Don’t Let the Days Go By*

So I seriously overestimated how long it might take to trim the Wonder Under, which is cool, because now I get to start ironing to fabric today. And I didn’t even think I’d get that far yesterday. Around 8 PM, when I was still grading chemical reactions quizzes, I was sure I’d be cutting Wonder Under into today. OK, well, I guess technically I DID cut into today, but I did it in the middle of the night. Until 1:30 AM. Yeah. And then dogs were up early today, so I’m on less sleep than I’d like, but honestly, it’s more sleep than I get on an average school night.

For some reason, I thought grading the quizzes yesterday was a good idea. I think I just wanted to get them out of the way. Now I only have two assignments left…one quick and easy one (that’s today’s) and one bitch of a fucker. Yup. That one is waiting in the wings. I walk by it and shake my head. I’ll do it…but I won’t like it.

Someone asked me yesterday why all their teacher friends were posting at the beginning of break that they were done with their grading…and I’m still grading. For one thing, my co-teacher and I have basically given up almost all of our prep periods to planning this year, since everything is new and we have zero curriculum from the state or district. So that’s time-consuming as all hell. We also don’t use a lot of multiple-choice stuff, because honestly (at least for me), I don’t think it really shows an ability to think critically. We would have done it with the last quiz, with a short answer or two, but the school takes the kids’ Chromebooks before break, so we had to do it on paper. Dammit. Yeah. Timing. Sometimes it sucks. There’s also a bunch of online questions we do as short-term assessments…honestly, if we don’t give them something to focus on as a goal (answer this question), they often won’t finish anything we give them…it’s frustrating. And those take time to grade. It’s not that they’re lazy…they often don’t have parents who value school or education, or they have parents who are illiterate or close enough to it. If you don’t see education as a way out of wherever you are, then you certainly aren’t going to teach your kids to value it either. You’re going to buy them that new technology for Christmas even though they’re failing every class. When they tell you math is hard, you’re going to agree with them, instead of encouraging them to keep trying.

But I keep teaching, even as we face an incoming administration who thinks the 10% of kids in private schools whose parents can afford to send them there have more rights than the 90% of those who we have to take, who we can’t kick out when they don’t achieve or when they behave badly. I don’t know how many kids I’ve taken into my classroom and managed over the years who were kicked out of charters because they didn’t fit what the charter wanted…good grades, hard worker, well-behaved. Yeah. I get the ones who need more help than that. And I teach them. Every day. Please make my job harder with your ignorance. I saw a Facebook acquaintance post about how deVos must be a good choice if all the teachers’ unions were up in arms over her…it was difficult not to respond to his ignorance…living in his rich white community…with no insight to what teaching is actually like, to how difficult some days are to just keep them all from catching on fire…let alone to get them to actually learn something, even if it’s just how to think. His kids have motivation to learn…from him. He is completely clueless as to what it looks like to teach in a low-income public school with limited funding. Why we let politicians be in charge of schools, I just don’t know.

So with that in mind, I’m just gonna finish grading…because for whatever multitude of reasons that I’m not done, it’s gotta get done. Next year will be easier because of all the work we’ve done this year. And that’s something to look forward to in 2017.

That said, I still have quilts to make before that happens. It took a total of about 8 1/2 hours to trim all the Wonder Under…otherwise known as about 12 episodes of Supernatural (OK, I watched some other stuff in there…).

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You get to see my socks and pajamas in that photo…1400 cut pieces in the bin on the right…trash on the left. This morning, I’ll sort them (that will probably take over an hour, maybe close to two)…I’m waiting for the girlchild to leave, so I can watch something besides cooking shows while I’m doing it. Then I’ll grade the short and easy assignment, and then do college financial aid crap. I bought two background fabrics yesterday (couldn’t decide), so I’m ready to start picking fabrics…except the studio is a disaster area at the moment, so I’ll need to do some straightening up. I haven’t even put away the fabrics from the last quilt I finished. OK, so that was only two weeks ago, but still.

We went out to dinner last night…good stuff. Italian. Crazy girlchild face.

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Dogs when cold will cuddle. Briefly.

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But first I need to eat. Did I draw yesterday? Nope. No time. Grading took forever. I’m good at doing the have-to stuff first before the art stuff…unfortunately sometimes. I do need to try to draw too today. OK. The to-do list is made…let’s see where that goes.

