Let’s Put Our Heads Together and Start a New Country Up*

Well whatever crazy internet thing that was going on has dissipated. My blog hits are back down to normal. Hello normal! Nice to see you too! I often forget there are people out there reading this (hello boychild! I know where you got that photo you sent to the girlchild!). Mothers’ Day. Sheesh…some holiday taken over by the media folks that messes with my head. It’s hard to have them so far away…and looking at pictures of them, trying to decide what to post, well that doesn’t help. Oh well. Moving on…I did get a long FaceTime call with the girlchild at my parents’ house…

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Wherein she tried to explain the chaos of her living and working situation for the next two-three weeks. She still has one final to finish. Then at least two jobs. And living out of a suitcase for a while.

Here’s the photo I found, from 2004…both their hairs are completely different now. OK, well, hers is similar, minus the dorky barrettes. Ages 7 and 8 about…

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And the girlchild posted this…I am just not going to explain it.

Just to say, well, the kitchen is still a mess and I have a cow costume in case you ever need to borrow one. (And that’s not my wine.)

Yesterday, I found time to weed for a while…the rains this year have kicked my landscaping butt. I was watched by this bunny for all the time it took me to fill one of those big recycling bins. Yes. One.

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That was about a third of the front yard. I didn’t even try to pick the grasslike stuff. I’m gonna weed whack that part. Sorry bunny (he lives under that deck).

In the house isn’t much better. Kitten jumped up to dust this with her paws. Right? That’s what she’s doing up there? Sigh.

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I had three days to catch up on this. I did finish the hand with one of the days, filling in with stem stitch and doing some cross stitches over the seed stitches below. Then I finished the bush to the right of the hand…only half the leaves were done. Then I did some blue fly and lazy daisy stitches in the pink below the bush.

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Back to filling in empty spaces. Still haven’t hit the halfway mark. Embroidery is relaxing though.

Then I retraced some of the pieces (old Wonder Under sucks…which is why Saturday found me at JoAnns with my 50% off coupon buying a new bolt of the stuff), cut them out, and sorted them. Only three bins.

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So easy peasy. Ironing tonight? One would hope. There’s some cleaning that needs to go on in here, the studio. In fact, that’s often the only thing that gets cleaned…the areas where I make art…the entryway floor so I can lay out quilts…etc. Oh well. I do my best.

Also, one of the shows I entered (notifications haven’t gone out yet), Threads of Resistance, posted all the entered work, because it’s an important exhibit even if all the pieces can’t be in the show. You can see the work here. There’s a ton of work, so there will be a ton of rejections…but the work is all out there for viewing. I’m interested to see how what they pick might differ from what I would pick…how to show all the possibilities of resistance with a clear, consistent show that doesn’t violate copyright. That’s a hard one.

OK…working my butt off today and then coming home to be an artist. Oh wait. I’m always an artist. Obviously not a gardener or a housecleaner. I suck at both.

*REM, Cuyahoga

Sweetness I Was Only Joking*

Well. For some reason, lots of people are coming to read the blog. Waving! Hi! As the girlchild says, “What did you do now?” Honestly, I don’t know. I can’t Google myself because there are other things I’ve done that rank much higher on Google, so I can’t find the little stuff any more. Did I have a show open this week? Nope. Nothing new there. I think. One next weekend and the following weekend, and then a couple weeks later. I have pieces traveling…but I don’t think any of them moved this week. So yeah. If you’re here, just let me know why. I wanna know.

Because really, all I’m doing at the moment is mostly survival mode. A lot of people tell me I make tons of work. I am constantly working, it’s true. I think that’s important. I also know it’s easier to do now that the kids are in college and gone most of the time. Not that I totally enjoy that existence…I do miss them, all the time, and would take them back…in fact, one comes home in 10 days. Woo hoo! He’s cringing now. And the other one, I just booked her flight home for a 2-week vacay with the parentals. OK, I’m sure she’ll see friends too. But when you come home after a difficult, emotion-grabbing, exhausting job and you think about what you want to do in the evening, it’s not like I’m gonna sit on the couch with my other and talk. I’m going to work. Even when I have social stuff…because this week I had book club and someone over for dinner and three hours at the vet and gaming, and I still made art every night.

