I Can’t Operate on This Failure*

I’m ready to be Australia. Well. Except for some of the crazy bugs and spiders. Y’all can keep those. But let’s hand in all the guns. I think the biggest obstacles are the politicians who are more worried about their jobs than their constituents. No automatic or semi-automatic weapons…can you really argue that we need those? You do realize people in Australia can still own a gun, right? There are just strict rules for how and what. I have no problems with strict rules. Can you argue that your right to protect yourself is more important than my approximately 3,300 students’ (over 15 years) right to live? Or the 58 people who died in Vegas? Or the 49 who died in Orlando? Or any young black man wearing a hoodie?

The plus is that I finished stitching down the anti-gun quilt. Let’s be clear…my quilt is Anti-GUN. Because we don’t need them. Not in the numbers we have them. Not for what they’re being used for. Not. I just (in less than 5 minutes) contacted my three federal representatives. Told them to stand up and create legislation and keep fighting for it until it passes. Start there. You can do that.

This is who stares at me on the way home…after I pick her up…

She wants to know why I’m not petting her. And then why I’m not throwing the ball faster.

Still working on the eyeball in the top right. It doesn’t look like much right now.

Then I stitched. Well, I made dinner first. And finished my book…The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I liked it. And then I read some Goodreads reviews and felt bad for liking it. And then decided those people had no lives and I was allowed to like it. So there.

Stitching things down…

Sometimes I really hate America for its aggressive patriotism. I’ve been told so many times to LEAVE because I don’t agree with the majority…and I explain that is why we are here…because our ancestors didn’t agree with the majority and needed to flee…so we took over someone else’s country in a particularly nasty and violent way (somehow it was our inalienable right? I don’t think so…). So I mostly write off anyone who tells me I’m not patriotic when I object…it’s the core part of our country. I’m allowed.

Ah…this thought bubble. Why do people shoot other people up? Anger? Hate? Fear? Core emotions…that mature brains can learn to manage.

In a society that appreciates that. Yesterday, in the assignment we’re doing in class, I had told each class “no weapons” for their element superhero. One class started to argue…and I turned and said, “Really? After Las Vegas, you’re going to argue that you need weapons? Solve the problem without them. That’s what I want to see.”

Seriously. America. Solve the problem without guns. Do it. You know you can. We have some of the best brains in the world. Use Them. If you’re a politician scared for your job, then GOOD. Do it anyway. It’s worth it.

I did finish the stitch down, just short of 6 hours.

The face of gun violence here in America…tonight I’ll sandwich it and pinbaste it…maybe even start quilting. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I started reading a book about violence in Africa. Maybe I should look for something lighter after that.

*Tears for Fears, Pale Shelter

I Won’t Back Down*

I keep skimming the news, looking for logical reasons to shoot up hundreds of people at a music concert, but all I see is more evidence that this was planned. Then I try to understand the brain that would do that…and I can’t. I understand anger and sadness and frustration, but not when it turns into that.

The work day wasn’t that hard…it was processing the rest that was hard. So I came home and took the dogs out…

Three miles (ish) as fast as we could go.

The sun was trying to beat us back. There’s coyotes out there, so that shit makes me nervous with the little guy…but we made it.

Good for them, good for me.

After making dinner, I had decided I wanted to do another eye, so I started it randomly on the right.

I only do one strand a night…this is Sunday’s and Monday’s…

I saved the blue for the iris, but maybe I’ll keep going with another color instead. I’ll have to see how I feel about it.

Then I had to force myself to get up and go in the office to sew.

Yeah. Well. Understandable. I realized how long ago Sandy Hook was and it took me that long to be able to process it into a piece of art. Some of that is not wanting to make A work that commemorates ONE event…it’s more about the feelings and ideas behind the event. Certainly Sandy Hook wasn’t the first school shooting, but it was the hardest to process…someone coming in and shooting up little kids for no apparent reason. Having worked in middle and high schools, the reasons to be angry and feel harassed, bullied, oppressed, to the point of thinking a shooting is a good idea? I can imagine that. Unfortunately. But little kids…seems so much worse. It’s not really…it’s innocent people of all ages, isn’t it? And Sandy Hook obviously wasn’t the last.