*Bush, Glycerine

There You Go*

Today in a nutshell: rain, assembly, 12-year-olds, quiz, last day of school before break. Yeah. But we will survive it. We always do.

And three glorious three weeks of break with no kids and only 8 assignments to grade. I should have graded more this week. Oh well. (8 assignments, 7 of which will take an average of 2 hours to grade, so that’s 14 hours, plus the unit they’re handing in, which is probably 5 hours total, then inputting grades…guessing somewhere between 22-25 hours of work to do on vacation. OK. That’s unfortunately normal.)

I do have both kids back home, hallelujah, although girlchild’s flight was really late last night. There’s a lot more noise…and puppy is doing much better. He’s medicated and all signs do seem to point to some sort of muscle or back strain from doing too much puppyness. I think he’ll be fine in a few more days. As it is, he’s back to romping a bit, but not quite happy about jumping up and down on couches and such.

Insert cute picture of dogs that I’ve already used, because I don’t have any photos from yesterday.

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My drawing…I drew nothing last night. Too stressed and waiting for flight and exhausted. Even tried to nap for a short time, although that was kind of a failure. I would have liked to have the drawing done before tomorrow, but it’s not going to happen.

So the plan (because it always helps me to have a plan…damn, the right eyelid is twitching): Finish drawing this weekend. Number the damn thing. Sunday and Monday are pretty much lost days…so realistically, let’s say I’m done with those two tasks sometime Monday night (it could happen). Then tracing. It’s hard to estimate tracing time when you don’t know how many pieces are in it. It’s bigger than the last one. Maybe equivalent to summer’s piece. So about 20-25 hours of tracing. I should be able to have that done by next weekend. Then cutting, ironing to fabric the next week. Trimming and ironing together the following week? Is that possible? I think so. But it means this quilt isn’t even being quilted until school starts. Well. That’s probably gonna be how it goes. We’ll see. At least now I can sorta see the big picture.

Speaking of, I need to go to school now. Yeah. I’m not a praying person…so I’m gonna quick, build a shrine to the Teacher Goddess and offer her a burnt offering of a broken pencil, a homework pass, and a fuzzy peppermint from my pocket. That should do.

*STRFKR, Rawnald Gregory Erickson The Second

Getting Nothing but Static*

I swear yesterday felt like a Friday. Yeast lab was a disaster in 2nd period, but eventually we got it working (I think we say that for every lab involving yeast…you’d think we’d figure that shit out)…I spent most of the day teaching empathy and appropriate behavior more than cellular respiration and the effect of changing the reactants on the product. I’ll be reteaching both today, for sure.

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Certainly, I’ll be doing dishes at school today…and generally straightening stuff up…and trying to figure out why Splenda has more product than Sweet & Low. It was an exhausting day, followed by a long union meeting.

That said, I’m currently listening to the B-52s and it’s helping me wake up and find the energy to get through this day. In bed around 1 AM (I was drawing) and up at 6:30 (girlchild texting…plus that’s when I usually get up)…not enough sleep. Plus exposure to strep throat, so now I’m gonna be paranoid about any throat pain for the next 4 days. I’m basically laughing hysterically and throwing a big Fuck You to the universe mentally at the moment.

In other news, Simba seems better. His back is definitely bugging him, because he’s scared to jump off the couch, but he gave boychild a proper puppy greeting.

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Yes, one kid is home. The next one comes home today, as long as the plane takes off. She’s never been cancelled, like the boychild has. So it was kind of amazing that all his flights took off within an hour of the appointed time. I don’t remember the last time that happened.

My brain wasn’t ready to sleep last night, so I drew after boychild went to bed. I had this skeleton pop into my head yesterday morning, so I wanted to start that.

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I’m not sure if I’m going to continue all of it…I’m still debating that. I’m debating a lot of things on this drawing. Maybe tonight I’ll get to the head…I really should do that before I put the skull in there. I think.

I got the photos back on the quilt I just finished…totally forgot about that. This is Give Me Time…

Kathy Nida fiber artist

She’s the 11th piece of art this year for me, and probably the last big quilt of 2016. I have one smaller one to do, but the next big one probably won’t get done until early 2017. It’s 38″w x 70″ h…I seem to be doing more of these long skinny pieces lately.

Here’s the bird and sun that had to flip sides. In the original drawing, they are on opposite sides.

