Anywhere We Go…*

Holy moly, waste of a morning just trying to get technology to work right. Chrome just doesn’t like me unless I’m incognito. So there we are. Seriously, I meant to be sewing right now. I quilted for about 6 hours yesterday and got all the outlining done and started on the background quilting. By the end, the machine was making some noises, but I think it’s the foot…I’m not sure. I’m hoping I can finish today and go buy the binding and maybe even get it sewn on.

I also bent the hell out of a needle…usually they break!

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So I need to check my needle stash before I start sewing again.

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I wasn’t sure I’d get the outlining done even, it was taking so long. Fourteen hours plus of just outlining.

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One eye done, one eye not.

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Her whole face, although I realized afterward that I never did the starfish, so I’ll have to go back and do that.

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The kids and I stayed up way too late, me quilting, the others chatting and searching up weird makeup videos and who knows what else. Almost every animal was in here with us. So we’re all slow-moving this morning. Ugh.

I bought this the other day…couldn’t resist.

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Because I need another sketchbook? Nah. But all those goofy creatures. I will never run out of sketchbooks.

OK. Quilt my ass off today. Seriously.

*IAMDYNAMITE, Hey Girl

I Don’t Get What They Do It For…

I think I’m officially in panic mode…and it’s because we were proactive Wednesday and started planning the first science unit of the school year. But then you start thinking about what you need to do, what needs to be set up, what changes you want to make from last year. And you start to panic. You think about how many hours a day you will have to be grading and planning, on top of the hours at school, plus meetings etc. And how are you going to get everything else done? And new schedules and students and realizing you’re getting ALL the little brothers and sisters of the kids you happily said goodbye to in previous years. And then yesterday (I didn’t even have time to write yesterday), you have a nice luncheon with teacher friends, and it gets worse. I know I do this every year. I freak out about a week or two before school starts, because I realize how little I got done and how much is left to do, and I’m losing days left and right to school crap. Plus the kids will be leaving for college at about the same time, and that sucks too.

And the art stuff has been difficult to get done this summer, between working another job and having machine issues. And today I found out I have another project that has to get slotted in there. I mean, it’s a good thing, it’s something I wanted to do, but I’m hyperventilating.

Stop. Deep breaths. Manage.

Thankfully, all the construction noise that surrounds me at the moment didn’t start up until 9 AM this morning. They actually let me sleep a little. It’s been a sleepless summer.

Yeah. Gotta get my head out of this crazy.

So Wednesday, we hiked, and then I quilted a little bit Wednesday and Thursday nights…I’m up to 10 hours in. And I’m hoping to get it done sometime tomorrow.

I originally hoped to be done today, but it’s already 10 AM and I have errands, plus gaming tonight, so that ain’t happening. But hopefully I can get significantly into the background today.

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There’s a lot of detail on this thing, and some fussy little stuff for quilting, like those passion flowers, but they look awesome now that they’re done.

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I got the whole lower torso done Wednesday night…

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And even moved on to the heart…

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Then Thursday night, I did the right breast, covered with cat…

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Strategically placed flower for nipple…and then did the tiger (hid the nipple in the fur pattern) and the cactus and the seaweed to finish up the left breast and arm, except for the octopus. It was midnight. I was tired.

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So today, I’m going to do the head and the right arm, plus the very top of the torso. And then start the hours of background. This one has a lot of it.

So I had been wanting to do either a Cuyamaca or Lagunas hike all summer, but it takes a while to get out there, plus weather, so this last Wednesday was the first one I felt organized enough to pull it off. I have to make dinner ahead of time and figure out the leaving time based on sunset and hike times, etc. I wanted to repeat a hike I did in January 2015, but that was full snow. I read the organizer’s description, but there was one section I couldn’t figure out, so I emailed him and he sent the GPS map, which actually turned out to be way more useful than all the Afoot and Afield pages I photographed. In the end, it was a well-marked trail and we only had one minor crisis of direction. It lasted about 2 minutes.

It was a gorgeous day for it…nice and cool for most of it. They threatened thunderstorms in the early afternoon, and the clouds definitely looked like they could pull that off, but we didn’t start hiking until 5 PM.

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I love the mountain vistas, the pines, even the dead grass.

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And the views. Smartass.

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There was some minor bouldering, just because.