I hate that we’re becoming a country where it feels unsafe to do just about anything: go to work, get on a plane, go to a concert, go to school, go to a church, go to the store, the library, wherever. It shouldn’t be like that. There’s nothing about possessing a gun that would make me feel more safe. I have one and some “lone wolf” (really??? he was an older white male…most dangerous species out there, if you ask me) has 20 of them. Legally.

OK. Well. With all that weighing on me (and it IS weighing on me), I have a parent meeting this morning. I haven’t even gotten to Tom Petty…sad sad sad.

So many favorites of his…but this one is making me cry this morning.

*Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, I Won’t Back Down

Dreaming of the Dolphin Song*

I think I have now yelled at every animal in the house…well, except Kitten. No. Wait. Yeah, she hissed at me and tried to bop me. I’ve called all of them assholes. Part of it is that I’m the only human here and it shows. The other part is waking up to a massive shooting event just hours after a conversation with my parents about guns in America vs elsewhere. In fact, if I’d checked the news before I went to bed, I probably wouldn’t have slept.

I don’t pray. But Vegas, you have all my good thoughts, all my hopes that the death toll doesn’t rise, that there’s some sort of explanation for this. Who am I kidding? There is no explanation for this. None. I’d like to think that things might change because of this, that those with guns might see the light. But no. They won’t. It’s not THEEEEMMMM. It’s only the OTHER PEOPLE with guns. Fuck.

I am going to be glad when this quilt is done.

So here’s the random shit in my brain this morning. Because my brain is wandering. Saw this…

Fucked up.

Then there was this. I guess that’s supposed to be an exoskeleton. Or someone doesn’t know that spiders don’t grow bones. Hard to say.

This is when Satchemo was being nice. There were not nice issues later.

I was grading stuff and some kid gave me this. Honestly, it reminded me of the boychild, who often peppers text conversations with puppies and kittens. Ironically.

Good kid. I sewed after dinner. While someone mowed down concertgoers, I stitched down pieces in an anti-gun quilt.

I sewed down a bullet trail and bullets.

I didn’t get to the hand that tried to stop the bullets unfortunately. I did sew down all of the female figure and a good portion of the chalkboard behind her.

I’m using the third trial app for measuring time. I don’t know if I like it yet, but that’s because I still have only one task on it and it’s taking a little bit to get used to it. I need certain information out of it. So we’ll see. I haven’t upgraded yet…waiting to see if it will work for me.

Kitten was waiting for me when I went to bed.

I tried to go to bed early. Didn’t work. Didn’t sleep well either. Need to leave soon. Feeling out of it.

I did spend some time yesterday pricing out what I want to do in shelves in my office to replace the cracking old plastic drawers…it’s only $864. No biggie. Yeah. OK. Moving on. And that’s with 25% off. Then I looked at my mom’s, which is still Elfa, but a cheaper solution than what I had figured out. I’ll price that one too, but it might be a while before I solve that problem.

Tonight? Walk dogs, cook dinner, pet cats, then sew some more. I don’t think I’ll finish tonight, but maybe? Unlikely. Sigh. Guns. Fuckers with guns.

*Regina Spektor, Folding Chair

Your Eyes Make a Circle*

Yesterday, I sewed. Not a lot. I also cleaned some stuff and organized some shit and moved some crap around and booked flights for the kids and I don’t even know what else, but I also sewed. I kinda wanted to see what it looked like when I sewed, so I figured out a way to prop the phone tripod on my bosom (yes, I just typed that…laughing while I did it, but for realz, that’s what I did) so I could do just that. Here it is…

And all I can say is wow…no wonder I’ve sewn through my finger more than once. Yup. I sew like I drive, I guess. Except fewer driving accidents than sewing ones, honestly. It’s very strange to watch one do things that one has been doing since one was 10 years old. Seriously…I’ve been sewing on a machine for 40 years. Wow. Long time. Longer than I’ve been doing most things.

So I started the meditative stitchdown in the afternoon and got the entire bottom section done…more later today…that’s the plan anyway. I’ve got errands to do first.

It’s fast because there’s not a lot of pieces or detail, but not REALLY fast, because everything is very big.

I pile it on the machine when I’m not sewing so that sweet furry black thing can’t lie on it…

Later, in front of the last episode of Ozark (not the baby! not the baby!), I did three nights on the left of this…staying caught up is getting harder I guess. Some star stitches and fly stitches and a herringbone. I think the corner is almost done.

Then we were still watching, so I got all the dots on this one; now it’s ready for embroidery…

And this one too…so that’s April, ready to go in the bag for the fun part.

