She Expected the World*

I think I’m about to get whacked by a calico cat. I’m never really sure when either cat is gonna either whack me or bite me. Sometimes I wish they could just use their words. “Pet me.” “Stop petting me.” “Pet me differently.” I guess that’s a huge part of their potential vocabulary…minus the swear words probably. I imagine cats swearing all the time…just based on their looks. As a teacher, I have those looks where kids don’t need to hear the words. Cats do too, if you’re paying attention. This one, though, back to the calico…she’s whacking me with her tail already. Obviously I’m doing everything wrong.

So last night, I was trying to make a simple fix, to sync my contacts on multiple devices, after a year plus of not having that. Boychild walked me through part of it and we found one bit that might be part of it, so then I tried to fix that one bit. Over an hour later, on chat with Microsoft, we get a partial fix. Not fixing the original problem, of course…just the first step toward being able to do that. So yeah, the first fix was entirely Microsoft’s fault…and it took a level 2 fix. OK. So now on to the original fix, which goes back to iOS. Sheesh. But after an hour, I couldn’t deal any more. So I’ve been on a cleaning fit (it’s OK…it’s been brief)…I was going to go deal with the pile of papers that’s been in the little living room (weird side room) since December. Obviously they are very important papers. But instead, I cleaned up my photo files from May 2015 and 2016, so I could stop looking at them while making May 2017’s files.

Giant sigh. Too behind on everything. But at least I have time to do that, I guess. We’ve mostly planned everything for the school year. We have a few things left to do…some ends to gather up. And at some point, we’ll have to start on next year. Revising and all. But not yet. It means I’m refusing to grade at night at the moment. That might change, but right now, I’m fighting the good fight.

So I didn’t start making dinner until 9 PM or so. I know. But I wasn’t in the mood. So after that, I did my one thread of stitching…still beating that hand about…

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And then I had cut a piece of paper the right size for the piece due at the end of the month, read the instructions for the theme etc, and realized I wasn’t sure if the orientation could be vertical or horizontal. So I emailed the organizer. Who didn’t answer immediately. Sigh. I wasn’t really expecting that…it’s OK.

So I decided to draw the Desert Daughter that I tried to do the other night. Because that one sucked. The original Earth Daughter was drawn on a plane returning from Boston after dropping my daughter off at college…I always wonder what people who sit next to me on the plane think…

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Here it is when I finally made it as a quilt, almost a year later…hey, they’re in line sometimes.

Art Quilts and Fiber Arts

The plus to that piece is that it’s technically no nudity, which means I can enter it in some shows I otherwise couldn’t enter. It’s also not huge…only 28″ wide (OK, that’s small for me). The original drawing was done in my travel sketchbook, which is about 9×12″. So I went back to that book for this one, pulling from desert imagery.

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The heart even has cactus spikes. I think this one turned out really well. Although the top right is bugging me. She’s not centered, which is OK by me, but…maybe that’s what my issue is with the right side. I’ll figure that out.

But I still don’t have a drawing for the one due May 29. Huh. Well. Waiting for an answer. I did spend a lot of time staring at a face and blank torso before I got to this…and then it just spilled out. Lost the fennec fox…the incredibly simplified ocotillo parts ended up in the lungs, the rattlesnake covered one breast and some very bulbous cactus the other. OK. So I made a list of daughters I could draw…or I could work on the climate woman…or or or. Isn’t it nice to have the mind space to have choices? Yes. Yes it is.

*Coldplay, Paradise

You Don’t See One Person Sitting Down*

Weekends. I try really hard to make them NOT all about running errands, tearing my hair out, planning lessons, and grading shit. I am a failure. I managed to drive all over San Diego County, run a number of errands, mostly in the rain, make it to dinner, watch two creepy-as-shit episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale while drawing, then run more errands in the rain, grade an assignment, input some grades, and spend an hour or so updating a worksheet with current contraception data. Seriously. That’s what my weekend looks like on a regular basis. I got up out of the computer chair twenty minutes earlier to figure out what I was doing for dinner. I had totally forgotten earlier in the day when I put dinner into the crockpot. WOW. OK. Need time off much? Yeah. Well. Stuff is stressful right now.