I understand if that’s not for you. If you go to bed way earlier than I do (I suck at sleep). If you hang with humans and be in the moment (I do that…just less than you do). I don’t ever just WATCH TV. I don’t know how. My brain needs multiple stimuli to focus, even to calm. So I give it that. I don’t think that’s gotten better with age. In fact, I know it hasn’t. I’m ramping up more in overdrive as I age. Maybe it’s to make up for their being gone…or maybe this is just where I should have been the whole time and life got in the way. Who knows. And it’s funny, where other people think I’m working nonstop, I’m fully aware of every wasted moment, of the time I spend just sitting there spacing out or reading stupid political articles or answering email or just fucking DELETING emails. Or grading stuff, which is not a waste, but feels like a painfully disproportionate part of my free time.

Anyway. Yeah. I gamed last night. I wasn’t in the mood, but I did it. And I ended up going and getting the Master Pistol of whatever Dwarvenist cool stuff. Because I’m the ballistics expert in the group. Seriously not reality. I stitch during gaming, though, because my brain will otherwise shut off and take a nap, because it’s Friday and I’m exhausted.

I’m working on the bottom part of this twofer block…

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Turns out I totally misread the directions for around the outside of the tree. I don’t think I’m going to fix it. But I might.

Then I came home and started cutting out pieces of Wonder Under…with a conehead dog almost on my lap…first one and then the other.

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I got most of it cut out before I decided I was tired. It was late. The small pile on the far right were separating from the fusible web. That’s the wonder of using the last crap bits of Wonder Under that you can find in the house. They often do that. I need to go buy more.

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I don’t know if I’ll have time to finish that today…hopefully…but I have about 17 other things to either do or get ready to do first. Really. Should. Wake. Up. Earlier. Ugh.

One morning a week I attempt to sleep in. Sometimes it works. Last night, though, I forgot to change the alarm on my phone, so it woke me up for school…and that meant it took a long time to fall back asleep because this little guy heard it.

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He’s learned to use the cone to help him hold the ball. Yes, they both have cones on still. His paw isn’t too bad…hers is a mess. So meds and soakings and cones for all! Woo hoo!

Yeah. I could do without that. Anyway, possibly will be ironing to fabric tomorrow? I’m thinking? Maybe? If I’m efficient. OK, I’m always pretty damn efficient. I should own that. With that, I should go be efficient.

*The Smiths, Bigmouth Strikes Again

Sleep Don’t Visit, So I Choke on Sun*

Hello Friday. I appreciate your showing up this morning, albeit a little early. Perhaps you could make sure that you are more quiet in the morning next time, so you don’t wake the puppy up. He barks and wakes me out of a deep and sound sleep, which at my age, is a rare enough thing that you should be much more careful. That said, you’re here, and I am glad. I’m hoping you go quickly, though, at least the daytime part, so I can, well and let’s be honest here, go back to sleep and wake up to Saturday. It must be hard to be Friday, to be so celebrated but basically asked to go away as quickly as possible…or at least get to the dark part of Friday, because it’s much easier to handle.

I spent about 3 hours at the vet yesterday, arriving after the dogs and my ex, to find out that the dogs were significant victims of foxtails. (Not my yard.) Oh yay and the future is fun. Pills for some and liquids for the other (in retrospect, pills might have been easier…), soaking of feetsies (oh my, they love that), and general mayhem with cones and trying to lick and manipulation of the cone zone. I guess I need to learn to shave those paws. Or find a groomer. Yes the right paw is the worst. Poor babies.

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And those claws. Yeesh.

It was significantly late when I got them home. I had these threads in my mailbox, trying to pick an iris color…long story. It will make sense later. The one on the left is out…debating between the other two.

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I have until tomorrow to decide. I think.

More progress on the hand. I did do seed stitch in the lower part of the wrist area and then filled in with some stem stitches. It’s almost all filled in.

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Yeah. It’s strange. What can I say?I’m sure some people would be happier with all flowers, but I was getting sick of them.

Then I traced. Finished it, in fact. It’s small. It has only 290 pieces. It only took a little over 2 hours…

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I was going to start cutting them out last night, but I was way too tired. I actually went to bed before midnight. Twenty-four days of school left. I’ll be gone for two of them. One of them is testing. One is a field trip. One is the last day of school, which is always a bit hellish. We start teaching sex ed early this year…more content…so next week. I don’t feel ready. Oh well.

