Susan Silvey brought me a few quilts last fall to topstitch for her. She picked them up from me in September and returned to her property in northwest Santa Rosa, putting the quilts aside to sew the bindings on later (binding is fabric that encases the raw edges). Later never came. Instead, she looked out [...]
To segway from boatbuilding to quiltmaking, I want to share with you a picture of my sailboat quilt. This one is called "Ships in the night." I sewed four other versions of this quilt, which is my own design. A yellow and white one was called "Banana boats," a pink one was "Rose Parade," a [...]
The original subject of this blog was the boat I was building, but since its maiden voyage a year and a half ago, my blog has been resting. Now it's revived with a new subject: Quilters and their stories. As the event coordinator for the Petaluma Quilt Show and as a professional quilter, I meet [...]
My husband is out of town, so there is no time like the present to get rid of his toys. First to go, his kayak. Cary bought it 20 years ago when we were stationed in Germany, and paddled it quite a bit for a few years, but for the last decade it has mostly [...]
The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls. I've heard nothing but rave reviews of this book, a memoir of the author's childhood with severely messed-up parents. On Amazon.com, you can read sample pages, and it does look engaging. It's on my hold list at the library (sorry, Amazon).The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. A post-apocalyptic tale of [...]
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. This second novel by the author of The Kite Runner is as good as his first effort. Set in contemporaryAfghanistan, he tells the story of two Muslim women. Although somewhat formulaic and predictable, the book is extremely satisfying to read and, like The Kite Runner, ends on a [...]
Good books do exist, and some of them are written by young authors. There is hope for the future!A Good and Happy Child, by Justin Evans. Shaye Areheart Books, New York, 2007. Anyone named Justin can't be over forty. A man named George sees a psychiatrist because he is unable to bond with his newborn [...]
Sailing doesn't get any better than this. Video quality does. I shot these pictures of Cary and Peanut sailing the Nutshell Pram in southern California on Saturday, October 6, 2007, the pram's maiden voyage under sail. The builder (moi) sailed her, too; like the builder, she's a lot of fun.
Let's Do Launch!Friday, July 27, 20075:30 p.m.Foundry Wharf, PetalumaCome for champagne and the champagne of bottled beers (Corona) to celebrate the launching of the S.S. Peanut.