WORLDS! One Word... Wow.

Working on the drive system trying to figure out what
was going wrong on the first day.  Love, love, love that the
girls have taken positions on the drive and build part of the team

Last year I was teaching in Williamsburg, and I got a text message with one word "Scranton".  That was how I found out that my robot team had advanced to the East Super Regionals.  I hadn't thought that our rookie year in the metal robot division would come to anything so I had scheduled teaching during the state championship.  So this time I didn't and was able to text out myself from a venue my one word exclamination - WORLDS.

It has been the longest haul ever and I just arrived home drained but happy, so so happy.  My robot team had an AMAZING four weeks.  We have had more ups and downs emotionally and the level of work going on around here was mind-blowing.  Somehow I managed to pack 500 Frostings Kits last week in the chaos.

A fourth informal visit by the judges after our formal
presentation the day before.  Sometimes you never get a
revisit so we knew things might be going well.

They managed to pull together and pour on the work before the State Championship and get through it with an invitation to the East Super-Regional which was held from Thursday-Sunday.  We just arrived home this morning.  72 teams from a quarter of the country.  24 would advance to join the other 72 from the nation and 32 from around the world at the Worlds.  That is 128 out of over 4000 teams.  We have been trying for this ever since they were nine years old, so seven years for many of them.  It is a very hard invitation to get, in First Lego League, there are 80 invitations for 120 regions, so 40 of them don't get to go - it is by lottery.  And you have to be the best team out of the 425 in this state.  We did that in 2012 and the lottery didn't go to our state that year.  So they earned it - but didn't go.  That whetted their appetite.

Getting the robot ready for the finals.  They built that
massive cart three days before in my living room

Last year, we had a debacle with a team purposely knocking us down and so we got skipped by a fluke.  To this day other top teams thought we went as it was so obvious we should have.  So it was this desperate desire that has driven these kids to work so hard and to work through the hardships and teenage difficulties and maturity issues.  It culminated two weeks ago with a meeting where they individually each gave me a heartfelt apology for a season of teen behavior and expression of gratefulness that I do this to the detriment of my businesses and family life. You could have knocked me over and I stood there and cried.

So we got in the cars on Thursday and headed to Scranton to try our luck.  Would it be on our side this time?  Would we perform but yet be skipped again (the advancement order still hasn't been fixed)?  We got there and the robot could no longer climb the mountain even with a system that everyone who viewed it was usually astonished for the effortless way it climbed.  There was an entire day of debugging - why wasn't it climbing?  Panic on the part of the parents watching, pride on my part as I watched them calmly work the problem like a bunch of engineers trying to get Apollo 13 back.  By 11 pm we had it figured out and the robot worked flawlessly again.

Match over, the 50 lb robot has climbed a slick
mountain, over rods and that last section you see
has no bottom.  Grabs the top bar and does a
chin up - not supported by anything else.

So the two days of matches were nail-biting as our partners weren't strong but at the end of the qualifications, we were the #2 seed (only losing to the #1).  We went into the quarter finals and proceeded to the finals until we were knocked out by a technicality that was later admitted to not be valid by the refs but our partner (#1 seed) had pissed off the refs so much over the entire competiton (we agreed, our partners were jerks) that they didn't give in.  Lesson our team learned as we stood back appalled as the partner went at the refs - don't piss off the adults in control all weekend if you might need their benefit of the doubt later.  :-)

In the end, we won THREE trophies.  Considering that there are only 7 judged awards and then a

Three awards and so many tears of joy from them.  Rare
for 6-foot tall boys to give hugs.  I got tons.  They are so
excited as their team mate who had to move to Germany
is flying back for Worlds.  

handful of robot performance ones, that was amazing.  Effectively we took four spots to the Worlds.  We also set the new World Record for game score and one for autonomous scoring.  And on the unofficial stats site that the coaches keep, we are now the #1 team in the USA.  And their nice demeanor all the time made them a crowd favorite - we even got hugs from the hotel staff when we walked in with the trophy haul who said they were some of the best behaved teams that stay there.

The kids are over the moon.  When we realized before the finals that we had clinched a spot, the kids stood in the pit and cried tears of joy with me amongst hugs.  Extreme relief.  They aren't even upset by the controversy as they got what their goal was - an invitation.  All else from there was gravy.  

It has been the roughest year ever for our team.  The new league format was brutal and in the end, three of the 8 teams in our league who have been competing against each other from Oct-Feb have been advanced to Worlds.  That is just unheard of, apparently we just all kept raising the bar on each other, no wonder we are flat out exhausted.

But I was thrilled as they were a TEAM.  Everyone was present and focused and doing whatever and anything that was needed.  They were on-point and the robot worked flawlessly, shocking as a rule it usually never works as well as in your home environment.  At one point the robot was in autonomous mode and it did the three things that were a stretch for the top robots and then it turned and went over to the mountain and collected three cubes and drove up the mountain triggering several other point gathering items, many teams struggle to drive it up the mountain without it flipping over and rolling off much less letting it do it autonomously.  No one had seen a robot do that this year and the refs even came over and high-fived our drivers in a shocking show of respect.  Not a surprise that we won the programming award.

