Open-Minded Snowflake

You’ve probably heard (if you care) that the Threads of Resistance exhibit got pulled from two shows, one in Virginia and one in Michigan (wow, I don’t know anything about dealing with censorship in those two states…excuse the irony). The problems started in Texas, though, and continued in North Carolina. There’s no definitive answer as to why, but one assumes it has something to do with complaints and vendors and how the organizers make their money.

I’m back to that belief that we should allow differing opinions without demanding that organizers shut down exhibits because they are that offensive to someone. I would say that there’s something about our current political climate that makes people think they can demand that their viewpoint is more important than anyone else’s, but realistically, that’s not true. Censorship has been around longer than that. It’s disappointing that (a) the organizers did not stand by their commitment to the exhibit and (b) that people have to be so narrow-minded as to not allow other viewpoints to be around them. If I were in an exhibit of work by say Trump supporters or of anti-feminist work or anti-immigration pieces, I would view them and maybe converse with organizers or artists if they were available. I wouldn’t get angry. I would ask them why they feel that way or dig a little deeper (if allowed), and then what I wouldn’t do is go demand the organizers remove that exhibit or piece from the show. I am an open-minded snowflake, you see. Maybe more people should try that. But you know those people aren’t reading this blog.

Note to self: Don’t talk to people on Facebook unless you know them in person, and even then, it’s questionable. I just hate it when people make shit up, though. I often start typing something and just delete it. It’s better that way. So conversations have to be in person? Maybe. Maybe when they’re looking you in the face, they can’t call you ignorant 17 times. Sigh. Seriously. This is like my day job.

I can’t walk away from Facebook, unfortunately…I have at least one group where I manage their postings. So I’m on there. I just need to moderate my own responses even more than I already do. Or maybe not.

Threads of Resistance will continue to the shows in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York…no worries there. And both of my pieces have body parts (they both have penises! And uteri! And boobs!), so they are in what one woman called the “vulgar” room. You know, the old definition of “vulgar” was characteristic of or belonging to the masses…so I’m OK with that. Here’s the two pieces (weird that they both have trees in them, eh?)…Work in Progress and Absolutely Nothing…

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten almost nothing done today except researching portable air conditioners and trying to get the tree guy to call me back. Yesterday was better…although I need to get used to having that quarterly meeting in the middle of the day instead of in the afternoon. I can’t get anything done before it, and it was a stretch to get stuff done afterwards. During the school year might be more difficult.

Oh yeah, we had a peregrine falcon by the pool on Saturday. Very cool…not sure I’ve seen one of them locally, although they are native. Apparently. Great picture, right? We tried to get closer and of course, he flew off.

We went to the opening at Visions Art Museum down in Liberty Station…Kathy Weaver’s works were amazing. I have liked her work for many years and it was nice to see it up close. Then on to dinner at Soda & Swine, one of our favorites, even if we can’t ever remember which is spicier, the Hog or the Swine.

Then home, where I finished weaving this for the meeting the next day, although the woman I was supposed to be handing it over to wasn’t there, ironically. Strangely, I thought this and the two small quilts had to be done by yesterday, so I worked to get them done, and both of them are still sitting around my house. Oh well, I’ll mail this off…

I finished tracing Wonder Under Saturday night at around 9:30 PM, with a total of 22 hours (just under the 23 I finally estimated, but over the 20 hours I originally guessed). I had already started cutting out on Thursday. I think there were about 10 yards of Wonder Under total (some really big pieces)…

Saturday night, I finished the half yard from before and cut out another yard…so that was 4. I guess that means there were 11 yards, although one’s not full. Because there were 7 yards left on Saturday night…

Yesterday, puppy was really tired. He was so happy here…tummy scritches and a fan blowing his fur around. Bliss.

After dinner last night, I watched Harlots (for the costumes, of course) and cut more Wonder Under out.

OK, so shows like Harlot are entertaining, but then the feminist in me gets upset about the stereotypes and the portrayal of women and the lack of realism in general, and then I wonder what I can actually watch any more that is just kinda fun and interesting and not causing me to question my entire existence. I can’t watch movies any more without wondering why the women always need help, get kidnapped, wear totally inappropriate clothing for the task at hand, or just outright get killed. Something about being old and female, I guess. By the way, if you ever watch The Rover, the whole movie is pointless until the last 5 minutes, and you don’t know it’s pointless until the last 5 minutes.