Kathy Nida fiber artist

It’s a quilt about time and how it affects us, all the ways time and increasing age weigh us down…mostly how bodies change and bad stuff that starts happening.

Kathy Nida fiber artist

I do most of my work from a fairly personal perspective, if not what’s actually going on with me, then what I’m worried about for myself or another person.

Kathy Nida fiber artist

Snakes show up pretty often in my work. Because they’re easy to draw. No, not really. I just like how they fit into spaces and have all these crazy colors. Plus they’re biologically interesting. We’re terrified of them, but they’re fascinating. They imply some tension between good and evil. All these things attributed to this long skinny worm thing.

Kathy Nida fiber artist

Plus they’re pretty damn efficient…unlike how I feel at the moment.

Anyway. I’ll have to write up a full statement at some point. Not there yet. I did finish it in time for the entry I needed it for…with a day or two to spare. Something to note…I was way more efficient in working on it when I was teaching than when I wasn’t. I should keep that in mind for the next three weeks. Try to be efficient when I can.

Which probably starts by going to school today and getting shit cleaned up for the break, since they’ll be doing our floors…so everything has to be cleaned and put away. Yeah. That’s funny.

*The B-52s, Channel Z

Seamstress for the Band*

I’m running late this morning…been running late since some time yesterday. No art made…was basically home for less than an hour after a long day at school when we realized the puppy wasn’t acting well. No jumping up, just sitting there shaking, looking sad. He had an issue over the weekend as well, but he’d been to the vet and seemed better.

We’re still not positive what it is, but he seems to have strained his back in some way (he is kind of a kamikaze beast) and then maybe made it worse yesterday or Monday some time. He’s pretty subdued at the moment…no running around. Very snappy about being picked up if he doesn’t want it, but wanting love as well.

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See? Pitiful.

So I was at the vet until after 10:30 at night…I did grade there while he slept…

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Because that’s what teachers do. Waiting for blood tests to rule out all the other stuff it could be. He’s a sad pup at the moment.

I could have drawn when we got home, but I have one kid coming home today and one tomorrow, and the gifts were all still unwrapped, sitting out, waiting for me. So I did a bunch of that, trying to get it all organized. And then it was past midnight. Ugh.

No art. And kind of a long stressful day. We’re getting closer to break, though, and if I don’t think about the incredibly messy lab we’re doing today, or having to get my classroom straightened up before break, or the pile of grading to do, I might just make it through all of it. Certainly it will be nice to have the kids home (well, after the girlchild finishes and turns in her essays…until then, it will be tiptoe-on-eggshells time…I think)…maybe someone else can cook and deal with animals for a bit. Plus I kinda like those two.

*Elton John, Tiny Dancer

I’m Wishing My Days Away*

I’m realizing that the holidays are just around the corner, about to slam into me headlong. One sign? Both kids coming home in the next two days. Am I ready? Well, sort of. One kid’s room is vacuumed. Bedding is washed but not on the bed. Christmas presents are still laid out and not wrapped. Yikes. That might be an issue. Did I think about that last night? Yes. But I also vacuumed and took apart the vacuum because of that burning smell (I’ve never found a vacuum that can actually handle lots of dog hair). Then vacuumed some more. And the table is finally cleared off. That’s impressive. And some of the Christmas stuff is up. So did I grade anything? Fuck no. Yeah. I worked many hours yesterday. I will work even more today and tomorrow. I won’t feel like grading stuff when I get home. That’s kind of one of the problems this year…so much of my prep spent on planning that I can’t get any grading done at school, so it’s eating up a ton of at-home time. I could potentially be going home on Friday with 8 assignments to grade…last year it was 7 and I didn’t finish. So that’s motivation to get some of it done this week. Somehow. Yeah.

That said, this drawing is populating my brain and I’m letting it. All day at school, the empty spaces percolate in my head, so I can come home and fill them on the paper. That said, I had a big space present itself last night and it didn’t take long to fill itself in my head. I had finished drawing the uterus and pelvic girdle, and there was an unusually large area between that and the ribs (it happens). So I stared at for a little while and thought about how this quilt is about breaking out of gender roles, about getting out of what’s expected of you…and these women popped into my head. So I drew them.

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There’s a lot going on in here. I still need to have a focus for the head and decide if I’m doing the whole stove or stopping with the top. And if there will be stuff on the sides. I’m leaning against that. The arms still need details too. But it’s coming.

