Binded by the Light

Hmn. Some 70s angst. Is it the 70s? Can't remember.

My feet hurt. I wore boots to school. Pro: they keep my feet and legs warm while I'm wearing a skirt. I don't have enough pants to get through the week, so I can't wear pants every day. Con: My feet hurt. Students make smarmy comments about how I'm wearing boots (why? Is there a LAW against it?).

I bought binding fabric for the two finished quilts. I washed said binding fabric. My daughter Swiffered (new verb, see Webster's 11th or 12th) the entry floor for me so I could mop it. Wait, how are those connected? I need to trim the quilts so I can bind them. The only space big enough to trim them is my entryway floor. Floor should be clean when trimming (unlike the mud-tromped mess it is now). Must clean floor to finish quilts. It's a vicious sick cycle.

With that in mind, here is a picture of something inspirational.

Yeah baby.

7 Block Stud

OK, not really a stud. I photographed the 7 finished blocks in the Southwest series to get a better idea of what it was looking like as a group. I had been doing one block at a time, and I have 4 background sky colors, so I'm trying to balance those, but I'm also trying to balance colors in the quilt. I didn't want it to just be orange-a-rama, so the tipi block and the Grand Canyon block and the other bridge/arch one that's really brown (apparently that's Owachomo Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument, says my pattern) are my attempts to vary the color. There's also a lot of gray in the Hovenweep block, which doesn't look too bad in the picture, but looks overwhelming when I look at it in person. I'll either put some bushes in the foreground, or trim it down, or try to get some gray in one of the 5 remaining blocks. I know the next block will be in the orange range, so maybe I need to try to get a browner one in there somewhere too.

Hey SUSAN! What are we doing next? This is like a psychotic Mystery Quilt. We have no idea how the blocks will fit together or what we'll be stitching next...we just have to go with the flow. What a concept.

Grand Canyon in Fabric

I finished appliqueing the Grand Canyon. It was a very misty picture, and it's taken me about a month to applique it (along with everything else I've been doing). This is the 7th block I've done in this Southwest series. I didn't design these. I wanted to finish this last night, but didn't want to stay up too late, so hey, I did that tonight instead. Ugh. Need to sleep so I can wake up early for work. I meant to spend a lot of time on art tonight, and it just didn't happen. That happens too often. It sucks.

Thread Frustration

After a long conversation with my mom, my hours of thread frustration today do not seem to be because of (1) my inexperience with thread on cones, (2) the age of my machine, (3) the quality of the thread, or any other logical reason...it seems that the thread goddess was frowning down upon me, and once I had made the voodoo sacrifice to the Great Supreme Rayon SheGod, all was good. I obviously need more practice. Note my first use of the Thread Pro Stand. I need practice with it also. I don't have time to practice stuff, though. It's too frustrating. I got good at hearing the weird hiccup the machine made right before it looped thread all over the front, and the strange metallic twang the needle would make right before the thread broke.


Note the setup includes a cat sleeping behind the machine and a cat sitting on the chair where I sit. This makes it very easy to attain the appropriate back stiffness for quilting without soreness in shoulders.

I quilted two pieces this weekend, after being prescribed Vicodin for a sore throat from hell (I didn't take very much of it...it made it too hard to quilt...or stay awake). The weekend is improving. This is part of Still Life with Bloody Head. Guess what...this is the head. This piece has been in progress for two years...why? Thread. Couldn't find the right one. Then I found the right one and it almost drove me to shred this quilt.


This piece is named Weighted. I can't really explain it. Binding it will be difficult. It has color issues. The Grand Canyon applique block is almost done. Hopefully I can post a picture of it later this week.

Day Off with a Sore Throat

Ouch. It hurts. But I did get some quilting done. And I finally embroidered the little quilt and named it...Think It Over. Whoo. I wish I could have gotten more done, but I really don't feel well, which sucks. I hate feeling like I wasted a day off with illness. I've been so sick this year...it's really wearing me down. Everyone has advice...take this, drink that, do this, use that. I don't know what it is...but I need to get it under control. I can't get any quilts done.

