those Things*

Hello rainy morning. I feel like I haven’t talked to humans in hours (it’s true, I haven’t). I didn’t leave the house yesterday, I think. Nope. I didn’t. I’m OK with that. I will need to leave today a few times. Maybe. I finished grading the second-to-last assignment (the last one is big and ugly) and I input about 12 assignments that weren’t in there yet. Probably a shocker for some kids. My copyediting project has been delayed yet again…I guess that’s a good thing, because I wasn’t really ready to drop this project and start on that. Although as the delays continue, it will start to interfere greatly with the artmaking deadlines that are approaching. Oh well. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll say no (can’t really afford to do that unfortunately).

I did spend a good chunk of yesterday doing art stuff. I didn’t even get out of my pajamas for the first part…sorting the Wonder Under, one bin for each 100 pieces…

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It took about an hour and a half to do all of them. Honestly, this piece is not as complicated as it could be considering its size.

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Then came the fun task of cleaning the office so I could start the next part. That meant putting all the fabric away from the last quilt…plus anything else I’d bought (I buy stuff every time I buy a background or binding…which are the only two reasons I really go to the fabric store). The last quilt had a ton of grays and browns. Interesting that.

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Plus this is what a drawer of fabric looks like after I’ve pulled for a quilt…it’s a disaster. So I have to clean all that up as well. I don’t have only one drawer for any color, by the way. Gray has two drawers…pink/flesh has about five.

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So I did all that. Here’s the two background fabrics I picked…still don’t know which to use. Yeah, sticking to the dark blue. I did look at other colors…they didn’t visualize well.

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I had to go way up to get this drawing to hang without touching the ground…Kitten has dislodged it once already (I added more clothespins for stability). It’s not small. I hang it up so I can see where each of the pieces are. I actually had the bottom of the drawing attached to the ironing board for a while so I could see the piece numbers on the bottom more easily.

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And then I started ironing stove parts. I’m not done with the stove even after almost 4 hours of ironing…everything but what’s on it at this point though. It was a lot of variations on white and gray…

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And a different tone of gray for the death angel in the stove window.

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Here’s everything that’s ironed down so far, almost to 200, but including a bunch of 200s, 300s, 400s, and 500s.

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At some point, I realized my feet were hurting from standing so much. I’m on a concrete slab and the floor is ancient linoleum. I always forget…this is why I have Crocs…they’re padded, so it’s like having a springy floor when I wear them. Although the puppy likes to chew on them, whether my feet are in them or not. Don’t diss the Crocs. They’re useful.

See, not a lot of color yet…mostly grays and whites. Don’t worry…

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There’s definitely color coming. No question about it.

So I need to go buy one thing today and maybe pick up my other sewing machine…and there’s gaming tonight…but otherwise, if I blew off grading (it’s oh so tempting), I could just iron things all day. I actually figured out that between today and tomorrow, I could probably iron this whole thing down on fabric (except my brain gets tired too)…but I would have to blow off everything else, I think. And that’s probably not very responsible of me. I should grade at least one period’s worth of the science unit that’s glaring balefully up at me from the table. Urrrghhh. Look away! Look away! Sigh. We’ll see. Gonna eat and clean up (ie, get out of pajamas) and run that errand…and then we’ll see where my brain is.

That means getting off this chair. New office chair. Surprisingly comfortable. Glad I accepted it into the house. Kitten likes it too.

*Iron and Wine, Promising Light

Sometimes It’s About Massages and Brain Size

It’s not in my nature to waste fabric. Well, yes, I take big pieces of fabric and cut them into smaller pieces and then iron and sew them back together. It’s already a strange concept. But I don’t like wasting what I’ve got. It’s my palette. I don’t even like throwing out the tiny scraps left over after I trim the ironed pieces. But I do. Because it would be crazy to keep that stuff (I do keep it until the quilt is done, in case I need a tiny piece of something…because if I’m gonna lose a piece, it’s usually a little one).

So although I finished the newest quilt on Tuesday night, I hadn’t thrown out the scraps yet or put all the other fabric away, because I knew I had the leftover pieces from when I cut the head out backwards. Now I also cut out the bird and the sun/cloud conglomerate backwards, but I ended up using them in the quilt anyway. I couldn’t do that with the head because of the shoulder orientation. It wouldn’t fit right. But I saved those pieces. I had spent time cutting out the Wonder Under, ironing them to fabric, and trimming them. Dammit if I wasn’t gonna use them. (Yes. I am currently channeling my Depression-era grandmother.)

So I did. Here’s the bin. It’s even labeled Backwards. The question was which pieces did I pull from here to finish the other one (answer: cat ears, cat top of head, cat eyes, cat eyeballs, and human eyelid…plus two smaller pieces that seemingly just disappeared)?

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The real problem was ironing on the back of the pattern. I couldn’t see it. So I had to redraw it on the back. Now when I look at this, it’s obvious to me that there’s another problem…flipped letters. I didn’t actually realize that until later though, when I was on the phone with the girlchild and she said I should just leave them backwards (I didn’t…but I do have one quilt where everything is backwards because I traced it all wrong and couldn’t bear to retrace).

