Sucked In

I can't believe it's been weeks since my last blog post.  I can only confess to having been sucked in by the Olympics.  Every day I tell myself to get to bed on time, but inevitably it seems, I find myself still watching until midnight.  I'm fascinated and in awe of the sacrifice, dedication, and determination of these remarkable athletes.  I get a bit teary-eyed whenever a US olympian gets a medal and whenever the commentators share the stories of struggle that someone -- anyone, from any nation -- has endured and overcome.  Amazing....

We're also staying up late, spending time with our oldest since she's off to college this coming week.  Boxes have been packed and sent off since comforters and dishes aren't so easy to take on the airplane. Sydney's off to Notre Dame, so I'm anticipating taking lots of pictures over the next four years of what's supposed to be a beautiful campus. I know she's looking forward to all the fun football weekends.

Sign on dorm on football weekend
Photo by Matt Cashore/ University of Notre Dame

We've also been spending time with our youngest, gathering stories about her three week trip in the British Virgin Islands as she earned her advanced scuba diving, night diving, and amateur sailing certifications.  She and eleven other young teens lived aboard a boat, taking turns skipper-ing, cleaning the head, and doing all the various chores of living aboard in close quarters.  She's discovered a love of sailing (though knot tying is not one of her favorites) and she's trying to convince me to let her do a trans-Atlantic or a pan-Pacific (Tahiti to New Zealand) sail next year.  Yeah, we'll see.

One of Morgan's pictures of an island dock 

I've finished a new whimsical piece for my chair series.  This quilt will be hanging at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza in September as part of the Stretching Art quilt exhibition.  This year's challenge was "Foundations of.....".  I decided to represent foundations of welcome: ways in which we let a visitor know we're happy they're our guest.  Tangibly, we welcome them into our home and ask them to pull up a chair.  In colonial times, pineapples were symbols of welcome, so they make an appearance here, as do wisteria and starwort.  Through my research I discovered that the latter were used in bouquets during Victorian times to symbolize welcome.  Who knew?  (I didn't even know there was a starwort flower.)  I realize I should have abstracted the house a bit more and had better color balance (meaning, I think there may be too many medium value colors), but I like the light-hearted feel of the quilt.

So, there you have it.  I hope you're enjoying your summer, too.