I started working on June, but then TV time was over and there were dueling cats and eventually bedtime. Plus I got sidetracked by the fact that June blocks are supposed to be sewn to other blocks before I sew stuff down, but I’ve already started sewing stuff down, so I’m fucked. That’s it. Throw it out.

Naw. Not really. Just gonna improvise a bit.

Up too early this morning for the airport (not me, not the cats).

I keep the trash pieces around for a while…needed to cut a pencil tip, because I’d lost it and never found it and didn’t realize until I was doing the stitch down. These are useful because of weird shit like that.

Straight up, I’m tired, I’ve got a ton of schoolwork to do, and I really need a neck/shoulders massage so my chiropractor can crack the mousing side of my back. Just so you know. This week is going to be a bit of a challenge…but I’m trying to plan out enough that it’s not worse than it could be. I might need a nap. Like now. Not now. Now to stores. Bad Kathy. No nap for you.

*U2, I Will Follow

Long Ago Somebody Left with the Cup*

I’m a little slow today…Saturday mornings should involve sleep and multigrain pancakes and some book reading and the petting of furry beasts. I did already check my batting and backing stash and I have enough for this one…so I can sandwich it on demand, whenever I finish the stitch down. I still need thread, but I can do that tomorrow. I have stuff I can use for the outlining…just the background is that weird brown color and brown is not something I usually use.

No, I didn’t get anything done on it yesterday…yesterday was tiring and then we gamed…yes, I do sew while gaming…

Especially when I’m really tired, because it helps keep me awake and focused on the other stuff. I have a brain that requires multiple levels of entertainment.

I really love how this is turning out. I finished the seed stitch all over the elephant and then embellished the moon.

All I have left is those weird flowers and May is done. I’ve been getting April ready to go…one of the three blocks is ready to be embellished. The others still have some wool stuff that needs to be stitched on…just little things though. Then I’ll try to do the months in order. I promise.

So I’ll start stitch down in a little bit…I was trying to deal with some work stuff this morning. And getting the kids home for the holidays. And considering how to get the girlchild to Madagascar, assuming that’s where she’s going in Spring. Talk about a hellish flight situation. Anyway. All that is done. It’s good. It was weighing on me. I’ll still have to deal with the international stuff once we have confirmation.

Someone asked about the symbols on arms in the new piece…some are pretty obvious. The others might not be.

The female (teacher) figure has an apple and Teach America…pretty blatant.

And a peace symbol. Because. Yeah.

The male figure has a rifle sight image…I found a lot of versions of these online.

And one of the NRA logos. Their lobbying for gun rights here are unfortunately very well-funded.

This is another gun sight. The gray arm in the middle is trying to protect her, but obviously failing…gray for neutral. Because I think the American government is refusing to take a stand (it’s too political) and yet wants to protect the innocents from these shootings. But it isn’t doing (really) anything to make that happen, so they might as well be placing gun sights on all those populations that keep getting targeted…schools specifically, because that’s my own regular experience with these conversations. Talking to 12-year-olds about guns at school. Giant ass sigh. Not teaching science, but death avoidance.

But the government, in refusing to act against big lobbies and gun-happy populations, to do what is best for everyone, with evidence from other countries who HAVE limited gun purchases, have placed those gun sights on many groups…people of color, those in the wrong place at the wrong time, victims of domestic violence, people who just happen to be in a theater when a crazy person who got hold of a gun got pissed off, or a business where someone worked and got mad and got even. Sigh. Seriously, America, get your priorities straight. Humans over gun rights. Hands down.

OK. Gotta get some work done.

*Cake, The Distance

Now the Party’s Over*

OK. Last night was the night. It’s when I finally saw the whole thing ironed out. We’re good. I really should trust my instincts after all these years, but there’s often that moment of uncertainty when I’m not sure it’s gonna work.

Before I ever started ironing last night, though, I packed a quilt up for Quilts=Art=Quilts so I could ship it this morning. And then I went to my quilt meeting…although I should probably stop labeling it with the word ‘quilt’ because half the people knit. Let’s call it a String Meeting. A friend I used to work with always asked me how my string things were going, because another friend at work knitted and I quilted and he could never remember which was which, but he knew they all used strings.