And then there’s this. Some of you may have seen this.

I don’t doubt that…it’s just the definition of nice that’s the problem. Some parts of this world we see every day are really pissing me off at the moment. It makes it hard to be NICE. Really. Anyway, I’m hoping to have some energy to cut stuff out tonight, but will also have all the stuff I was supposed to do yesterday and didn’t do. Crap. Oh well. It is Friday.

*Radical Face, Welcome Home

Far from This Opera for Evermore*

Somewhere about two months ago or so, I must have run out of Wonder Under, the fusible stuff I use when I make quilts. I’m sure somewhere in my head was a reminder to buy more, a reminder that fell into a back corner of my brain, pushed out by more highly prioritized items, like buy cat food, sleep more than 4 hours a night, and don’t forget to do the laundry. That’s unfortunate, because when I finally made it home yesterday after testing (Day 1 of state-induced hell), a team meeting, a union meeting, AND book club, I was looking for Wonder Under to trace the new piece…and not finding it. Ugh. Argh. Crap.

So I found what I could…

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Which was little bits and pieces and one larger piece. And that larger piece is pretty beat up. But it’s better than nothing, right? It’s not like I have time to go to the hell that is JoAnns for more. I have quilts to pick up from the photographer today, plus apparently I’m going to have to try to fit a vet visit in…I’m pretty sure that’s not gonna work, but both dogs are still sucking on toes even with cones on. I had to involve my ex, the dog whisperer last night, to deal with Mr. BiteyFace because of the cone.

So I will make do with what I have. Despite exhaustion again last night (sure, it’s an every night thing at this point), I traced for almost an hour, until my SIL called to discuss…well…never mind what she wanted to discuss, but it was one of the more amusing phone calls I’ve had lately. Lots of discussion of the shitty jobs we had in college and right out of school, as well, though…which is something to keep in mind as my own kids job hunt. Nobody had a great job out of college. I worked as a temp for at least a year. Shockingly, degrees in art and comparative literature don’t have great job prospects. Things they don’t tell you in college.

Anyway, you can see what I did get traced…I think I’m in the 100s. So another night, probably tonight, I should be done.

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I do have to put on at least one quilt label tonight and figure out hanging hardware for a drop off on Saturday.

I did more hand…almost filled in now. Well, if you ignore that huge space at the bottom. Maybe I’ll fill that with Xs or seed stitch.

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Saturday’s drop off is for this show, opening May 27, 6-9 PM.

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Here’s the other side of the card, featured All Stacked Up in My Head, the piece that needs a label and hanging hardware.

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It’s one of two pieces I’ll have in the show. I won’t be at the opening, but my work will. It has a better social life than I do.

One thing I’m looking forward to today? Kids are done with testing at 12:30 and then we can go OUT to lunch. I know that seems like no big deal, but as a teacher, we never go out to lunch because, well, lunch is 30 minutes long and that includes shooing kids out of the classroom, heating up your food, and peeing for the first time in three hours, so it’s a fast thing, not a leave-work-and-travel thing. First, though, we do need to survive Day 2 of testing, a challenge in itself. Lunch will be well-deserved.

*The White Stripes, Seven-Nation Army

And I Say It’s All Right*

So Kitten is sitting on my pile of things that need to be done by a certain time, and this is what SHE thinks…

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Yeah, I’m laughing too. Except in a psychotic stressed-out overwhelmed kind of hysterical way. It’s OK! I’m fine! No worries! Just don’t look too closely at me, or I might break. If she lies on the deadlines, I can’t possibly finish them. Not my fault!

I know at some point I will feel more organized about my trip and the current project and school and life in general (maybe not) and maybe even mellow out about traveling, but I’m not there yet. Last night, we organized camping stuff and went through and figured out which tent and which chairs and then couldn’t find my rubber mallet. Sigh. Seriously? I know it’s here somewhere. I need a Spring cleaning. I don’t have time for a Spring cleaning. I need a Spring cleaning of my brain. It’s fuzzy in there, a bit moldy, and possible spiderwebby. Not good. The mallet is not where I always keep it. And no one else lives here but those furry beasts. Dammit Kitten. Put the mallet back where you found it.