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So here it is backwards…in process…you can see the box of scraps there. I had to fill in a few things…small pieces. And I decided to make the words right way round. I didn’t cut new ones. I used what I had.

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Backwards head…

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Regular head…

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Creepy, huh? And honestly, I’m only doing this because I hate to waste stuff. It only took about an hour to iron it together. Not bad.

So yeah, I’ll quilt it etc. and stick it up on Etsy. It’s not tiny, actually, because of the hair. And it’s weird. Then again, everything I do is weird.

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As evidenced by this drawing done during a teacher training yesterday that I was a bit irritated by having to sit through. I hate when the voice in my head is yelling “No DUH!” the entire time.

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So first of all, the statement at the top is not what I think…but what some kids might think (funny, I’m always careful to explain I don’t believe that…that smart people do some really stupid stuff. I could insert names here if I wanted to.). Then the stuff about brain size/weight…I actually wanted to check that out, because I remembered that Einstein’s brain wasn’t particularly large, and I always thought that it was the connections that were more important than size, although even those can be regrown to some extent. And this morning, I found this…confirming that (as we all know) size isn’t everything. And yes, if you haven’t figured it out by now, drawing is my safe space. The Affect not Effect was because the damn program needs an editor. I hate it when apparently educated people can’t edit their stuff. It’s one thing to get it wrong. It’s another to not realize you get stuff wrong and have someone who is better at it check your stuff. We’re teachers, dammit.

I probably scare some people in trainings. Generally I try to sit with people who won’t be scared. In the old days, when we got a paper agenda for staff meetings, people used to try to sit next to me (because it was more fun to watch me draw than listen to the principal). Seriously, though, it entertains the part of my brain that otherwise gets me in trouble. Plus it keeps me awake. And any angry or pissed off or bored parts will have something else on which to focus.

There is a cat currently sitting on my computer mouse. OK. Moved her. Lab day today. Too tired for that. Oh well. It’s not like I get to ignore the tired stuff. I did get my first ever massage yesterday, in an attempt to move the joints in my neck and back that have been semi-frozen about a month. We got all but one of them. But more importantly, holy crap, massages are wondrous. I can’t afford how wondrous they are (seriously, I could get addicted to that). But it was a positive thing. So there we are. You learn something new every day. Sometimes it’s stupid stuff, like how much vomit a Golden Retriever can gack up. But sometimes it’s about massages and brain size.

Wherever There Is

Hello Monday after a week off from school. Hello tired eyes…my fault for staying up too late working on a project that is trying to fight being finished on multiple levels. And then the coyotes’ fault for howling and yipping and generally driving the puppy bonkers. He does howl, that little beast…while Calli snores on. They’re coyotes, dude. They’re outside. They’re not coming in. We can sleep through that shit. (I personally cannot sleep through puppy howling…or coyotes half the time…but with puppy howling, there is no way I’m sleeping.). So I’m sleep short, for sure. I did manage to finish almost all of my grading last night, leaving the evenings free for artmaking (well, around the other stuff I’ve gotta do, but mostly)…at least until Friday, when they will turn more stuff in. A blissful few days…as it were…because we’re doing some monster labs this week. ‘Twill be a messy few days at least.

So once I figured out that there was no way around the retracing of the head and the cat at least, I did that on Friday…and then Saturday, I did a bunch of Christmas shopping (small business Saturday…hitting all the art events) and started cutting out the new pieces…

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I didn’t get very far, because I went to see Dr. Strange (definitely worth it). See, I’m not totally antisocial. I do stuff.

And yesterday, I worked a good chunk of the day before I was allowed art time.

So what I had to do was lay out the already cut pieces to see what fabrics I’d already chosen, then lay out the corresponding Wonder Under pieces traced the right way round, and then figure out what went where. Pretty easy, actually…

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Once I had them all ironed down (and I had two or three I had to retrace…I had some that I just stole from the other-way-round pile. So if I do make a quilt that is just her head, a small one, I would need another eye piece and cat ears and nose, plus top of head, I think.

Then I sat down and cut them all out. Usually I do that on the couch, but I was in the middle of an episode and it was easier to sit here…

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I just looked at the clock. Shit. Gotta book through this. I laid out all the pieces that needed ironing…

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Found all the scissors I was stockpiling in there and got them together (it’s not even a quarter of the scissors in the house)…

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And I started ironing. Now I probably should have stopped here. About. Because this was midnight.

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Ah well. There goes midnight. Kept going.

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I love the face fabric. Ironed the eye separately…

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And put it where it belonged.

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Head done. Not ironed to body yet. Whole mess not ironed down to background yet (things that were supposed to be done last Wednesday). Tonight…iron together and start stitch down. Tomorrow finish stitch down and maybe pinbaste. Quilting by Wednesday. Binding on over the weekend. Need to email photographer.

I did stop to throw balls for dogs. Simba left his at the other end of the hallway and is too scared of Calli to run by her and get it because Calli (despite that goofy smile) growls and then tries to steal the ball from him. Meanie.