I kept watching Harlots (with the great costumes) with the hot and furry boy curled up next to me.

I only have 4 yards left to cut out…so at some point on Sunday, I must have gotten 3 or 4 yards cut out. The box is full…I’ll have to upgrade to a larger one.

So I started writing this post in the morning, a good 5 or 6 hours ago, and then got heavily side-tracked by a need for cooler air. We researched air conditioners, we’re currently testing a portable unit in my office (it’s a bit large), we looked at a wall unit that was heavily ensconced in years of dust in my parents’ barn. We bought another fan. We might take back the portable unit if it doesn’t do what I need it to do. Sigh. And maybe plan for sometime in the next year or so to put a wall unit in here. Part of the remodel? The remodel I can’t afford? Yeah.

Well the tree guys are coming tomorrow morning really early, to beat the heat, so that’s a whole ‘nother issue. I can’t leave the house while they’re here…the dogs are gonna be frantic. I have to be up early. I want to be working on something. If I finish cutting out all the Wonder Under tonight (possible), then I don’t have a background fabric yet…unless something lying around here would work. Maybe. But I can sort Wonder Under and maybe get started on fabric…but only if I decide permanently what to do about this giant beast of an A/C unit in my office. Double sigh. Because I had to move a bunch of stuff around so I could get the window vent in, and I need to decide if that’s a permanent thing, or if we’re gonna leave it jimmy-rigged like this for the next two months and then take it out when it cools off again. Aargh. Decisions. It’s too hot to make them. I can decide to publish this thing though. That I can do.

Heads on a Science Apart*

I haven’t really been paying attention to the total hours on this thing. I’ve just been head down, tracing. I did another 5 hours yesterday…not as many as I wanted, but I did some other stuff too, so I’m OK with it. I’m in the low 1400s, so I have just under 500 pieces to go…probably about 5 hours. I might get that done today? Maybe? Maybe not? It’s harder to trace in the morning because the sun hits that side of the house and it’s hot. Nighttime is best.

I have 2 1/2 yards cut out. I filled another 2 yards and set them aside for cutting, and then I think there are 3 more yards in process. The big pieces take up a lot of space but are quick to cut out usually. I’ve been trying to lump together like pieces as much as possible, like all the bricks in the walls, because that also makes it faster to iron and cut out.

Musical interlude by boychild and dogs. Seriously, the Golden sings and the Pom barks.

Sometimes I wonder how crazy my designs are…see those tiny pieces? Yeah. Birth control pills. Fucking insane.

I feel like I’ve been tracing for DAYS. Well. OK, it has been a few days.

Only half a gecko. Not even half.

The other night, I just left the room lights off and had the TV and the light table on. I made it through a couple of series of TV shows: Crossing Lines was OK and Secret City was interesting for the insight into Aussie/China viewpoints. World politics from another place in the world. Anyway, I don’t do a good job of paying attention to shows when I’m tracing, so it’s OK that they were just OK.

I just have two main figures (and about 17 thousand leaves) to trace. Easy peasy. I should get started on that.

Satchemo loving the Madagascar iguana the girlchild brought me…

Great colors. Anyway, gonna go do some more tracing. Oh yeah! I’m at 17 hours and 45 minutes. I was hoping for about 20 hours…think I’m going well over that. Probably 23 hours. That’s my guess anyway. Then cut them out and start ironing. I have no jury duty next week, so I’m planning a vet visit for the UTI dog, call the tree guy back and see if he can do it in the next two weeks, get the Honda serviced and the back window cleaned up…but otherwise, hoping to get to the fabric ironing earlier in the week (it’s supposed to be a million degrees here next week…that will not help). The foot still hurts. No, I didn’t try the pickle juice. I did apply heat and I stretched and I wore shoes while tracing (ugh…too hot). Maybe it helped. It hurt when I went to bed last night, I think because I naturally point my toes when I sleep instead of keeping the foot perpendicular. I do have a night splint, but it’s hot and uncomfortable. Then again, everything is hot and uncomfortable this summer.

Art! Go make art.

