One Less Problem

So you know how you hear one of the animals puking in the morning and you think, oh hell no, I don’t want to deal with that, but you also have a few dogs lying around and you know that if you don’t deal with it, they will, which sometimes is a good thing, but if I think about it at all, it grosses me out, so I have to go out there and clean up whatever it is by whomever is the puker?

Well that’s this morning.

I’m exhausted, I have all the stress signs except a twitchy eye (that’s probably coming), and luckily I only have to teach for three periods today. I hate this last week because everyone is showing movies and I’m still teaching STDs and how the hell are we supposed to do anything BUT let them do whatever they want when grades were already due and OMG was that fun, because of the two boys who only JUST realized they were failing and were not failing by much, but didn’t turn in any makeup work at all and were missing multiple warmups (easy fix, seriously).

THE DRAMA. I’m a little over it. Awards ceremony today, which is why there are 504 cookies, 10 gallons of juice, and 500 napkins in my prep room. Never let me volunteer for that shit again. Yeah. I know. I will. Someone’s got to do it. Then tomorrow is just survival.

I hate the last week of school.

I did come home and go to the gym and finish my book. Those were good things. And ate a decent meal. And then settled down on the couch with Outlander and a puppy, with a big fat dog at my feet…

I cut out one full yard and part of the next one…

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It’s slow going. Especially when I think that I have 5 more yards to cut out. The pieces are in the bin and the trash is on the lid.

Puppy slept and barked and slept and tried to bite and got distracted and slept. The kids found a tick on him today, reminding me that he’s not on any flea/tick medicine. One more thing to deal with.

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Side view…cutting on my lap, where the dog wanted to be.

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Alas, the cutting must happen, dear puppy, or I will never get to the next phase, which is one of my favorites…the ironing of fabric to the Wonder Under. I wish I could guess when I might get to that, but at the moment, I can’t imagine getting 15 hours done any time soon. I’ll probably get an hour or so done tonight. Thursday is a clusterfuck followed by a meeting. Friday is up in the air. We check out and usually it doesn’t take long, but sometimes it does. And I have stuff Friday afternoon and evening. I think at some point I will just collapse and sleep for three days. Hopefully that will wait until after school ends, though it seems questionable right now that I will make it that long.

This is the song that’s banging through my head…think on that…

Weighing in…on…

So I’ve had a few days to process all the crazy around the shooting in Orlando. I think it’s true that we have now seen so much gun violence and gender and racial hatred, and we’ve seen so little change in our policies, that it’s hard to even say anything, to even think…well what DOES need to change and HOW do we make it change, when we so obviously can’t even agree that a huge part of the problem is the gun itself and access to it, and the other huge problem is how much hate there is in our country. And there’s one presidential candidate who seems to be making that intensely worse. It’s hard to have any hope when you’re staring at all of that. My students were asking me who I voted for in the primaries, and I won’t tell them, but I do tell them that if Trump is elected, me and all my smart women friends will be in an internment camp (I read that somewhere)…because the likes of the Donald doesn’t like women who say no or argue. Hell, I’ve been around men like that in my life. One was a boss. That was a hard few years.

Anyway. It’s weighing on me, as I’m sure it’s weighing on many of you. I don’t see an easy solution as long as people are convinced weapons are necessary to their safety. And that a religion they don’t understand is at fault…I am amused at the anti-Muslim sentiment from people who are also anti-gay. You hate both? And yet you use the deaths of one group to try to oust the other? Fear is such an ugly stupid thing.

So yeah. Trying to survive the last few days of school with all that…and yeah, we will be talking about that and Brock the Rapist and consent during sex ed this week.

Meanwhile, hiking seems a good solution to the feeling and stress parts…we’re down to one car and it’s not particularly large, but we piled three dogs and three adults into it…then Simba tried to tie up the boychild.

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This is one I haven’t done in a while, Old Sweetwater Bridge…because I think of it as a mostly flat and not very long trail.