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So that’s where I’m at. Significantly behind still, but getting there. Wherever there is. No music this morning for some reason (I was on hold with one of the college payment plans…woo hoo!).

This Ain’t Gonna Work*

Well. So. I ironed for about 7 hours yesterday until I realized I’d made a major mistake two steps back. I’m not even sure how I pulled it off. It’s funny, though…I can go back through the blog and see when I made the mistake…it was the day after the election. For some unknown reason, I flipped the drawing over and kept on tracing, but now everything was backwards from before. I have a light table because you have to trace the Wonder Under upside down so when you iron it to the back of the fabric, everything will be facing forwards again. So I did it right until I got to the head. And then I flipped it. For no apparent reason. Wednesday the 9th. Wow. OK.

Anyway, I didn’t figure that out until last night around 9 PM. When I was so close to done. Sigh. Giant ass sigh.

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Uterus in purple and red…legs going into the water…

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Kitten in one of her sleeping spots…

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Prosthetic arm balancing the ever-present cup of tea…and trying to catch that lost eyeball.

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There’s some weird stuff in this quilt…

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The other arm has a giant cell on it…

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And around 9 PM, I started the hair and went. Wait. Fuck. That’s backwards.

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Dammit. I’ve done it before. In fact, I have one entire quilt that is backwards. A full-size one. But to do it midway? Shit. So I was sitting there, head in hands, trying to process. Because it was the last 300 pieces. I hate to waste fabric. And time. So I ironed the sun/cloud combo…

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And I ironed the bird. So the sun would still work on the left side of the body…it was a little different, but I would be the only one who knew. Well, except I just told y’all.

The bird though…not gonna work. Orientation is all wrong. So that’s another 150 pieces or so…I mean, the head had to be retraced because the shoulders and hair wouldn’t work going the other direction. Same with the cat. So that was already 100 pieces.

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I didn’t want to retrace the bird. So at the moment, this is the plan. Flip the bird and cloud locations. I don’t think that will be an issue.

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But I had to retrace about 100 pieces…

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And I did that. And cut them out. Last night. Today, I’ll iron them down to fabric…and cut them out and iron them together. Dammit. Because I was going to be done with the ironing yesterday. Shit. I guess it makes sense that a quilt about time would fuck with MY time. And now you know how much the election affected me. Yeah. Well.

You know what sucks? Colleges deciding midyear to change housing/food costs, so you need to come up with an additional $700 right after the holidays. With no warning. Dudes. This is why I do that payment plan thing…so I can PLAN for it. Fuckers.

Speaking of a plan. I need to do that. For my quilts. It’s in my head. I just wrote it on the whiteboard on my studio door. I’m crazy. You might as well know that now. I’m hoping for four new quilts for the show…which would be fine, if they didn’t need titles, sizes, and photos by April 28. Yeah. I’m working on it. That’s about one a month.

Still trying to get the dogs to be cozy together. Previous to this, Calli was smelling Simba’s privates. Which dogs do. And he lets her, because she’s big and scary. To him. She’s a Golden…she’s really not that scary to most living beings. She’s scared of the cats.

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Yesterday morning, we worked on these trees. Which are on my neighbor’s property, but up on his slope. We’ve trimmed them before, with his permission. But they’re putting the house on the market, so that’s fun (both houses on either side of me selling in one year’s time after 18 years of the same neighbors). The trees block my view of the mountains…so we try to trim them to deck railing height every 5 years or so. I think it’s been longer this time.

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Now when I say we, I should really admit that my job is to stand on the deck and say “cut that. No, there.” while throwing balls or sticks for the dogs. My ex climbs into the trees and I ask where his health insurance card is and make sure the phone is ready to call 911. Because that shit scares the crap out of me. Yes. He has a chainsaw up there. He’s fucking nuts.

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And then we hauled it all back to my property…but here’s my view! The trees will bush out again…and that one roof is ugly as shit…but there’s the mountains! Yay.

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So that was productive. We also took out a volunteer tree that will never be a real tree. It’s a tree weed. But now I can hope the new neighbors are not loud noisy assholes. The guy above me and his cigars. Sigh. I hate that people don’t realize their bad habits affect their neighbors. Then again, I sew in the middle of the night.

Trying to make up for the stupid head stuff that messed up the quilt. Well. I will deal with that. And then start drawing. Well, there’s that school shit I need to do too. Ugh. And Christmas gifts. I started early, which is good, but it’s never early enough.

I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t put all the fabrics away that I used in this quilt, because I’m going to need them again. I hope I have enough of all of them. Eek. One of the flesh fabrics was pretty devastated…hopefully not the face fabric. I think all the grays are OK.

And yes, I will probably iron the wrong-facing face together and do something with it. Like I said, I hate to waste fabric. Those Depression-era sentiments passed down from Grandma through Mom…although I don’t save my tin foil. I do save rubber bands and twist ties though. OK Kathryn…focus. Yup. That app…read the quote. Sometimes I think it knows me.

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Because the mistake isn’t the end of the world, now is it? It was just hard to take last night. And now that I know where my head was when I made it, I just want to give myself a hug.

*Glass Animals, Gooey