*Coldplay, The Scientist

Oh Take Me Anywhere, I Don’t Care*

I actually left the house yesterday. I’m kind of in this frame of mind where I would lock myself up in my studio if I had one. But I work all over the house, so I guess my version is the one where I never leave the house except to get the mail. I only left to run errands at first, but then actually went to a social thing (well, one where I could make art as well). I have another errand or two for today, but they could be put off for a day or so. Hmmm.

Anyway, so I did not trace as much yesterday…although I still worked on the quilt for almost 7 hours, so I’m not really chastising myself there. I spent a little under 3 hours cutting 2 yards of Wonder Under out…so that was a good start.

I had some computer stuff to do yesterday, so Kitten gave me some love.

I hung out on the boychild’s bed with dogs again. This one is cute, except at 3 AM when he hears zombies. Or raccoons. Or whatever the fuck he hears that puts us all in imminent danger.

After the boy left with the dogs, Kitten ventured out into the living room for the first time in forever. She’s been weird about coming out since the boy cat moved in (almost a year ago). But last night, she just waltzed out, sat in her favorite spot, and flicked her tail all over the place until he bopped it. Because that’s how he rolls. He sees her and makes a beeline for her but doesn’t usually attack. It’s kinda like he’s saying HI HI HI HI HI over and over again and she’s a little nervous about it.

I did start tracing after dinner…

And she eventually settled down in her favorite (most annoying) spot…on what I was tracing. She hung out for quite a while, though.

Not sure what changed in her mind, but I hope it sticks. Anyway, I traced for about 4 hours…got about 300 more pieces done, so not my goal of 600 or so a day, but that’s to be expected if I’m not home. I finished one graffiti’d wall and have this one to do. Complicated as hell to trace. Probably much easier to iron.

Anyway, like I said, I could run a couple errands today. I was planning on going to the gym, but my left foot started cramping last night really badly and is still painful today. I’m hydrated, I soaked it in hot water, I tried massaging it, but nothing’s really working. I don’t know what I did, although standing for hours might not be helping. Who knows? I do plan to get through another 600 pieces today…so hopefully that will happen. I already entered an art show before I wrote this, so maybe that’s the only thing I have to do today. I probably need to eat something. And maybe finish my tea. Sleep. I dream of you.

*The Smiths, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

Escutcheon

I need to go buy more Wonder Under this morning, because I used about 5 yards of it yesterday and I’m going to run out. Some days, I find it hard to make any art during the day. It’s too hot. There’s too many errands or other distractions. Need to shower, need to eat, need to go to work…but during the summer, I don’t seem to be any better at it. It often takes me until mid-July to hit my stride. It’s like my brain doesn’t really believe it’s vacation until someone says, oh hey, there’s only four weeks left. Aack. There’s all this shit still on my to-do list dammit. And I’m still on call for jury duty. Damn them. But the panic started…the one where I realize how many days I definitely won’t be able to make art due to people visiting, being gone, or pure exhaustion from school shit. So if I want this quilt to be done, I need to get my act in gear.

So I traced Wonder Under for almost 9 hours yesterday. Seriously. And I was antsy about it. I often am. I made myself go for an hour before I was allowed to take a break. For anything. Because I’m the queen of making excuses to wander off. And eventually, I kept coming back…because I set a daily goal (one I probably won’t meet today…exigent circumstances). I wanted to get a third of the way through, so about 600 pieces. And I did that.

It’s not a small drawing. It’s draped over the light table and the couch (note puppy asleep on the couch back, just under the window).

I was trying to keep this thing simple (ha!), so there are a lot of big pieces that don’t necessarily save space on the Wonder Under.

So they take longer to trace (longer pencil line) than the small pieces. Hence 663 pieces in almost 9 hours. I usually average about 100 pieces an hour. Not so much yesterday.

I have lots of animal interactions…

When I’m taking a break, it’s really just to refocus my eyes and sit down for a bit, because I trace standing up and it’s hard to focus on that stuff for a long time without a break. So I walk around and sit for a while and go pee and make some more tea or eat something if it’s time to do that or go walk down the driveway to get the mail.

Or watch the puppy sleep.

During one of the breaks, I straightened up my desk. It was a disaster. It still kind of is. I need something to put the scissors in and the pens and pencils I’m using right now. I have another container, but it’s already full. I’m not good at getting rid of marking implements. I don’t think that box is best for that. You can see one of the traced yards there…don’t think I can fit any more on it.