OK, here she is embroidered.


Oh no, wait, that's my parents' dog, Missy, who is driving me bonkers by peeing on my carpet and harassing my cats. She also can't help me quilt or clean house. I'm not sure I should allow anything/one else in my home who can't clean up after themself.

So here's the quilt and a detail of the lovely bride.





And here's Limbo relaxing to the vibration of the sewing machine.

Lame eek

I was in the middle of trying to capitalize the "w" in "week" when this damn thing published itself. I like the new title. It stays.

A lame week. No work done. That silly small quilt has still not been embroidered (nice use of passive voice, like anyone besides me is gonna embroider the sucker). The icky voice-losing sore-throat-making cold has taken me over and I am too tired to do anything but sleep. And trying to teach with no voice...that's a fun thing right there. I do get tomorrow off, so hopefully my weekend posting will be full of successes and finishings.

I did put a border on the anger drawing below...which I originally drew in 2001. Drawn in 2001, border added in 2006. I should probably wait until 2011 to quilt it.

I Need a Name (and No, I'm Not Really Asking for Help)

So I fused and quilted and bound the whole thing in a weekend, a very busy weekend, a weekend where I spent about 7 hours doing work (not art, but work), plus another drive to LA and back (which is actually when I got the binding stitched down). It needs embroidery and maybe even beads. Some part of my brain is yelling "See how quickly you can get a SMALL quilt done? Why don't you do MORE SMALL ONES?!" Hmn. Because I like big ones better. I have real issues with small quilts...mine, not other people's. They seem less important or powerful. I don't really believe that. I'm not really sure what my problem is.

It does need a name. Most of my quilts have names at this stage. Of course, most of them take months (or at least weeks) to make...so that would be another con to making small quilts...not enough rumination time to come up with a title.


Here is a description of my first amusing attempt to come up with a title for this sucker. It has women in it. OK. So I pull up iTunes and search for all songs, albums, or artists with "woman". I get lots of bad 70s music and an entire Michelle Shocked album, which is kinda cool. So I start listening to all of them in shuffle, hoping the lyrics will jog some amazing titular experience, but no. Ugh. So I search for all the Michelle Shocked albums, because that feels much nicer, but I still don't have a freakin' title.

No, I really don't want help coming up with a title. I think I just talked one into my head. We'll see if it sticks.

This is a bad week for getting art made, except for Friday, which is a Day Off, and hence full of wondrous time for making art. Oh joyous me.

Pizza Night

I'd like to thank my parents for financing tonight's pizza night. After a full day of science labs with 12-year-old atomic bombs (note to self: don't do labs on Fridays...kids are too hyper), I can't cook. I physically cannot open cupboards and turn on the oven and I'm not even sure I can pull out the dishes on which to put the pizza.


Despite that, I'm hoping my energy revives after food so I can iron pieces to my background for this small quilt. Some shots of the parts not ironed to a background, not in any particular order.


Then some shots of drawings I was doing last night while watching CSI. The eyeball, if you saw the show last night, yuck, that eyeball scene, bleck. I can't even be coherent about it. Can you tell I'm teaching about DNA???



Not sure where I'm going with that drawing. Potentially nowhere.

Whoa, look at those fingers. OK, where's that pizza guy (chick)? I need fortification...

Time-Saving

I was considering taking some cooking classes on how to cook time-saving meals that are cheap and healthy and diabetic-friendly, and produce nice leftovers that can be recycled into different meals during the week. Doesn't sound too demanding, does it? So I actually found a local time-saving cooking class, but get this...it's on Tuesday mornings. Great for the working single mom, eh? Duh. I'm thinking I need time-saving a hell of a lot more than someone who can take a 4-hour class midweek, but maybe I am wrong. I guess I'm on my own again.

