Burgoyne, bulldozers, and a healthy dose of oops...

I didn't put together a stitch of yellow this week.  Total scratch in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Though I did do a little non-sewing yellow work.

My daughter and son-in-law have birthdays 13 days apart, so this year they threw a joint birthday party.

And because 42 is the lucky number, they naturally picked a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy theme.  And I was rash enough to suggest that a cake shaped like a bulldozer would be perfect. 
I know, right?

Turns out that bulldozer cakes aren't really readily available commercially, so I undertook to make one myself.

And it was pretty tasty, too.

There wasn't any Vogon poetry, unfortunately, but we did squeeze in a little Vogon singing.  Or at least what we imagined Vogons would sound like if they set their poetry to music.  (It was equal parts hilarious and raucous.  The best way to sing!)


I did manage to get a bit of sewing, in amongst the baking and the frosting.  I've been trying to make some of the Challenge 365 blocks that I got behind on last year.   I dropped the ball in mid May, working on the 6"(finished) light blocks.  (I had managed to sail right along with the little 3" dark blocks.  Apparently the transition to these ginormous 6" blocks was a step too far...)

This is one of the ones that bogged me down in the first place -  I started it twice last year and ended up cursing each time.   Third time's the charm, right?

And this one also had me growling last year, but it worked this time around.

There are a couple that I'm pretty sure I had made after skipping those two, so I pushed ahead to this one.

I was really happy with it until I started getting one of those nagging little feelings that something was wrong.

Check out that ruler.  This is supposed to be a 6.5" (unfinished) block.  It's only an inch too big.
*sigh*
I had changed the techniques used in the pattern, using easy angle and companion rulers instead of what was called for, in an attempt to waste less fabric.  Unfortunately my measurements went astray somewhere along the way. 

I took another crack at it, and was a little more successful this time.

Though I really like this block, and wouldn't mind making a whole quilt of that larger size.  If only I'd written down the measurements, instead of winging it out of my head...
Oh, well, it'll make a welcome addition to the orphan box. 

And Burgoyne Number 9 is now done.

I thought I'd be able to stop there, but I've already started cutting bits for Number 10.  Stay tuned for more Burgoyning action!


Linking with Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap, and with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.  (a yellow bulldozer is yellow enough for the RSC, right?)

Sheepy Sunday

My daughters and I had a terrific time at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  Knitters all, we fondled a lot of yarn, and even made a purchase or two.  Or three.  And there was the spinning fiber...

And I got my yearly dose of sheep petting.  (I miss my little wooly beasts.  Piglets are cute, but they're just not as soft and snuggly...)

This contented lady was peacefully chewing her cud, and I caught her in mid-chew so she didn't look all whopper-jawed.

This sweet little gal had apparently been waiting for us all her life, and wanted to be scritched and petted and cooed over forever.

And I got several shots of sheep being way too curious about a camera.

Just like old times.

My one regret of the day was that I didn't get a picture of the three of us together in our matching hats.  (Oldest daughter had knitted them as a surprise, just for the occasion.)  Though we chuckled all through the day as total strangers came up to us and asked permission to take our picture.  It was almost like being a celebrity!

The closest thing I have is this pic I took of the two girls while they were in line for something to drink.

So, anyone out there who was at Maryland Sheep and Wool on Sunday, and who took a picture of three women in sheep hats, one of whom looked like this (only possibly less goofy) (or possibly more goofy) -

could you send me a copy?  I'd appreciate it!

So, I know the suspense has just been killing you...

The adventure my daughters took me on was a trip to Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, NY.

(More about Chihuly's Fern Green Tower here and here.)

 We saw fascinating exhibits and dazzling demonstrations.  Stop and think a moment about how much glass there is in your life, from window panes to wineglasses, from prisms to pyrex.  Glass is an amazing medium, spanning the strictly utilitarian to the breathtakingly beautiful.  If you're ever in upstate NY, don't miss an opportunity to visit the museum.

But wait, there's more.  Because they also treated me to classes. 
And that's where the superhero costume comes into the story.  Because glass is HOT...

 Here I'm getting a taste of glassblowing.

The nice young man does all the ya-gotta-know-what-you're-doing work.  My job is just to puff on the blowpipe and make a bubble in the glass.

