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

Everything’s in Order in a Black Hole, Part 2*

Running late again. I started this earlier and then deleted what I’d wrote…don’t even remember why. I am NOT shopping today. No way. Got art to make, shit to grade. I’m way behind. Don’t want to deal with people for a while. Sorry people.

That said, I did start ironing yesterday and it was good. Sure, it was Thanksgiving as well and I did head out for dinner, but most of the day was here…grading stuff…and ironing.

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A hundred pieces laid out in piles of ten.

Look. It’s a mole. I think I did a mole once or twice before, but this one is particularly cute. And tiny.

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So many of my quilts start down in the dirt…

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This one is a little different because of the hole in the middle…I think I got all this done before I left for dinner…

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Kitten sleeps in my studio/office with me. She’s back in that box again today, but facing the other direction.

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When I got back from dinner and laid around for a bit (because that’s what Thanksgiving dinner does to you), I started ironing again…some water…

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And then I pulled that whole section up off the ironing sheet and rolled it up and set it aside. I’ll come back to it.

Then a volcano with a dinosaur.

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And legs…from the part in the water up to the hips…

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That’s where I quit…at around midnight. I didn’t want to start on the next bits because it would get complicated. So that’s where I’ll start this afternoon, I guess. I wish I could say I’d be done with the ironing today, but I think that’s a long shot. Maybe tomorrow…then stitch down. This thing is gonna be tight. If I can get it done in time at all. Ironically, it’s for a show about time. OK, then. Yeah. This time of year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it just kicks my butt.

Here’s puppy waiting for a tummy rub…he doesn’t usually show his belly…

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Sorry about the private parts…his are fairly well hidden for a boy though. He’s a fairly atypical boy dog. He thinks he’s half cat for one, and I’m not sure about the rest.

OK. Well. I’m going to go carve my personal turkey (I made one for turkey sandwiches) and then come in here and iron. I’m debating walking the dogs as well, but I’d probably have to make that decision pretty soon. Ugh. Not in the mood for making decisions even. How you KNOW you need a real vacation. Funny. Someone asked me last night about vacations, but those are so outside my reality right now. Sigh. Some day.

*Arctic Monkeys, Fluorescent Adolescent (I love that I picked the exact same line in this song…)

Please Don’t Bother Trying to Find Her*

The reality is that if you leave me alone long enough with the furry beasts, I will start having long philosophical discussions with them. I’m particularly perturbed that none of them thought it was their civic duty to vote in the last election. I believe I have chastised them appropriately and that will not be the case in 2020. Of course, it’s too late now. They understand that. They are sorry. They will do better next time.

I have to admit that I’m not getting much but art stuff done. I don’t feel like grading things. I don’t feel like yardwork. I don’t feel like anything.

I did about 8 hours of artmaking yesterday, in between…um…what? Well I ran two whole errands. And I cooked a little. But that’s about it. Thanksgiving break is always like this…it’s not really long enough to recover from school AND be a productive human again. So we try to recover and manage all the family stuff, which this year, isn’t much. Last year, I was in Seattle this week…so no artmaking then. I could have gone there again this year, but honestly just needed to hunker down, finish this piece, and start the next five. I think it really is five too. Crazy.

I finished ironing the Wonder Under down to fabric in about 13 hours…way longer than it should have taken for 800 pieces, but whatever. I’m sure there was a good reason.

I made a small body cell in the last piece…and I used ALL the colors.

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The last thing I ironed was the cat…

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The fabric cat…not a real one…

Here’s all 117 fabrics…also more than I would normally use in an 800-piece quilt.

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Not a lot of blue…a lot of gray and brown.

I guess I did clean up the light table. And then I went through the drawings to see if there was another bathtub drawing in there (yes…but I don’t know if I want to make it next…I think it should wait.). And I cut a 24-inch square of paper for a piece that needs to be done in March or April…can’t remember which. I need to look at the calendar and make some quilt plans too. Maybe I will do that today. It’s finally sunny. I could sit out and draw today. Maybe.

It was cold last night, so when I finally sat down to start cutting pieces out, I had three animals at one point…some WAYYYY too close.

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They kept moving around. Occasionally dog parts would be on my lap.

Simba needs a bath…but I’m waiting until it warms up a bit during the day before I do it to him.