I don’t know why I keep those scissors. They’ve been gnawed on. It hurts to use them. I think it hurts more to throw them away.

More Wonder Under piled up on the drawing…

I started around 11 AM and finished after midnight the next day. I’ve got about 5 yards in process of being traced. A lot of big pieces means having to start a new yard before the other one is full.

Anyway, more of that today, although I’ve got two errands to run this morning and a quilt meeting this afternoon. This thing is way too big to bring with me, so I’ll probably bring some Wonder Under to cut up and maybe some wool stuff. Then I’d really like to go to the gym tonight or tomorrow. There’s other stuff I need to do, but I often get into this artmaking mode and then I can’t do anything.

More distractions…puppy in a box.

There’s this too. This is one of my favorite tops for work (for winter) and I accidentally got bleach on it (dumb move). So I don’t want to dye it. Too hard to match. Then there’s pens…but again, it’s a weird color (Sharpies are useful for black though). So I’m considering embroidery. Except what? And how? It would have to be more all over or viney stuff. So there’s that. I’ve got some time to deal with that.

But for now, off to buy stuff. And eat stuff. And maybe trace stuff (well, no matter what, eventually I will trace stuff).

The blog title is one of the things I need to buy. I didn’t even know that’s what it was called. You learn something new every day.

Might Be Over Now, but I Feel It Still*

My definition of a break is different from vacation. Vacation is when you get in the car or on a plane and you travel somewhere and hang out there and it involves not sleeping in your bed and possibly eating weird food. Vacations are cool. I went years without vacations because I couldn’t afford them, and as it is now, I don’t do them a lot (still money), but I try to do one a year for a week and then a few smaller ones. This year, I’m going to Boston (excuse me, Waltham) to visit the girlchild in November. It’s really hard (for me) as a teacher to take time off during the school year. It’s such a pain in the ass to create good lesson plans and hope a guest teacher won’t completely fuck it up and teach the kids something completely incorrectly (sigh…it’s way too common) and then I lose days when I come back, trying to correct their misconception AND deal with behavior. So I avoid it.

I rarely get to travel during summer, because of that lost paycheck. It’s hard to plan to spend a chunk of money when you know you won’t have any more coming in. I currently have a list of things I need to buy but will need to wait until September (or whenever the credit card cycle starts that will bill in September…teachers, you all know what I’m talking about). I would love to vacate right now. Really. I would. We tried to set up a weekend camping trip, but we waited too long and all the campsites are booked. And I can’t plan anything in July during the week because of the silly jury duty. August is already a disaster schedule-wise.

So no vacation right now. Staycation? OK. Go see some music, maybe hike a bit, possibly kayak, go to the zoo? I don’t know. Something I don’t do during the school year very often, because I’m so buried. But maybe that’s my resolution for the 2018-2019 school year? More weekend things that are less about work and more about being a relaxing human. (I suck at relaxation, you may have noticed.) This is a break though…a break from the job and the kids and all the other crap and that in itself is a good thing.

Anyway, my car window got fixed yesterday. I was worried that it would be the wrong window or something else would go wrong, but it worked out and the gardener who accidentally shattered it with a rock ended up paying for almost all of it. So all that turned out well. I was expecting to have to spend more time and energy on the issue, and I didn’t have to. So that sort of freed up my brain all day to do a bunch of different art- and fiber-related activities. I think it was the first day since school got out where I felt like I was on break. Because no school. No doctor. Only two errands and they were done early. Nice. Need more of that please.

So I started out with trying to finish the ironing on this…another cat! Shocking.

And some tiny sewing implements…

Then I started ironing it onto a background, but I needed to go to my fiber-related summer social meeting. So I packed up some bits and pieces and headed out. I cut the Wonder Under for the two small quilts…

These lunch containers work well for keeping pieces separated…the sandwich one doesn’t though because the divider doesn’t go all the way up.

So those are ready for fabric choosing.

Then I finished sewing all the wooly bits down on this, September’s blocks.

I also pinned October’s pieces down to that blank block, but that was when I got home…and I stitched a little on (I don’t know what month I’m actually on? July?) the bigger piece. I’m getting closer to done on this. I didn’t photograph any of that.

