All Together Now

Here's all nine blocks so far. I think there are three more. I might actually have to finish this quilt...what a concept.

Blurriness caused by shaky hands caused by illness caused by student. Must rest now.

Southwest Block Number 9...Number 9...Number 9

Canyonlands. Not sure about it. It'll be fine with the others, I think.

I need to try to cut out block number 10 sometime in the next two days. The 10th block is Sand Dune Arches in Utah. It's too dang hot here to do anything, unfortunately. I did a little cleaning. I have been working on my brother's T-shirt blocks. I'm running errands, because stores are air-conditioned and my house isn't. Sad, eh? And I have a cold, a parting gift from one of my loving students. So I feel like crap. Warmed over.

Now that's sleeping. We named the puppy Ivy. Only name all three of us could agree on. She seems OK with it.

Jim's Quilts

Two years ago (last time I was in Seattle) I delivered a T-shirt quilt to my brother. I finished the binding while watching TV in his living room. His wife had sent me a box of his old T-shirts, all the ones from high school and college that were sorta old and falling apart, the ones you can't bear to get rid of because of their HISTORICAL significance. You know what I'm talkin' about.

So I get this box and I start cutting out pictures and logos and stuff, and I iron them all onto some stabilizer so they won't stretch, and I start piecing sashing randomly around the edges, and I lay them all out, and I've got enough for like 3 or 4 quilts, man. THREE OR FOUR. So I finished one two years ago. It took me about 7 months to do it, because I'm lame. Anyway, in the process of cleaning out my studio for art-making summer activities, I found the box with all the leftover pieces, because I only made ONE quilt...not THREE OR FOUR. What kind of quilter am I? (A normal one.)

Here's the pile of remaining T-shirt pieces, some sashed, mostly not.



Here's the extra blocks from the last (first?) quilt. I feel motivated. Slightly :-). Can't ask for more than that...


Countdown 14 days until we leave for Seattle. Bwa ha ha. Meanwhile, I'm looking closely at my kids who learned how to make placemats at Grandma's house over Winter Break. Hmn. How can I use this resource wisely...

Puppy (What the Hell Was I Thinking?)

OK, so I've wanted a new puppy since my good old dog died almost 3 years ago. I almost got one at Christmas, but a tree fell and I had to figure money stuff out, so it didn't happen. And I really wanted to get one at the beginning of the summer so I could train it all summer without having to deal with school too. I wanted a puppy because I have 4 cats, one of which is dog-shy, so I needed a baby whose brain could be molded.

So here she is.



She's a boxer mix, probably Shepherd (looking at her sisters). She's the runt of the litter and very sweet.



When she first saw Limbo (cat), she bounded over like "Oh BOY! Someone to play with!" Limbo's response was a little less excited, but I'm hoping because the puppy is smaller than the cats still, that she and they will grow into this relationship.



I made a few pound and humane society trips this weekend, but all the puppies were already on hold. I went to the local pet store to get crickets for the tarantula, and the local shelter had puppies. Man oh man. Once you get that "I want a puppy" thought in your head, there's no removing it. Now I have a new baby in the house who is not potty-trained, not sleeping through the night, and needs a lot of attention. I am nuts. But it was worth it last time, so I think it will be this time too.

In other news, I'm tired and maybe coming down with sickness. The house is still a disaster area, although I'm working on that. I think Ione thinks she can rock the puppy to sleep. Hmn. Silly girl.



OK, another big life change under my belt. Next I'll take up karate and shave my head (very tempting in this weather).

Two

Two minimum days of school left...and counting. My fabric is singing a siren song. The yard and the house will not win this war...

I Touched Fabric Today

The label I made for the back of Still Life (with all my identifying info scribbled out...in case my students are trolling the art quilters webring!). I fuse them on and then buttonhole the edges, to make it harder for someone to rip it off. Like someone's gonna do that to one of my quilts. I'm hoping to get this quilt ready to ship tonight, although grading finals will probably get in the way of that.

I finished the applique for the Egypt quilt. My teacher Susan drew the pattern from an Egyptian wallhanging her parents brought back from there many years ago. I decided bright colors were the way to go. It still needs embroidery. It's taken me a whopping 22 months of nonstop sewing on other things in order to get this done. No, I don't sew on it much. Now I just need to finish it.




And most importantly, I found the WD-40. Look in the middle, where the big white arrow is. There it is! Now why did I put it there? No one knows.

I Found This Note...

On a serious note, the only fabric-related stuff I've done this week (besides go to quilting class) is shorten my son's shorts. He doesn't like the super-long shorts that are the fashion now, so I cut 7" off the bottoms and sewed them up. He's very happy. I also had an hour-long discussion of puberty with him and his sister tonight. He actually listened and asked questions, and then asked if there was any way he could avoid it altogether. Um...sweetie...no. Prepare for the roller coaster ride.

