Nowhere You Have to Go

I do love the middle of July. Well, except for trying to pay bills with no paycheck. That’s stressful. In my district, we get paid at the end of June and then not again until the end of August. Now we go back to school on August 9, so it’s a challenge to pay August’s mortgage and other bills with the one check from June that already paid all of July’s bills. Forget traveling…I start panicking about having enough money for the summer sometime in February. This year I’m OK, despite the huge construction/remodel expenditure, although the August credit card bill includes the carpet costs (oh ouch). Deep breaths.

The part I love is when days start popping up that have NOTHING scheduled on them. No meetings, no exercise class, no Zooms, no nothing. Yesterday. That was the day. There’s one next week too, I think. Today, I only have pilates, which is fine…good for me, actually. It’s such a relief to get up in the morning and think, there is nothing you HAVE to do. There is nowhere you HAVE to go. I mean, my brain has a to-do list, so it’s not REALLY nothing, but I’ve been working super hard on carving out 6-hour art days from these. I do yardwork as breaks, I move furniture and crap back into bedrooms in between bits and pieces of art, but it feels so much better than the crazy that is my work life. This is what Saturdays used to be like. Pre-COVID. I need to find that Saturday vibe again.

Meanwhile, I’m totally enjoying these parts of the summer. The rest of this week gets a little whack-a-doodle, but it’ll be cool. Monday, after the news program, I was pretty tired, but I rallied and ironed. This is part of the left side…about reproductive rights (what’s left of them).

And the right side is about the war in Gaza (and everywhere else…sheesh).

There’s bombs falling all over this piece.

Monday night, I ironed a lot of toes…although I may have ironed just as many on Tuesday? It was just a lot of toes. And an unwieldy large piece, which seems to be how I spend all my summers…delightfully.

I really wanted this ironed together by the weekend, but I think I just lost part of Thursday and a big chunk of Friday, so we’ll see. I did manage to get the legs done in the early afternoon yesterday…

And then started into the torso of the left figure last night.

I’m missing some pieces…one seemed to just have been missed completely from the piece it should have been attached to, but the other five are just not there. I was missing two pieces in an earlier part, and they showed up in the wrong box (I need new glasses, y’all), so I’m just gonna wait it out and see if they show up. If not, I’ll retrace and cut them: two nipples, one elbow, and two heart pieces. Weird to be missing so many.

None of them are crucial to continuing to iron. There was an arm piece missing that was more crucial, so I recut it. So I’ve ironed all the way through about piece 650, but I’ve also done a chunk of the 700s and 800s, with one in the 900s. So I’m close to halfway with almost 12 hours in. I’ve been putting in about 3-4 hours of ironing a day (depending on the day…Sunday was a cluster). Another 12 hours at the same average is about 3 days…but there’s challenges coming up in the next few days, some art events, some people events, some family events. So like I said, end of the weekend? Then iron it to a background, stitchdown, etc. My goal is to finish it by the time school starts for real (August 15…ignore all the prep beforehand, even though it will suck up time). We’ll see…I’m in San Francisco for 5 days next week, so that’ll slow me down. It’s good to have a goal though.

I made it to ceramics yesterday and spent a delightful 2+ hours cleaning up the lines on this and adding more…

And then clearing out the background…

And starting the color…

I really like the black and white, but I also love the color…

This is for a series of garden poles/stakes that my studio is making. It was a test for me to see if I could make a roundish shape (I can). Also a test of this new-to-me clay (which was free). All good. I really need to go in tomorrow and work on underglazing the top of the other piece too, since its partner is on the greenware shelf. The winged woman finally made it into the glaze fire…woohoo! After getting mansplained and whatevered by a couple of people. She IS unstable, yes. Imma have to do something about that. I’m thinking of making her a base of some sort to extend what’s there. Not sure how. Gotta think about that. One of my favorite parts of the clay stuff right now is that I rarely know what I’m doing.

The new kitten finally got a name…Bowie.

He’s a sweet baby except at 6:52 AM when he wants to play. In the bed. By jumping on all the sleeping things, including me, the Man, the dog (not pleased), and all cats. Toes especially. And then he crashes and I’m wide awake. Ugh.

He strangely lies on the floor like he’s a dog. Anyway. He’s a good eater, has a chill temperament, except when he’s got the rips, and is very accepting and interested in all the other animals. Kitten is still ignoring his presence, but her 16th birthday is in a few weeks and she’s pretty happy sleeping most of the day, hidden in my office. The other two are still negotiating how they feel about Bowie. They like the smell of his food, but that might be it.

In politics…WTF, USA? Like really. I don’t understand ANYTHING that’s going on in my country right now, although I’m amused to see my district is being cited by the state for removing LGTBQIA from the sex ed curriculum. Hmmm. I’m not going to comment too much, because I’m on that committee, but here’s a link to one news story…and a link to another. That’s the first time I’d seen the ‘more palatable and proper’ comment. I say, let’s go! Hold us up to that standard! I know we’re rewriting this fall anyway (ugh, I hate two things: this committee and creating curriculum by committee. I LOVE that we’re going to get the chance to add to it.).

But also this…

Not my religion. Also this…

I won’t say his name, but he’s not more important than elementary school kids and their teachers. And if you think he is, we aren’t friends.

Also this…

Not a fan of Project 2025, not a fan of the RNC, not a fan of the crazy states who regulate the uterus more than guns. I’m sure if you’ve read this blog for a while, this is not a surprise…but just wanted to be clear about it. I can’t watch/listen to much of it (it’s OK, the Man is doing it for me)…but when we put power and money ahead of humans, it’s never going to end well.