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I don’t keep track of drawing time in the small version usually, just when I go full size. I’ve spent three hours so far on the full-size drawing. I will mull on the face today.

When I sat down for a little while, Midnight came for love and attention…yes, I wear mismatched flannel at home…the cats don’t care.

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And I did get the tree lights on. I really like the lights part of Christmas. There’s Christmas lights in a few of my quilts, including this one. I should add more of those in there, I think.

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Puppy still doesn’t feel 100%. He’s been quiet. Tummy issues.

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Well, if you wouldn’t eat everything in the world without thinking about it, that probably wouldn’t be an issue.

Puppies don’t listen.

I’m hoping to be tracing onto Wonder Under by the weekend. And next week is off! Although family is in town in the beginning. And Christmas shopping is not done. And there’s yardwork to do. I need some good rainy days so I can’t do anything but stay home and make art (unlikely here in the desert of Southern California). First need to survive school. The kids are seriously pushing all our buttons. I will need to meditate in between classes…maybe. We have a lab tomorrow, so hopefully that will help. The mess? Not so much…but at least they’ll be engaged in doing something.

And I get to come home and draw…

*Police, Walking on the Moon

I Go About Things the Wrong Way*

Hey. Monday. Would you knock it off? Seriously. Nobody really likes you. You could be nicer, maybe quieter (probably not your fault trash pickup is on Monday…it’s probably different days in different places, you’re right). But seriously…make sure the tea is made, that there’s a healthy warm breakfast on the table? That would help. And plenty of sleep.

Yeah. I ask. I do. Last Monday before Winter Break though…oh hallelujah. Although I should get through some of this pile of work before that happens, so I don’t have to take it all home with me, eh?

Saturday morning, I met with other San Diego educators planning ways to counteract possible government interference with our kids, our students. I hate how some conservatives make teachers out to be money-grubbing haters who don’t care about kids, because honestly, I’ve never ever met anyone like that. In 15 years of teaching. I’ve met stupid people and people who made shitty decisions and lazy people, just like in any other career, but no one goes into this for the money and most of them care about kids…after time, that may change, but usually they get out when that happens. We have an incredible attrition rate…in science, 50% quit by the 5th year. Another 50% are gone by 10 years. So we’re being proactive…figuring out what schools need and asking for it and standing behind it. In a peacefully protesting sort of manner. I can’t just sit back and watch ignorant people come in and destroy everything we’ve fought for…in students’ rights, teachers’ rights, support of schools. It’s not OK.

I spent a lot of the meeting stitching, because I don’t like to just sit and listen.

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If I could get away with doing this at school meetings and professional development, I totally would. It relaxes me and helps me think. I know this…

The rest of my day involved gift wrapping and a bridal shower and a weird company party. And Sunday was work work work until I got to the end of the day. Here’s all the stitching I got done during the meeting. These things take forever…so much detail on them.

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But cool when they’re done.

Anyway, I had enlarged the drawing from Friday night 200%, so Sunday night I cut and taped it together…

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And then added paper top and bottom (and eventually sides), trying to figure out how big to make it.

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It’s not super wide, but it’s long. I penciled in some shapes, just to make sure the perspective was good, and then I started drawing…

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Does your cat lie on the stove? Mine does. Not when it’s on. Had to train her out of that.

Anyway, there’s a start. I don’t think I’ll be done drawing tonight though…think this is gonna take a while. I’m OK with that. I like to draw.

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In fact, my two favorite parts of quiltmaking are the drawing and ironing the fabrics together. I just have to remember that everything I draw has to be cut out at some point, twice, in fact, maybe technically three times. So don’t make them tiny and don’t add a million pieces.

Still no progress on the tree. It’s on my list. Cat approves.

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Art before tree. At least last night. My to-do list has ballooned this week. Kids are both coming home (assuming weather doesn’t stop that), both their rooms need some minor cleanup, and the house is a disaster. Plus school on top of that and meetings every night I think. Crazy chaos. It starts today with trying to teach kids who checked out sometime in November. I should give them a quiz then. And have a major assignment due. Yup. That’s how we roll.

*The Smiths, How Soon Is Now?