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There’s been a lot of water this year, so there are new plants…

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And eventually, they showed me the hilly part, which I didn’t know was there. We came in through that river valley. So now I have another hike to add to the local within-a-5-minute-drive options…

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They’ve gone in and fixed trails and added signage in the last year or so, which is why it’s easier to find existing real trails that don’t just wander off into the side of a hill.

Coming back, dogs were tired and hot…so were we…

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But it really does help clear the brain.

Grades were apparently due yesterday (it’s always Tuesday except when it’s not!)…and everything is done except for one kid, who may show up with stuff today. This morning hopefully…

I traced the small owl onto Wonder Under…

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Then I cut out Wonder Under pieces for the big quilt while we watched Deadpool as a family. It was just as good the second time around.

Simba as a neck warmer…

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He is a very lovey dog, when he’s not trying to bite you. Still working on that part of the training.

OK. Maybe a drawing will come out of the other stuff…not that it solves anything except the chaos in my brain. Still working on the other part of the solution. Because Australia’s version isn’t staring us in the face or anything. Sigh.

The Light…

Amusing that I last posted about blurry, because now my camera won’t take anything BUT blurry pictures (it’s not me…it’s the technology). Frustrating. I kill cameras quickly. I don’t even think it’s a year old, so I’ll chase down the warranty and see what I can do. Meanwhile, the phone takes OK pictures, so I can use that.

There are four days of school left. I have 700 things left to do in four days, but I’m sure it will be OK. Most of my grades are done…which is good, because they’re due tomorrow. I finished printing all the certificates. I still have a field trip today, teaching tomorrow and most of the next day, an award ceremony, and that hellish last day when we have our kids for just over 3 hours with nothing real to do.

I worked my butt off yesterday getting stuff done because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel…the vacation light. The light of no more grading. Of no more lesson plans. Of no more trying to get all the tech to work and the kids to behave. Such a relief this year. OK. Probably every year I feel this way; I just forget it until it’s upon me.

One of my quilts is in an article in Textile Fibre Forum…

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An article by Tanya Brown on Censorship in Art…with my One Paycheck nice and big in the front…

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Of course, this picture is blurry. My fault. It’s a good article, especially for those who make abstract or less in-your-face art (although I don’t consider nudity “in your face”)…if you don’t realize this is happening because it doesn’t happen to you. Certainly the notion of ART in the quilt world is still troubled. Hopefully that will change over time.

I finished tracing Wonder Under last night for the new big quilt…

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Just over 19 hours to trace…I think I thought it would be 20 hours, so not a bad guess. There are 6 yards of Wonder Under that now need to be trimmed. The last two pieces had lots of big pieces on them from the hair and the sun. In fact, I don’t think I filled all of the last piece. So I’ll start cutting out tonight. I wanted to be done cutting out “by the time I got out of school”. Well technically my last day is Friday, but it usually only takes me about 20 minutes to check out…so we’ll see. I’m figuring 15 hours to cut the pieces out, so that’s a lot to do this week, but I am mostly done with school crap…so that will help. Being able to come home and do NOTHING that is school-related…that is bliss. Seriously. I can’t even tell you.

I started working on Owl 3.0 as well…a commission pulled from the most recent drawing. There’s an owl on the left side, under a rib and a Fallopian tube. I drew the whole thing out and numbered it.

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It’s 102 pieces, which is not bad. A lot of them will be the same color, so it won’t take long to pick fabrics and iron. I’m going to start tracing it tonight before I put the light table top back on.

Puppy was deeply asleep while I graded yesterday. I guess he got tired out on Saturday and Sunday morning.

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We are up to three dogs for the week. We were a little worried because my parents’ dog, Katie (on the right), had been bullying Simba when we visited on Sunday, but they’ve been fine…

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Calli is the alpha dog (well, behind the humans). Simba is a spaz and the older dogs school him. Katie is kind of a freak sometimes, but they’ve been doing well with three adults to entertain them.