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I like hiking with my kids. It’s gonna suck when they’re gone. We did see a deer, but I couldn’t get a photo of it in time. We thought we’d see more when we got to the meadows, but the cows were out and so were the mountain bikers, so just the one. And girlchild didn’t see it, so she was pissed.

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There’s something about climbing up…

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Lots of bugs and grasses on the back end of the trail, the Sunset Trail portion.

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And then we came out into the cows…and the Water of the Woods, which still has water. Last time I saw it, it was mostly frozen over.

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The meadows are gorgeous, even without water in the lakes.

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We came back via the Big Laguna Trail…there weren’t any other hikers that we saw…just one pair of bikers on this end, and then a group of about 15 of them near the end, and we could outwalk them on the slopes.

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Big beautiful pines that survived the fires. You can see the burn marks on the trunks.

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The sun was definitely on its way down. We had a couple of really slow miles due to…um…chaos. Let’s just call it that. But we sped up on these last miles (and we had headlamps, worst case).

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We figure some virus or something causes these giant ball-shaped things on the old oaks…

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And this has to be woodpeckers…or something. Such perfectly placed holes, all the way up and down the trunk.

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This low-lying plant (not the grasses) had all these weird giant pods all over it.

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We saw morteros galore in this rock…would have been a nice place to hang out in the summer. Much cooler than East County is at the moment.

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I think this was officially sunset. We did think we should have gone BACK the Sunset Trail, so we could have seen the actual sunset, but this worked…

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These tiny flowers were everywhere…

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This was watching sunset hit the trees to the east…

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And the last bit of the path, as dusk fell around us.

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We drove off in the dark, 8 miles, a good hike…probably the last long one before they leave. We’ll see.

And yesterday, while talking to the garden guy who came out to help me figure out my yard, we watched the raccoon who has been hanging out in our yard walk right across in broad daylight and climb the tree…about 30 feet up. He’s sleeping in a fork of the tree up there…

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If you can’t figure it out, the left circle is one of his feet and the right circle is his head.

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I didn’t have my phone when he walked across the yard, unfortunately.

So I’m quilting today. Lots of hours. Need to get done. Construction noise has started up again. So distracting. Oh well. Turn up the noise.

*Amanda Palmer, The Killing Type

Oh Life, It’s Bigger*

I got some significant quilting in last night…was finally able to get my head down and into it without breaking the thread every 20 minutes etc. What a relief. What’s ironic is that I don’t have much quilting time in the next two days…OK, not ironic. Just plain frustrating. But it’s all stuff I need to do in one way or another, so I have to just take a deep breath and realize I’ll be quilting all weekend to get done. Or something.

I can only sit like that for so long…

So I did some tulips and grapes and a giraffe and some trees and a hand…

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And a crane that took a really long time and was very hard to see in the dark (sheesh. I need better light in here.).

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Oh yeah, and a gecko. I started on the vines around him, but didn’t finish.

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Look at his suction cup toes! OK. That’s crazy.

There’s the whole crane…

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It was not easy to stitch without good lighting. I have a light on my old machine…I’ll need to get one for this one, I think. Yeah, I think this machine will do the job.

I did a flower as well. Just a little one.

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I still need to do a good chunk of the stuff in the lower torso. It’s all lots of tiny details, but they all really pop once the stitching is done. Aargh. I really want to just stay home and do this. It’s the hardest part about going back to school, because I often come home too tired to really manhandle a quilt under the machine. Or to do anything, honestly. The first two weeks are usually pretty difficult. Plus I was missing my kids already last night. Got all sad in the head.

I played with puppy quite a bit last night to tire him out, and finally put him on the chair (Kitten allowed it) so he would stop trying to rip up the linoleum floor in here. Yes. It’s coming up. I know. But you don’t have to HELP it. He’s like offended by the floor. Honestly it makes more sense to be offended by the wallpaper. Or the general mess in here.

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I have not made a significant dent in any of the messes in the house. Well, except the entryway. And stuff is already piling up in there (OK, most of it is going to school today).

I spent most of the day with girlchild. I had a Groupon at our local ceramic-painting place. She made me an awesome mug last year (World’s Okayest Mom) and I broke it. Funny…I do break mugs all the time (I’m a klutz), but usually after years of using them. I think this one lasted a few months. So I painted a mug for me and she painted a mug for me.

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Mine is the weird one, yes.

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Hers is for me to take to school. I’m amused.

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Appropriate use of an apostrophe. Thank god.