She Totally Confused All the Passing Piranhas*

You know what’s annoying? Every time we make some sort of laminated card thing for class, where every table gets X number of cards in a bag and then they have to do stuff with them…every single damn time, we end up with cards getting lost. We laminate them because we want to reuse them every year, but middle-schoolers basically guarantee that we will have to first of all, count every damn bag out (this is what a TA is for), then figure out what card or cards are missing from each bag, and then make X number of extra sets to fill in the blanks. I hate that shit. It’s an organizing nightmare, and we don’t have time for it. At all.

Yes, there are only five days of school until Winter Break. I thought I was getting this huge copyediting job this Tuesday, and I knew break was going to be difficult. Hard to find time for art, because I would have to work. And both kids are coming home. But then that job got pushed out…again…I think that’s the third time. And now break is free (well as free as it ever is…still gotta grade). So that’s a bit of a relief. I’m trying not to think about how I’m going to do that copyediting job without any vacation time to focus on it, but whatever. I’ll deal with that when it actually shows up.

Meanwhile, our students are going bonkers because it’s almost break and Christmas and all that. I did remind them that not everyone does Christmas. What?! Their shock was evident. The bonkers kid behavior is not pleasant. Teachers do not enjoy that. I guess the fact that they will have to take home progress reports next week might help, but not based on what I’ve seen in the last week.

My patience is worn thin. I know it, at least, and try to make myself relax as much as I can, both during school and after school. I feel like all I do at school is hug kids and wipe tears some days, and I’m not really the mama bear on campus. So you know they’re desperate. I’m the one you come to for sex ed or weird science questions…

Anyway, so I was motivated last night to get through grades (I still have about 100 emails to deal with), so that took a few hours. I also wanted to get a tree, but last year, I got zero help from the kids in decorating it, and I also knew I didn’t want another big tree, because between having my (not elderly…they’re not…but knee surgeries etc means they shouldn’t be down on the floor trying to make the tree stand straight) parents help and doing it myself, plus the puppy…I’m pretty sure he will just want to take all the ball-shaped ornaments and destroy them…so I knew it needed to be up off the ground and smaller. I can’t put it on my light table, dammit, because I need that. So I have this desk that I’ve wanted to clear off for a while. It has a pile of crap (they always do) and the third computer in the house, one that’s never used. So I unhooked everything and moved it around, clearing the surface.

And like all trees, within about 5 minutes of getting it up there, one cat appeared.

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The next one was not far behind.

It was still not easy to get everything out of the garage…I start thinking about what needs to happen before I get really old (I barely got the Xmas decoration box down without braining myself). My SIL said I should separate out all the kids’ ornaments this year into one box for each kid (she’s already done this, and her kids are 5+ years younger than mine) so that when they do move out, it’s not a pain to figure out what’s what. That would help. Smaller containers too…and not on the top shelf. But all that means trying to clear out the garage, which just terrifies me. It does need help.

Now did I get lights on the tree? Hell no. Too tired. Ate dinner, finished some section of the grading (probably 4 or 5 more hours to go, unfortunately)…and then sat down. Within seconds, I had Simba and Midnight competing for lap space. He used to bite her, but then I started praising his boisterous ear cleaning, which Midnight actually seems to like. So now he does it all the time. Her ears are very clean. Sparkling even.

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But none of this behavior is conducive to my getting anything done. She eventually settled on one side…

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With him on the other. Room for the sketchbook. Awesome.

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At some point, I realized I was too tired to draw, though, so another early night. Trying to stay well and get what I need. It’s a difficult balance. Today especially…going to an educator meeting to prepare for the next four years of attacks. Mind-boggling looking at the people being chosen to lead us, people with no experience in reality. One of my high-school classmates posted some idiotic statement about the new Secretary of Education, that she must be good because the teacher unions were going nuts. Sigh. So yes, I refrained from bitch-slapping him, because I reminded myself that he was ignorant. Many people are. And if you think deVos is a good choice, come spend a week in my classroom and see what it’s really like. I have to deal with enough clueless people at my job (OK, most of them are 12, but not ALL of them). You should educate yourself before you spout nonsense. And the attacks on science annoy me too. No one on any governmental science committee should NOT be a scientist. Fire their asses. They’re incompetent and ignorant. Should be a good meeting.

But here’s where I got last night. I think I’m ready to enlarge this part and add to the top and bottom…well, and sides. Yeah. Which means not sitting on the couch, unfortunately…but whatever. Puppy will miss me.