Because this quilt was at a stage that is not transportable, I took my handwork with me. I needed to get the wool pieces sewn down for April (yes, I’m working on May…I’m a little wombly sometimes). These are two of the three blocks, but there’s a bunch of pinky-red flower dots that have to be sewn on, plus I had to find the eyeball fabric when I got home. So luckily I’m still working on the May elephant block, because these aren’t ready. But soon.

Then I headed into the studio and pieced a backing, shoved the ironing board and chairs out of the way (I should have kicked them out of the studio), and threw the whole thing down on the floor.

Sometimes it’s a mistake to try to iron a big quilt down on the floor in there, so I do it in the entryway, but it was almost 11 and I didn’t want to mop the floor, because it was pretty dirty. Luckily it worked…I managed to line up the male’s head and gun with the hole in the chalkboard (note to self…no need for a hole there…if I’d drawn it all behind the gun, I wouldn’t have had to worry about it). I also managed to get everything else flat. Miraculous really.

Midnight was no help.

And then I spent about 40 minutes with a spray bottle and a hot iron, trying to make sure it would stick long enough for me to stitch it down…which I could start tonight, if it wasn’t gaming night. Surely I will start tomorrow.

It’s hanging up there and it’s too big for the space, so that’s a seriously wonky picture. But it’s gonna work. Outlining in the quilting for sure. No way do I have a thread that color…so this weekend, check batting and backing, and buy thread.

I’m sort of amazed by how hard this has been to make. I started teaching at age 35, recently divorced, with two little kids. The school where I started had very little support for new teachers. I had another science teacher I connected with who helped me a lot, but she has since quit. Nine days after I started my first job, two students brought a gun on campus to kill a teacher who “gave” one of them an F. Another kid snitched. I hate that word. I love that she told someone responsible. But those were the days before lockdowns. I remember at lunch, alone in my room, seeing kids running for the back part of the school in a huge bunch, but no one told us what was happening. I went home clueless…until I was watching the news last night and they broke the story.

There was no shooting. As far as I know, the teacher never came back. The gun never made it into the classroom…it was hidden on campus. That was a Friday. Eventually they called an emergency meeting for Monday morning. And that’s when lockdown drills started here in San Diego…or soon after. It was 3 years after the Santana High School shooting, back when these things were not so commonplace. I had a hard time dealing with the situation. It was hard for me to think that I might not make it home to my own very small (at that time) children because of something like that. And I have to say, that feeling has never gone away. I do still go back to school every day. Why? Because of the kids.

I’ll write later about a conversation I had last year with my students…which is also what this is about.

Deep stuff. Stitch down this weekend. Then sandwich and quilting.

*Roxy Music, Avalon

And I Will Try to Fix You*

Silly me, thinking I was gonna finish last night…because it bugged me most of the day, way back in the way back of my brain, but I was fairly sure I could make it better. So once I got home and got past the paralyzing exhaustion I apparently caught on the way here, I grabbed a blank piece of paper and traced over the part of the drawing that I wanted to change…

I was trying to keep the original drawing simple, so I only added one target, but then it ended up being on one of the lighter-colored heads, which was silly (but random) and said something I didn’t want it to say. It’s not that one kid is a target in a school shooting…in reality, a lot of the time, I think some kids might be because of bullying (them being the perceived bullies, and perhaps even in real life) or teachers or other staff might be, but sometimes it’s just anger at the whole world and a school has a lot of concentrated human beings so maybe it’s easier to go in there if you need to shoot a bunch of living creatures? Humans, to be specific…you don’t hear about zoo shootings or pet store shootings. I’m not being facetious…I’m serious here. Why does any sane (and that might be the issue) adult walk onto a school campus and shoot unless they feel the campus is part of their problem? I don’t pretend to understand anyone who uses a gun to solve their problems.

I did trace Wonder Under before dinner and a movie (it was one of those nights)…and caught up on three night’s worth of this. I’m behind because I’m doing other art stuff. I did stuff in the bottom left again…filling space…leaves and parts of that vine…

And after the movie (where I was sewing wool bits together)…I ironed. First I finished the thought cloud…but I had lost (misplaced) one of the Es…so this is why I keep my trash pile. It was in there. Duh.

And ironed it together…

Again, making a guess about what’s going through their heads. It’s hard…bullying is a real thing in middle and high school. Kids can be vicious assholes. But it would be nice to live somewhere that the solution was NOT to bring a bunch of guns to school and spray bullets everywhere.