School. I am so not ready.

*REM, Losing My Religion

If Today Is All We See*

So. I went in yesterday with the two sewing machines that I had killed now, and even though I made sure the newer one didn’t work in the morning, it worked by the time we got there. But what he thought it was now was something that wasn’t even worth it to fix…it would cost too much. Parts aren’t even made any more (my “newer” machine is probably circa 1990). The older one he could make work, no problem, but he cautioned me that it wouldn’t hold up to my quilting practices.

So it’s not that I’m hard on machines per se…it’s that the average person drives their car about 15,000 miles a year, say, and if we’re talking about my car, I drive it more like 100,000 miles a year. Except we’re talking about sewing machines. And it’s not easy sewing…it’s hard on the machine itself. So dirt roads for the car.

To shorten the story, mom and I went back and I’m currently test-driving an older Sapphire, which has the larger harp, but is more of a workhorse. It’s used…but probably not much. Yesterday, I managed to quilt most of this one using only one bobbin…

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Not bad. I broke a needle in the beginning, but I think I was using the wrong foot. I switched to the one my mom loaned me, a springy bouncy free-motion foot, and I was much better off. It’s different than my old machine, of course, but it was pretty easy to use after I tried four different things and ripped a bunch out and tried again.

So later that night, I tried the outline quilting I do, which is very different…much slower, I need control, and it goes through a ton of layers. It did really well with this.

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It was late by then, so I didn’t do a lot, but I’ll do some more today and then make a decision. I think it will work, though. All my sewing machines have been hand-me-downs from my mom…but she does more of the design work, and I don’t need something like that, so she’s been trading in her old ones over the years to get the one she’s got now. This one is much simpler, but will hopefully stand up to the work I give it.

And the good news is that I can now quilt this shit out of this thing and get it done. I want the quilting done this week (although the next three days are kinda screwed for that…).

We did walk the dogs yesterday…

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There are so few dog walks left with the kids this summer. Wah. Calli had something wrong with her foot at some point, and boychild considered carrying her. It didn’t last long (she fussed and squirmed)…

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The other thing about this machine is that I can close the lid and the thread is covered up completely. So it’s CAT PROOF. Oh yeah.

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That’s a selling point. I still have to do this with the quilt to keep Midnight from lying on it or vomiting on it, but I don’t have to remember to remove the spool and rethread every time. That’s a plus.

It’s funny though. I was sitting there contemplating having no working machine at all, or limping through on the old one until I completely trashed it, or trying to use other people’s machines and knowing that I couldn’t do that forever…and I thought, shit, I should be a painter or something. No major machinery that you need for that. But it’s not actually cheaper in the long run, I think. Brushes and paints aren’t cheap if they’re good quality. Certainly I could still quilt without a machine, do it all by hand. I did that with a few of my early quilts (and even they aren’t hand-quilted…just hand-appliqued) and it took FOREVER. So I’d finish like one small quilt a year. When right now I’m looking at needing to finish three or four large quilts before the end of the year, certainly before next spring, another two more. And two or three smaller ones. Oh yeah. It’s crazy, but you can’t do it without a machine that works. So there we are.

It’s my Christmas present. I have good parents who try to support my crazy art. And honestly, when you think about the stuff you get for Christmas and birthdays, this is one of the best presents for someone like me.

*Zero 7, Morning Song

The Plan…

So the sewing machine is having issues…it’ll go in for service in two weeks (they’re booked that far out). It froze up on me twice the other afternoon. I had decided to take a break from Earth Mother 2016 and do a quick quilt job on the other smaller piece I’ve had hanging around for a million years…

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Mostly so I could take three small pieces to the photographer at once, instead of one at a time (more expensive). I got through most of the outlining before it froze. I cleaned out the bobbin area, because that’s usually an issue, and started up again, but 15 minutes later, it did it again. This time, I pulled the whole bobbin case out and found a wealth of tied-up fluff crap.

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It was wrapped around the case…and I pulled all this out…

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Cool. Then tried sewing again yesterday, got about 15 minutes in, and it froze again. Shit. Anyway. Already have a cleaning appointment. Guess I’m not sewing until then, unless I pull out the old trusty maroon Viking. Which I could do, if I were desperate. It’s scary when you call your repair guy and he asks about your old machine (because he took it apart and put it back together again enough times).

We had dinner last night at the parentals…three dogs in one picture.