So yeah, not the most relaxing week, but it helps to see into the future, where sleep happens and reading books and shee-it. I keep dreaming of the same stuff. No Jamaican beaches and fruity cocktails. Just don’t make me get up early and teach for a few weeks. Please.

Blurry

Last night was just blurry. All the pictures are blurry. My eyes are still blurry this morning, not enough sleep. But I’m almost done dammit! With so many things! Tracing and school. Yeah. So I have 9 minutes before I have to leave for a student thing (yes, on a weekend, unpaid), but this is how I roll. If you had 9 minutes, you might stroll through Facebook or play your game online, or maybe you’d throw in a load of laundry (that would be smart, but I only do laundry on Sundays), but I sit down and START writing a post, even though I know I won’t finish, because if I get a draft on here with pictures, while I’m standing around at this student thing, I can maybe write the rest of it! No seriously. I guess I don’t have much down time.

And yes, I’m looking forward to having most of 8 weeks off (it won’t all be OFF, for sure, because school trainings are poking their ugly heads in already). It will be nice to not be panicking on a Sunday afternoon about prep for the week, it will be nice not to have to consider grading papers EVERY SINGLE NIGHT (seriously people, that’s how it rolls). I would love to come home and NOT think about my job, but that is such a rare occurrence…we really do need summer to recharge so we can go at it balls out for another 10 months. I work every Spring and Winter break. I work through Thanksgiving. I work almost every weekend during the school year. Summer is a fucking relief. I can’t afford to go anywhere, but at least I can relax for a time. I figure we have about 183 days of school (actual days, not counting weekends) and I work for at least 1-3 hours almost every night or morning during the school year, so that’s an extra 366 hours a year (or 9 weeks of 40-hour weeks…I don’t ever work a 40-hour week). Plus weekends probably average 4 hours of work…So let’s say 40 weekends times 4 hours is another 160 hours or 4 weeks there. Honestly, we work a full year of hours in less than a year and don’t get paid for those extra weeks of work. No paycheck until August! Whoo!

So yeah. Don’t begrudge me my time. Jealous? Hey. Come teach my class for a week. This week! I dare you.

So I traced last night…getting into the low 1800s.

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I’m up into the head area, so only about 150 pieces left. I want it DONE.

So I can then spend 15 hours cutting them all out.

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Sounds relaxing, doesn’t it? Plus reading books and drawing and sitting on the deck and long hikes and not having to deal with school!!! OK, my brain is already on vacation. I still need to finish grades and I have 46 more awards to type and print out, and there’s a field trip and the last day and I need to come up with 500 cookies. So it’s not free time yet…it’s still in overdrive.

Midnight does not do overdrive.

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OK. Gotta go now…I’m a minute late.

Simple

Some people sleep through earthquakes. Some of us have early warning systems that bark like little maniacs. And some of us have never slept through an earthquake, EVER. Yup. It’s funny though, because as I’m lying in bed, staring at the USGS map (yeah, that fucker is bookmarked), I’m thinking, “Only a 5.2? Really? That felt more like a…”. Being a Californian, we’ve experienced more earthquakes than most. And living in San Diego, we don’t actually experience a whole lot of them.

I didn’t have Calli last night. I wonder if she barked before the earthquake too? The mockingbird was quiet most of the night…I continue to believe he’s going out on dates, or if that guy was right, his baby birds are now fledglings and he feels safer about his nest. No need to yell at ME about your territory dude…because you’re in MINE.

Like much of this week, last night did not go as planned. No worries. I roll with the flow on a regular basis. Or is that roll with the punches and go with the flow? That’s one of the things that drives my kids nuts, when I mess up idioms. My brain does weird stuff with words…it always has.