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Midnight will just try to sit on the drawing. She vomited on the last one. That was nice. Yeah. And I think I have three social things tonight, although one is with total strangers, crashing another company party (actually I think I’m allowed to crash this one). I’m going to take my stitching to the educator meeting to keep me calm and focused.

As far as finishing the drawing, I think it’s going to be a few days at least. I might get time this afternoon, but I doubt it. And I draw better at night for some reason…so if I finish grades, Sunday night? Anyway, maybe I’ll be tracing sometime this week? I hope so. I want this one done by the end of Winter Break. Seriously. That’s crazy, of course, but it’s what I want. Maybe I’ll be uber-efficient on vacation for once. You never know. It could happen.

*The Presidents of the United States of America, Lump

Or So I’ve Been Told*

So I’m trying to avoid all the illnesses that are flowing through my school. I can’t afford to be sick. Well, no one can, it’s true…but with grades due and having to plan lessons out into late January right now, I’m feeling some pressure to be on top of my game every single day. And I’m tired. I went to bed early last night…I graded all night basically and I didn’t have any energy to try and art after all that. (Plus I just sneezed. Massively. Not good.)

I did get good news yesterday though. I was sitting there, trying to write a quiz for next week that didn’t involve asking a question about unicorn farts (although there is a unicorn question in there), and a ton of my quilt art friends were posting about getting into the big 50 years of art quilts retrospective book. And I’m scrolling through my email, going, dammit, I didn’t get in. No email. Well that sucks. Because that would be a cool thing to get into, right? I checked again at lunch…no email…and then I Google it, because who knows, maybe the email is lost or in my spam and I can’t see that on my phone. I think I scared the crap out of my coworkers because I yelled pretty loud when I found the list. So I’m in. Which is cool.

I actually entered 3 decades, because I made my first art quilt in the 90s. I’ve been quilting since I was 23 years old. Art quilts. Yeah. Long time. So it’s starting to feel like I have a place in the art quilt world. Sort of. Because I still upset people without even trying to do so. But whatever. That part is sometimes hurtful, but since I pretty much make art in my head and live up there without interacting with humans, except at school…and here…online…it probably doesn’t really matter if Joan in Virginia hates me for my vulvas (except she calls them vaginas, because she doesn’t have a science background) or Milly in Michigan is still trying to find a penis in my quilt. If I knew who that woman was, I’d make her a little penis quilt that she could carry in her purse, so she could hold it up to the other quilts she sees, just so she’d know what they really look like. Yeah. I’m not really wasting time on that.

My school is doing an art contest, and one of the staff (who is very well-meaning) was trying to get me to come on the broadcast and show an appropriate piece of my art (there aren’t a lot, but there are a few), and I had to explain the ramifications of that. Because if the students Google me (and maybe they do already and just don’t tell me), I could have parent complaints threaten my job…because of the work itself, because of the nasty things some people have written about me. And I can’t afford to have an issue with my job. Funny that it didn’t even cross her mind…and it’s always on mine.

Yesterday was photosynthesis. We did this lab I’ve never done before (I’ve never really taught photosynthesis) and it was very cool, but I realized this morning that I didn’t really understand why we had added one reactant.

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See the bubbles? YAASSSS.

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So this morning, I’m looking that shit up. And I made a little post-it of the stuff I just learned (it was kind of oh yeah, duh, I remember that…it’s often like that. Unless it’s like holy crap, I didn’t know that, oh yeah, because they discovered it after I got out of school). And I’m posting a photo on Google Classroom for the kids. And making sure I go over this part today (because my co-teacher probably did that yesterday…which makes me laugh! I get there eventually, I swear). And next year, I will do a better job of teaching it because I will know more than I do this year. It’s made this school year really difficult, because there are only so many hours in the day, and I try to make sure I know what’s going on all the time and what I’m teaching, but I have to know it as such a higher level than the kids do…and if I haven’t had it since high school, then it’s not like it’s in an easily accessible part of my brain. The next unit is energy and I printed the materials so I can read them over break. I know it’s not in my head.

I dropped my quilt at the photographer yesterday, and there were multiple murders of crows just hanging out on his phone lines and cawing away. It was more than I’d seen (there were two other large groups flying around when I took this picture).

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Crows (or ravens) show up in my quilts pretty often. Harbingers of death and all.

