Saturday, May 29, 2021

Auctionary

 Life has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster lately. Not that much was happening, perhaps it is more the fact that not much is happening, the pandemic is still on, although numbers are going down right now, vaccination in Germany is a prime example of how-could-this-not-be-organized-better in this country of supposedly perfect organisation, and in a way everybody is going nuts. That includes me, probably some hormonal swings on the side... My God. Workouts in the open were rare because the weather was unfriendly. Very few moments in May looked like this.

Yesterday provided a pretty good harvest from my rhubarb plant, though, which is definitely a plus on the life side.


And my son and I went shopping to Munich this past week. We had recounted how house-bound he had been since he and I went to Berlin in the end of February 2020, he needed some clothes, infection numbers are going down so that some shops are open again, and both of us needed to get OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!!!

I have rarely seen Marienplatz in Munich so empty...

We were successful in spending a good amount of money, as you can see in the number of bags and their fullness.



Of course I am trying to get enough studying in for my upcoming exams and yes, I will be VERY glad when this course is over and all I need to do is go to work and get on with my life! I am also trying to help my Senegalese friend with job applications, and perhaps that is stressing me more than my own situation. So I had got to the point where I thought, "well, this may be the first in many years in which I won't manage to get a piece for the Saqa Benefit Auction done". Because I thought deadline was June 1. But when I had sort of resigned myself to that, because I am also trying to draw lines of rejection when it is getting too much, I went to the website and checked - and lo and behold, it's the 30th. Well, I can do that. I have started, am on the facing now and will be done soon, a quick finish.

And then a mail came from Saqa, titled "Auctionaries", and at first I thought, what is that? But when I opened it I realized that it concerned me, too!

I am not sure how many years in a row I have entered and donated a piece for the Benefit Auction, but it must be over ten, because I think I remember that I saw a marker +10 or something like that next to my piece last year. And last year's sold for 750$. Admittedly, most others before sold much later in the auction, which means for a much lower price, none before had gone for more than 150, I think. Last year's was extremely powerful, I thought so myself, and yes, I am praising myself here.

"Love. Protect. Repeat." (text messages 22) 2020
12 x 12"


But I wasn't sure whether in total that would make it to over 2000? So after realizing that this mail concerned me, too, I clicked on the link, and there it is. A list with my name. I am an auctionary. Should I put that on my business cards now...?



Monday, May 17, 2021

Waiting for summer

 My last post ended with the words that it is sometimes a lot of work to be involved in the Patchwork Gilde, which I think I have to comment a bit. First of all, I love all the work I do for the Guild. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing it, after all, it's volunteer work and I could easily withdraw. Secondly, what I do is very little compared to what some others do. Such as my friend Barbara Lange, who has been the president of the Guild for 7+ years now. She has put a lot of drive into the organisation and it has been wonderful to work with her. She is full of energy and ideas and always a lot of fun to be around. I just wish we lived closer to each other so we could meet more often. As is the case with each and every of my friends...

 

Bärbl (left), Barbara (middle) and Bea (right) - three great
characters and friends, here during a lunch break at some
real-live-in-person version of the Guild's meeting from a few
years ago.

 
Barbara doesn't go up walls when she is stressed,
she prefers trees...

 
So we had the online event, and a parallel challenge was to make a face and post it to the Guild's gallery to show 'the Guild has many different faces'. Of course that does suggest aiming for a self-portrait, but I took the liberty to deviate from that, it wasn't a strict requirement, either, unless I misread something somewhere. This is what I came up with. Not entirely finished, and not quilted because that is the blockade I have, still, even with the portraits I started in Phyllis' Cullen's class. But I had fun.


I should be doing work in the garden - the compost needs tending! -

 


 

but it is cold and uncomfortable outside, with showers and still not really a hint of summer. The tulips are in their last stages, temperatures have been low. I like their shattered looks, though, even though it feels like they did not live up to their full potential glory this year.





As with this little dandelion. A bit wind swept and after a shower... a bit like me these days, but hopefully things will brighten up eventually.




Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Fun facts

 The past few days have been very stressful and I have found myself in a sort of nervous condition, due to various things that need to be done, taken care of, sorted, arranged... I always thought I was a person who could take a whole lot of pressure, and now I see either this is changing, or the pressure amounting here is beyond what I had assumed I could take. But now a few of those things are done, and I can start looking forward to a few fun things.

The German Patchwork Guild's next round of online workshops is beginning this week. It's called Guild Spring in translation and you can find the program here.


Most classes are booked out, and although I am not offering a workshop this time around I will be part of nevertheless - later this afternoon I will be translating a lecture by Angela Walters. And other translation opportunities will follow, until the end of the month. And we will have the online Patchwork Event from Thursday to Sunday as well. It's fun (and sometimes a lot of work) to be a member of the German Patchwork Guild!




Sunday, May 9, 2021

zoom effects

 During the past year I have had a number of rather varied experiences with zoom/digital meetings. Yes, I know, they have been very helpful in keeping us all somewhat connected, and I would not want to talk against that. Last week Saturday I was having a very moody and weepy kind of day until I saw Pam's email 'join ongoing zoom meeting', clicked, and was connected with the group in Tennessee/Texas whom I had joined for their zoom sewing before thanks to my friend Debbie who invited me to join them, they have been doing it for almost every week since the pandemic started. This past Saturday a week ago it was a real help for me. Got me out of the slump, I sat down at the machine to get some stitching done, I felt a lot better afterwards.


 

The day before that I had treated myself to a huge (in fact, too huge) pot of ice cream from the new ice cream place in town after I finished my turn on ICU.

The good stuff is hidden under the cream, but
I think a treat ice cream has to have cream, too.


Those were some intensive weeks. Didn't leave me with a lot of strength for sewing. All I could do is some spinning and plying. So perhaps the weepyness on that Saturday was still due to that episode. 

On the other hand, zoom interactions don't have the quality of real interactions - and, to be honest, seeing people on that screen, usually from some unflattering angle and not well lit is not an improvement over a phone call, so in interactions with only one other person I would still always prefer a normal phone conversation. But I suppose these are growing completely old-fashioned now.

During our last sessions in school we have been treated to a separation of the class, one half is in one room, one in the next room, the teacher is transmitted from one room to the other by zoom, with a mask, with very little possibility for the removed half of the class to interact because of only one microphone. There it would make a lot more sense to have a real zoom meeting, let everybody stay at home, and then the benefits of online setups would or could apply. But like this - it is completely frustrating.

So - what is happening? Not much. I am trying to study for my upcoming exams at a desk which was not intended to be the site of this. And which suffers heavily from my inability to maintain order.


Written and oral exams will take place in the end of July. Things should look better by then.

But I do hope to be able to put in a few sewing hours before that, too, to finish some of the little stuff that I started. Meanwhile, my creativity goes into baking. Rhubarb pie. With a new trick to make it look so yellow...


And it was VERY good.