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And then I tried to get stuff done…been clearing up the table in the studio (currently it’s in piles on the floor instead)…and then came out and forced myself to watch cooking shows with the girlchild (some of them really annoy me, but she didn’t want to be alone) while cutting stuff out…Midnight was so helpful.

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Puppy eventually settled down and stopped trying to attack me as I was cutting…

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And I cut for two hours…only 4 hours and 40 minutes in total. Box on the left is cut out…doesn’t look like much. But neither does the box on the right. Hard to believe there’s possibly another 16 hours of cutting hiding in there.

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Here’s all the bits and pieces. I do save them.

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Not forever…just until I have the quilt ironed down, because I might need just a small piece of one color. Usually, it’s the small pieces that disappear the easiest. And then I don’t have to pull out the big pieces. I do throw them out after I’m done ironing. I had a quilt artist friend who used to ask me for them, but she’s moved on. And none of them are really big enough for anything useful.

And here’s a blogpost I did for the California Fibers’ show Eclectic Threads (which I’ve been calling Eclectic Fibers for months)…it’s at the Oceanside Museum of Art through October 9. I have photos from two of the other exhibits in there, which are pretty cool. I’ll try to remember to post them this week.

I’m gonna have to start copyediting again soon. Two more chapters are sitting here and I don’t want to look at them next weekend either. So maybe I’ll do some today. We have a dog walk on the list and burgers of course and then fireworks with the hordes. But not a lot else. Isn’t Independence Day about lying around and doing nothing but eat and watch stuff?

As far as planning quilt stuff out, I know I have no working sewing machine until the 20th at the earliest, but there’s got to be another 16 hours of cutting (although it doesn’t look that way), and then another 20 hours plus of ironing. So potentially I would be ready to stitch down earlier than that date…so I need to think about the next steps for whatever’s next on the list. Drawing then. Maybe that’s something I try to do today. In between cleaning and cooking and all the other crap. And working! So I can have a full-size drawing for the next big piece ready to go. I can also pick fabrics for the little owl. I’ve put that off because I want to see what this one that I’ve already picked looks like once I’ve ironed it. Then it’s easier for me to adjust. There are plenty of things I can work on…seriously. And there’s no real deadline for this piece…just a plan. I always have a plan. It’s not always a good one. Or sane. But it’s a plan.

Art over Work…

Although I have 700 things to grade and the deadline is positively LOOMING over me (it always does…some times of the year, it just feels like I’m ducking down to avoid responsibilities for weeks at a time), I am blowing it all off today for art. Seriously. It’s the weekend. I’ll deal with it tomorrow. And Monday. And every freakin’ day next week. Whatever doesn’t get done…doesn’t get done. Honestly, nobody’s grade is changing THAT much at this point.

Teachers at the end of the year…sigh. I was done yesterday, and we still have nine more days.

Anyway, I got nothing done last night because of gaming and exhaustion, but I will today. First, I have to deliver Mammogram to the Oceanside Museum of Art…the opening of the California Fibers: Eclectic Fibers show is Saturday, June 25, from 6-8 PM. If you’re planning on coming, let me know and I can put you on a list so you can get in free.

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There will also be some sort of artist talk on July 12 from 6:30-8. It will either be artist meet and greet or an artist panel, but I’m planning on being there either way. The show is open for quite a while, so you have plenty of chances to go see it.

The closing exhibition for Feminism Now is next Saturday from 6-10 PM, which is part of the Barrio Art Crawl. I will need to be there at 10 to pick up my work, but I won’t be there for the whole 4 hours! (Sorry)

I have a post-it attached to my computer with all the upcoming deadlines and ideas for some of them (at least one of them needs a drawing in the next month or so). However many things I have on my phone to remind me of stuff, sometimes I just need to go old school so I can SEE it every day. All the ways you can poke the brain into remembering shit.

The rest of today will be tracing stuff and then the Art around Adams two-mile art and music event this afternoon and evening. Because it’s a weekend and summer and it doesn’t all have to be work all the time. Because that’s what makes us cranky. But first I have to drive to Oceanside. Eh. Oh well. It’s for a good thing. The other stuff today will help with inspiration for the next few pieces (that nightstand thing is currently rolling around in my head, and not necessarily in a good way). Hopefully I can get some drawing in soon too.