OK. Today. Fabric. Ironing. Lots of it. Still moving/culling things in the living room that need to go away or find a home. I might be able to move the table back today. Depends. Boychild is still on the Lake Fire. He rode in a helicopter yesterday to his worksite…apparently that was fun. I’m sure he’s exhausted…he doesn’t think he’ll be back until next week…so it’ll be over 3 weeks since he left. He’s rocking a cold at the moment, so I don’t want him coming back until he’s not contagious. The fire is getting under control, a little every day. Hopefully he’ll be home by Monday, so he can see his cousin and uncle…they’re coming in for a soccer tournament, so that’s my Friday morning. I haven’t been to a soccer tournament in a while (don’t really miss them). Gotta find my chair and my sunscreen. But for now, more tea, some breakfast, some ironing. More yardwork (got one more trashcan to fill by tonight), more moving things. Pilates later…

Still Buggy…

Am I awake? Sort of. I’ve been UP for 5 hours, showered, fed most of the animals, drove to a news station, and did a live session about an art demo I’ll be doing at the Oceanside Museum of Art on Friday evening. Here’s the TV thing…

I’ll be doing my demo from 6:30-7:30 PM…it’ll be the bugs! I have some I’ll be ironing together (LIVE) and some I’ll be embroidering (also LIVE). That stuff is way easier than standing in front of a camera. Then I came home, changed out of real clothes, ate breakfast, moved some more furniture (endless, right?), and wrote some stuff. My plan is to iron stuff together until I need a nap (all the others are already napping)…

Simba was napping until the kitten (still nameless) grabbed his butt.

OK, it was obviously a busy weekend. Quiltwise, I finished Why. Not. after quite a few months’ lag.

It’ll go to the photographer once I finish the other one.

Then Friday, I made some bugs…cut out some Wonder Under, ironed them to fabrics…

I left one as just Wonder Under to use in the demo. I also made two of each, one more realistically colored and one colored for San Diego Pride Weekend…

I’m saving some to iron down at the demo on Friday, but I did iron 5 of them…

Yes, that’s 4…I think I hadn’t finished the outlining on the 5th one yet. This was Friday’s finish. Saturday morning, I outlined the 5th one and then quilted all 5.

The rest of their legs will get embroidered on at the demo (or after…depends on timing).

Then I finished one all the way with a binding and a sleeve…

Note to self…easier to embroider legs before the sleeve is on. And last night, I embroidered this one’s legs…

They seem like they would be really easy to make (they are), but they are still time-consuming. That sweet little bug took 2 hours and 19 minutes to make. So yeah. Not sure they’re saleable…but they’ll go on Etsy eventually. I’ll post all of them when they’re done. If you’re local and want one, don’t wait for it to go on Etsy. Just a heads up.

Here’s all the fabrics that got used on the bugs…

ANYWAY. So that was bugs. Not on the Bingo card for Summer 2024; neither is the microwave dying, and that’s also definitely happening.

I finally started ironing the Crones quilt together on Saturday…my goal is to have it done this week…which I have now lost Friday, so Imma do it quick.

The bottom was full of some fussy tiny pieces, which look awesome when done but are a fucking pain in the ass to iron.

Gaza war on the right side…

Loss of reproductive rights on the left. I have about 4 hours in and I’ve done about 250 pieces. I’m planning to do a bunch over the next 4 days. And also move furniture, do yardwork, paint things, possibly sleep, read my book, and maybe eat. I’ll be ironing as soon as I finish writing this thing.

I did do clay on Sunday…picked up the four finished clay pots for the Man’s bog garden. These two were pretty basic, although the glazes didn’t do what I thought they would (they never do).

These two were a test of a satin glaze, which turned out much better than the first test run.

So I’ll probably do this on the big sgraffito piece that’s on my shelf at the studio right now.

Meanwhile, I finished underglazing the bottom half of the next sculptural piece…

The colors will change a bit in the firing.

Flesh colors are always fun.

This is drying out right now, getting ready for the bisque fire. That sea monster is hysterical.

Here’s video of the whole thing…

Hopefully I’ll be underglazing the top this week. And working on that other sgraffito piece. Gotta schedule clay time into the ironing time.

We also hiked Saturday…it’s been warm, but not AS warm…and that’s the first deer I’ve seen at Sweetwater.

I’ve seen their prints in the dirt, but never the actual animal. So that was cool.

This California horned lizard was not AS cool…because it was unfortunately dead…but a good-sized one.

Oh yeah, Imma need more caffeine today. Lots more.

The older ladies are still unsure of the little beast.

There was some play yesterday and today, with a lot of consternation involved.

Not from him. He does not give a shit that they are all bigger than him. He is a sweetie, very loving, very people-oriented. But also a scratchy hyper demon. No name still. We have until tomorrow (self-imposed deadline).

I gave my SIL such a card for her birthday.

I hope she’s better at it than I usually am.

Also, need to go to this national monument. Put it on the list.

OK. Drink LOTS of tea today. Also maybe nap. Iron a lot. Maybe go to Home Depot…I was gonna go Friday night and then just didn’t (it’s open until 10 PM…avoid the contractors and go late). Contemplate the state of the union. And 20-year-old boys with automatic rifles. And crazy-town conspiracy theories. Consider the future of my country (that’s a big one…a scary one). But mostly iron. Looking forward to communing with some fabric.

Progress on 1700 Fronts…

It’s delightfully overcast this morning. I will take this July gloom (which will probably not last) and do nothing with it. I really should do something…yardwork when it’s cooler is smart. But NO. I have a ton of art stuff I need to do today. I’ve been putting off the bugs and the ironing of the new quilt, and I can’t put it off anymore. I’m spending three days doing that (and some other stuff, no worries). I’ll do some yardwork, but probably in the evening. I’m not awake enough yet. I have a friend who gets up at 6 AM on a Saturday to do yardwork, and I’m like, um no? Not. I must have had a look of absolute horror on my face, because she laughed. Yes, I’m a night owl. She is not.

So progress here is slow because it’s progress on 1700 fronts. Today will include a trip to the garage to check if I have any roller painting equipment that is in decent condition…if not, I need to go to Home Depot (AGAIN). I did write the final check to all the contractors for all the work they’ve done. Just a reminder, it flooded here in January, and because it came from the ground (I am up on a hill, y’all) and not the roof, insurance covered none of it. Total was just over $22K to fix everything and replace carpet and put in gutters so it wouldn’t happen again. I only had that money because I started saving to remodel my circa 1980 bathrooms and kitchen about 5 years ago. I’m back to saving for those…things I wanted done before I retired. It’s OK…we’ll see how it goes. So now all the remaining work falls on me, because I didn’t have 3K for painting, so I’m doing it myself, and I’m not doing it all this summer, because I hate painting. And there’s a ton of digging in the entryway that still needs to happen. I’ll get to it. I have many ideas and not a lot of time to make them happen, because I’m also trying to recover from the school year, read 40 books, and do a bunch of art. Like you do. And then put the house back together. Yesterday, I emptied 6 boxes of books and organized them and culled a little and put them all away…

This was when I still had two more boxes to open. I was on a Zoom call during this and then a phone call at the same time. Took about 2 1/2 hours. I have two more boxes in the girlchild’s room to do today. Then all those boxes can go in the garage for whenever someone might need them. Oh, I also have a box and three bags of clothes to put away in the bedroom…I did one bag last night because I needed a bag to go to my stitching meeting. None of it is hard…it just takes time and energy. I also want to paint the closet this weekend and buy the paint for the hallway. Because that’s next week. After the boychild moves all his shit. Which hopefully he’ll be home next week to do. Ha! He sends us beautiful pictures…although scary, because fire…

We get daily (or so) reports. It’s hot, there’s a lot of firefighters up there.