Since Sunday, I've managed to get my Wonder-Undered Butt Together. I retraced, I cut out, I ironed, I trimmed. I'm almost ready to iron the sucker together. I should make small quilts more often...I'm not sure what happened Sunday night. I think my brain went out dancing without me, and left my shell of a body behind to pretend to get things done. Last time it'll do that.

You'll be glad to know the new batch of Wonder Under has been sticking admirably. Here's something to complain about though. On bad days at school, instead of grading stuff during my prep period, I would occasionally spend 10 or 15 minutes surfing the Art Quilters Ring...well NO MORE. Any of the sites that have the word "blog" in the URL have been blocked. Sigh.

I'm posting two progress pictures for the newest quilt (completely unnamed)...one is of little pieces of Wonder Under waiting for a piece of fabric to CHOOSE ME CHOOSE ME. The other is happily ironed pieces on fabric, waiting to be cut out. They got cut out last night. Tonight hopefully I will iron the whole thing down.




Oh honey...it don't look like a quilt just yet, but it will, chile...just you wait and see.

I Am Not Getting Any Work Done

This is So True

I never do these...I mean, I DO them...I just don't inflict them on YOU. Be glad...but this one is so true...

Who Should Paint You: Andy Warhol

You've got an interested edge that would be reflected in any portrait You don't need any fancy paint techniques to stand out from the crowd!

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?

Wonder Under Debacle

I got this bug up my butt (as one does) to get a small quilt done for an upcoming show. It would have to be done like in the next week for me to be able to photograph it etc. No problem...I had a drawing that I traced onto Wonder Under, and packed it away for the car trip I had to go on this weekend. I pulled it out on the ride home, and started cutting. Now, I've had issues with Wonder Under before, pulling away from the paper, which when you're doing what I'm doing with traced pieces means you either have to start over and retrace the pieces or (like a crazy psychotic loon) try to match little tiny paper pieces with little tiny almost invisible pieces of Wonder Under stuff. And, yes, I've done that, which is why I know you have to be a crazy psychotic loon to try it.

So in the car some of the paper was pulling away, and I cut those parts off, figuring I'd just retrace those bits later onto Wonder Under that wasn't trying to run away from home. But as I'm cutting into the part that seems to be sticking, bits of the backing are falling off. I turn over the paper to look at the webbing that makes up the glue, and it's not even. There are clumps of webbing in places and in some places there's big honkin' holes in it, and there's no way I want to deal with this with such tiny pieces. Back into the container with the mess, headache ensues (may be lack of caffeine or sleep or any such thing). I'm irritated at Wonder Under. In fact, I'm so irritated, the manufacturer should come here right now and get down on his or her knees and apologize to me. OK, I may have vengeance issues.

I'm home now, buried under the depths of an incredibly messy and dirty house, a lack of groceries, a lack of this week's lesson plan, and a lack of desire to do ANYTHING at all except curl up with a book and a nap.

Growl.

It's OK, I'll get over it. I'm on the second cup of tea, the grocery list is made, and I have two slaves currently dressed like pirates who will be forced to assist with that whole cleaning thing, since they are the biggest creators of said mess. And maybe I'll even find some decent Wonder Under to retrace this mess. And the bigger of the pirate slaves just hugged me and said "Meow". What more could you ask for? Here's the smaller one...

Anger and Exhaustion

The Anger Management lesson was a disaster...I didn't teach it, and in retrospect, I wish I had been allowed to. But I did get permission from one of the kids to post his anger drawings on my blog. He thought I was kidding at first. Looking back at a couple of the other pictures, I'll ask the permission of those kids too next week. I connect with the kids who draw well and think outside the box...but too often, they are the kids who are failing in public school. I didn't fail...but I'm not sure why.

Here's his first drawing...




His second drawing...



He seems like a mostly happy kid, but I remember being 12. Anger was out of control. And I found a drawing I had done on fabric of anger...in 2001.


It must have been a bad day...

I'm exhausted. I want to make art, but I'm so damn tired, I can barely move. Sigh.