School is starting state testing, which is hard on teachers too. I bought a bunch of food and drink for my little monsters, so their brains will keep working on throughout the whole three hours. I’m trying to manage all the kid stuff for the summer, which is no small feat. Or even fête. It should be fête. But one is coming home for only two weeks and the other one is an unknown…home for at least 2 1/2 weeks, but not the same ones. Sigh. Life is about to topsy turvy itself, and that’s hard to watch…let alone experience. I finished a bunch of art stuff, but now my art brain is flailing like a goldfish out of water…and the left eye is twitching like a caffeinated wombat at the moment. I think I just need to sit and BE for a while, but it’s not in my nature.

Today would have been a good day to Walk It Out, but it’s been pouring all day. I did walk Friday night, though…3 miles with the pup. Tired his spazzy ass out. And mine, I guess.

I did one or two night’s worth on the hand. I just pick colors and fill in with chain and stem stitches.

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Then I tried to deal with some of the drawings that are stacking up in my head, but I was really really tired. This might go somewhere. Hard to say. It might be the bottom of a long, skinny quilt.

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So I tried from the top end. And I was so exhausted, I went to bed. Sometimes that’s what needs to happen. But this one can keep going…

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My Saturday night hand stitching…one thread. That’s it. This picture is in full daylight though…much brighter.

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I drew Saturday night too. Strangely, this did not go where I thought it would. But it’s a drawing.

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I think it’s something that needs redoing. I like the ocotillo and the snake. Not sure about the cactus. I was expecting something different when I started drawing. Amusing really, since I’m the one drawing. You’d think I would know what was going on, but I’ve often said that my drawings make themselves. It’s not the conscious part of my brain doing the work most of the time.

That one. She’s not coming home until July, and then only for a short time. I miss her dirty-dish-leaving ass.

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I do hear from her almost every day, so there’s that. And the other one might be here all summer. It’s OK. I realize half of college students move home after school because they can’t get a job. So I haven’t remodeled her room into a dye studio yet. YET. (Actually, the best water supply is from the boychild’s room, so that would be a better dye studio.) Nah. I do want them to head back to Southern California at some point…although we may all be underwater by then, so they should work on their boat skills.

OK, what I really need to do is work on an 18×24″ block for a show my art group is doing. I’ve just been blanking on it. So that’s my goal for the night I think. Just drawing. Maybe a little stitching too. And Spring cleaning…because.

*Fergie (with Q-Tip and GoonRock), A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got)

You Don’t Move Slow*

Tired mode. Got up early yesterday for a parent meeting and they didn’t show. Neither of them. Sigh. So now I’m more tired than I really need to be this morning…it’s a cumulative thing. I think I’ve saved up (wait, how old is the boychild? 21?) 22 years of sleep deficit now (I didn’t sleep well while pregnant). But now that I’m older, it’s harder to sleep. Damn inefficient system, if you ask me. Then again, I apparently picked a job that doesn’t match my normal awake hours. Or maybe it’s the second job. Or is art the first job and it fits just fine…it’s the job with the paycheck that’s kicking my sleep-starved ass. Gonna have to go with that.

I need time and space to draw some time this week. Trying to balance the school duties with the art stuff. Getting there. Maybe. Mostly it’s about finishing stuff this year. At least this week. I came home and got right on the binding task…

Some quilts are easy to trim. You make one cut on each side and that’s pretty much it. Some quilts require more fussy crap, for whatever reason (perhaps the rotary cutter user is the problem…but since it’s always me, that means I have good days and bad days when it comes to cutting straight lines…which is true).

This was not easy to trim. It was a fussy beast.

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As you can see by the pile of tiny cuttings on the floor. A fraction of an inch here. A fraction of an inch there. Ugh.