But once I got home (and I did figure out how to get today’s lunch out of last night’s endeavors), I was mostly awake (tea helps me believe I am more awake than I am), so I settled down to tracing. I’m on a roll! Don’t you hate it when people misspell those. I’m on a role! NO you’re not. Unless you’re in a play. Web sight was one that amused me. Because you are seeing things. So that almost makes sense. There are more of course. Homonyms kick our uneducated asses on a regular basis.

I’ve been tracing for an hour to two hours every night. I’m at 15 hours and 19 minutes in. See if you look at artmaking as just spending an hour a day (if you’re like me and have a fulltime job…trust me, I’d do more than that if I could), then it’s not so bad. Eventually everything gets done, even if it’s only a little bit each night.

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I started in the mid 1400s last night and traced through the mid 1600s, doing almost 200 pieces in an hour and 45 minutes.

Not bad. Last year at this time, I was quilting the first of the bathtub quilts. I end up tracing a lot of leaf parts in these Earth Mother quilts. Leaves are complicated little fuckers. I did a lot of flowers and leaves and arm parts and part of a snake and then more leaves.

Cuz there’s lots of them. When there’s leaves that are all part of the same plant, I try to trace the same part of the leaf in the same section (light side vs dark side) and then cut them all out as one large piece of Wonder Under. It saves trimming time at this stage. I’ll cut them apart later.

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The kids are trying to help around the house.

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I realize that doesn’t look like help, but the girlchild was known in her past for slamming doors and a particularly violent slam took out part of her door framing, so boychild pulled out the old nails and fixed it. It was on the white board list of chores mom left on the door.

Simba is entirely no help in all of this. Unless there’s an earthquake coming, and then he’s useful. Although if I ran and got into a doorway every time he barked, it would be silly.

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His last cone day is today. His stitches are mostly healed. It’s unfortunate, because it allows us to control him a bit.

I have about 300 pieces left to trace. I’d like to say I’ll get some done tonight, but who knows. I’m pretty tired. There are only 5 days of school left and a lot to do. And I haven’t been sleeping well between randy mockingbirds and random earth shaking and just general end-of-year stress. Hopefully that will change soon. What do I look forward to in summer? A normal sleep and pee schedule. Lots of artmaking time. Simple.

That Bird

There’s been this mockingbird outside my house chattering away almost every night for the last 6 weeks or so. I hear him start up before I ever go to bed, and most mornings, he’s still going until around 5:30 AM. I know this because I’ve woken up at 5 and still heard him, but 5:30 seems to be his stopping point. I’ve read a couple of websites that seem to have a variety of claims…mostly that it is a male with no mate and once he finds his fucking true love, he will shut the hell up. Then there’s this guy, who claims it’s territorial and somewhat desperate. And then there’s a bunch of websites that warn me I can’t do anything to hurt the bird; it’s against the law. And one crazy ass person who says I should carefully listen to the damn bird (which I have done, trust me, for hours) and eventually my body will consider it a lullaby and fall asleep quite happily while listening to it. That guy is on crack.

There were two nights last week when he was silent (finally got a date?), but now he’s back in full force, and I again have the pillow over my head. This isn’t gonna fly when it gets really hot, so hopefully he’ll either move (seriously, same guy comes back every year) or find a female. Now. In fact, I’m willing to find one for him. There must be some older, slightly chubby, female mockingbird out there somewhere who would love to live in that tree.

Sleep. It’s for the weak.

Seriously, I’m up early today for a meeting (ugh) and I’m already tired from staying up too late again tracing stuff. I had a union meeting AND book club, and then came home and dealt with grades again (getting close to the end, hallelujah)…and still managed to trace some stuff. Did I clean the house? Fuck no. I did not.

I’m getting closer to done though…in the mid 1400’s…

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Back to watching Outlander after finishing Magicians. Both have their painful moments.

The problem is that I’m happily tracing away and NOT watching the clock, and then when I look at it, I’m shocked by how late it is, and THEN, instead of just stopping right there, I finish whatever logical section I’m working on before I go to bed. Because. Shut up. It was hard to stop last night. I only have 500 pieces to go.

