Death and Destruction

Death: 2 rats, by rat trap. Eew. But I don't want those silly vectors anywhere near my house, and when I start to see multitudes of them in broad daylight? Well, it's time to take action.



Destruction: My bras. Four of them. By Puppy. Not appreciated. Luckily, VS is having its annual sale, so replacement is not totally heinous. No, that's not a picture of me. I wish.



Doesn't really count as death or destruction, but they stuck a huge needle in my heel, and ironically, now it feels better (three days later). But it's still taped up, so I'm showering with plastic bags over my foot.



Art? Not happening. I think about it a lot, but nothing's happening. I'm so disorganized at the moment that I'm scared of what ball I'm going to drop. But the skies have been nice lately.



I don't really do landscapes. In fact, my people are often floating in space. Maybe I should draw a landscape with a human ON it or IN it. Wow. If it weren't 10:26 PM and I weren't completely exhausted, I might draw that. Someone remind me of that in a week or so.

Do I Have to Admit It?

Do I have to admit to going through the same Quilt National process as everyone else? Do I have to admit to how many years I've sent a "donation" to Quilt National so they could reject my work once again? Do I have to admit to having a QN plan every other year, to make a piece that is QN worthy? OK, I don't really do that. I do try to challenge myself with new pieces, pieces that push my envelope in some way shape or form, but I don't make pieces just for Quilt National. But yes, like you, I am watching the mailbox for my rejection notice. Maybe I should finish my body part crazy quilt and send THAT in one year.



I have a fabric-related goal for the evening. I don't want to deal with work. It's incredibly frustrating and irritating at the moment, and my PMS-state is such that I don't think I can deal with work even if I need to tonight. There are so many bits and pieces that cause frustration that I can't get a hold of any single one and make sense of that one piece. I walked on the problem today (meaning I walked and listened to music and let the problem float around my brain...sometimes that provides a place where my brain can create a solution). It didn't work. I drove home thinking about it too, and that didn't help. So maybe if I stop thinking about it consciously, that will help.

A friend of mine sends me pieces of ties on a regular basis to try to entice me back into the world of crazy quilting. It may work. I'm tempted.



In the past, when I've been really truly messily frustrated with my existence, I have this printed out and taped to my computer monitor (attributed to Our Lady of Guadalupe): "Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything." What's ironic about my finding comfort in that quote is that I am truly an atheist. If you've read that book where Mother Mary comes to this woman's house to stay and man I can't remember the name (and I just searched the bookshelves and can't find it), then that is kind of what gives me a good feeling. Weird. Goddess worship maybe. If you know what book I'm talking about, please remind me. My brain is turned off.

Mornings Should Be Quiet and Calm

I guess when you're 50-plus years old and the kids finally move out, you actually get to have a whole cup of tea in the morning in a calm manner before it gets cold. This is my theory. Instead, the dogs have been at it for the last hour, Ivy has now peed on the floor and on a couch (first load of laundry) this morning, and when a cat (WARNING>>>GRAPHIC CONTENT FOLLOWS) starts to gaaak up her breakfast into a pile of your fabric, so you pick her up to put her on the floor, and the dogs rush her, thereby sending the puking cat into some other part of the room so I can't find the puke pile...WELL. That's it. It's 8:16 in the morning and I am irritable. I don't WANT to be irritable, but...



I got the pattern to the new Southwest block. After searching the internet and harassing my teacher, I now know that the building is a hogan, not a kiva, and the thing that looks like a tipi in the drawing is actually a tipi of wood pieces for a bonfire. I think this thing has about 200 pieces in it, which doesn't scare me, but I'm not dealing with it this morning, because I am cleaning house. Here is a pile. It has taken over a chair.



It's not really a useful chair anyway, because only three of us ever eat at this table. But the pile has been there since June. Yeah. I am a horrible housekeeper. I hate it. I want a clean house. There aren't enough hours to even get enough sleep each night, let alone be a functional artist some weeks, and I need a cleaning lady. And new carpet (no point until the Peeing Puppy stops doing her deed in the house). Even this poor old piece of embroidery isn't hanging straight.



One thing about my job that is peaceful is the drive to work. It's long, about 35-40 minutes, but the view is gorgeous. This is the valley where my school is, and some mornings the clouds sit over the valley and look like an ocean. This is not one of those days...it's a little too much like looming. But beautiful nonetheless.



So now I've yelled at the dogs and the kids, I have a nonlocated pile of cat puke somewhere in the house, and I have a cold cup of tea. Sigh.