So yeah, no art yesterday. Once I finally got home (had to venture into Home Depot twice…to get stuff to hook up rain barrels, but then got to the car and realized I’d forgotten a timer for the Xmas lights, so I ventured back in. Crazy really. Still didn’t get a timer…ordered it online), I graded, ate, let the girlchild FaceTime the dogs (she didn’t really want to talk to me, which was funny) and then graded until my brain stopped. Slept. But here…the Golden had her head in my lap and the puppy was too scared to come up on my other side for some reason, so he curled up over there.

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OK, it’s Pajama Day AND Ugly Sweater Day at school today, so I officially can’t go anywhere after school without coming home to change. Seriously. Or. Well. Maybe it doesn’t matter. You know. I’m not really a fashion maven.

I want to do art tonight, but I also need to grade stuff and wrap presents…so we’ll just have to see. Some days, what we want is just not on the table.

*Flight Facilities, Crave You

Sometimes It’s About Massages and Brain Size

It’s not in my nature to waste fabric. Well, yes, I take big pieces of fabric and cut them into smaller pieces and then iron and sew them back together. It’s already a strange concept. But I don’t like wasting what I’ve got. It’s my palette. I don’t even like throwing out the tiny scraps left over after I trim the ironed pieces. But I do. Because it would be crazy to keep that stuff (I do keep it until the quilt is done, in case I need a tiny piece of something…because if I’m gonna lose a piece, it’s usually a little one).

So although I finished the newest quilt on Tuesday night, I hadn’t thrown out the scraps yet or put all the other fabric away, because I knew I had the leftover pieces from when I cut the head out backwards. Now I also cut out the bird and the sun/cloud conglomerate backwards, but I ended up using them in the quilt anyway. I couldn’t do that with the head because of the shoulder orientation. It wouldn’t fit right. But I saved those pieces. I had spent time cutting out the Wonder Under, ironing them to fabric, and trimming them. Dammit if I wasn’t gonna use them. (Yes. I am currently channeling my Depression-era grandmother.)

So I did. Here’s the bin. It’s even labeled Backwards. The question was which pieces did I pull from here to finish the other one (answer: cat ears, cat top of head, cat eyes, cat eyeballs, and human eyelid…plus two smaller pieces that seemingly just disappeared)?

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The real problem was ironing on the back of the pattern. I couldn’t see it. So I had to redraw it on the back. Now when I look at this, it’s obvious to me that there’s another problem…flipped letters. I didn’t actually realize that until later though, when I was on the phone with the girlchild and she said I should just leave them backwards (I didn’t…but I do have one quilt where everything is backwards because I traced it all wrong and couldn’t bear to retrace).

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So here it is backwards…in process…you can see the box of scraps there. I had to fill in a few things…small pieces. And I decided to make the words right way round. I didn’t cut new ones. I used what I had.

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Backwards head…

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Regular head…

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Creepy, huh? And honestly, I’m only doing this because I hate to waste stuff. It only took about an hour to iron it together. Not bad.

So yeah, I’ll quilt it etc. and stick it up on Etsy. It’s not tiny, actually, because of the hair. And it’s weird. Then again, everything I do is weird.

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As evidenced by this drawing done during a teacher training yesterday that I was a bit irritated by having to sit through. I hate when the voice in my head is yelling “No DUH!” the entire time.

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So first of all, the statement at the top is not what I think…but what some kids might think (funny, I’m always careful to explain I don’t believe that…that smart people do some really stupid stuff. I could insert names here if I wanted to.). Then the stuff about brain size/weight…I actually wanted to check that out, because I remembered that Einstein’s brain wasn’t particularly large, and I always thought that it was the connections that were more important than size, although even those can be regrown to some extent. And this morning, I found this…confirming that (as we all know) size isn’t everything. And yes, if you haven’t figured it out by now, drawing is my safe space. The Affect not Effect was because the damn program needs an editor. I hate it when apparently educated people can’t edit their stuff. It’s one thing to get it wrong. It’s another to not realize you get stuff wrong and have someone who is better at it check your stuff. We’re teachers, dammit.

I probably scare some people in trainings. Generally I try to sit with people who won’t be scared. In the old days, when we got a paper agenda for staff meetings, people used to try to sit next to me (because it was more fun to watch me draw than listen to the principal). Seriously, though, it entertains the part of my brain that otherwise gets me in trouble. Plus it keeps me awake. And any angry or pissed off or bored parts will have something else on which to focus.