So far, most structures have survived, so they’re doing a great job. This is the Lake Fire in Santa Barbara County.

I finally made it to ceramics yesterday…kept getting sidelined by moving stuff. I got these out of the bisque kiln fire…

The red clay fired so pale! I was surprised. It’s our studio reclaim clay and the little bit of red clay really colors the white, which is mostly porcelain I think. So weird. It’s an OK clay to work with…very sticky, but carving works well. So I dipped the two coil pots in glaze…and then I glazed the inside of the two outside pots, with a thin, watered-down layer of clear on the outside. Clear is problematic…it gets cloudy, sometimes it burns out some of the colors. So this is a test. I didn’t clear glaze the big one until the test is done. I like it too much.

I added a cloud of hair to the world figure, and of course, forgot to take a picture. I think it’s pretty much done for adding clay…I just need to underglaze everything.

And then our studio is making some garden stake totem things. I hesitate to call them totems, because I think of that as belonging to specific cultures. But I made a ball with holes in it, underglazed, and carved some yesterday.

Here’s a video so you can see the arms.

Fun stuff. I used some clay someone left out for free (I’m a clay slut apparently)…it’s a Longhorn with grog, I think. It’s definitely sturdier than the other clay I’ve been using. I appreciate that. On the one hand, I really like carving like I draw…but I also like the meditation of building things. So I guess I’ll keep doing both at the same time? If I can go in tomorrow or Sunday and finish underglazing the base of the world figure, it can go on the greenware shelf, and then that’ll clear a little space on my shelf…it’s packed right now with three boards of stuff. I’m an overachiever sometimes.

Speaking of, I got binding and sleeves machine-stitched on both smaller quilts and started handsewing one of them.

It’ll take me a few nights of sitting and watching stuff to finish them. That darker blue one is hard at night. It would be smarter to do it during the day. Oh well.

So yeah, kitten still is unnamed. We are trying names out. Earlier, I heard a lot of “ouch no ouch no” coming from the living room.

Kitten is sharp and pointy. He does sleep a lot.

That pic seems to have some Siamese inclinations. We’re pretty sure dad cat was at least part Siamese. Sisters are both orange, mom is calico. His face and ears and coloring are all different from them.

This is legit…

OK. Plan for today. It’s already 10 AM. Love the summer for that. Gonna eat something, then start ironing bugs (need them done by Monday, or at least some of them). I’m also going to start working on ironing the crones quilt together. I saw the deadline I’m aiming for and it’s closer than I thought. Summer does that…contracts in weird ways. Too much work, never enough time. I have a book I’m reading, I want to draw tonight. Will I? Don’t know. Maybe sometime this weekend. I have three days with not a lot of outside influences, which I appreciate. I’m hoping for maybe some relaxation with the Man in the next few days? We’ll see. But definitely art.

Chaos and All.

Ah chaos. There’s nothing like it. When things seem like they are finally chilling out a bit, add some chaos to it. I can never remember whether chaos always moves to order or not, because my experience is that order always returns to chaos.

So pro: the carpet is in and I’ve managed to move a chunk of boxes and furniture back to where they belong. Con: boychild is still at the fire and probably will be until next week, and he wants to go through his stuff, so he doesn’t want it all moved back in. Hmmm. So I meant to go to ceramics the last two days and it didn’t happen, because when I’m at home, I feel like I either need to paint (I primed the drywall patches yesterday) or move shit (I did a lot of that yesterday). I now have about 7 boxes of books that need to go back in bookshelves, a box and three bags of clothes that need to go back in their shelves, and about 3000 other things that need to go back where they were. I did finally clear enough of the living room to be able to swing the other couch back out, so I can get in to the couch without climbing over the Man. Plus the oppressive height of bookshelves in the middle of the room is gone. What’s not gone is my inability to focus on any one task for a given period of time. It’s summer, it’s chaos, I’m tired, I’m overwhelmed in a very different way than during school. It’s OK, because I get to read every day and I’m not at school (oh wait, I was yesterday) and I’m getting this house back into shape (that is the overwhelming part). There’s so much painting, and I hate that, and it takes forever, and I’ll never finish. So there’s that.

Artmaking has been slim for the last few days. I need to change that. Monday night, I cut binding and sleeves for the two quilts from my stash (score!). I don’t need to buy more fabric right now. I’m going to PIQF in two weeks…I can buy it there (ha ha). I did not sew them on yet…that’s a goal for today. There are many goals for today.

This one has matching binding and sleeves…I had a lot of this fabric. It was a background for another quilt.

This one, the sleeves match the backing, which I’ve had for about a million years. Seriously. So I’m glad to start using it. And the binding is from my stash.

I don’t usually buy more than a half a yard of fabric unless I’m using it for a background. And then I use the leftovers on the back when I can. Or the rejects sometimes. I get a background home and it’s way too busy to BE a background. And one of my friends who gifted me a bunch of fabric when she moved, she had larger pieces (yardage) of fabric, so I’ve been using those on the backs, and I just found some remnants from my niece’s old curtains and bedding (I think?) that will be great for backings too…when I was cleaning out under the bed. You forget what you put away…it’s hidden from sight and mind.

Then I started tracing the bugs for the OMA Street Level event next Friday. Why did I agree to this? Because now I’m doing a TV news thing too. That sounds terrifying. ANYWAY. At some point, I’m going to retire from teaching and I need alternate sources of income. That’s how I see it. I have weak moments…if you ask me to do things at certain times, Imma think I have to. Lame but true.