Sore Throat

Yup. The first one of the school year. Nope. Second one. Fought the first one with Airborne and won. This one...I think I'm going DOWN. I spent 3 hours on Friday getting my kids out of jail.




My kids say I'm the only mom storing crickets for the spider in the cereal cupboard. The cats go after the cage if I don't hide it. I can hear the crickets chirping away in there. I fed the tarantula at home...I had to bring one home because one of my students kept putting his hand in the cage. The other bigger one is apparently too scary for him to do that. I'll take the crickets to school to feed the bigger one tomorrow.



Speaking of school, it's not going particularly well, but I've taken steps to control certain aspects of the not-well-ness, and I will find time to make art, dammit, or die trying (I spelled that "dye" first).

I sent two quilts to the Fiber Arts show in Decatur, Illinois last week. I have to put a second sleeve on one to ship it to Chandler, Arizona. I entered a couple of shows last week, so it's not that I'm not doing art-related stuff...I'm just not making any art. My goal this week is to find the other hand applique piece so I can finish it at soccer practices (oh wait, it has another giant naked lady on it), and to trace a bunch of Wonder Under for the next quilt. I can't figure out how to get these other two quilted. I've been too tired at night. It'll have to wait until I find some more energy...in 2011.

I'm glad other people post quilts in progress on their blogs so I know the whole world hasn't stopped making quilt art. Speaking of the whole world stopping, here's a not-great picture of the 9/11 quilt top I made shortly after the event. Folded it up in September 2001 and haven't looked at it since. Couldn't even watch the memorial shows last week on TV...started watching one, started crying, and changed the channel to something that didn't cause more trauma.

Complaining, Whining, Wah.

I hate this job thing where it sucks your brain out your ears, leaves you with no energy or time, and barely pays you enough to cover the bills. My work load is heavier this year, with an extra 25 or 30 students, plus a whole 'nother content area that I know nothing about. They asked me today what a Least Common Multiple was and I had to look it up. When was the last time YOU used that term? No fair answering if you're a math teacher.



Needless to say, I'm not making art. I did draw last night. I'm not sure where I was going with the drawing...it just sorta dribbled out as I watched House, then Supernova, then the Northern Exposure wannabe.



I have to sew a second sleeve on a quilt that's going to an exhibit. I hate sewing sleeves on after the quilt is done. I'm trying to get motivated to do that. Watch me get motivated...yeah...uh huh.

Gratuitous picture of kids and puppy...growing puppy...

I Have Four Minutes

As usual, I'm in a rush. I got my camera back from school so I could photograph the horrible blue aquamarine crystal stuff Alex and I somehow spilled on the runner mom made for me.



But I Shouted it out! And it's gone now. Took two days.

I finished a quilt and photographed it. Here's a detail. I don't have time to clean up the big one right now. I did in fact put french knots on the aeriola thingie (however it's spelled) while in my son's piano class...they kinda looked like flowers and I folded the quilt so no one could see the rest of it. I'm so devious...can't spell though.



It's Back-to-School Night. I'm already exhausted and my feet hurt because I did a lab in class today (instead of walking 5 miles around the classroom during the day, I probably did 7).

OK, gotta go. I might be coherent later...like October.

San Diego Quilt Show

Sigh. I want my city to have a good interesting quilt show, I do. I even found a friend with a working camera to take to the quilt show so I could take pictures to blog about. BUT. There was nothing worth photographing. One friend's quilt was there, but I'd seen it before, and everything else was intensely boring and sometimes even bad. I'm sure some of the traditional quilts were very well made and technically perfect, but yawn. Shoot me if you like, but I think the only reason I went was for the vendors, and even THAT was a yawn. No hand-dyes. Maybe there were some hiding in a booth somewhere surrounded by fat quarters of fabrics I could get at Rosie's, but nothing called out to me at all. Nothing. How depressing.

The evening was spent at the zoo, the Zoo at Night, to be exact, where a few animals did venture out of the dark to be seen and heard. That was nice. My camera is still at school, 40 minutes away, and I may actually have to drive there to get it so I can photograph my quilt. The one that's not done yet. Yeah. Sigh.

No pictures.

Quilt Show, No Camera

Silly girl. Left her camera at school. San Diego Quilt Show is this weekend. Sigh. I'll have to try to borrow one.

I'm very tired. It has been a long week. Yesterday, I gave up doing school stuff and made a cup of tea, dragged my current quilt embroidery out, and did some stitching with my headphones on. Yay.

Portrait of an Ex got into Quilt Art XI: Stages, Cycles, and Fits, in Chandler, AZ, Oct 20-Dec 30. If it reminds you of YOUR ex, that's not my problem.



Who is that lovely lady???