So I traced a tiger, a cat, and a heart. Oh. And another lung. I have most of the torso done at this point…just some flowers on the one breast at this point.

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Then I have an arm left. And the head. And then I’m done. I have about 4 yards of Wonder Under traced so far. No doubt that the larger pieces of the head and arm will take it to 6 yards.

Kitten came out…she’s not very friendly with puppy.

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But she deigned to sit on the desk and watch for things outside. Should introduce her to the mockingbird. Meanwhile, Simba went bonkers running around last night, barking at Calli, trying to get her to play. Eventually Calli came to me, all worried. Why? Why is he doing that? What does he want? It’s amusing. Exhausting, but amusing.

So tonight, I will hopefully get another batch of pieces traced. If I weren’t so tired, I’d go for broke…I could be done by Friday night, but I know I probably won’t be. Unfortunate. Although once grades are done, I can then just cut stuff out at night without having to fit grades in there as well. That should help my goal of being done by the time I get out of school…we’ll see. I would get BETTER sleep if that damn bird would get his ass out of the tree and force himself to get out and about to meet the womenfolk.

Can’t Be Done Yet

One of my quilts, One Paycheck, is included in a book that is coming out just now, Quilts and Human Rights…

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I had forgotten about this…with communication stretching back to 2014, it’s not surprising, right? One Paycheck is about being homeless and a mom. I’m looking forward to reading the book and seeing some of the other quilts that were included.

So when I’m slogging through the last two weeks of teaching or a pile of awards and my printer’s being cranky or driving around doing errands even though I asked a kid to do one of them…it’s cool to get an email that reminds you that yeah, you make art, and sometimes it matters. Plus I got into a book!

Oh man, I went to bed too late…second time this week. I told you, my brain is already on summer break. It just can’t figure out why I’m getting up so early in the morning. But I finished most of the team’s academic awards last night…now I just need to do the fun awards and hope my printer cartridge doesn’t run out in the middle of it (you know it will).

Back to the tracing of course…

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I know this phase is totally boring for my readers. Like every day, she shows us another picture of Wonder Under lying on a light table and her pencil. And maybe a cat or a cup of tea or her phone. Like SHEESH woman, get on with it.

And then I try to get creative…like there’s the three yards of filled-up traced pieces that I get to start cutting out at some point, right?

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And a close up so you can reiterate to yourself how crazy I am…like some of those pieces are crazy tiny and what the hell is she thinking, and holy crap, they’re numbered in the 1300s or something.

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But here’s the thing. This is one of the most calming, meditative parts of the quiltmaking process for me. I don’t have to think very hard about colors or ironing, it doesn’t hurt my hand like cutting stuff out does…it’s just meditation. Which is probably what I need right now. My SIL said I sounded cranky last night and I was. Still am this morning. It’s the nature of the beast…the end-of-year teacher. Too much to do in too little time. Not enough of the relaxation I need right now. Really, honestly, right now I need a nap. Yes, I know it’s only 7:30 in the morning, but shit. I’m tired. And done. And I can’t be done yet. Really. I can’t. I can’t.

I’m through piece 1300-something. Another hour in. Traced an octopus, some arteries, some grass, one lung, and some cactus. I have the tiger left to do on one breast and then the heart and the whole other side (breast plus arm). Plus the head. Then I’m done meditating and on to cutting.

Relief in Sight…

Workload increases…deadlines abound. I feel like I’m going to drop ALL the balls. I’m in the middle of printing out 25 bingo cards for graduation…we have the kids play graduation speech bingo. What words would you put in that? It’s kind of amusing. Plus plans for awards and field trips and all that stuff. It’s all whirling around in my head, as I dream of the Saturday AFTER all that. Even the Friday, because all we do is check out, although that’s kind of overwhelming in itself: room clean, books counted, technology signed off or out. Turn in your bandaids! God forbid we be trusted to hold onto those over the summer (OK, it’s more logical than that…they do refill all our first-aid kids over the summer…but all I used were bandaids). I might panic soon. Except there’s no point.