So I traced two of each. I am demoing at the event, so I need to have some in process pieces. I haven’t figured out what/how I’m doing it entirely, but I’m going to turn at least 5 of these into stepouts of some sort. I can’t decide how many I’ll need to demo at each stage…hopefully I’ll have that figured out next week. Ha! Today, I’ll cut some of these out and iron them to fabric, I think. I also need to start ironing the big quilt together. Like today. AND go to ceramics, but that might need to be tomorrow. Today is a little chaotic. A lot chaotic.

Oh, here’s the carpet…no more 1980s dirty beige. And it’s delightfully squishy.

How long until that cat has an accident on it? Probably not long.

That is the boychild’s half-destroyed chair blocking my office during the carpet install.

He needs a new chair. Not my problem though.

And here’s a sunset view of the Lake Fire area.

Pretty if you don’t think about where the particulates that made it came from. It’s at almost 30,000 acres and 16% containment. He’s been there since Sunday night late aka Monday morning hella early. They usually do 24 hours on and 24 hours off…but since they left San Diego at midnight on Sunday, IDK how they’re counting hours. I do know we heard from him this morning and he was headed back in. This is Day 12 of his being gone. I should go water his plants again. The last bout was 12 days. I think this will be closer to 17 or more. Tough on them. This fire season has started out worse than last year’s, for sure.

I did a drawing a week ago at dinner. It was weird. Post hike.

There were lemons at the bar. What can I say? Sometimes I just roll weird.

I have two tomatoes growing and a few bell peppers…this one is growing quite fast.

But I can’t seem to get the zucchini to do anything but make flowers. I collected some pollen and read about male/female flowers, but I’m not seeing any female flowers. Plus something keeps trying to eat them. I don’t know. I got zucchini because I hear all these stories of 100s of zukes being produced by one plant. I don’t NEED 100s…just a few would be nice.

These little spiders (and their webs) are EVERYWHERE in my yard right now.

At least they are tiny. The big orbweavers freak me out. That’s fall.

Simba misses his boy too.

OK, so more chaos yesterday…

Um. Yeah. We have a new kitten.

He has no name yet. Don’t even ask how or why. Unless you’re buying me a drink. Then I might explain the convolution. He’s very sweet, hyper, and friendly.

Although I think lots of hissing has gone on. And we are puppysitting today (set up before the kitten showed up). So there are four cats and two dogs in a space that still has all the furniture willy nilly. Yeah. Chaos. So I’m going to stick around here today, I think, a bit more than I was originally planning to, just because I think the Man’s patience might be worn a bit thin. Although the cat is his. Or Simba’s. Hard to say.

I have plenty of stuff to do around here. I can go to ceramics tomorrow if I don’t get there today. I do need to be more focused today than I was yesterday. I guess I was focused on moving shit yesterday. The Man’s back injury doesn’t allow him to lift much, but he is a Logistics guy, so he was useful for how to do things, but sometimes a little too tell-me-how-to-do-it. Sigh. There’s a fine line, I know. I also have some school stuff to work on, after meeting with my co-teacher yesterday to evaluate the mess in each others’ rooms and for me to find my packets…why I didn’t take them with me in June? Oh I know. Because I needed to lock it all up and walk the fuck away. I’m not necessarily WORKING on stuff now. But at least I have it. It’s a beautiful day. I have art to make. I need a shower and more tea (Simba barking at 5:22 AM y’all). I need some food. It’s all good. Chaos and all. Maybe that’s the kitten’s name.

Getting Through…

Oh my. So today is carpet installation day 1. It is also the Man’s birthday (unfortunate that he had to get up early and the next two days are pretty stressful for the animals). Also we were hoping the boychild would be home from work to take the dog away for two days to his dad’s house. Nope. Haven’t seen him since the 28th of June, and now he’s at the Lake Fire in Santa Barbara County, so we probably won’t see him for a week. It’s OK. I’m in the office with the dog, who is stressed but has finally stopped barking. He got pets from the owner of the installation company, so that seemed to calm him down. He’s now listening to them pull up all the carpet stripping nail things, which I’m sure have an official name, but I don’t have the brain power right now to figure that out. I got up early to strip beds and pull servers (of course) and I have only half a cup of tea in me and my head hurts. Also we saw one cat take off down the hallway and we’re not sure where she is (she might be in the office with me for all I know). ANYWAY. And after all this, when I have new carpet FINALLY, it will be lovely. This carpet was put in by the previous owners and needed replacing when we moved in, but we figured waiting until the kids were older made sense (ha ha ha!!!), so it’s probably 30 years old? Maybe more? I’m guessing 1980s. It’s gross…but the work involved to move all the furniture and crap out of three bedrooms and three closets was why I never did it. That and not being able to afford it, although I think my parents were willing to pay for it. I just couldn’t visualize how to do it. And honestly, I’m not sure how I’m going to move all this shit back by myself…although the Man can lift up to 10 pounds, so drawers :-). And bedding. Sigh. As long as there’s a bed at the end of the day today, we’ll be fine. We do have air mattresses galore. And a tent. So we really will be fine. Probably not the nicest way to spend your birthday though. Although he could be teaching in a middle-school classroom…that’s how I usually spend mine.

So there’s been a lot of moving shit going on and prepping. A lot of doors to sand. I didn’t finish all of them. Didn’t even get close. Oh well. There were a lot of things I wanted done before the carpet went in, but I prioritized art over 8 hours a day of sanding and painting. As always.

After writing on Saturday, I made it to my quilt guild meeting. I was pretty out of it, but I did manage to stitch some hair.

I’m not sleeping well…it’s warm, I have a million itchy mosquito bites, and the puppy is fussy at night…mostly animal sounds and stuff. Raccoons, skunks, coyotes. The Man comes to bed late (he’s stressed about his back and lack of work)…so then I wake up and can’t go back to sleep. It’s fun. Really. Saturday was mostly a lost day…there were things I was going to do that just didn’t happen. I was really efficient Friday and then Sunday, I got more done in the morning before pilates than I did all day Saturday. Ah well. It is summer break, so I can get away with that. I read my book! That’s progress.

I did finish quilting the second piece on Saturday…and trimmed it for binding.