Then I accidentally (even after reminding myself not to) sewed two of the binding strips together backwards. I didn’t realize this until I was sewing the binding on, either, so that was fun.

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Perhaps all that was proof of user exhaustion. I mean, I was up for an early invisible meeting, then taught all day, then helped run a parent info meeting on the sex ed program (no we’re not showing the kids porn. You idiots. Seriously?), and then went to tutorial. I guess it was OK to be tired after all that.

Simba still wants belly rubs, even when I’m tired.

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But I got the binding and sleeves on this quilt and started the hand sewing.

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I was going to sew the other ones on too, on the other quilt, but I figured with all those mistakes, it was better to wait until tonight to do that. Seriously. Listen to the tired body…with the tired mind.

Maybe by the time I finish all these bindings, I’ll be able to process some of the crazy political stuff that’s swirling around in my head into a drawing. Speaking of drawings, I am finally going to try and make a coloring book next month of my drawings. So that should be interesting. We’ll see.

*The xx, Crystalised

No Machine Drama

Sewing machines are such temperamental beasts. Now my needle thing…you know, the thing the needle goes into? It keeps randomly moving left…so far left sometimes that it almost hits the foot. (All my non-sewing readers just visualized something totally different than the rest of us.) And the only way to get it to go back is to turn the machine off. Then it resets the location and I start over. I was hoping this was a problem with only the zigzag stitch, because I was done with that mostly, but last night, it wouldn’t reset after doing some zigzag and turning it off.

This is not good. But I have the ability to move the needle over so it’s in the zero position (center) even though the little numbers say it’s not. I’m OK with that right now, as I try to finish this damn quilt and the other one. I can pull out the old machine too, if necessary. I don’t have time to go to the guy and have him look at it. So between the giant-ass nest of monofilament thread I had on the back at some point, and the weird stitches caused by the thread trying to get over the top of the spool (finally thought to push the spool up), I was just fighting the machine for the 54 minutes that I tried quilting.

I’d also missed an entire piece of leg being stitched down. I realized that while pinbasting the previous night. A really truly anal person would have stopped pinbasting and would have gone and stitched it down (it was after midnight. You’ve gotta be kidding me). I did not do that. So I had threaded the entire machine last night to start quilting and THEN realized it would be smarter to zigzag that down before quilting. So I unthreaded everything and rethreaded, and then the feed dogs were up so I changed that and that’s when I had a nest of monofilament. There’s something very frustrating about it being really late at night and being tired and just trying to get SOMETHING done and having it fight back.

Being tired and trying to fuss through that shit really just means it’s time to go to bed. Long week anyway, first week back. I stayed late at work to try to finish grading an assignment. I hate it when people think we don’t work a lot of hours. Dumbasses. Only a 10-hour day yesterday. No biggie. Then I came home and input as much as I could. Progress reports go out next week, so I’m trying to get caught up. Always trying to get caught up.

Tomorrow I want to sleep in…to be allowed to sleep in. I want to get my grades done and some quilting done. And then go to Artwalk for a while. Not think about school or deadlines or all the other crap. Have a nice meal. Try to watch some of The Handmaid’s Tale. Both kids are hopefully coming home for a couple of weeks this summer…maybe longer, but I don’t know. The thought of doing a whole summer by myself is not…ugh. Well. Empty nest syndrome when you live by yourself is a whole ‘nother thing to contemplate…although I guess for some people, now they are alone with someone that perhaps they do not like as much any more. But I hate it when people tell me “Oh yeah, I’ve got that empty nest syndrome thing” when they still have someone to eat dinner with every night. And someone who will help lift crap. I guess that’s all I care about (funny…and not entirely true). I’ll still have a ton of stuff to do…art and hopefully some copyediting to help pay for college.

So after all that crazy with the thread, I basically sewed around part of the bathtub and then I did the Golden Retriever…

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And then it was bedtime.