Then I ironed the rest of this down. I like her. She’s ready to be stitched down.

I’ve been trying to keep doing yardwork, but mostly in the evenings because it’s too hot otherwise. Last night, I was entertaining the dogs while whacking at trees and bushes that haven’t been trimmed for a million years. I lost the puppy for a while in there, and Calli kept bringing me half-chewed sticks to throw.

I will probably never finish back there.

So I can’t do the stitch down on the skinny quilt until I finish quilting this. I don’t want it to go back in the pile. So I quilted for an hour or two, until I was almost out of thread.

It’s not hard. It just takes time. Thread purchase on the list for today. I didn’t want to buy more unless I knew I needed it. Now I know I need it.

So after all that, running out of thread, I decided to try drawing. It’s always hard to get back to drawing if I haven’t done it for a while. It’s like my hand stutters. I have an enlarged old drawing, I have this original drawing from 2011 or 2012, and then I have this cat on my lap. Huh.

Anyway, so I started drawing the righthand figure again, but now I have an issue because I like parts of the old drawing better than the new and I like parts of the new drawing better than the old. Aargh. So I think I’m going to copy both real size and then put them together? Or maybe I’ll copy both enlarged and put them together?

I just don’t know. Or redraw it again. Sigh. Maybe that. The shape of the old one is better but what’s in the belly of the new one is better. Fuuck. OK. Well no decision there, eh? Nothing new. Indecisive brain for two weeks now.

OK, so today…buy thread, make some copies (decide at some point what I’m copying?), pick up the ceramics I painted last week, go watch some music and grab some dinner. Easy. Not too bad. I can handle it. I might even feel relaxed by the end of it!

*Portugal. The Man, Feel It Still

Eyes Burn with Stinging Sweat*

So the training is done…I’ve spent three days (that’s it!) staring at this in the morning and afternoon…

I don’t do freeways and traffic for my job any more. I did it for many years, until I was lucky enough to get a job just down the street. I don’t really enjoy it. OK, no one enjoys it. I’ll be doing it again this morning to try to get my car window fixed, but that’s it…until I get called to jury duty downtown. Ugh. OK. Not thinking about that.

I spent all day for three days staring at this…two notebooks, a million highlighters and post-it notes, a computer, a phone, a poor desperate apple that was all bruised and beaten and will come home to go in my compost. I might eat part of it, but mostly not. Plus caffeine. Oh god yes, caffeine. And some people.

What do I know after all that training? That I am woefully unprepared for the test portion of certification, but that’s fixable. That I’m not starting in 2019. I mean, I might start studying and collecting stuff in 2019, but I won’t start the official process until 2020 at the earliest. I need my district to pay for it and I need to not have to come home some nights and work another job. Yes, I bid on a copyediting job last night. Because I need the money. Let’s hope I don’t have to do it at the same time as jury duty.

It was almost 8 PM when I finished. The moon was out. It was way prettier than this picture can ever show. I miss my old cameras that recorded more than the phone does.

So after I went and got my annual eye exam, came back and did a sample edit and wrote a bid, and ate dinner and only embellished 2 balls instead of 3…then I numbered the two drawings. Mind you, these are only 5×6″. This one had 90 pieces and the other had 39. Still not small or easy. But they jumped the line because they’re due the end of July…

Then I traced the Wonder Under for each…it took about 30 minutes to do this more complicated one…

And about 10 minutes for this one.

Not bad. I need to trim the Wonder Under today, but then I really need to finish the other two things that are in my studio before I do any more on these two. Luckily those shouldn’t take long. As long as no more crazy shit appears in my inbox or hits my car or gets rescheduled. Seriously. The good news is that my eyes are fine. I didn’t even need new glasses yet. That’s a plus. I’m hoping the car window thing is easily solved (I don’t have a lot of faith in it this morning…men who think they know how women are always wrong…that shit) and I can do the errands I need to do and maybe just stitch this afternoon at my friend’s house, which is what’s on the calendar. I might need a nap. I’m so tired this morning. I’m sleeping in tomorrow. It has been mandated. Someone needs to explain it to the animals so there are no interruptions. Who am I kidding? You know there will be interruptions.