I’ve been told I can bring no grading with me. I want to bring some books, but can’t even focus long enough to figure out which ones. Oh well. I’ll get there. Wherever there is. I really need Spring Break. As always. Every year.

I finished the wings of the bird. What bird, you say? The weird purple and orange bird to the right of the tree. Can’t explain it.

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Then I got ready to sort Wonder Under. There’s only about 700 pieces, so 7 boxes. Not bad.

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All sorted. Less than an hour.

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If I were less tired and discombobulated I would have started moving into the studio with this, but I’ve been really tired lately. Plus I did a bunch of school stuff before I ever got to that point. So I didn’t. I went to bed early…after I spent a short time with these dorks…

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I was combing out all his stupid Pomeranian knots and fleas (which are horrible this year even WITH meds) and Midnight was cleaning his head. Nice cooperative moment.

So tonight? I need to finish writing that exhibit blogpost. I could not process all the photos last night AND write it…not and keep any level of sanity. I really should go to the gym tonight, but I’m freaking out about getting everything done before Saturday, so no. Not doing it. That’s sort of how this whole year has gone…no time for exercise. No time for anything but work work work. We have this science project we’re designing for when we get back from break, and it’s named after some wildlife refuge or something, but I keep calling it the Gorgonzola project. It’s not that. It’s something culturally appropriate and I just can’t remember that shit right now. It sounds like Gorgonzola though.

OK, though, but tonight, I really want to start ironing to fabric. I’m so not going to get it all done before I leave, but I need a chunk of it done. Really. Seriously. I can’t afford to not get a chunk of it done. Seriously, not counting the ironing and cutting stages, I have about 35 hours of work left on this quilt. That means I don’t leave the house much (well, that would be the case anyway I think). I certainly don’t get the yard weeded…then again, that would probably be true anyway. And I’ll still have to grade stuff. Ack. My eyeballs are popping out of my head. Seriously.

*The Beatles, Here Comes the Sun

The Lengths That I Will Go To*

Well odds are that I wouldn’t have finished cutting out all the Wonder Under on Sunday night, even if I hadn’t had to finish the girlchild’s financial aid all at the last minute. Because it took me over an hour last night. And yes, I should have gone to bed earlier…what’s new? It’s done…in a little over 4 hours. Not bad. AND I graded…and tried to write a post about a show I’m in that opened last weekend. Still working on that, because I need more photos from the people who went. Tonight hopefully.

Yesterday was a 2-hour staff meeting. I wish I could say it was full of useful information, but honestly, the first part was stuff I knew and was kind of rushed. They gave us activities but then didn’t talk about them or let us do them. It was weird. The second half, again, might have been useful if it were concrete and not in some dream world where you don’t need to learn math if you’re not going to use it. Huh. I have had a hard time with staff meetings and professional development this year. I’d like to be able to test out of the stuff I already know. I don’t have time to waste. I hate wasting time. It drives me nuts. Next week’s trip, the worst part is the whole day I lose just to getting up to the area where I wanna be. Long drive. Ugh. Anyway. Over the years, I’ve tried a variety of things to keep me from falling asleep in PD/staff meetings, and drawing has always been the number 1 favorite.

This was done in my Rocketbook, and then scanned. I even emailed it to the coworker sitting next to me. He wants to color it.

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It disappeared the left part of the tree root…I think it’s because it’s too close to the QR code. But it turns out pretty good, I think…blacker than the pen I’m actually using. Interesting. I wish the book itself were more sturdy, the covers. It wouldn’t hold up in my bag for a long period of time.

So then I speed graded for a few hours…there’s Kitten hiding behind the monitor.

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I finished one full assignment and the bits and pieces of another one. Six to go. I think. Banging them out. Don’t want a ton of stuff for over break.

Then I headed out for the couch…Simba wanted a belly rub. OK. I can do that.

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And then worked on this…yellow straight and fly stitches around the red flowers at the bottom, then filled the ‘o’ in Prosper with French knots and did some other flower stitches in that area to finish the thread off.

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And then I stayed up too late to finish trimming all of this.