Lots of changes for next year…again, I could panic, but why? This is what three years of meditation and counseling can do for you.

I graded quite a bit yesterday, plus we took the dogs for a walk and saw the baby owls that have been growing up in a tree on that walk. It’s the first time I’ve been able to see them, so that was cool. See if you can find three owls in the photo below…

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And there’s one in this photo…

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The one time I don’t bring my normal camera. Sigh. And then this hawk as well…

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It was a wildlife-filled hike.

I ended up having to do dinner because girlchild was sunburnt…it’s interesting how many times we plan to have her make dinner and I do it instead, but it’s some weird recipe SHE was gonna do, and then she comes in and helps for the last bit, mostly to plate it, but whatever. So that was last night. And then I was sitting on the couch post-dinner, really trying to motivate myself to stand up, and I saw a show announcement, but it was due this week, and it has to be mailed (so old school), so I got up and did that. Entering online is so much easier than making CDs and packing them up, but whatever. And it’s a long shot, but why not try?

So it was still a late start on the tracing front, but I was efficient last night. This is my normal setup, although most times it’s tea, not wine.

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Phone (keeps track of time and distracts me when I get bored), drink, mechanical pencil, Wonder Under, drawing…TV is off to the top right. Another distraction.

I filled almost this whole yard with tiny pieces of tracing…

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Last night was…um…the crane, all of it, all 100+ pieces of it, and then a piece of seaweed.

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It doesn’t sound like much when I put it that way, but I’m almost through the 1100s now, so well past halfway. I did about 200 pieces in less than an hour and a half. Lots of feathers last night. At this rate, I would be done in four nights, but I also know that at least two of those nights might be a wash. Plus I still have to do student awards and those take FOREVER.

But progress it is. I’m looking forward to the week of the 20th, when I have no school and plenty of time to iron to fabric…plus I should be able to draw as well. What a relief.

Something to Point at…

The closer I get to the end of the school year, the louder my art brain yells about free time and summer days and being on vacation. It’s hard to focus on school stuff at all, because people around you are lazing around, leaning back, taking a break, when we have a run for another 9 days, a sprint if you will. I mean, you can do anything for 9 days, right? OK. I’m pretty sure I can come up with something that I wouldn’t be able to do for 9 days, but right now, I keep telling myself I can get through 9 more days of students and teaching sex ed and dealing with whininess and hyper behavior (oh wait, that’s kind of my household at the moment).

I did take Saturday off though. I had to deliver a quilt to Oceanside, but I got to enjoy some art there (more later) and bought some teeny tiny art, two by high-school students and one by an adult. Go ahead, you guess which is which…

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Top left is the adult (female) and the other two are high-school students (both male). Interesting pieces.

Then I spent a few hours roaming Art on Adams (more pictures later) and seeing mostly mediocre art with some standouts.

Sunday was a whole shit-ton of grading and school stuff (see that’s what happens when you blow it off for a day) and I think every day from here on out will be like that unfortunately. I did make it through all the makeup work, so that’s a plus. And my aide can input grades today and tomorrow.

I finally finished (well, got to a point of ending stuff and frustration) at around 9:30 PM and headed in to trace stuff. Midnight spent most of the time trying to lie on the drawing. There’s the girlchild talking to her…

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Simba is still a spaz, even with a cone on his head. Here he is trying to get me to play with his toy while I’m tracing.

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Girlchild was bored, so I handed her the coloring books I ordered from Jamie Fingal…I didn’t buy them to color, but because my art group is planning on doing a coloring book and I wanted to see what hers looked like. You can find them at that link. Girlchild’s been quite happily coloring while watching TV, in between job applications and brief spurts of cooking madness.

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Cleaning the kitchen is still not her forte.