I had to clean the floor first, because…sanding. Dust everywhere. I trimmed the other one as well.

One of the plans for today involves getting the binding sewn on these two so I can handsew at night. I also packed up an older quilt that my SIL (and brother, whether he likes it or not) is going to hang in her dining room and hopefully sell…or if not, she can just stare at it until she’s sick of it and picks another one. So hopefully I’ll make it to UPS today. I needed to get that quilt and these other two out of the way so I could have room to start ironing the big one together. Hopefully tomorrow? We’ll see. I sense furniture moving in my future.

Claywise, I’ve been trying to go into the studio every couple of days. I tried fitting top to bottom…had to do some carving to get it to sit down.

The hands work OK though…that was the other worry. The upper hand is touching the torso, but helps it balance.

Then I got the heart attached…

I also built a hollow thing for a totem-type pole/garden stake series they’re doing at the studio…

I’m not sure the holes are big enough, but I can carve them larger if need be. I formed it over two bowls and filled it with newspaper…it was leather hard by the time I left. It’s been so hot. I underglazed one side for sgraffito. I figured that was the easiest/fastest thing I could make. I can carve fast if I need to…especially during the summer.

The dog is finally just lying on the floor, even though there’s banging going on outside the office door. Good boy.

I’ve also been working on the central panel for Homegrown…getting all those bits sewn down for embroidery.

I’m not looking forward to appliqueing all the velvet bits. Pain in the ass, velvet. Looks lovely afterwards though. But there’s like 25 circles in velvet. Ugh.

So we don’t know where Nova is hiding right now…but last night, she was in my drawers…luckily I thought to cover them with a towel. These drawers are at my head height. The cats sort of love our current hoarder household.

I can’t stand it. This is partly why I keep leaving for the studio! The Man lived in a tiny house for a while and his place was kind of like this…drove me crazy, but he tolerated it. I need more open space apparently. I did realize I need my work bag and keys tomorrow, and they’re on the fireplace hearth…about two feet into this chaos. So that’ll be fun to figure out tonight. I think I can reach it if I move about 8 bins and an old sewing machine. Hopefully. Should have thought of that before now, but oh well.

A friend posted this…

I kind of want to draw this. Somehow. My sketchbook is buried somewhere too. I need more tea but there is a guy banging stuff right outside this door…suspect the metal strip that is between the old carpet and the tile of the kitchen is challenging them. NEED TEA Y’ALL.

OK, today’s plan…binding on two quilts, finish packing the other quilt and ship it, take the Man out to his birthday dinner, write that other blogpost for the art group I’m in. Hopefully move some stuff back into the master bedroom. READ MY BOOK. If I’m ever allowed out of this room. Dog is chill…trying to keep him that way. Some days are just about getting through them to the quiet, organized, newly carpeted future.

Legit Bugs

Hey oh. I suspect everyone thought yesterday was some day besides Friday…I heard ‘Saturday’ and ‘Monday’. I knew it was Friday but somehow forgot to actually WRITE on Friday. I was busy. I got up and showered and went to the ceramics studio, came back for a stitching Zoom, then a trip to the local farmers market, and then a ton of sanding…more of that in my future. All good. I just forgot to write anything. Ah well.

I’ve been trying to finish the two smaller quilts, or at least get them to handsewing stage, before I start ironing the big one together. I got the first one quilted a few days ago…

And then started the other one yesterday…

This is what happens if you walk away from the machine and don’t fold everything up so Kitten can’t get to it…

I sorted the big quilt’s pieces…

That took a couple of hours. In clay, I did some final glazing on the winged woman…

I suspect she went in a glaze fire yesterday, but we’ll see. She has fabric in her future.

And then I started underglazing on the current piece. The base is ready for it…

I didn’t finish.

More clay tomorrow…I’m trying to go in every other day during the summer. Between the quilt stuff and the clay stuff, this summer is delightful. This is my solution to burnout.

I did…well, I didn’t volunteer, but when I was asked, I said yes…agree to do some demos at the Oceanside Museum of Art’s Street Level Volume 2 event in a couple of weeks. I never understand my brain when it says yes to this stuff. Although it gets my work and name out there, I guess. I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll be demoing bugs.

I ended up enlarging that little one on the bottom. Some are legit bugs. Not sure about the bottom one. I’ll have them in different stages and then demo some of the stages. We’ll see how that goes.

I bought this for the prep room at school for the next school year.

It’ll make 50 cups of tea…between me and my co-teacher, hopefully we won’t need all of those cups in one year, but who knows.

Butterflies everywhere…

I’m still watching that cocoon.

No hatching…hatching? Is that the right word? I don’t know.

It’s been warm. Not the heat wave you keep seeing on the news.

I mean, they keep giving us warnings, but I think we’re still pretty bearable. Cats may disagree.

My phone thinks my volume is too high.

Intriguing. I’ve been listening to a book while quilting and doing yardwork and housework. I have one earpod in. Apparently now it will decrease my volume whether I like it or not (I need to be able to hear over the sewing machine. Fascist phone. What if people are hard of hearing? Anyway, I’m sure if I Google it I can figure out how to turn it off. Technology. Took me 30 minutes yesterday on chat with a Zoom person to figure out how to send feedback about their new cost increases. Y’all, I am not a professional Zoom user. I do not use it for my business (well, sometimes I do, but my business is one person. Me.). Why don’t they have a level between the free Basic and Pro that does not cost so much? For what I use it for, I don’t need all the AI and phone stuff…I just wanna hang out with my faraway friends on Zoom a couple times a month. Sheesh. Stupid.

OK, quilt guild meeting today. Need to sand doors (ugh). Lots of doors. Need to finish quilting this small one and pack up one to ship to my SIL for her wall. Her job is to sell it off her wall. Or just enjoy it. Also fine. The yardwork needs to start, as we go into a warm week. Carpet starts Monday…so I moved a bunch of drawers, but still have some stuff to move at the last minute…that’ll be tomorrow. Hoping to hike today? But will need to wait until 6 PM I think for it to cool down enough. That interferes with the Man’s dinner plans, although he’s going out to lunch, so he’ll probably need a nap. Might be hiking alone. Plan.