And I entered another show. And I went through my existing quilts in house and tried to decide what smaller ones would be in the show at Visions in July…the ones that would go on the back wall, where the ceilings are low. Certainly it might be an interesting conglomerate of stuff, because mine are usually bigger than that and not horizontal, but vertical. I keep debating the big ones too. The only ones I know for sure that are in the show are the three bathtubs and the Superwoman piece. Then my brain goes to mush. I think it’s because I’m having a hard time visualizing. In the two-person show last year, I just brought a shitload stuff and we figured it out as we hung it what should be in there. Not particularly efficient, but whatever…it worked for me and the curator.

And I still don’t know what I’m doing next artistically. I cleaned up the entry form I use…finally put it on Google docs instead of on my computer, so I can see it on my phone etc. I really need to migrate everything over. There’s a lot of things I need to do. I watched a TED talk about that, about the things I don’t do, and admitting that’s because they aren’t very high priority. So true. Although the 90 quilts on the girlchild’s bed may soon be an extreme priority (yikes).

Anyway. Friday. That’s a plus. Assembly at school. Then trying to get through the day even though I’m really tired. What’s new, right? Hopefully quilting tonight with no machine drama.

Underground Like a Wild Potato*

Oh yeah. School kicks your butt. Just plain old physical exhaustion at the end of the day with some measure of mental (what’s another word for exhaustion…I’m too tired to think of one or even access a thesaurus dammit) tiredness. Enervation. Fatigue. Lassitude. That might be the first time I’ve used the word lassitude on this blog. Might be the last too.

I’m still braindead this morning, after two hours of cats cleaning their nether regions right next to me, one on each side, unable to toss them off the bed because of my parents’ dog Katie, who tends to chase them. Even in the dark. In the middle of the night, she’s lurking right next to the bed, waiting for something tasty and sharp (claws don’t seem to deter her) to fall from the mattress.

I wish she’d get over that. It’s a pain carrying the furry beasts around and depositing them appropriate places so they can eat and poop, and then Kitten was demanding that I bring her to bed, despite the fact that she’d be stuck there all night by Psycho Dog. Katie goes home tonight, so the cats will be free to walk around like the bossy furry beasts they prefer to be. And I will be free to toss them off the bed when a 4:30 AM butt cleaning seems like a good idea.

So school was fine really…and then we had to wander over to another school for a talk by George Couros, who was a principal and a teacher and has a TED talk you can listen to at the link. If you want to. I won’t force anyone to listen to a TED talk. I like a few of them, but mostly I’m like, yeah, OK, either that makes sense or where’s your evidence. Or both. So. Just like every day. I didn’t get anything revolutionary…or revelatory (yes, WordPress, that IS a word) out of it, but whatever. I thought it was ironic that they were trying to motivate us to be passionate and amazing when there ~~are~~ were only 38 days of school left. They kept saying there were 32 days of school left, but I counted again, and maybe they’re not counting days that I am counting? But it’s 38. Except now it’s 37. The cool thing is that he said it was OK if we were on our phones or asleep, and I did neither. I happily stitched. Happily stitching meant that I could focus on what he had to say AND stay awake. Seriously. I wish my boss would figure that out, although he hasn’t made me stop drawing in staff meetings.

No, I’m not done with the bird, but I’m close…so technically that would be done with the top block, whatever number that is, and on to the bottom block with the tree etc.

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The frog. That’s what it is.

I also caught up on this, three days’ worth. I’m getting less efficient as the year goes on. I was panicking about getting the quilt done. So I did the eyeball outline on the left, to be filled in later, the weird branch going off the eyeball, all in chain stitches for both, with pistil stitches coming out of the chains. Then I did a chain stitch in an orange color near the tree, to the left, filling in some of the black in there, finishing up with French knots above one of the yellow flower shapes.

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You’d think I’d finish filling in before branching out. Oh well.

I had some space-out time. I read for a while. I couldn’t deal with anything. Then I finally got up and started the stitch-down on the bathtub.