Support

About 4 or 5 years ago, I was coming to the realization that my work doesn’t necessarily fit in the quilt world, that there are shows I can get into, but there are also many that I can’t, because the imagery is too challenging or controversial or hell…it has boobs and a vulva and those things aren’t allowed. Because 50% of the population needs to have their parts hidden away? Well it’s not like there’s a bunch of art out there with penises on it, unless it’s the oh-so-acceptable sculptural types from the Renaissance. I was in a few quilt groups that ran on the art side of things, but I was looking for local groups, places where I felt less isolated and out there in the art world. I wasn’t in the San Diego art world at all.

So I started looking, and I found two groups that I’ve been a part of since then, one juried and one not, and between the two of them, I’ve been in about 10 shows in Southern California and beyond (one is traveling to Sweden next year), but more importantly, I’m growing this support group of people who know my work and support me and have no problems with fabric inhabiting the art world. I can have a conversation with almost anyone in either group, and I’m starting to find other opportunities because of belonging…my 2-person show in January absolutely came about because of my membership in one of the groups with the curator. I was just juried into another group and members from both groups voted for me…hence more opportunities to show work.

Being in local shows doesn’t seem like a big deal…I get work into shows all the time and it travels all over the world. But it is a big deal, because the local shows are where I meet people in person who are looking at the work and talking to me…giving me tangible support to keep making. Not that I will stop…not that I know HOW to stop. This drive does not slow down for exhaustion or my job or other obligations. I hear it in the back of my head all the time (Make Make Make). But now I have people I see at shows, people who have my back, people who talk to me about my work, their work, work in general. People who push me to do different work, like the 17-foot woman from last year and the nightstand I’ll be doing this year. This is all good.

We had an artists’ talk for my women’s art group yesterday at our show Feminism Now. Amusingly, someone actually did some mansplaining for us, telling us how the problems we think exist don’t any more. Say what? But it was a good discussion anyway. I got to hear a few artists talk about their work, artists I hadn’t heard from before. As our group grows, I’m finding it hard to make sure I can place name with face (we need to work on that as a group), but I do know the group serves to support female artists in a city that is known for ignoring or even censoring our presence. This discussion of what is a feminist, what is feminism NOW, and especially to us…it’s important and our group isn’t going to let it drop.

Here’s most of the women who were in the show (there’s a chunk of women who weren’t…it’s a big group now).

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Wirework outside the gallery…suspect Spenser Little at work…

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So most of my day was picking up work from being juried and spending time at the gallery for the talk and trying to get better pictures for an official group blogpost of the show…but I did eventually (after grading of course) come back and start tracing again…

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This piece is slow going, but it will be worth it. I’ve got about 3 hours in and I’m only on piece 220. The first 115 pieces were large and kind of convoluted, so they took longer to trace. Now I’m into the tiny pieces mostly, with some background stuff in there.

This is what it looks like from the back when I’m tracing…

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Except the light on the light table is on. But the numbers are all backwards, which takes some getting used to. I did the left thigh last night: a raccoon and some flowers and leaves. I stopped when I got to the owl, because it was 100 pieces (at least) and it was after midnight. I was tired. I stayed up another half hour to let my brain relax…don’t know if it worked, but I zonked out pretty fast. Good sign.

Apparently I have to trace the owl twice…although I think I will redraw him so he has all his parts first…because he’s missing some parts of his tail I think, and part of a wing. I could do that today as well.

I do have two more classes of the last unit to grade today, plus making new seating charts…very exciting stuff. And groceries and laundry. It’s nice to have an extra day for it though. It would have been hard to deal with going back to school today with everything I was trying to get done over the weekend. Trying to keep up with my job and live life and make art…it’s a lot, and I’m totally looking forward to a break in a few weeks with summer vacation (I’ll still be making art…just not trying to juggle the job in the middle of it). I’m looking forward to sitting out on the deck and relaxing with my sketchbook. I’m looking forward to having the time to reconnect with my art brain in a less stressful way. Also eating and peeing when I want…those are pluses. And fewer demands on my patience (only 2 kids instead of 155 and mine are adults, so hopefully that will help).

What’s Next?

So the first kid comes home today. Her room was relatively clean, but I didn’t wash her bedding after she left because I did that when she left in August and then her cat puked all over the clean stuff. So I waited this time, and sure enough, there was puke. Damn cat. So I just need to make her bed. So the cat can puke on it.