Slipping Off Slowly

I just realized it’s July. I missed that. Hello July! It’s the only full month of break that I get. I have a ton of things to do still, but I’m doing a good job of feeling like I’m on break. I’m doing lots of art and reading books. These are good things. I’m feeling the burnout slipping off slowly. This is awesome. I need to do more of that. I need to focus on forcing that into the new school year. I can’t do this every year. I need my day job to be only a day job…not an every-moment-you’re-awake-and-even-when-you’re-trying-to-sleep job. The less my day job allows me time, the more I think about retirement from that job. This is also the month I don’t get a paycheck…somewhat stressful.

Am I also stressed about American politics and the Supreme Not Court and the possibility of 40 more years of Trump? FUCK YEAH. Will that show up in a future quilt (or 10)? Oh my, yes. Right now, the big quilt I’m working on has a ton of war, especially Gaza and those affected by that war, and reproductive rights, which have been a constant issue in my head for a looonnngggg time. And thanks to those who can’t stay in their lane and get out of other people’s uteri, that’s not stopping any time soon.

Meanwhile, I do a little bit of that big quilt a day…

I thought I might be done Monday night, but that didn’t happen…Tuesday night, it did.

Almost 22 hours of trimming pieces, and I didn’t do the smallest pieces. I don’t cut them out until the last minute so I don’t lose them. So up next? Sorting them. That’ll be a couple of hours. Gonna wait for that part of the house to cool down to do that. It’s the sunny side right now.

I also sandwiched and pinbasted the two smaller pieces that have been lying around.

This meant crawling around on the tile with my kneepads on, sweating my ass off.

Small quilts don’t take as long…

There’s the second one…

Both ready for quilting now. Won’t take long. Just need to get my act together to get them done. And my act is on summer break. So there’s that. I had a plan this morning and it already got exploded, but for a good phone call, so I’m OK with that. Real life often gets in the way of plans.

I wanted to get to the ceramics studio this morning. I got there yesterday and happily had the opportunity to put iron oxide on my piece…

And then I started to wipe off the excess iron oxide…

I have some more glaze that needs to go on…some satin clear in a few areas, and I’m going to update the cat’s white fur. I tried to avoid the iron oxide there, but that’s kind of impossible. Well, that’s not true. I’d need wax resist and I didn’t have any, and I really didn’t think of it until today.

This back picture is a better view of the color…

And it will brown out a little when it’s fired. So ideally I would go in today and finish that up so she can be glazed. The other pots are probably ready to go in the bisque fire, but I’m getting totally into the glaze being perfect, which is silly. Anyway. Maybe today.

I’ve also been working on the upper torso of the world figure. The plan with this one is to make a quilt that hangs behind it and comes down under it. The winged piece above will have feathered wings over the ceramic ones and some fabric coming out of the top smokestacks. That’s the goal anyway.

I added the second hand and did some carving on the face and the ‘hair’ and the shoulders…

This one will have mostly underglazes, I think. That’s the plan. It may change with time. I also picked up some more groggy free clay. Some Texas clay. I’m apparently a clay slut. I’ll use anything. I do know that what I’ve been using is not great for sculpture; it slumps a lot. So this will be good.

So what else? Reading. I’m so behind on gardening/yardwork and housework…the fixing part. I was waiting on the contractor to come in and finish the window, which he did yesterday. Now I need to sand some major areas before the carpet goes in next Monday. So that’s a deadline. We also have a heat wave coming in…they’re saying Friday and Saturday, but my weather app is showing Monday and Tuesday will be even hotter. Joy. Not.

I finished the Period book…fascinating stuff. New ideas, new science, about an ancient biological process.

“Require sterilization”…holy crap. That’s a thing? That’s so disturbing. I can’t even think of a reason why that makes sense biologically.

And this was the end of the book…kind of how I look at what I do in my quilts.

Lots of social media memes/graphics about our current political mess…

And this…

Our current Supreme Court is a joke.

I dissent.

In local news, it’s a good thing we moved all that furniture last Friday, because the boychild’s been working this fire for a few days now and will probably make it home for one day, maybe.

It’s east of here, and somewhat under control.

He’s still out there though. So Sunday night, I’ll have to empty dressers and move a few things, strip two beds Monday morning. Not too bad though.

Remembering this for the upcoming school year.

The last one seems relevant.

And lastly, Nova has found the roll of quilts that normally lives under the bed…now it’s 4 feet higher, but she’s still lying on it.

This is why they’re all covered in sheets.

OK. I’m watching the Stitchpunk Textile Talk, three artists whose work is in the show. I need to go to the ceramics studio. I need to get some greenery trashcans filled…although I just realized they won’t pick up until Friday because of the holiday. I need to buy a box to ship a quilt…the one box I have is buried way way back in the dining area…no chance of getting to it. And I need to ship the quilt that is currently on my worktable so I can start ironing the big quilt together in the next few days. I’ve got pilates, I’m almost done with my book (90%! So hard to not just read it right now), and I need more tea. Definitely slept better last night…the night before, there was a skunk or raccoon that set Simba off, and then two loose dogs around 2 AM that made us get up, our upper neighbors get up, Simba lost his mind, and it was just generally not sleep-conducive. The one dog got trapped in my yard and couldn’t figure out how to get out, so he just kept barking, and the other one was running around, all upset. He eventually got trapped in the upper neighbor’s yard, more barking. Scared dogs, so no persuading them toward us. We finally just opened all our gates and went back in, hopeful they would figure it out. And they did. Hoping also that they made it home, wherever that is. OK. Make a plan. Even if it’s reading and napping (sounds lovely, doesn’t it?).

Not My Supreme Court…Again.

So last year, I spent 5 months (was it that long?) working on a Supreme Court quilt in response to many of the decisions coming out of the court that just didn’t seem to make any sense. NO…I’m not making another one…yet. Nope. Not soon. I need to process. But I did remember that I never posted this video of the quilt before I mailed it off to its new owner. I actually had 4 videos and had to put them all together and make sure it mostly made sense. So I’ve done that…finally. Seriously, these videos are from January. It was a rough school year.

At some point, I’ll maybe write a post with pictures, but this is a pretty solid summary of what I was thinking about when I made it.

And no, they’re not doing any better these days as far as I’m concerned.

Here’s the quilt in the video.