So now I have to figure out how to get there, get the robot and a car full of stuff there and rooms.  Crazy as the Worlds takes up 61 hotels and the big dome stadium as well as several other venues.  It looks to be crazy, crazy, crazy.

Robot Love Event at Menino Community Center in Boston

Teaching the kids how to built their own robots - they have
been rooting us on as well

And only a week from going, they took a whole night out to run a robot event for an inner city group of kids that we are going to help form a FLL team.  It was amazing to help them build robots, try out ours, show them how to program, etc.  We took the little team who are the same age and they all got along and we ended up with a package of thank you notes.  Left them with all the things they need for their new team including three full robot sets.  It was very gratifying.  We will be back many times as the big kids now totally understand the value of having an impossible goal, the support and guidance to gun for it, and what it means to your life.  They want that for these kids.

And I have cried so many tears of joy for them.  Now to get the Frostings Club shipments started!  Sleep will come later.

Tricia

World Record in Autonomous Run

World Record Score

New Frostings Project is Posted

There is a new project for the threads in the first Frostings box that has been posted under the Web Instructions -> Projects part of the website.  This is a project that I worked on live at the MET on stage and I was hoping to link to the video of that as well but they are rebuilding the MET website and it won't go up until after that.

This pink pincushion uses the different bullions and checks as well as a rococo and striped gimp in the class.  Add your own couching threads, spangles and ground fabric and you have a really beautiful project.  The pieces only uses about 20% of each thread type or less so you have plenty left to make more or use for your casket and other projects.  This piece joins the Blackwork Rose and Pansy as pieces that can be made from the threads in the box.

And of course there is another box coming out soon!  The last thread is in production and due to be finished in a little over a week and to me to get into the boxes laying here.  So they will be shipping out for people in the near future.  YUM!

I have shown the piece without an edging and tassels - there are soooo many options and some of the options are in the next Frostings Box so I didn't want to tip my hand.  I would also like to see what ideas others come up with.  Often acorn shaped tassels were used with metal threads covering them at the corners with thick gold or silver braids around the edges.  I will pull out ideas from my archive and put them up on the blog this week.

If you aren't part of the Frostings Club and want to be - click here.

Tricia

Sotheby's Talk from January 18th

I am back from my five day vacation.  That was way too short!  We went to the Alps to meet the other robot family who has temporarily moved to Berlin for work.  He was my assistant coach and the children were key on the team.  We got our 'robot' talk out of the way in the first hour and then got busy on enjoying a ski vacation together.  The best part about going to the Alps was the limited internet access!  Unplugging is very good for the soul.   Skiing in the Alps has been a lifelong dream of my husband's - the only reason we learned to ski.  Last year we had to cancel our trip with this family because of my father-in-law's stroke; so I was glad we could make an abbreviated one this year to make up for it.

Just before I left, I had almost finished this video for everyone.  I recorded my lecture at Sotheby's in January and made it into a YouTube video to share for those who weren't there.  My lecture/demonstration at the MET in December will be coming online in about a month as part of a reorganization of the MET website - and I will post that as well then. 

So enjoy the lecture - it is about 18 minutes long and as there is audio, you won't want to listen to it at work!

Where's the Blog?

Hmmm, every time the blog goes dark you gotta know that I am busy beyond belief or upset about something!  I have been packing and shipping kits (Stumpwork is ready and Cabinet of Curiosities went out) and designing the new sampler for Winterthur and every moment I haven't been doing that - I have been 'roboting'.

The kids had their League Championship on Jan 30th and it was a complete haul to get there.  Since the competition is getting larger (more teams) - they have gone from a qualifier followed by the State Championship to a 3-meet plus League Championship and then States.  That is just killer for the kids and us.  It means that we have to have a working robot in six weeks instead of four months and then rebuild the thing every four weeks to add or significantly improve functionality.  That is just madness - every rebuild is about 80 hours or more of work. Then add team dynamics to it - such as "It's David's Job, not mine" and you get a few things that had to be corrected - hence my general silence.

Teen sloth and others being more comfortable in their role than pitching in on the mechanical side ended up with my son and the other mechanical guy pulling 30-45 hour weeks.  It had been really getting to me and I had been using the parents to goad the kids to try to improve the behavior of the 16-yr olds.  Well, it came to a head and I totally freaked out when I found that my son was setting his alarm at 4 am to get up before school and do 2 hours of work everyday the week before competition as the time he was spending after homework and on the weekend (40 hrs) just wasn't going to get them ready.  So his 40 hr weeks were turning into 50-60 hrs.  Now I know that some parents are dealing with things like their teens sneaking out or not being where they are supposed to be - but I just can't deal with him missing out on his teen years doing a full time engineering job.  It came to a head with five of them not showing up on time to team practice the night before the Championship as they didn't want to leave a pep-rally early.  The missing kids were collected by a pretty pissed parent for me - everyone expected that they were already at my house.  Bad teen decision...  Luckily they still made it through the Championship to live another day, but I was a pretty upset person with what hadn't gotten done and how much was left on just a few shoulders.