There is a cat currently sitting on my computer mouse. OK. Moved her. Lab day today. Too tired for that. Oh well. It’s not like I get to ignore the tired stuff. I did get my first ever massage yesterday, in an attempt to move the joints in my neck and back that have been semi-frozen about a month. We got all but one of them. But more importantly, holy crap, massages are wondrous. I can’t afford how wondrous they are (seriously, I could get addicted to that). But it was a positive thing. So there we are. You learn something new every day. Sometimes it’s stupid stuff, like how much vomit a Golden Retriever can gack up. But sometimes it’s about massages and brain size.

The Images Stuck in Your Head*

So a huge feeling of relief as I finished that quilt yesterday evening. And then I sat around for about 10 minutes before I got started on the next one. To my credit, it’s been drawing itself in my head for a couple of weeks. I think. I’m not sure when I did the first part of the drawing, and certainly this idea has been percolating for months. The second one is also germinating in that chemical slop that lives in my art brain. The third one? I’m not sure. Yet. I had an idea, but it’s gone. But I’ve got time on that one. The plan? Finish the three skinny ones for one wall, then the small one for the other show, then another bathtub, unless one of them gets into that other show…then I might need two bathtubs. Yikes. OK. Don’t worry about that right now. Got enough on my plate. I do have one bathtub drawn and enlarged and numbered though. So that’s a plus.

Including science. Teaching it. Trying to understand what I’m teaching (some days)…prepping for and cleaning up after labs. Just trying to see the big picture for the next unit. I honestly am mostly ignorant of a lot of what I’m doing these days until I realize I’m ignorant and start reading or watching videos. This is so much easier than it would have been 20 years ago. YouTube saves my butt.

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Using up ALL the balloons in the world. ALL OF THEM. OK, not really. Certainly we’ve used more AlkaSeltzer this year than I thought possible. And we’re buying stock in vinegar, baking soda, and yeast. And handwarmers. Don’t even ask.

So it’s a relief some days to come home and just sit on the couch with all the animals and a TV show and needle and thread. I know some of you understand. Even though all I had to do was two sleeves, top and bottom, and they’re pretty boring (and I finally poked a hole in my finger…knew it would happen…no callouses)…it was still relaxing.

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Which is good, because my neck is sorta half frozen in a bad place at the moment. Today I’m hoping is the day we finally budge it (after a month plus of trying a variety of things).

Anyway, there she is, fully bound.

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A mere 85 hours of work, completed basically from about November 1st to now. Five weeks. Not bad. Should have been able to do it faster, but whatever. Life kicks you upside the head and you just bully through. Photographer delivery tomorrow.

Amusingly, I was cleaning up before starting the next one, and I found these…the pieces I traced correctly but then lost and had to redraw or steal from the wrong-way-round pieces. I never even cut them out. Wow. Tired much?

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Cat head. Legs. Eyes. Inner ears. Top of head. Yes. I can recognize pieces just by looking at the shapes. Granted, I also know what I was missing.

I might still iron the other head together and make a mini quilt out of it. It’ll be hard to figure out the time taken to complete it, because some of it is tied up in the others of the other quilt, but I bet I could do some rudimentary math and figure it out. So maybe that’s also a goal this week. I can toss it up on Etsy for that crazy person who wants a head on a quilt. You know you do.

Meanwhile, I pulled this back out. I need to get this part drawn enough so I can enlarge it and add the rest of the body and head. I did this back in November some time. I didn’t date it…I usually write the date. Dammit. It’s probably in my blog though, huh? Yeah. I bet it is. (this is why I keep this thing…it’s my brain when I can’t remember shit.)

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Uh huh. November 22. Found it. I thought it was earlier than that. OK. Well with a cat on one side, a giant Golden Retriever sprawled on the other couch, and this little guy behind me on the back of the couch (I am NOT a cat)…

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I kept going…

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I like where I’m going with this. I’m not sure about the head, but I do know what’s going on down below and behind and around her. So I will probably keep drawing on this tonight and then copy? Tonight? I do have a copy place that’s open until 10 or 11 PM (well hallelujah for that, right?). Or maybe I’ll draw and then do the other head. We’ll see what I’m in the mood for at the end of the day. I’m getting my first ever massage and THEN doing chiropractor right after. I met the massage therapist…I’m OK with Viking women going all crazy on my back and neck at the moment if it will help.

It’s nice to finally be moving on to the stuff for the solo show.

*Elliott Smith, Between the Bars