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The machine was a little fussy, but I figured it out and got a good hour and a half into it. Didn’t get a lot DONE, but I stitched. Slow but steady.

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More tonight…hoping I have the energy. Today is a long day. Most of them are long days. The first week back is exhausting. I said that already.

*The B-52’s, Private Idaho

Felling Any Foe with My Gaze*

OK. I can go back today. I guess. I’m not ready, but I never am…so what’s new. I managed to grade 6 of the 9 assignments I had…and to grade all of the stuff kids turned in late. So I didn’t do horribly…but progress reports have to be done this weekend, so…ugh. Already ugh.

That said, I got a bit of a reprieve on trying to finish the current quilt. I thought I had to be done and photographed by this Friday, and that’s not gonna happen. But apparently it doesn’t have to. I might be the only person who reads the contract. So I’m feeling pressure to get done still…but not psychotic crazy pressure. Hallelujah.

Anyway…I did get a lot done over the weekend anyway. First of all, I marched for science. My marching team has a plan for how we do this…we meet here and eat a fortified breakfast.

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The Other Kathy had the best shirt ever…if you’re a size medium or smaller, go here to get one.

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If you’re not a medium or smaller, be sad, because she’s sold out. But a lovely shirt nonetheless. She’s a paper cutter from Canada (the artist, Ali Harrison; not my friend wearing the shirt)…which makes sense when you see the image.

Then we leave two cars where the parking is easy and we park in this garage, within easy walking distance of the march. The artist is Christopher Konecki…whose art I love…and his cover picture on his website shows this and a few other of his downtown murals (there are many).

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We take the obligatory march photo…which shows my hat…

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The weird Earth Mother that was behind us while we left the plaza…

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You can see my weird hat (I wear this at school at least once a year)…better in the Other Kathy’s picture…

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Got my lab coat on too. Anyway. Science marchers are different than Women marchers in that it was quieter…but still a good thing. Because science. Duh.

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I don’t know how you ignore 15,000 people in San Diego…especially when they’re fucking with traffic…

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They only gave us half the road this time. Lots of good signs, but I’m not sure the people who need to be paying attention are getting it, after seeing the Trumpster’s statement for Earth Day. It seems his science teachers have a lot of explaining to do for his level of ignorance about cause and effect with the environment. Hopefully some of his party will pay attention to their constituents.

I came home and ironed…body parts…

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She’s not as pink as the others…

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Should be interesting seeing all three bathtubs hanging together…

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Then I took the torso and limbs and inserted them into the bathtub.

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I only had about 100 pieces left at that point, but needed to leave and go to an opening.

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Which is where I found out I had more time than I thought.

Yesterday, I had a ton to do, but helped out the ex by letting him drop a beam on my shin. OK. Not really. That was an accident, but it hurts today. Oh well.

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I get it. It’s hard to do stuff around the house when you’re the only person. Luckily I persuaded him that trying to lift the beam up from the ground and hold it was fucking nuts. So we did it from the deck…if it dropped, that would have killed the ladders, but not one of us. I feel like I need to drive over there today and see if he is still alive, because he had other stuff to do…this might be why old single people need to live in communes, rather than by themselves.

I had a California Fibers‘ meeting yesterday (we have so many shows coming up, it’s crazy)…and this was on a Chinese screen one of the members had in her house. Everything else was traditional old dragons and water and clouds (which apparently are a fungus, not clouds?)…but these look like flaming metal eyeballs, don’t they? I’m not sure what they’re supposed to be, but I really like them.

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Back home, finishing some grading, dogs at the ready…

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Or asleep…whichever works.

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Back to the ironing board, earlier this time…

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Eyeballs ironed separately for better placement.

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Her face done…with crown of fire (can you say hot flashes?).

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Piece the background after (smartly learning from my mistakes) washing it in that stuff that removes the extra dye…Retayne (wish I could retain brain cells, dammit…couldn’t remember what it was called)…

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Then all ironed down and steamed appropriately.