Trying not to assume the worst with the Supreme Court…or with the Janus decision. Politics, man. It’s so hard because you can’t put your head in the sand and ignore it all…that’s what they want. So you have to let it into your head and let the possibilities fester. Like what kind of dumbassery will we have to deal with next?

That’s when I turn to making art. It helps. Not with the lack of sleep, but with the feeling of helplessness this administration has made so pervasive. My faith in humanity is being severely tested.

*Alice in Chains, Rooster

Needlework and Seedlings*

Tired is catching up with me and passing me on the right, cutting me off so I slow down, and then speeding up to beat me to the finish line. It’s hard NOT to stay up late…I haven’t gotten more than 6 hours any night this week. Some of that is just that my brain keeps going at 900 miles an hour no matter what. Some of it is trying to get everything done. Ah stress and lack of sleep…the things my doctor keeps flipping out over…like I can control those. TEN DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT. Yeah. That. I’m feeling much better about grades getting done, but I still have a ton left to do. Just not as big of a ton. Some of the not sleeping is that little dog barking his mad head off in the middle of the night…I don’t know what animal is out there, but it was big enough to set off the motion-sensor lights this time. Assholes. And the mockingbird is back, but this is a new one. It sounds like mockingbird-on-crack. Pillow over head. Ugh.

I am SOOOO looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning and Sunday morning. Wake me up and I kick your ass. Unless you’re a dog. Because I don’t hurt dogs. I just get irritated with them. And honestly, probably we need to do a better job of getting the little one tired at night. Next week. Next week when I don’t have to be up early every damn morning. My principal has threatened an additional meeting next week. I’m hoping he forgets. Is there a voodoo spell for principals forgetting shit?

Weirdest question in sex ed this year (I teach 7th graders about reproduction etc every year) was “Do you have to do The Sex every time you want a baby?” Um. Well. OK. Yes. And let’s explain human nature and The Sex a little bit. It must be a girl asking? Or a very scared boy?

So I came home and entered an exhibit and ate some leftovers and installed a new Tivo (yeah well, I guess I made that decision) and then sat and finished cutting out Wonder Under…6 1/2 hours total. Pretty much the same as the last one.

I was hoping to save some time on this one…not. Then I set up to sort them, because it was only 11 PM. The big box at the bottom is all the pieces, and then each of the smaller boxes is only 100 pieces…it makes it easier when I go to iron if I’m dealing with only 100 pieces at a time. My process after a million years of doing it this way…it’s pretty efficient actually.

Forty minutes and one glass of wine to sort all 904 (plus or minus who knows how many) pieces…

In bed by 12:15? Not bad compared to most of this week…definitely feeling it this morning though. Tonight I can start ironing to fabric. Based on the last quilt, that took about 12 hours. Yikes. OK…I need to go faster. I can do 3 or 4 hours tonight. I know we will want to do some fun stuff tomorrow at some point…but if I can get 3 or 4 hours in tomorrow and finish up on Sunday (shee-it, when are you planning on grading shit, Nida? SHHHHHH. Quiet. I’ll figure it out. I have a plan. Maybe.). Need to be focused. Like a fucking laser.

Calli asking for some kind of attention. I think she’s got another UTI…sigh. Poor old lady. Her girl parts are kinda freaky for UTIs.

Hopefully she’ll be going to the vet today.

OK, so I have a plan…I am so SO looking forward to being done with school so I can sit somewhere and relax with my sketchbook without feeling like I’m supposed to be doing 17 other things. I don’t know when that will happen, but hopefully soon.

*Iron & Wine, Faded from the Winter

Catching It in a Different Order

I keep thinking it’s June. It’s not June yet. I just am panicking like it’s June. I should stop that. I’m being pretty efficient with like everything except sleep and exercise. Those aren’t happening right now. We got loaner computers so we can grade while the kids watch the pregnancy video. I really don’t know how to just sit and watch things. It’s hard.

You know what’s hard? And a totally first-world problem? My Tivo died. It’s OK. It was old. Although it took a bunch of stuff with it when it died (sigh). But then I spent 24 hours trying to figure out what to do about it. Get another Tivo? Get a different DVR? Ignore it? Assume everything will eventually show up on Netflix or Amazon? (It doesn’t). Sigh. Decisions. Difficult. But not really.