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That’s a whole quilt on the right. Can’t you tell? Tonight, I’ll sort the pieces and clean up in here from the last quilt, and then hopefully start ironing. There’s no way I’ll finish ironing before I leave, but I can get a good start and maybe take the cutting part with me. I’ve done that before. It’s easy stuff to do in the car or sitting in a hotel room. Not that I expect to do much of the latter. We’ll see. Certainly, when I get back, I need to iron everything down (10 hours), stitch it down (5 hours), sandwich it together (1.5 hours), quilt it (12 hours), and bind it (6 hours) in like 7 days. So yeah. That’s a little crazy. Sure, it’ll be vacation, so I could actually pull it off, but I won’t get anything else done. Sigh. Crazy schedule this year.

*REM, Losing My Religion

Oh Please Stay*

Crazy weekend. Just absolutely buried in work and barely finished anything. Whole lot of wishful thinking. I had 8 assignments to grade. Now I have 7. OK, that’s an LOL moment. It’s not like I didn’t do anything. I now have new tires, I have the paper I need for a class assignment on Thursday, there’s enough cat food for the next few weeks, I made lunches for the week, and I have a room full of camping equipment…amusingly, for only 3 nights of camping, but with an injection of rain to the mix, so that makes life more complicated. I remember why I planned to leave on the first day of break, instead of giving myself a day to get acclimated and packed, but right now, it just seems like crazy.

Hopefully I’ll get more organized as the week goes on.

The weeds on my property are taking over the world, although this is a very nice picture because of the flowers, and you can’t really tell that all the greenery behind them is weed city.

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I have this goal of filling my two greenery trashcans with weeds every week, so I’ll be done in 2019 or so, but I can’t even manage that some weeks. I did do it yesterday though. Fought the stingy plants (I had gloves, but needed long sleeves and it was too hot for that). I’m unlikely to get another two trashcans filled before I leave. Oh well.

The boychild is hiking over HIS break…he sent me maps, and being his mom, yesterday I printed them out and tried to map out where he would be each night. Like I know what any of this looks like.

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It makes me feel better anyway.

Two nights of stitching on this…the orange that is in the center of the flowers at the top-ish right, then continues in straight stitches around the cretan stitch. Then the flowers in dark red on the right near the bottom. One unfinished…ran out of thread.

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Then I did all those damn bullion knots on Saturday night.

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So the one goal I absolutely wanted to reach over the weekend was cutting all the Wonder Under out. I was FaceTiming the girlchild last night and cutting stuff out when I thought, I wonder when the financial aid deadline is? And I’m not in charge of hers, and I can’t fill out MY part until her dad fills HIS part out, and he had just finished…I only knew because girlchild forwarded me the part she got and asked about it. I thought I had a while. Turns out I didn’t. Crap. So I dropped everything and came in here and finished my part. At about 1 AM. Yeah. Well. I didn’t even know he was done until Friday…so it’s not like I procrastinated a lot. We’ll see.

Hence the unfinishedness of the cutting out, dammit. Sigh.

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I have this week and the week after next basically to get this quilt done. Crikey. I know. Well. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I missed the opening of the new California Fibers’ show, Time, which opened at the Blackboard Gallery, at Studio Channel Islands. I’ll make it to the show next Friday…it was just too far to go this last weekend.

This is co-artist in the show Lynne Hodgman, closely inspecting my work Holding It All In during installation.

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And the cover picture from the Studio Channel Islands Facebook page…with my work, Linda Anderson’s quilt in the background, and Ashley Blalock’s crocheted piece on the left.

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It looks like an awesome space. I do have another piece in the show as well.

Anyway, now I’m late for school as well. Auspicious start to the week. Late to everything. Sigh. Two-hour staff meeting as well.

*STRFKR, Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second

Lookin’ Back and the Sky Is Burning*

Well it’s a beautiful April morning in Southern California…not too hot, a little breezy, nice blue skies. A contrast to the girlchild’s snow today…and who knows what the boychild is seeing, because he’s backpacking for a week over Spring Break. So yes. Yes. I will be worrying about him from now until he texts me that he’s home late next week. Parenting is fun y’all. He’s either doing 93 miles or 118. Makes me feel like an underachiever, for sure. I’m looking at some 5-mile hikes on my trip, maybe. We’ll see. Maybe a bike ride. Then again, I don’t need to worry about carrying my own food and water. I have a car. And a credit card. I’ll be fine. Maybe a bit damp, but fine.