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Like maybe today.

So then I cut stuff out for hours…well, 4 1/2 hours anyway. Which explains why my hand hurts this morning.

I got a lot cut out…although it never looks like much, does it? Trash in the top one, stuff that still needs cutting in the middle one, and cut-out stuff in the bottom one.

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My goal today is to finish that and start ironing it together. Finish ironing tomorrow and get to stitch down? Maybe? I hope so. Quilt Thursday? I should check the batting stash, huh. (check. Got batting.) The binding will be another issue, but hopefully that will be Friday. Maybe. I’m still debating the weekend. The copyediting job got kicked until mid-December (not looking forward to having three fewer weeks to complete it)…so Saturday might be a drive and a dinner and another drive. Still debating that.

I’m totally taking the dogs for a walk today though. A long one. Out in the middle of nowhere. Because they need it and so do I. Although the one outside barking at me is currently standing in a pool of water…like that makes sense. I suspect I should also do laundry. I did buy a turkey. I’m going to start brining it today I think. Maybe do that and then walk the dogs. I got a lunch invite. Not sure I’m in the mood for that. I’d have to find the part of my brain that socializes appropriately. Not sure where I put that. Mislaid for the holidays.

*The Zombies, She’s Not There

Blue, the Color of Our Planet*

My brain wakes up at 6, panicking because I forgot to set the alarm for school. Then it slowly realizes, as the cat mews at me, that it’s not a school day. Relax. Go back to sleep. It’s amazing how fast that happened. The re-sleep part. Really I need some major sleep catchup this week. My brain is tired.

I’m perturbed by the crap in North Dakota. In fact, any time some white person complains about immigration or immigrants or refuges, I wanna slap them across the face and explain how we weren’t here first, you dumbass. Peaceful protest…pouring water over them in freezing temperatures. That’s torture. Nobody in the US should be doing that. This is their sacred land. More importantly, the pipeline will inevitably damage their water supply. But hey! The Texas company will get their oil. Screw the damn environment, right? Sigh. Frustrating to watch and know how little I can do. I think that’s the biggest problem right now…feeling like you can’t do anything that will cause major change.

This quilt…Earth Day…I drew it years ago. Something about Earth Day and how we do it one day a year, celebrate the planet, while we spend the rest of the time trying to destroy it. And Earth Mother is yelling, Knock It Off…like that’s going to stop in the next four years. I think this was just after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami…there were two of them (quilts, not earthquakes).

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So we art on. We post shit. We send postcards. We march. We sign up. We fill out polls. We talk. We argue. We art on.

I did about 3 hours again yesterday, I think…no, closer to 4…I’m about 10 hours in on the ironing. It’s taking longer than I expected…or planned for. Oh well. It takes what it takes. My time management app is no longer being updated, so it sucks phone battery like crazy. I’m still looking for a replacement, one that doesn’t charge me monthly…because I’m not a business. I did pay a fee for this one, but just once. I guess once businesses got in on the time tracking idea as an app, the market rose to the occasion. So I’m still looking for one that will do what I want and not cost me a lot.

Here’s what ironing a heart looks like…one of two in the whole piece.

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There were a lot more of those inner body pieces than I thought. I ironed a heart, lungs, arteries, a mammogram, a metal arm, a watch, her hair (there was a lot of that), the sun, a cloud, some rain, a uterus (like you do)…but I still wasn’t done.

Here’s the pile of stuff ready to be cut out.

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I still have a giant tattoo of a cell, some tools, a teacup, an eyeball…well, more than one eyeball…and the bird up in the sky. And a cat. It’s at least another 3 hours, I think.

Here’s the pile of stuff I used before I cleaned it up. Added some more reds and purples and oranges and greens and grays. Lots of gray in this.

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Then I cleaned up, so I could see them clearly today. I added some yellows too. Forgot them.

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So I’m still working on it. It’s raining here today. I was hoping for some nice pretty, semi-warm days of sitting on the deck and drawing…it seems I might get that later this week, but not today. Today is a hunker-down in the studio day. We need the rain. It’s good.

Simba did not appreciate having the plumbago removed from his tail last night. Grandma is very patient with him…

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I’m actually spending most of my morning managing animals today. Gonna change that.

*Regina Spektor, Blue Lips