And even though we’re out of school relatively early this year, I already potentially have 4 teacher days for the last two weeks of June, dammit. Sigh. I took things on. I can’t not apparently. And July apparently belongs to the US District Court, so I’m trying to shove all the appointments into those two weeks of June as well. Eyelid twitching. Yup. There it goes.

I haven’t given up hope on getting this quilt done though. I graded all day in class, got about 20 minutes per period in, finished up two assignments completely, most of a third. I’m still watching videos. Need to rethink that for next year? Or revise? Not sure. Can’t think that hard right now. Which is interesting…because at some point, co-teacher and I need to plan next year…which means throwing it all up into the air again and catching it in a different order. Some day we’ll be easier on ourselves. Teaching this unit is pretty easy…done it enough times.

So yeah, even though I graded all day in class, I came home and graded some more. I just want to be caught up, whatever that means. I wish I had another week on this quilt…I’d be fine if I had another week. Sigh.

After grading, I cooked dinner…and then I kept cutting things out. It’s actually going really fast, which is nice…I’m about 3 1/2 hours in and I have one full yard and then maybe another third of a yard…unfortunately it’s a third of a yard with a lot of small pieces, which takes longer to cut out. There’s the puppy…

He’s a good couch dog…unlike this goofball…she was kicking me while rolling around in her sleep.

We’ve been watching the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale…it’s so hard to watch. A great show, but painful…and then because my students all binge-watched it, I’ve been watching the second season of Thirteen Reasons Why…ugh. It’s not bad…it makes some relevant points (episode 2), but then goes a little wackadoodle (episode 4). I have to remember I’m not the target audience…I just educate the target audience. Which can be hard…every year we have a student or two who does or says things that set off every alarm bell in my head, and it’s so hard to watch them go through the stuff in their own heads. And to worry about them. They’re our kids too…in a different way, but you still want to encourage them and keep them safe and sometimes beat them over the head with a pillow, just like your own kids.

So I finished cutting out the first yard, cut out all of the second yard, and that’s what’s left of the third yard…with a fourth yard lurking on the sidelines.

I think I should easily be able to finish cutting them out tonight AND sorting them. That puts me into ironing on fabric tomorrow night…hopefully finishing Saturday? Seriously. It’s gonna have to be quick. Much as my brain would like to stop dealing with school and spend some weekend time full-on relaxing, I can’t do that yet. I think I’ve got another 46 hours or so to put into this quilt, based on the last one…although I’m considering a facing of sorts instead of a binding…not sure if that saves time or not, since stuff still needs to be sewn down by hand, unless I do a pillowcase-type finish. Plus if it’s something I’ve never done before, that makes it take longer. You wanna know how many days I have left to work on it? TEN. Yeah. I know. But four of those days are weekend days (sorry mom, dad, but you’re not going to see me I think until later this month). But 4.6 hours a day? I’m really just hoping that I’m faster than on the last one, and also that it will just take less time because it’s smaller and has fewer pieces.

A girl can dream.

So girlchild posted this from Ithaca…I took this picture! Now of course she set up the camera and all I did was point and shoot. And then she looked at the picture and adjusted something (light) and made me take it again. I’m pretty impressed with her ability to take photos, actually. And I wish I’d moved slightly to the right so that guy in the background was gone…need to get her Photoshop so she can erase him with some additional greenery.

Anyway. Another early meeting this morning (this week is kicking my butt for those, but at least people will actually be AT this one, unlike the other two). Then more pregnancy videos and grading. Then home and grades and art. Wash Rinse Repeat.

More Than a Little Crazy…

Oh hellz ya a long day. Got to school early for a parent meeting where the parent didn’t show. Always nice. Then taught about pregnancy all day…certainly made about a million times more difficult by the fact that we don’t teach body systems any more. Then did tutoring for an hour, mostly sitting by one girl and listening to her mangle words…talked to her mom (well, mom didn’t speak much English) about having the girl read in English to her mom and her brothers and sisters. She says she doesn’t like to read. I asked about magazines and the library. Mom’s all for it. Drove out to my photographer’s, avoiding traffic (but not dumbasses) for once. Got my quilt…he called it “tame” compared to most of mine. OK then. House cohabitant asked me if it had a woman spreadeagled with vulva in full view or an obvious penis. Holy hell, this quilt IS tame. Interesting, because it doesn’t feel that way to me.