Four days of school left...

I was reading Laura Cater-Woods Idea to Image newsletter tonight, and she's talking about reducing mental clutter as well as physical clutter (see my blog about piles and more piles) before we can create. And how she's looking forward to 6 uninterrupted weeks of creating in her studio. Yes. That's my summer. I have 8 weeks. One week in Seattle, which will be good. One week of work-related stuff. But I'm not giving up any more of the weeks, no matter how much school pressures me. I need that time. I've been so frustrated and cranky and short-tempered the last few weeks because I can't find even a moment to make art...I say that, but I drew last night a little. And I try to draw every Sunday morning, because I can find the time and a nice hot cup of tea. And I've been trying to find even one evening a week when I don't have to grade something. But it's still not enough.

I love Laura Cater-Woods' work, so here's a link to her website. She's not blogging at the moment, and I can't find the link to her newsletter subscription...http://www.cater-woods.com/. Found it! It's on the Links page, scroll down if you're interested. She emails a newsletter with some words about creativity. It reminds me to go to her website and see what new work she has.

My son said today he doesn't want to have kids because he sees how horrible some of them are. I asked him if my kids were OK. He said maybe.

This time next week? Art will be in progress...

Summer is Short

It hasn't even started yet, and it's getting shorter every day. I was accepted into the leadership program I applied for...good news is more money and resources for my classroom, bad news is I lose a week of summer quiltmaking. Oh well. I'll just have to be THAT MUCH MORE efficient. Sigh.

If I get to the end of the summer and I haven't finished a single quilt, yell at me.

From what I remember, this is a really bad digital picture of the quilt above my bed. It was done in a Joan Colvin class (go on...tell me how derivative it is) many years ago. I like it, but I think I need new art above my bed, and I have many quilts here that have not seen the light of day for a while. So...A Study in Flesh will be retired for a while.

There was no drawing for this...I freehand cut the whole thing. Seems insane, and explains why her boobs are making a run for her neck...or her neck has simply disappeared...and don't even let me get into the whole headcovering thing. Sigh.

More Pile Commentary

I think my problem with my studio is that it is a disaster area, mostly because I am near the end of the school year and haven't had time to put stuff away since Spring Break. Plus I'm gearing up to make a bunch of quilts this summer, so I have stuff out for that. But I don't want to WASTE any time organizing or cleaning up. (note...in the previous post on piles, there was mention of a quilt in one pile that I was scared to look at in case it was unfinished...you'll be glad to know it IS finished and has since been moved to The Room of Finished Quilts.) I know deep down that organizing my space is not really a waste of time. I just don't feel like it.

Here's a cool picture...

On Tour

Last year's Husqvarna MasterPieces quilt, Lost, is traveling. Check for a show near you. Email me a picture of you and my quilt, and I'll post it. You'll be FAMOUS! Yeah.

Lyon, France, Patchwork & Quilt Expo X, Palais des Congres de Lyon
June 22nd - June 25th 2006

Birmingham, Great Britain, Festival of Quilts, NEC
Aug 17th - 20th 2006

Åhus, Denmark
Aug 28th - Sep 18th 2006

Tirol, Austria
Oct 26th - Oct 29th 2006

Australia (don't know where!)
Jan - Feb 2007

Hjörring, Denmark, Vendsyssel Historiske Museum
April - May 2007

It travels way more than I do.

Here's the Katrina picture that Blogger wouldn't post on the last one.

Piles

I was reading a couple of posts yesterday about piles of stuff enabling you to actually be more efficient about making stuff. My mom collects patterns and fabric, and then puts them all in a Rubbermaid box or in some sort of zip-up bag, and I suspect many of them will still be carefully packed up this way in 2050, when she finally passes on to the great quiltshop in the sky. My piles are not so clear cut, not so organized. I pity the child who inherits my piles.

For instance, a pile of background fabric for quilts, some in progress, some not, and one unfinished quilt that I'm not even sure what it is, but I'm scared to look, because I might have to add it to the list of things to finish this summer. Notice how my bra finally got put away. OK, it didn't get put away...I'm wearing it at the moment. But that's inherently better than storing it on a pile of quilt backgrounds.



And here's a piles of applique quilt blocks that may never become a quilt, because I am too impatient to finish it, plus an unfinished quilt that was a foreshadowing to my divorce, and I don't really like it. Maybe when I'm 50...



A pile of stuff that needs to be combed through and either put away or ebayed. Some of it has been in there since I moved from the last house. I'm frightened of what's at the bottom.



I will never get all my fabric put away. There is a shelf there, I swear. I haven't seen it in 5 plus years.



More random fabric piles. I don't even know why stuff ends up in piles like this. Another unfinished quilt. Sigh.