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Damn, if I didn’t have to go to school today…I’d be stitching this down. Yup. Oh well. Back to the day job. That’s what all the artists say.

*Blue Foundation, Eyes on Fire

Read the Lines in My Hand*

AAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK.

OK. Yeah. Better. Nope. Not really. Realizing how many things are on the to-do list while simultaneously realizing how little time there is to do them. My right eye is twitching again. It’s not supposed to do that on break. And it doesn’t seem to matter that I got a ton done yesterday…today it has multiplied into a monstrously larger amount, I don’t even know how. Part of it is trying to manage four different shows (maybe more?)…finishing work, putting labels on, suspect I need to go shopping for slats or dowels, plus shipping them off…gotta get all that done today and tomorrow. Plus the parentals are gone, so I have their dog on top of mine. And I’m supposed to be deciding what quilts will be in my solo show in July, because I need to know by next Friday. Aack. Double Aack. I have some that are definites (including the one I haven’t finished, oh shit), but I’m blanking on some of the others. Not sure. Need it to fit with the title. Maybe. Maybe it all fits. Who knows? I can’t wrap my brain around it right this minute. Realizing that this weekend is busy as hell, all of a sudden. OK, the realization was all of a sudden…it’s been booked for months.

All I can do is start banging through the list, as always. This is how school stuff doesn’t get done, though…because I’m trying to finish the personal stuff…and that doesn’t even include my original Spring Break goals of finishing all the weeding (ah ha ha ha) and figuring out where all the quilts should be stored and getting my bedroom chaos under control. That shit’s just not happening at all.

So. I got up yesterday and graded one of the longer assignments. Then I started cutting, and I did that for about 4 1/2 hours…

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And then I was done. So 9 hours plus total, I think. And my hand isn’t even that stiff. Good deal.

I had two dogs on the couch with me for most of it…not sure why. I know I’ve been the most boring owner ever this week. Sorry guys.

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Then the third dog showed up and the shenanigans began…

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I ignored them and went on to sorting the pieces out…

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And then came in here and started ironing…

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I am doing all the stuff around the bathtub first…it seems easier that way…

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Well, this tree wasn’t really easy…but it was logical…sort of.

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And I got the cat done after midnight…and that’s where I stopped.

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200 pieces ironed down…only 500 to go. That was my goal for today…I think. I’m not sure I can pull it off though. I have 5 quilts to pull from the pile, check all of them for labels, put labels on those that don’t have them, ship 3 to one location, put 2 in a pile for another location, and then there’s another that’s still in a box that needs to be shipped back. Each batch, I need to look up what else needs to be sent…artist statement? Slats? Return shipping? Who knows. Pain in the ass. Except the work is gonna be out there, so that’s a plus.

Two of the pieces are in this show…which will be up until July 10, I think. The piece on the right is mine, and there will be another smaller piece of mine in the show. I won’t make it to the opening though…it’s free, but you need to register. I think that gets you a free wine ticket though, so you should go.

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And then I’m in this one…but I’m not sure whether it’s just the one piece on the announcement or not. I should be at this opening…

FPG 05.21.17 California Fibers blog 3.5

Anyway, wasting less time here and trying to get everything done without panicking. This is the part where my counselor tells me I must like being overwhelmed because I keep getting into that space. WTF. I don’t know how NOT to get there. Sigh.

*Elliott Smith, Miss Misery

I Tripped and Fell, and Did I Fall*

I think I write in the morning most days because it helps me wake up. Drink the tea, spill the beans, get the leftover words out of my head, make plans for the day, make sure art fits in there. Get my head around the day. Of course, it’s also still Spring Break for me…and I’m trying to catch up on almost 4 months of not enough sleep. Ugh. I honestly, right now, on Tuesday, don’t feel like I’m up to surviving the last two months of school. There’s only 38 days. And I’m gone for 2 of them. But it feels overwhelming still. Maybe that’s because we don’t have the first three weeks completely planned. Just maybe. But also because I go back and progress reports are due. I graded two easy assignments yesterday and input a bunch of stuff from the week before break. I have 7 assignments left. That’s an assignment a day (I’m ignoring the one that’s sitting in my classroom…hoping to have time to grade it when I get back).