This is Heart-Shaped Box…

The first drawing was done in 2014 and had the two main figures in it.

The fireplace got added earlier this month? I think? No, in mid-April. That’s right. I remember now. I took the trip during Spring Break, and came back and started drawing this full size.

I added the fireplace and the backpack and the figure on the rug then.

The figure on the rug has been sitting in my head since July 2014, when I first drew this.

Weird how my brain works.

Calli is old, but she still plays…she was running around, throwing this up in the air for herself.

Weird dog. Then she slept for a good long while.

So after dinner, I graded for a bit…I can’t really ignore that. And then I finished tracing the new quilt…It took a total of 11 hours to trace the Wonder Under, and I think I did it all in the last week. Minus graduation weekend.

It’s a little less than 4 yards of Wonder Under. I found another double-numbered section. Brain fart.

And then I started cutting them out. If I base it on the last one, it’ll be about 6-7 hours of cutting…so 30 minutes last night…

Two or three tonight and tomorrow night, and hopefully I’ll be done by Friday night…sort them, and start ironing down over the weekend. Sheesh. I really don’t know if I can pull this off.

Simba just wants me to pet him.

Which I did.

I didn’t get far in 30 minutes last night…

More tonight. More of the CRAZY tonight, because this is more than a little crazy. Meanwhile, here I am, up early again, for another meeting (parent will show for this one)…just no repeat on the tutoring and quilt pick up today. I have two other errands instead, plus it’s my turn to cook. Twelve days of school left…

Put Your Money Somewhere It Will Do Good

So this is really early and only vaguely coherent…either that or it’s really late, but still vaguely coherent. I was trying to get myself to bed early last night to get up for this crazy-ass flight this morning, and honestly, I suck at the relax and go-to-bed part of my life, so we’d watched the end of one of the Marvel movies (don’t have to watch TOO hard) and I was tracing Wonder Under (only got to about 720 or so, more on that later) and then stopped drinking tea (don’t attribute my sleeplessness to that…it doesn’t matter…I’ve tried without drinking it and I still am wired until after midnight) and drank a glass of wine and stopped trying to trace and was trying to actually physically walk down the hallway to the bedroom, but I had this Facebook post I wanted to do for one of the groups I’m in, but I was missing one piece of information. So I went to the website to see if I could find it on my own, and I found out (about a month after the fact) that my gun control quilt, Rooted in America, won 2nd place in Fantastic Fibers. Wow. OK. Wasn’t expecting that (isn’t that the best kind of award? Yes. Yes it is.).

But (and I woke up at about 1 AM on this one) I’ve had this tab open on my computer for a GoFundMe that I really wanted to send some money to, but it’s the time of year when I have to make sure I have enough to get through the whole summer with no paycheck, and I’m not sure of that yet, so I was waiting on the donation until I got through the end of school and all the kid expenses etc. before I donated, because maybe it was going to be a significant donation because I think this group is doing really good work and maybe it was not going to be as significant because two months with no paycheck is kinda painful. So now I can gladly send the larger amount…which makes me happy.

So the awesome cause is one I’ve talked about before, Social Justice Sewing Academy. They’re doing a summer program for kids and will be matched dollar for dollar up to $10K. You should check it out here…and give them some money, if you feel up to it. Not only are their quilts amazing, but the kids they work with are our future and we need to get them involved in politics and change for all our sakes. So as soon as that check gets here, I’m pushing most of it back out into the world to do good.

Meanwhile, like I said, I traced some stuff, but not enough…I shall survive.

I started the fourth yard of Wonder Under…

I’m in the 700s…

I misnumbered…again! Pieces 670 to 699, and then I restarted at 670 again. AGAIN. So that’s 29 pieces with a’s on them (all on the back at the moment…hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out in real time when I iron)…plus one that wasn’t even numbered, so it got a b.

I’m leaving 5 animals in the capable hands of this guy…I’m sure he’s up to it, although he’s rethinking it right about now, when all three will start barking at the arrival of the car to take me to the airport…

This one was not sure at all last night as to why there was luggage and Katie (my parents’ dog) and all this hustle and bustle…

They will all be fine. With that, I gotta go get moving.