Reheating to keep the glass soft.

 Hey, look!  I made a bubble!  And don't be fooled by the red and orange - that's just the heat talking.  The actual colors of the glass are blue and purple.  (And clear.  Clear is a color, as I learned that day.)

Now for a little more knowing-what-you're-doing stuff by the nice young man (and I did ask him his name at the time, but I didn't think to write it down, so I've forgotten it.  He told me he'd been working with glass for 6 years, and had been with the museum for about 3 months.)  He's making a flat base on my bubble, and pulling a decorative top.

Tada.  That's a glass ball full of my breath.

Cool, hunh?

And there's more!

While I only needed goggles for the glassblowing, since there wasn't any 'hand-on' stuff, for this part I needed to be all geared up with safety stuff.  Sleeves, gloves, and goggles.  They even had foot protectors available for people who had showed up in sandals or flipflops.

This time I get to do some actual shaping...

 pinching...

 and more pinching...

and pulling...

and twisting...

And when it was all cooled off, it looked like this:

 For the third and final class of the day, we all got to play:  My two daughters, my granddaughter, and I all made glass beads, using a torch.  This was the biggest decision process of the day.  I'd picked a couple of colors each time for the previous projects, but this time, we had to choose 3 colors, a shape, a size, and a pattern for our bead.  The decisions were almost impossible - there were tons of gorgeous colors to choose from, several patterns which were all appealing, and round? Square?  Triangular?  So hard...

In this photo, you can see some of the colors we had available.  That's my oldest girl on the left, being assisted by her designated Redshirt.  And I was very glad that each of us had someone right at hand, as we fiddled with molten glass, playing with a torch that was burning at 1000's of degrees F.  (And all the Redshirts survived the mission!  Must be a first...)

 There's my youngest girl (in orange) and my granddaughter on the extreme right.  I had to stand behind a railing out of the way while I waited for my turn, so couldn't get any pictures of their beadwork in action.

And here's an out-of-focus picture of my bead.  (Sorry, that's the best of a sad lot.)  I chose white for my background, and purple and green for my accents, round, medium, and swirly.

 Here's a photo with my hand for scale.  (And yes, I have a boo-boo on my thumb.  Though it was a kitchen injury, not a glassblowing injury.)

Then, as if the workshops weren't enough, we visited the galleries and saw 3500 years of glass.  From ancient Egyptian glass (where a couple of guys playing with melting sand Changed the World Forever) to Roman glass to Medieval glass to Renaissance glass to Modern glass, and every age in between, with examples from every region of the world.  Glass!  Beautiful glass!  Mindblowing glass!

Makes me want to take up some new hobbies.  I'm sure Madman wouldn't mind if I put a glass furnace in the kitchen, right?


 ..

Creeeeeeeeeaaak

Well, the hinges on the door seem a bit rusty, and there's definitely a lot of dust on the windowsills, but I'll get the blog shipshape in no time...
It's been a busy summer.  After endless soul sucking rain in June and a good bit of July, the sun finally came out.  And then it got too hot and humid to breathe.

So, a summary of summer:
Madman heard a report that we'd had 21 days of rain in June.  I honestly don't recall there being 9 days without rain - I'd put it closer to 3.  Maybe 4, tops.
So the garden is an abject failure this year.  What didn't wash away, rotted in the ground.  The soil was usually too wet to work (and was always too wet to work on my days off), so the only thing growing out there is grass and ragweed.  And 6 corn plants.  And I found a beet the other day.
Not a banner year for gardening.
The goldfinch finally gave up around the end of July.  My guess is he finally suffered a terminal concussion.
Something has been eating our laying hens and got one of our adult turkeys.  We're not sure if it's a skunk, a raccoon, or a fox - all have been seen lurking around here at one time or another.  We've revamped fencing.  Again.
There have been numerous sheep escapes - some more harrowing than others.  (I'll share a few in a later post.)
We lost a mama rabbit, but gained 12 baby rabbits. 
All 12 of our Barred Rocks have survived, and are almost ready to join the remnants of our laying flock, once we're certain that we've thwarted whatever carnivore is out there.  There are several roosters in the crowd, who don't know that they're auditioning for the role of Only Rooster in the Coop.  (The ones who get voted off the island will end up in the freezer.)
All 15 turkeys are also still with us.  They've still got some growing to do.  There's been some gobbling starting to go on out there, so we're hoping there's a male or two for our future breeding flock.
I had a lovely vacation, with family visits, yarn, bubble blowing, and a RenFair.