(Just took a 10-minute break to throw a ball for Simba…he had the rips.)

This year has been stressful. But I’m close to finishing up some of the most stressful parts. So that’s good. I’m looking forward to a summer break, even if I probably have to find work for most of it. I shut down most of the copyediting stuff a month ago when I was getting lots of requests but literally had no free time in which to complete anything. I’ll be opening those up again soon…because I need work for the summer. I still don’t know if either of the kids is coming home; the flights will start being an issue pretty soon. I hope they have somewhere to sleep if I can’t get them home right away…or that they find jobs or internships where they are. I want them to come home, but understand if they don’t. The money that has to be paid out over the summer scares me a bit…even with my tax return, the summer is going to be tight. Need work. Yeah.

So yesterday I finished a bunch of stuff…I also did two days’ worth of stitching on this…the herringbone in the bottom left and then a running stitch from the left side and over the tree…I’m going to thread another color through that tonight.

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So that’s 106 days of stitching…almost a third of a way through the year. Still feels like I will probably fill this up before the end of the year.

I started watching an episode of The Americans while I was stitching and wanted to finish the episode, so I worked on the Folk Tails block…with puppy on my leg (his favorite spot) and Midnight cleaning herself down the couch.

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I forgot to take a picture of what I got done…but it wasn’t much.

I ironed in the afternoon, did the bathtub water. Then cooked dinner and did the stitching above before heading in for the flesh fabrics. I picked a run of 7 flesh colors and some other fillers. This quilt is about aging and menopause mostly…like a lot of the bathtub quilts seem to be…this is the third bathtub quilt I’ve actually made…I think there are 5 or 6 drawings.

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A shot to show you how I use fabrics that change in color sometimes…so yes, I was looking at the drawing and deciding where on the stripes each piece needed to go.

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Not exactly random I guess. I was tired when I finished ironing all the flesh colors, but it was still relatively early, so I kept going…did all the heart/blood stuff and then the fire stuff as well. So all that’s left right now is hair and lungs, mostly.

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Honestly it wouldn’t have taken much time to do it last night, but I was exhausted. I’m not sure why. Just accumulated tiredness still. Like jet lag, but school lag.

Here’s the pile of fabrics I was using by the end of the night. I find these piles happen even when I try to be all organized and keep runs of color together.

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While I’m picking, I can’t be bothered to be organized. I do that when I’m done, pile them all up in the boxes by color, although I was being lazy here…it was almost 1 AM, in my defense.

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And then I moved the ironed pieces into a larger container so they’d have room to breathe. I plan to be cutting these out by tonight…

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I’m going to have to grade something first. I’m more than a little panicked about trying to get this quilt done on time…but all I can do is keep doing until it’s done. Which makes me a bit hermitlike this week. Oh well. I’d probably do that anyway.

*R.E.M., Strange Currencies

As We Drift into the Zone*

I have another piece on view this weekend. Turmoil is at IQF Chicago and includes my Goddess of Neverending Chaos. I love this piece…

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She is always relevant. Even with both kids gone, my current life is just way too freakin’ overwhelming at the moment. so even though taking time off and wandering around the redwoods is really not gonna get anything done, I need that mental space and time to get through the rest of it. I’m taking stitching, books, hiking boots, and my sketchbook. And Rice Krispy treats. Yeah. Well. I’m lucky in that I have two weeks of Spring Break, so I can come back and kick butt on grading and artmaking when I get back.

I certainly have sucked on the grading front all week. I’ve managed to almost finish one large assignment this week during classes, but I’ve basically come home and done none of it. I couldn’t. Mentally couldn’t. I may regret that at some point, but whatever. I think I’m going into break with only small assignments to grade…well, one larger one, but there’s only 35 of those. That’s doable. There are 10 assignments. Sigh. Dammit. I should finish one of them today and one is extra credit, so only a few kids did it.