So this was all ironed down already. I was hoping it wasn’t ironed down super hot, so it would still release and allow me to push stuff underneath. Otherwise, this would have been a pain in the ass.

I was still gonna do it though. Luckily, it did release pretty easily.

So I ironed and cut out and then ironed down all these little tiny target pieces…so it wasn’t about one kid with a target that was supposed to stand for all of them. I didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding about the target. Mostly the kids that get killed or shot (and hell, I go back to Sandy Hook Elementary every time…) just happen to be there. Because who shoots kindergarten kids? Because he had access to guns…otherwise maybe he would have done something else, something less deadly.

Such a dark place I go to when I work on this. Because as a teacher, I always have in my head what I will do if a shooter arrives on campus…how I will protect a classroom full of 12-year-olds? And if your response is to arm ME? Yeah. No. That’s not a solution. More guns. You want a gun to shoot? To protect yourself? To hunt? Is that more important than a 6-year-old’s life? Tell me that. Truthfully.

No. I didn’t finish.

*Coldplay, Fix You

Stray from the Straight Line on This Short Run*

Rough morning…puppy seems to think if he howls, he is somehow scaring the coyotes away. Or he’s communicating with them in coyote talk. Or he’s just scared. It’s really hard to say. I just wish he’d stop. The Golden Retriever feels no need to communicate with the pack that runs by my house at 4 AM. And I greatly appreciate that. Maybe size does matter. Simba, the part-Pomeranian, drives a mad sports car with tinted windows and tails you down the road because you’re only doing 5 miles above the speed limit. Calli, the Golden, drives an old Subaru going 5 miles below the speed limit, oblivious to everyone around her, quite happy to be toolin’ along. Certainly she perks up when balls are being thrown or there’s a walk to be had, but otherwise? She’s mostly lying around relaxing. There’s something to be said for living with each of them.

I had hoped to be done with the ironing yesterday, and I think I would have if (a) I hadn’t gone to the gym, (b) my book weren’t so good so I kept reading when I should have gotten up and started ironing, and (c) I weren’t worried about how the pieces would fit together. Usually on a big quilt, I iron sections together and then don’t put the whole thing together until I’m putting it on the background. I have an ironing board extension (well, I have a board on top covered with a towel), but it’s still not big enough for this thing, to try to get everything positioned correctly. The pieces ironed on Teflon get really heavy and slip off the board at some point.

But I needed to know all the fingers and tentacles were going to fit right, so I did it anyway…

There were a couple places where I had to put a small piece of fabric behind to fill in a hole, but nothing major.

Then I ironed the head to the body on the other side…

But I couldn’t figure out how to get the arm in the middle positioned on the ironing board. It just wasn’t big enough. So I dropped to the floor.

I had to fuss with it a bit to get it all to go where it should, but it eventually worked. I often do the final iron on the floor for a big piece. That’s probably why my floor looks like crap…because I iron on it. I have to keep that in mind for when I eventually replace the flooring. I’m sure the Home Depot person will be able to help me find a flat, solid floor that takes a hot iron and doesn’t melt or otherwise disfigure. A simple requirement.

I decided against trying to iron his head and arm onto the existing stuff at this point…too much weight.

Well. That’s um. Yeah.

So what’s left? The thought bubble, which won’t take long. It was after midnight when I stopped there, though, so I figured it was better to get some sleep and finish ironing tonight. So I’ll iron it all down to the background tonight and maybe start the stitch down. Definitely I’ll be doing stitch down on Thursday and probably Saturday…it’s a big quilt, so it will take a while. Distance over number of pieces is what matters on quilting and stitch down. I’ll have to check my backing and batting stash over the weekend and make sure I have enough…maybe sandwich on Sunday? Start quilting?

I’m ready to be done with this one. I do (finally) like how it’s turning out, but it’s still not somewhere I want to hang out for long. The subject matter is worrisome.

Hard to say if these two are getting along any better. I’ve seen some playful moves from mine, but Satchemo is still just trying to invade space. They do both sleep on the bed sometimes, one at my feet and one under my armpit.

It makes it hard to move sometimes. But I’m looking forward to the day when they curl up together. Or at least exist in the same space without glaring or yowling at each other.

Man I want time to draw. It was loud last night, the voice…draw draw draw. I may just have to go with it at some point.