Boychild’s room is the one where I dumped all the stuff from my office. I spent about 3 hours dealing with it yesterday, and I’m down to a manageable pile. He comes home Wednesday, so I have a little more time.

So it seems I spent most of yesterday doing my favorite thing (cough)…cleaning. Seriously, there were many hours of it. Then I finally sat down and started sewing a binding on the most recent quilt, still unnamed. In fact, both of the last two, finished within hours of each other, are unnamed. Working on it.

This was the view last night…quilt on my lap, sewing binding. Simba right next to me (better than earlier when he was ON me and trying to bite the quilt. Um. No. Then Midnight sprawled further down on the couch.

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Here she is finished, a little over 34 hours to make her.

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Need official photos, but think I will wait until the next smaller one is done. Plus the embroidery on the orange one.

Here’s the next one hanging up. I could start quilting it today.

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Quilting is pretty brainless for me. Easy peasy. Don’t have to think or plan and really do anything but move the fabric around under the needle. Try not to hit the hand. This quilt top is so old, I don’t know how old it is. Might be 2006. Might predate the world. NO! I found it…May 12, 2006. It was on my old blog. Yes, I’ve been blogging since the dark ages. Why do you ask?

It’s my art journal in many ways. TEN years to finish a quilt. Yeah. Well. Shit happens.

Speaking of finishing, the section in the middle is all I have on this drawing before I can (deep breath) NUMBER it and determine exactly how crazy I am.

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And since it’s next on the list, I should do that this week too. I know in general what I want in there. I just don’t know what that looks like or how it will fit. That’s the issue. It’s OK. I’ll get there. And this one won’t take 10 years. The other quilt sat around because it really was just a mental experiment, something to do when my brain wouldn’t settle down on anything. It’s like a drawing, but freehand with fabric. This drawing has been sitting around in this state for a while now, since May 2. It has 9 hours of drawing in it…well, more than that, because the first bit was in a sketchbook. So probably 11 hours. For those who have seen this quilt…

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Wise Choice…for the Earth Stories exhibit…it was a 13-hour drawing. Anyway. Moving on. I have about 17 errands (again, must be a weekend during the school year) and grading to do, plus I’d better make the girlchild’s bed. After all that, I can decide what to work on next.

Damn Adulting

I forgot to take photos of the other quilt I worked on last night…oh well. I went to quilt class and sewed a binding on that crazy orange quilt. I still need to sew the sleeves on, so another hour or so. It’s an older quilt top. I just wanted it finished. Then I came home and wanted to finish the one I’ve been working on. I almost finished it the other night, until that pesky adult voice that thinks I need to sleep spoke up. Damn adulting.

So I worked on quilting it…

And finished. I really only had about 45 minutes left. It took about 4 1/2 hours to quilt the whole thing. Not bad. (I did not grade any papers last night…bad Kathy)

It wasn’t bedtime yet, so I found a binding (easier to do from your stash when you are working with a smaller quilt) and used the fabric from the backing to cut two sleeves.

I originally bought that fabric when I was still married. Back in the dark ages. I was going to make a dress out of it and some other fabrics. Not sure where the others went. Never happened, of course. YES, I used to sew my own clothes. Can’t be bothered anymore. Plus I mostly just wear black. I still have lots of that fabric left, that’s for sure.

Oh, I forgot about this. I’m working with one of my art groups on a Sexism in the Art World show that will open in 2017, and we were talking about making a coloring book. One person had suggested a topic that was eh, yawn, no thanks (there was a reason for it, but still. eh.), and this coloring book came up…

Midnight is shocked that it was only $10 online. I was not shocked and purchased it for my weird book collection, so when I die, my children and grandchildren will have plenty to talk about and to make them laugh their asses off instead of crying. Yup. I really care about my family. (Just as a side note, there are some very pretty drawings in there)

Simba has now sat on the foot pedal (I trained my cats out of that years ago) and tried to sit in my lap while I was quilting.

Really! I am a cat! You can let me on the chair! He’s still adjusting, as are we all. Wait until the rest of the family gets home.

Bindings on…

Small quilts go so FAST. I’m going to remember this when I’m working on the next beast, which will probably take 6 weeks of nonstop work.

You can barely see Midnight in the back…that’s where she sits most of the time.