Today though. Today is stress city. Gotta get it all done. But my brain is headachey fuzz. Sleep is just a mess. Plus I went to bed late because I was trying to get Wonder Under cut out. Yeah. That’s my fault. I know. But that was the end of the day.

The old lady, Calli, resting in the long grass. This explains all the crap I have to pick out of her fur after she’s been at the ex’s house. She’s on arthritis meds and is doing better.

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She likes a few squirts of salmon oil on her food as well. Blech. But if it helps…I’m OK with that.

I came home from work after a clusterfuck of a day…not the kids (although some are not fully present mentally, for sure), but adults who can’t adult. And having to work with them anyway. So that’s always fun. I will have to spend part of my weekend looking up more science stuff to buy, but that’s not hard…just time-consuming. When I got home, Pandora was playing. I always stop it when I leave, plus it will stop eventually because it gets butthurt that I’m not listening. Kitten had this sort of shocked look on her face, so I suspect she started it. Apparently she was in the mood for The Smiths.

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Makes sense. Cats are moody bitches.

Later, I saw this beer. And it reminded me of how I draw.

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Although much simpler. I do like the jelly beans on the shirt though, and the zigzaggy tongue. Gonna have to appropriate that.

Off to gaming, where I probably almost died because I was hanging with one of the characters that I don’t usually hang with, because my protector couldn’t make it over the wall. And he doesn’t care if he dies in the game. Maybe I don’t either. I’d just inhabit another crazy female dwarven engineer. There were beating hearts in a chest and a smell of rotting flesh, but we made it out alive. I stitch while we play because it’s Friday night and I’m tired and if I stitch, I don’t fall asleep. It’s weird, that, because I’m fairly sure I’m still tired, but the stitching keeps enough of my brain activated that I stay awake. It’s fucking effective.

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That damn tree has 6 tiny bullion knots around every brown spot. I’ve counted the number of spots three times and got a different answer every time, so I’m going to pick 31 spots. 31 x 6 = 186 bullions just on that fucking tree. I’m really good at bullions now. Expect to see me working on those for a while.

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Although I did get a bunch done last night. We were playing for a long time though. And I finished the couching around the tree as well. Plus they mansplained hot flashes for me. And that was funny. So funny I had a hot flash.

Then I came home and it was late and I was tired, so in typical Kathy fashion, I made a plan to keep working…I cut out another yard of Wonder Under…so that’s only 1 1/2 yards to go. I can do that today (can I?). I will do that today. Somehow.

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While I was cutting shit out, there was an earthquake that perhaps only 5 of us in San Diego felt…I personally thought a truck had slammed into my house, and the dog and cat near me were both minorly perturbed by it. Damn, it was small…

For what I felt. Not damn, I wish it were bigger. I’m OK with NOT feeling big earthquakes after growing up in LA. I just finished teaching about earthquakes too…I wonder if my students felt it.

So this is Simba when it’s daylight. He likes this window because he can see ALL the things.

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Anyway, my weekend post-it note is full of crap to do. First I need more tea and to give up and take meds for the headache, then eat something because my stomach is growling, and then beat the crap out of this list, to the best of my ability. Yuck. Hopefully tonight will have some good food, good company, and maybe some sketchbook time. I need that. I think I missed a deadline too…dammit. Oh well. Moving on. I really really need Spring Break.

*Beck, Go It Alone

Running Over the Same Old Ground*

It’s actually Thursday night right now. It won’t be when I finish this, but I’m trying really really hard to procrastinate myself through the last of the projects I have to grade. It’s killing me reading/watching them. But I have to do it. I just took a quick break to do stuff, and was skimming the first page or so of the book I’m supposed to be reading for the next book club meeting…the one I’m not even going to, because I’ll be camping in the rain and cold. I’m reading it anyway. And the cover looks like this…

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So I almost didn’t check it out, just because of that, but then I started reading. And I’m dying. If it continues like this, I’ll read all of them. Here’s a line: “After a geological epoch passed in which single-celled organisms evolved into talk show hosts, Mr. Coffee was still holding out on me.” Yeah. This wench can write.