*Sarah McLachlan, World on Fire

Fake It if You Feel Like Infection*

My brain doesn’t know where to start. I’m listening to Talking Heads. I finished grades yesterday afternoon (I think…I’m always paranoid I missed something). My lunch is put together. All the animals are fed and medicated and settled…well, no, I had to go get the Golden Retriever because she’s being destructive. Paper is her issue. She likes to rip it up and eat it. Nice habit. I need to leave for work in about 25 minutes. I’m fed. I obviously don’t have enough caffeine in me.

Girlchild has been in Copenhagen for 5 or 6 days…her school had a few days off and she and a friend found a cheap flight, so they’ve been living it up in a tiny bedroom belonging to some young couple and their kid. I hear from her a couple times a day, so I know she’s alive. Boychild complains about the weather and sends comics. I know he’s alive. That’s all good.

I’m trying to finish up this quilt so I can move on to another more lighthearted one. Ha! Because the next one is about climate change, and that’s still depressing. Sigh. I did enter another show last night and there’s another few coming up in the next month. My solo show comes down in a week and a half, so all those quilts are coming back here. I didn’t expect to sell anything big, unfortunately…it’s a harder sell. The little ones are safe and relatively cheap. Time is worth money. I’d rather have the quilt than be underpaid for my time.

So finishing grades at work yesterday meant I came home and totally spaced out for at least an hour or so before I came in here and started ironing. I think I made dinner first. Can’t remember. Oh wait. I entered the show, THEN made dinner, and THEN ironed. I have half a brain. I wanted to walk the dogs, but it was hot. Bleck.

I’m considering a change to the head with the target…I didn’t purposely pick head colors…just wanted a variety. And this is less about the colors of specific students and more about all students as a whole. So I’m debating how to deal with that. I have a couple of ideas…one is embroidery and the other is more random. I’m letting it percolate.

The chalkboard…you know, the thing teachers don’t use any more.

The head goes in…

And the writing. The date is the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting…that event had a huge effect on my local school district…it’s when we started locking the campus, fencing it all in, locking our doors for that 6 months afterward because the kids were so freaked out. So were the parents (and the teachers), but we do this stuff for the kids.

Some more stuff on the board…

And that arm in place…

Finally working on the last figure…some may be offended by the American flag, but I think we have a deeply rooted issue with guns that you don’t see in other countries. This school shooting problem is a purely American construct. From Columbine on, we keep seeing these shootings occur and we don’t do anything to stop them.

As a teacher, I have some issues with that. More about that later.

Anyway, I have about 110 pieces left to go, and then I hope it all fits together…it could be a little wiggy where all the hands meet bodies. Hopefully that’s tonight…ironing it down to the background. We’ll see.

*Seether, Fake It

Your Conscience Will Be Mine*

Grades are almost done…they’re close enough that I could ignore them last night and iron for a few hours. That’s how you know you’ve done it right. I’m up early for a parent meeting…I don’t really like morning meetings. I’m not fully functional even with a cup of tea in me. I need time and space to get my head in the right place to teach, to get my classroom ready, and morning meetings fuck with that. It’s better than the days my school day started at 7:25 AM though, so I am glad of that.

I managed three nights’ worth on this…blue, white, and peach down in the bottom left, a variety of stitches…some lazy daisies, straight stitches, fly stitches, and French knots…whatever it took to fill the space. Chain stitches too…

Then filling in the elephant…that might take a while.

Then I came home and ironed…got the face done. The eyes are always a bit fussy. I don’t like ironing one down to the face until I have both of them and I can place them together.

It can be a bit fidgety sometimes, getting them in the right place that is…

And then it gets dark. This is a dark quilt. There’s no doubt about it. I guess many of my quilts are challenging, but this is straight up painful to think about and to make. So maybe that’s why I’m so troubled about whether it says what I want it to say.

I finished the head and the arm in the middle…gray, not flesh. I guess people will read that however they need to.

I’m 500 pieces in…only have 360 or so to go. So hopefully by Tuesday night I’ll be ironing it to the background, and then maybe stitching down after that. It’s big, so that part will take a while. I think I’m about 7 hours in on the ironing. I can’t check right now…my phone is in the other room charging…I’m not sure why it wasn’t charged this morning, but it wasn’t. Weird. Hopefully this is not a sign that the phone is dying early.

This morning’s reward for having to be up too early…

May the rest of the day follow that with abandon.

*Adam and the Ants, Stand and Deliver