No, that tupperware bin cannot be used for anything but cat butts. That is the fourth cat butt that has graced that box…maybe fifth. It’s funny how they claim space. Even now, I’ve got Simba on the floor in here, so Calli won’t come in. Simba comes in when Calli does, but then won’t lie down, like he is now. When Katie is here, it’s a whole ‘nother juggling for space. I regularly have three animals in here, one of the smallest rooms in the house.

Anyway, I’m not home tonight, so the quilt bindings will have to wait until Saturday or Sunday. And then I have to officially admit to being done with this quilt and move on to the big one. I don’t know if I’m ready for that, but my artmaking schedule for the summer tells me I have to be. On the one hand, I’m excited to be starting the big quilt, but I also know how LONG it will take, and that some parts will just feel endless. And I do have another quilt top that’s pinbasted, another old one. I might quilt that first, because I know it needs hand embroidery, and then I’d have that to work on if I didn’t feel like working on the big one (yes, one more reason to procrastinate about the big quilt). Sigh.

OK, but before I can move on to any of that, I have to go to work and pretend I adult well.

Stretching Past What We’ve Always Done

Hallelujah for the nice kid in Petco who helped me pick out and install a harness on the little beast yesterday. I wanted to try walking both of them in a nice wide-open area, but the leash was too short and the collar didn’t seem safe enough. Simba pinwheels around a bit on it. So a harness it was (never owned a dog small enough for a harness…so he had to show me how it worked). We only made it 1.56 miles…the big dog tricked me into a shorter path she knows (she walks with my ex and the kids too), plus Simba is a tiny baby really and if I’d gone further, I probably would have had to carry him for a while. So we’ll have to figure that out, because normally I do 3-mile hikes during the week. My SIL has a little dog and says 35 minutes…and that’s what we did I guess. Lots of leash tangling and bizarre walking behavior. The dog has sorta been trained, but not well or consistently.

But this cat…

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She’s still incredibly unsure and runs when she sees him, and so he thinks that’s a game and chases her. She’s whacked at him once, but missed his nose. Not sure if that will mellow out, but I hope so. The other cat has taken another furry addition to the house in stride and doesn’t care.

That’s where I was grading by the way. Pens are there to fill out the gradebook I keep on paper, but everything else is online. I did go through the worksheet and the website I assigned them and filled it out myself, just to see what answers I SHOULD get. Holy moley, sometimes I wonder how some of these kids will make it through life. They just make up random shit…this assignment was so easy, I filled out my worksheet in less than 7 minutes. Granted, I didn’t have to go find pictures or write full sentences, but they should have been able to handle it easily in the time I gave them. And many did.

Simba is still trying to figure it all out.

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I’m looking forward to the kids coming home next week to help out with this puppy thing…because it’s a bit tiring. The timing could have been better. He does go to bed and sleep all night, except at 3 AM when he hears an animal in the bushes and thinks he needs to protect all of us. Puppy growling.

I have blood testing this morning, so I’m fasting (no caffeine, no food) and that’s never a good start to the day…especially since we have testing, so I have no prep, no bathroom until 12:15…unless I call admin. Which I may have to do today, after 40 ounces of water, or whatever it is. And they’ll still complain about my veins. Whatever.

I wanted to finish quilting last night, but knew I’d have to be up extra early for the lab tests, so I stopped before midnight and went to bed (see, I CAN do that).

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I’m almost done, though…dammit! Oh well. I’ll finish tonight, except I really should grade something tonight. I’m trying to get caught up, which means an assignment a day. And I can’t get through much while we’re testing. We’ll see. I’d really much rather finish quilting and get a binding on this thing than grade papers. Shockingly.

I’m also starting to process (in my head) a collaborative project I’ll be working on over the summer for the women’s group I’m in. Honestly, these types of projects kind of terrify me, because I’m not used to working with other people…in art. I work with other people all the time at school, and sometimes I know I don’t know enough to do stuff well, but I just research the heck out of it. This thing, it’s a little weird and I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out, and I guess I’m really an introvert/loner, because the socializing that needs to happen to create the project is really freaking me out. Whoops. I’ll be fine. My art brain is just having a moment. It will get over it, as my co-art person says, when I have enough wine and brainstorming to get past it. More on that later, but it starts with a $5 nightstand. Stretching past what we’ve always done is usually a good thing.

But now, now I need to drive to the lab and let the bloodsuckers have at my poor tiny veins. Then I can eat. And more importantly, get caffeine.