And I had a major milestone birthday.  One of those that end in zero.  There weren't any party hats or balloons, but my daughters kidnapped me and took me on an adventure.  And, as with all really good adventures, I got to wear a superhero costume.

Anyone care to hazard a guess?

Have Hub, Will Travel

A quick visit to Radio Shack on the way home (my only nearby source for computer bits) put an end to my plug-unplug-plug-swear-unplug-swear-plug antics. Hurray for hubs!
And now we return to our regularly scheduled blithering...

So.
In early August, I made a trip with my youngest daughter to upstate NY to visit my dad. My oldest daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids drove up from Florida to be there at the same time. (And not-coincidentally, it was my birthday. A very happy birthday for me, to have both my daughters with me at the same time!)
Daughter-the-younger and I arrived the day before the rest of the crew, so we had a chance to settle in and check out all the cool critters.
There were freshly sheared alpacas

and some spiffy new Barred Rock pullets.

And piggies! These are either a week old, or two weeks old. (I got confused after a certain point. There were pigs everywhere - multiple litters in multiple colors in multiple barns.
My favorites are the polka-dotted ones...

On Sunday, while we were waiting for Older daughter and Co to arrive, we had some big excitement. Dad has cameras on several of the pens, in order to keep track of what's going on out in the barns. One of the young sows (who wasn't really due for another couple of days) was in labor and had already had two piglets. Which she was chasing and trying to bite. Naturally I grabbed my camera and headed out to the barn with the rest of the troops.
As a first time mother, she was irritable and confused. Here she was, hot and in pain, and suddenly there were these pesky things that were plaguing the hell out of her, snuffling and nuzzling and squeaking. We finally had to pull them from the pen, because she was too agitated to do anything but stomp around and try to boot piglets. Once they were gone, she settled back down and laid down again.

After about half an hour's wait, Piggie number 3 made an appearance.

Followed by Number 4.

By this time, she had her butt up close enough to the wall of the pen that I was afraid the babies were going to be born with concussions...
As each piglet was born, my WickedGoodStepmother would give it a chance to try to nurse, until mama pig got too agitated, then would rescue it and drop it into the bin we'd set up for the babies' protection.
These little squirmers are all looking for something - they don't know what it is, but they're sure they'll know it when they find it. They're sucking on each other's noses, tails, and ears, because Mother Nature had promised them that there'd be food. Gives a whole new layer to "Got Milk?", doesn't it?

Older Daughter & Crew arrived about that time. The grandkids were fascinated by the bin full of baby piggies.

The count mounted. Here we are at seven. I love the variety.

After about the 10th one, Mama just didn't give a shit anymore. So we pulled them out of the bin and returned them to her, where they proceeded to clumsily look for spigots.

This little guy finally figured it out.

And eventually, so did the rest of them. But by that time, my camera's batteries were out of juice...
*sigh*

I'm home. And Mother Nature threw a snow storm in my honor...

I hear the weather here was nice while I was gone - up until today. Cuz Mother Nature has such a whacky sense of humor, she made sure I had to drive home 2 hours through a snowstorm, to make up for my 4 days of sunshine and warmth and green plants and flowers and sunshine and did I mention warmth?
I had a blast, and even remembered to take a picture or two. Once I'm not so travel-braindead, I'll post all about it, but some of the high points were Harry Potter at Universal, lots of Dr Seuss, azaleas everywhere I looked, knitting with my daughter and granddaughter, Shaun the Sheep, barbecue, found-object art, and a 3-yr-old with a bagful of graggers.
And I got to hug both my daughters on the same day (though I had to fly 1300 miles to do it.)
I challenge you to come up with a better weekend...

Because Karma has to balance

After all the sadness we've had lately, today was a day of joy.
Because this happened -

Um, I mean, this -

Let's try one more, without the wind...

I knew you could do it, Sweetie. You chose a hard path, you rose to the challenge, and your spirit carried you through.
Makes a mother proud.