The Wind Through the Leaves…

Hmmm. Yesterday was the perfect summer day for me. Some reading, some clay, some fabric stuff. It was warm but not too bad. The day before was pretty good too…more reading, more fabric stuff, a long hike, some drawing with dinner, more fabric stuff. I’m hoping to project this level of enjoyment/relaxation into the new school year (yes, I know some people don’t consider it relaxing to work on stuff like I do). Sunday afternoons at the ceramics studio? Why not? Because school. I need to shorten up the Sunday crazy and figure out how to get more of it done during the school day. I will have help this year; that will be nice. Also more literacy stuff and more sex-ed curriculum stuff. I never filled out the feedback form, dammit. Ah well. Put that on the list.

I guess Saturday and Sunday made up for Friday, when the boychild and I moved almost everything out of three bedrooms into the living room. We left beds, desks, and big dressers. At some point before the carpeting starts (next week; we now have a date), we will have to empty dressers and strip beds (not sure why I say ‘we’…it’s ‘me’), but for now, the living room is a hoarder warren of crazy shit that makes everyone claustrophobic…

Except Luna…who sits on that highest shelf, surveying her domain.

We moved everything early because the boychild might end up on a fire, and then I wouldn’t have been able to get all this moved. The Man can’t lift more than 10 lbs (injury) and I can’t lift most of this by myself. We have a cart, but again, by myself would have been a challenge. And at some point, we might have been doing carpet today instead of next week. So this was the solution. Sunday night/Monday morning will be a lifting event for me (all the drawers), but that’s a lot easier than all this. The real problem is where will we PUT all the drawers…and where will we sleep the first night (it’s gonna take two days). We’ll figure it out…couches and air mattresses.

The stained glass window got replaced on Saturday finally…it looks great!

The window was made by the previous owner. The wood around it was decaying and some of the cross supports had come loose, so the window was in danger of bowing out and/or breaking. I finally found someone who specializes in fixing these (took me like 6 months). They stabilized the window between two tempered glass pieces, my contractor guy replaced all the wood, and then we’re just waiting on the final bits of sealing the wood and window for it all to be done. Although then I need to paint that whole wall…and the other walls, if I want to be consistent. We’ll see how far I get. The wall opposite has a textured wallpaper the cats thought was a scratching post back in the day, so it needs to be removed. That’s a bigger challenge. Maybe not a 2024 challenge. I still need to paint the hallway…which includes 5 doors. Ugh. I have a bunch of sanding on my list for this week as prep for that, priming too if I can get to it.

I stitched down another quilt I had ironed together while waiting for my sewing machine to come back, and for my Art Brain to have enough power to draw a new big one.

It took a couple of days because it was in between all that moving shit and hiking around.

This is from some smaller drawing I did either on a plane or while camping or something. Oh wait, I found the drawing…from 12/20/18…so probably one of those Drawing a Day over Winter Break things I did. Hence the Christmas lights. So a 6-year-old drawing. Last December, I picked about 12 smaller drawings and enlarged them to work on in between things. I had just finished the Supreme Court quilt and another couple of smaller quilts, and my brain (due to school) was foggy as shit. So I started some of these.

I cleaned the entryway floor earlier today, so my next step is to sandwich and pinbaste the two smaller quilts for finishing.

I’ve been cutting things out on the big quilt for a little over 17 hours now…Friday night…

Saturday night…

And Sunday night…

The box on the bottom left is all that’s left…somewhere between 300 and 400 pieces left. I feel like I might get close to finishing that today. Maybe. Then a few hours of sorting, made almost impossible by the piling of shit in the living room. I mean, I could do it, but I would have to unpile and then repile some of that shit. I don’t want to wait a week for the next step though, so I’ll do it. Sometime in the next couple of days.

In clay news, I’m slowly working on the world figure’s upper torso. I have a base it sits into as I build, but I did check it again to make sure it’s going to shrink appropriately. It’s like a 12% shrink.

I’m OK with an imperfect fit, as long as it actually fits. I got one hand put on…holding that up, because the forearm and elbow haven’t hardened enough to fully hold it. The right arm, I got the elbow and forearm put on. At the moment, the whole upper torso is sitting on a separate base I built just to support this.

The support is under the plastic. There’s a sponge holding that hand up as it dries. The right arm is on the base until the hand goes on. I attached a partial version of hair (fire) to the head and then persuaded the head to attach to the torso. That back sponge is holding it up until it hardens. This clay is not great for sculpture, but it’s what I picked (what I used in class). I’ll pick one with more grog next. Maybe a little more? I don’t know. I like the smoother texture of this, which is half porcelain and half stoneware.

I made a heart.

I think I know how/where to attach it, but I need things to stiffen up first. There will be carving on the fire hair and the heart, and the plan is to add more ‘hair’ in the form of smoke from the fire. Yeah. Crazy.

The other piece made it out of the kiln!

Just a few cracks…iron oxide with a little bit of clear next, I think. Only clear on the underglazed bits. Then fabric wings hanging from the arms. And fabric coming out of the things on her head.

I numbered this sweet little thing. It only has 390 pieces.

Can’t trace it until the carpet is done. That’s OK. I have plenty to work on and this has a later deadline.

I also pieced this thing together.

I finished the embroidery on the center panel, and then thought I’d be sewing all the little houses together, whee!, but no. There’s a border around the central panel with 5 flowers on it. It’s fine. I won’t be sewing houses together until 2025.

We hiked in the Lagunas on Saturday…we were hoping for cooler weather, but no.

We started hiking around 4:30 PM and it was still 85 degrees.

It cooled down around 6 PM, which is when I would have preferred to start, but we were going to eat dinner up there and the restaurants all close by 8 PM.

It was beautiful, though, even though it was warm. There weren’t a ton of people, which was nice.

I love hiking around the little lakes and meadows up there. Well…unless there’s cows.

We had to walk right through a group of them, lots of calves, so potentially nervous moms. They were standing on the trail for a goodly portion of it, so we did some nervous (but calm) movements of our own to get across the field without pissing anyone off.

A tiny adrenaline rush. This hawk had a snake and was being chased by a smaller bird.

And here’s one of our three friendly crows here at home. I took the dog out in the morning and it was up there squawking at me because the Man hadn’t put out the trays of nuts for the birds yet.