So I had to do a major 'readjustment' of attitudes with 12 teens as well as working with the parents on it too.  After I talked to the parents, I thought the robot team would be done in two weeks for good as they all realized that my son had already learned everything he needed in life and that it was now something that was harming him.  But we all agreed that I owed it to them all to talk to them without him and explain why I was leaning towards dissolving the team in a few weeks.  Give them a chance.   If they all work as hard as he has been, they would really do well and he would not work as hard.  Well, surprisingly, the kids who had been on the team the longest sat there with tears in their eyes as I revealed that their friend hadn't yet ever done some things they have done - like gone to a dance, learn to drive, go to a high school event, or other things like that.  Never had the chance to get into trouble or make bad decisions like them.  I wasn't sure how it was going to go - but they surprised me with their conversation on the matter.  I agreed to suspend the decision until the end of the season and see if their epiphany lasts.

Tonight's Crew.  Pizza for Seven on the Way.

Well - I am not sure what is worse as now I have 12 HIGHLY motivated kids on my hands.  It has been all 'what can I do to help' and surprise walk-ins.  Apparently this is far more important to them than their actions this year had been expressing to me.  Soooo... I have now had double the number of kids in the house every day.  Then add two big winter storms that canceled school the next Friday and Monday - they came during the storms - and they all lived here for four days straight plus some during the week.  They started showing up by 2pm on Friday and still haven't left this weekend (yes, it is monday).  Winter Break started and no one has homework - so while we are leaving for a really needed vacation tomorrow night - they expect to be here until mid-day before our flight.  We certainly have gotten an amazing amount done in advance of the States on Feb 27th.  But the amount of soda that has gone through here could make a can tower to the moon.  They are working right now - I am going out for the pizza in minutes.

I will be looking forward to the end of Robot Season - whenever it comes.  But I guess secretly I am glad that they all decided so far to prioritize this above some of the other distractions that have gotten in the way.  Guess I should be glad that my parental lectures are about things like supporting each other more and pitching in and not about staying away from drinking and drugs.  Sometimes I can sit here and cut and pack metal threads while working with them and answering questions.  And some have even taken over enough for my son that he has taken some needed time off.  Lots and lots of lessons all around over the last two weeks.

Boy do I need a vacation!

Thistle Threads will be closed from tonight until the 22nd.  And there will be no roboting either.  Shipping will return on the 22nd, including the Stumpwork course.

Embroidery in WOOD?

Richard pointed out Karl Langerfield's newest Channel collection to me today - and we quipped that we would need to add a new line of wood shavings from caskets to my shop!

Take a look at how amazing wood shavings can be as an embroidery material.  Watch the movie on the site - it is georgeous.

Tricia

Check Out Antiques Roadshow

Wow - it is Tuesday and I am coming up for air.  The robot team has their League Championship on Saturday so last weekend was a blur of activity.  Presentation editing, notebook digitizing/printing, editing summaries, scripts, and more robot work than I can shake a stick at.  Some kids did seven hours straight just on notebook digitizing.  They were a bit fried.  The robot had 'barfed its guts of gears out' when I got back from Sotheby's and it was looking really bad.  Some of the changes to get another function it needed had made previously done functions not work anymore.  Five steps back to get one step forward.  So they were all working feverishly.  Still way too much work for this week after school everyday than we are comfortable with.  By Sunday night, I collapsed into a chair and really didn't care that my beloved Patriots had lost.  I was just too exhausted.  Yesterday I spent it mainly in PJs packing silk wrapped purls into boxes and making that sound 'duhhhhhh' that says you are fried.

One thing that brightened the day was watching PBS non-stop while cutting the purls.  And I came up on an advertisement for this week's Antiques Roadshow (and others emailed me last night as well!) where there was an amazing embroidered cabinet on stand to be shown.  A piece of stumpwork was also in the mix - but I didn't see it on the video.  

You can watch it online.  The cabinet on stand is in the last five minutes of the show but there is a snip on the site too that I have linked.

Esther and Ahasuerus

This is lot 441, a stumpwork piece depicting Esther pleading with King Ahasuerus.  The close-ups below give you a view on how the textural parts of the piece were done.  This one is interesting as there is an attempt to show architecture in the main scene with the tent being placed under a portico of a building.

Lot 441, 20 January 2016-22 January 201,  Sotheby's

Lot 441 20 January 2016 - 22 January 2016, Sotheby's

Lot 441 20 January 2016 - 22 January 2016, Sotheby's