I traced for over 2 hours. Girlchild had gone to bed because she was tired (I should have noted that as a clue it was getting late…because I stayed up way too late).

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I’m in the 900s now…still not halfway, but getting close. It’s 9 1/2 hours so far…I keep having to adjust my time estimates. It’s somewhere around 20 hours total, I’m guessing, depending on how fast I go. Last night, I was quite fast…250 pieces in 2 hours. I completely lost track of time, which is always nice. I traced cocoons and poppies and passionflower vines, plus a hand, some pine branches, and up the arm, minus the crane. That’s where I stopped: at the crane’s foot.

OK, so I plan to do some more, hit the halfway point even, tonight. Grading may get in the way, but hopefully there will still be time. Remember my goal to have it all traced AND cut out by the time school got out? Eh. It’s looking a little more difficult…but we’ll see. It’s OK…I set the goals with the realization that I might not meet them, but sometimes I’ll beat them. It gives me something to point at.

But Soon…

Oh wow. Friday tired and it was only a 4-day week. Can’t imagine how next week will feel. Puppy is behind me talking to Kitten. He has this funny growl that sounds like he’s talking and she is just staring at him, like WTF is your deal, dude? He still has a cone on his head, which means he bumps into everything and needs his head scratched on a regular basis.

I had my stitching meeting last night and finished another bird in the Sue Spargo thing I’ve been working on for like three years…there are only four birds left and then I can piece them together. Maybe I’ll get to that this summer. AND finishing the other one, which is pieced, but needs a flower, a stem, and a leaf, and then to be sandwiched and quilted. I really should do that.

I also got confirmation that I will be doing that little owl as a commission, so I’ll get working on tracing that soon. I pulled my Etsy site…nothing was selling and I suspect only my friends were liking stuff. So that was a bust. I’m honestly flailing a little this year on increasing income…I bid on a bunch of copyediting and proofreading jobs, but suspect there is always someone there who will underbid just to get the job. I can’t afford to lose time unless I’m getting paid the going rate, so I spend time preparing a bid and doing sample edits, and sigh. Maybe I just suck at it. Or maybe I don’t work hard enough at trying to get new jobs. Because I’m buried in school work. And tired.

So last night, I figured I had earned tracing time…I graded all day in class while students were watching puberty videos. Today they’ll be working on vocab, so I’m gonna keep grading…because hey! School’s almost out! And I’m going to sleep in a lot! Because I’m so tired! I always give my co-teacher shit for overusing exclamation points and there I used like four in a row. !

Last year, on this day, I was ironing the first bathtub quilt together.

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There are now two bathtub quilts. There are at least three more bathtub drawings, one of which is enlarged but needs some heads (seriously, both people are headless due to my drawing off the paper, which drove my 5th-grade teacher bonkers. She was an artist and kept trying to get me to fit ON the paper. But my vision was always bigger.) and one that will never be a quilt because it’s just too loosey goosey. But the other one, with its crown of thorns, it could be a quilt. HEY! One of the shows I’m looking at entering is about WATER. And bathtubs…they have WATER. Wait. !!!

Yeah. I’m a little punchy.

Puppy and I are equally NOT interested in our boring breakfasts today.

So I traced last night…Still filling up the third sheet. Most of what I’m doing now is tiny, filling in between the ribs.

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Last night, I traced some more grapes and grape leaves, and then a homeless woman with her shopping cart and her sign (which is bloody tiny, I must say), and then I did a butterfly. But I stopped when I got to the cocoons, because it was after midnight, and I really do try to go to sleep at a “reasonable” hour (I know my doc thinks it should be two hours earlier, but then I would get NO ART DONE and that is unacceptable. Plus it’s hard enough for me to fall asleep at midnight.).

See the tiny little pieces interspersed among much bigger pieces? Yeah.

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I’m at piece 714…with another hour in…at this time of year, slow and steady is about all I can handle. Not quite halfway, but maybe…well, tonight maybe not. But soon.