And I am still reading about the period. Good book. I’m reading two books, actually, one fiction and one nonfiction…

This is too real for all the crazy shit going on these days. Like how do you show your Supreme Court is corrupt without saying they’re corrupt? Just look at what they allow and disallow. Sigh. I don’t know that I have another Supreme Court quilt in me. Certainly the bullshit is all still there.

OK, it’s a Monday, but it feels like a Saturday. I have some stuff I have to do today, but first, I am going to pinbaste these two quilts, because that’s sweaty business and I want a shower. Work for it! Also hopefully going to get close to finishing the cutting-it-out phase of the big quilt. I’m sure there’s more on my to-do list that I haven’t remembered, like watering, for sure (it’s been hot and dry) and filling up greenery trash cans (never stops)…but also some reading…and appreciating how quiet it is today with all the kids inside or at camp or I don’t even care WHERE they are, it’s blissfully quiet except for the birds and the bugs. No tree trimming, no sawing, no yardwork, no screaming, no yelling. Just the wind through the leaves. And the Man watching some loud thing (it just got loud…).

Summer Achievement Unlocked

I have officially lost track of the days. Good job! Summer achievement unlocked. Well, except I still have to do things and some of them are on my calendar and sometimes I ignore my calendar, which isn’t very mature, I admit, but there are a lot of books to be read and that’s important.

House update: stained glass not installed (sigh). Tomorrow hopefully. Carpet ordered; hoping to get a start date today, although we are already moving shit in anticipation, because it might be Monday, which is some number of days in the future. I realized at some point that we might not have an actual bed to sleep in on the Man’s birthday. It’s OK. We have blow-up mattresses. We have tents. We’ll figure it out. I am jealous of every post I see of people in the mountains with pine trees right now. I love that stuff. Maybe later this summer.

So clay first. I finally FINALLY put this thing in the kiln.

I gave up on the snake head being attached. I’ll try again at bisque, and if that doesn’t work, there’s epoxy. I started her so long ago…I have a date of 4/19 on the greenware shelf to dry, but then I fixed some things and then underglazed at the beginning of June. I’m pretty sure I started her in March. She’s in now. Let’s hope she holds up. She’s supposed to get fabric wings and ‘hair’. So yeah. Iron oxide wash at the next firing. It’s going to be OK. Or it’s not. I realize I’m so so paranoid about the first kiln fire because of that one firing in college when everything exploded. I can remake anything though.

I have 5 pots on the greenware shelf, drying. I finally got to a point where I was happy with the underglaze on the sgraffito pot. The others are dryer but not dry enough. I’m super paranoid about drying speed too. But they’ll probably go in the kiln next week some time. And then the piece I’m working on, I started in April, the bottom part, then put it aside to work on the sgraffito piece. So I decided because of the height of my shelf and the dryness of the base to make the top separate, to have it slot into the bottom (might be a mistake). So I built a fake base and I’m building off that right now. I had it on the real base, but it’s getting too tall, and the arms need supports, so this is easier. I let it sit for a couple days in between each subsequent build to harden up a little, but not too much.

One arm is ready for a hand. The other one has an elbow and forearm that I’m trying to keep wet enough to attach, but might have to give up on…we’ll see tomorrow or Sunday.

I made the hands on Tuesday…

I need to work on hand construction. These are so blocky and solid, which I like and don’t like. But they’ll do for now. The face, I started that yesterday…

I draw a lot of open-mouthed faces, so I wanted to try that in clay. It’s currently hardening up a bit so I can figure out how to attach it to the neck. Plus hair…hair is weird in clay. So I’ll go in tomorrow or Sunday and attach the hands and/or the rest of the other arm, hopefully get the head on, or decide to do hair first, make sure it all still sits properly in the base. I need to make a heart too. I’m not very good at building with clay but I enjoy it. It’s hard to not be good at something, but I enjoy that too.

In quilt news, I’ve been cutting things out pretty seriously the last few days…

I’ve put in 10 hours and 40 minutes, and I’m more than halfway done. The pieces are put into the box with the lowest numbers at the bottom, highest at the top, and I work my way down. So I’m currently cutting pieces out in the 700 and 800s. So that means there’s probably another 10 hours to go.

I had two Zooms yesterday, which helped. Today, I’m supposed to be moving a lot of stuff, but I don’t have all the medical stuff I had yesterday…I am approved to lift things, though, and I don’t have TB (teachers have to be tested for that regularly). All good. The Dermabond glue on my boob scar is finally starting to wear off…pro: it will look better, con: it’s still sore. Not as bad as the biopsy though. The doc said all good, no need for more than the normal surveillance. SURVEILLANCE. Yeah that’s not what I think of when they say mammograms and breast exams. This thing wasn’t palpable anyway. Only found in a mammogram. Fun times.

Speaking of fun times, we have crows and hawks constantly squawking. This one was loud as heck yesterday afternoon.

Probably wondering where that other big tree is that used to be in my neighbor’s yard. They cut it down, Hawk! Cut It Down. I know, WTF?

I’m in the third book in the Alchemical Journeys series by Seanan McGuire…really enjoy this world.

I’ve finished 7 books since school ended on the 14th. Well, 8 if you count the one I finished ON the 14th (I didn’t). I love to read. I love to lose myself in other worlds. I love that I can read before bed and not worry about having to be up for work, although there is no sleeping in…someone started tree trimming at 8 and I was already half awake…and there was no sleeping through that shit. Ah well. Still more sleep than I would have gotten during the school year.

I do constantly say “I’m here” in response to those questions. This might be what I mean. I actually find it very difficult to come up with a pat response to that question.

Anyway. Today. Breakfast, more tea, more moving shit, putting quilts away (might need help with some of that). Cutting things out. I have two art shows to enter, I need to do stitchdown on that other quilt so I can pinbaste both of them, and I finished the center piece on the Sue Spargo Homegrown piece. I was all excited, thinking it was time to trim all the houses and sew them together, but no. The center piece has borders with big ballsy flowers on it. Hmm. I see. Wasn’t expecting that. Found the pattern and fabrics (that’s an achievement in itself right now). So I’ll get that process started (because now I won’t be putting those things together until probably Winter Break!). Ah well. It’s a process. It’s fine. Probably gonna go read something first. Reading sounds nice, doesn’t it?