It’s morning now. I totally forgot I wrote that last night, until it popped up on the screen. Oh yeah. I was trying to get through the grading. So the book is still pretty entertaining, but light. I guess that makes up for the one for May, which I’ve already read, which was pretty dark and heavy. I feel like all I read at the moment are book club books…ironically, because I hardly ever get to go to book club. It means I don’t have to make a decision about what to read next. There’s only 264 books in my to-read list on Goodreads. Hard to choose.

But the plus is that I finished grading THAT project. I now only have 8 things to grade. But we also managed to get the science budget done yesterday (two days late on our schedule)…which was a monster this year. Pro: We got a windfall, never happens. Con: We had to spend it quickly. On top of dealing with everything else. Note: We’re not the problem, but we have to manage those who are. It’s been a stressful few weeks. But we’ll have a significant stash of equipment and materials for next year (finally!) to teach with, which will be nice. It will probably never happen again, but for now, it looks good.

This is what grading has been looking like…with Kitten lurking behind the monitor.

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Which is significantly better than when she stands in front of it.

So I skipped Thursday on this…was so focused on finishing the tracing that I just didn’t do it. So I did two night’s worth last night, both in that bottom section. I did more green leaves under Prosper and around the blue squares…and then added the red flowers and lines.

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I’m debating taking it with me on break…I think I should, just so I don’t have to do 8 days’ worth when I get back. But it seems silly to waste packing space on something I’ll barely work on. Huh. Well. We’ll see.

Then I started cutting out Wonder Under…which went pretty damn fast. I did one yard in less than an hour…

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And it was the water one (well, there’s two water ones), so convoluted twisty bits. Only 2 1/2 yards to go. I can’t take it to gaming tonight though. So hopefully I will still be awake when I get home. I’d like to get another hour in tonight…at least. I really want to be ironing to fabric on Sunday. So I need to think about a backing too.

I have so much crap to get through this weekend…grading, the last bit on my taxes (the hard, time-consuming part), the girlchild’s financial aid, because her dad finally finished his part…I’m panicking. Plus this quilt. Yeah.

Unlike this beast. No panic there.

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Looks a little psychotic, but totally relaxed. I wish I were a dog. Especially today…on a Friday when the kids are already wiggy as hell, and we still have another week until Spring Break. Ugh. Today is not a low-maintenance day.

But it is a Friday.

*Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here

Earth Below Us, Drifting, Falling*

So this is what a quilt looks like at this stage…

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This one is about 3 1/2 yards of Wonder Under, some really big pieces (like the sides of the bathtub) and some relatively small pieces. This one isn’t too bad with the crazy small, because it was drawn small and enlarged, with no additional crazy Kathy drawing after the fact.

It took about 8 1/2 hours to trace the Wonder Under, which is a little long for almost 700 pieces, but not too bad, considering tracing water is a pain in the ass.

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Now I need to cut all those pieces out, but I wanted that done by Saturday so I could start ironing, and that’s not happening. I suspect it will take me 4 or 5 hours to cut them all out and I would need to mostly do that tonight. Yeah. Not. Sigh. OK. Revise schedule. Worry lots. Right eye starts to twitch. Well, it was the left one before. At least they’re both getting a good workout.

I swear, my brain cannot see past April 28th when I have to decide everything in the solo show that isn’t happening until July, but it all has to be done and photographed. After April 28th, I might just collapse on the floor and then piece a 9-patch. Seriously.

Well no…because there are other deadlines…they’re just not right here in my face. I will look at them in a month. See, it sounds so nice when I say I have a month. Except that’s a month where I’m gone for a week. It’s OK. It will all be OK.

See the dogs? They think it’s OK.

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OK, looking at that picture, it might be hard to figure out what dog goes where. I’m not helping. There are two of them.

It looks like I put these in wrong order, but the girlchild was saying SAME to something else. You can see the family resemblance though.

I saw Neil Gaiman speak last night. Very cool. Even though he was tiny down there on the stage, it was nice to hear him talk and read and drink water in the middles of sentences. I did think that was weird.

Well. Tired. Totally. But on to the next stage of the quilt. That’s good. I’m glad.

*Peter Schilling, Major Tom (Coming Home)