So quilt progress. Not great, but there is some. I’m a little over 100 pieces in, out of almost 700 pieces. It’s taken almost 3 hours to do them though. Not sure why. Apparently my brain is slow. I have to say that this is my favorite part of the quilt…picking fabrics…followed by ironing them together. So I will come back from my trip and enjoy the last week off. I hope. But the hours I had in my head about the quilt are getting longer now, because there’s no way I’m going to finish ironing tonight. Honestly, I’ll probably get another hour or two max. I am going to try finish grading one assignment tonight and I have to pack everything. I tried to do some last night again and it was too overwhelming (not a good sign). But I’m hoping with school out of my head (well, as much as it ever is), I’ll be able to get it done. The right eye keeps twitching. Not a good sign. That’s why I’m vacating.

Here’s the fabrics so far…still not much color…and the pieces that are ready for trimming.

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I was thinking of taking the to-be-trimmed pieces with me. I think probably not, but I’ll reconsider. It is a pain carrying that around on a trip with an already full car. So it’s probably easier not to. It’ll only save me an hour or two when I get back. That’s not really enough. If I’d gotten through like 500 pieces, maybe. We’ll see.

But first…surviving today. Not a small task. Yesterday was a stretch for two periods…seriously. I honestly don’t know where I will find the mental strength to get through it today…but I know I will.

*Weezer, Island in the Sun

Restless as the Wildest Way*

Here’s a blog post I wrote for California Fibers on the exhibit Time, which just opened at Blackboard Gallery at Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo, California. I have two pieces in the show. I was not there for the opening, but will be stopping by on my trip next week. Give Me Time…

And Holding It All In…

Are both in the exhibit. I’m looking forward to seeing it…it looks like a beautiful space. The show is up through May 9.

So I knew I had a bag of Wildflowers variegated thread, which has always been one of my favorites, starting when I was a crazy quilter (OK, I’m still a crazy quilter, but I meant a person who made crazy quilts)…I found them!

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This house has a lot of embroidery thread in it, just so you know. But now I have some different thread to use…I get tired of using the same ones over and over. I did the bullion rose under the tree branch, and then used up the rest of the thread in some stem stitching below the tree roots. I actually used two strands of thread, because I couldn’t finish all the bullions otherwise.

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Julie says it looks like a skull. She’s right. For now. Not on purpose.

Then I decided to blow off work completely (whoops…I will probably regret that later…) and start the fabric-picking part of this quilt. It has a top and bottom on the backing…a floor and wall, if you will. The other two bathtubs don’t. Not sure why this one does, but thought I would honor it with two different fabrics.

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I got the drawing hung up and started picking. Honestly, it was a pretty slow start.

That’s a plate of cheesecake laid out in fabric. A first for me.

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I’m really tired at the moment. Here’s the first 100 pieces laid out.

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Here’s the first 50 pieces cut out of fabric. No. I didn’t get very far.

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It took a really long time to decide what color to make the rug. I can’t explain that. It just happened. Greens are complicated. Interestingly, I think all the bathtubs have a green rug. I want a better bathtub…if I can ever afford to remodel the bathrooms here (they need it), a nice bathtub is a requirement. I miss baths.

Anyway, the way I number the pieces on the bathtub means I cut out everything that’s AROUND the bathtub first, and then I do the bathtub, then the water, then the human. I try to be methodical about things sometimes. The first bathtub I did, I think I was not that organized, and it made it a pain in the ass for picking fabrics. Anyway. More tonight. More Friday night, as I try to pack for this trip. Pack for potentially sopping wet and freezing temperatures while sleeping outside and then delightful and sunny while touring wineries. It’s not like I have a wide selection of clothes anyway. Layers!

Deep breaths for today. Spring Break is two days away and the kids know it! There is some dumbassery going on, as usual. And it starts with an early meeting for me…woo hoo!

*Crooked Still, Undone in Sorrow