And some relief from the pile issue. I'm fascinated (as are many) by zebra stripes. But I've seen enough well-done, very competent zebra quilts, that I don't really feel a need to make one. I do want to try to use the idea of the stripes on something else, though. That's an idea for a drawing.



Yesterday, I saw the Al Gore movie, An Inconvenient Truth, about global warming. A good movie, though depressing. But the image of Hurricane Katrina showed up in this morning's drawing, as I'm sure it has in many people's artwork in the last year.

I Think

I think that it is silly for me to try to make significant art during the last 2 weeks of school. I'm way too stressed out and tired to be able to think straight. I need a glass of wine to relax, and that will just put me to sleep. In fact, the only thing keeping me awake right now, honestly? Sheesh. No idea. The feeling that it's too early to go to sleep. Because I have two drawings knocking around in my brain, and I might be able to get one on paper. But I'm not relaxed enough yet. I'm exhausted, but tense. Not a good place.



I don't think I ever put this piece on the web in its entirety. It's called So Deep, So Wide after a Peter Gabriel song, Walking on the Water. It was finished this year, I think. I consider it a post-divorce quilt...it has a calmer feel to it. Although, it's amazing. I talked to a woman today who is where I was about 4 years ago, and it's like PTSD. The stuff she was saying, the inability to understand her husband's behavior. It all comes back to you...at a distance, but still there. Like an ache from an old surgery. It's disturbing. I feel for her. There are too many broken up pieces of people who are remnants of other people's bad relationship decisions. I don't know what causes that...I'd like to stop my children from behaving that way. I don't know if I can.

Yeah, a glass of wine. And early to bed.

A Small Success

Silly me. I forgot. I did get into a show, the Santa Cruz Art League's 2nd Annual Fiber Art Exhibit. Man, that's a long title. It's at 526 Broadway in Santa Cruz, California, from July 1 through July 30. The reception is Saturday, July 8, from 3-5 PM. The hours of the art league are normally Wednesday through Saturday from noon to 5 and Sunday from noon to 4.

Still Life with Bloody Head got in. Um. So I should finish the hand sewing on the binding, eh? Yeah. Shh. You didn't hear that. Woo.



I am unfortunately previewing AIDS videos for my students, and they are all HORRIBLE. I'm watching Linda Ellerbee (remember her? Not sure I got the name right) and Magic Johnson talk to a bunch of little kids about putting a condom on. Yikes. 1992 was an awfully long time ago.

Drawing in My Head

I've found a shortcut in my artmaking. Instead of actually drawing the art out, making patterns, cutting the fabric, ironing, and then quilting the final product, I'll just imagine the pictures in my head, do all the work up there, in between nerve cells, and that'll be it. I mean, I don't have time to actually MAKE the art, let alone spare money to finish the pieces or send them out to shows. I can't say I don't have enough fabric to make them...I do. Probably could make 20 or 30 before it got to be a desperate issue, but I wouldn't have enough big pieces for backgrounds or backings or bindings, and I'd run out of batting pretty quickly. Sigh. Yes, it's been a stellar week for artmaking here.

I have, however, managed to get my pool to THIS color, a shade much closer to blue (and swimability) than previously seen in such blogs as "Ducks Having Sex" and "Two Mallards in a Brokeback Moment". Of this, I am proud. It might have been easier (and even cheaper) to hire a pool guy, though.



I spend time reading other people's blogs, and even in the art quilt world, many people are blogging pictures of their beautiful gardens, blooming flowers, wondrous lawns, etc this time of year. As you can clearly see, I have done nothing to enhance the beauty of the overgrown jungle that is my yard. I did not choose that fountain, by the way. And some of the plant issues are from a tree that fell over in a wind storm...my neighbor's tree. A wind storm about 3 years ago. Sigh.



The upper yard is currently harboring a coyote, which I've seen twice and heard about a million times (see previous posts on "An Elephant Tromping by My Window"). I suspect a chainsaw will be needed to clear this out. There is a path...really.



I have been adding animals to the household. These will go to school for the last three weeks. They are busy little worker...um...ants. Very industrious. Makes me tired just to watch them continuously building new tunnels and destroying old ones. Reminds me of doing laundry and dishes, or cleaning floors. What's the freakin' point???



Another new addition...the Beetle That Scared My Sister. Not MY sister. I ain't got no stinkin' sister. But my son brought this home from his dad's house...and now I need to know what to feed it...besides his sister.



And last, a pizzly or a grolar bear. Half polar bear, half grizzly, all dead. Thanks to the hunters, we can't do much but DNA analysis on this hybrid. Freaky. Thanks to National Geographic for the weirdest pictures I've seen all year.



Am I going to make art tonight? I doubt it. Am I going to make art this week? Sigh. I don't even want to think about it. It's too depressing.