Out of Focus

When I forget to take my new camera out of close-up mode, it can ruin a perfectly good scene. Here's an example for you.

So I went back and did it all over again, see?

Much better.

This is D dock at the marina. I love boats and water so you'll see quite a few pictures from there. I promise no more fuzzy demonstrations. The only fuzzy pictures I'll inflict on you are those I can't replace.

Such as the little praying mantis.

Til next time!

Binding, the Finishing Touch

I get more questions on binding than any other one topic. So I felt my first three tutorials should cover it. Part One is on how to figure the amount of yardage you need. Click on the "Tutorials" tab at the top of the page to find it.

I've been working on all parts simultaneously. Part Two deals with cutting the fabric and Part Three with binding your quilt. Part two should be finished soon.

Time Marches Way Too Fast! ....sighs

My goal for the day is the long awaited and promised tutorial on quilt binding. It's been a regular goal for way too long. Even if I'm on a roll, when I'm interrupted it's difficult for me to settle back into it.

And I'm easily distracted. I want to do this.....and this......and this! Okay all done, and now I can settle to working on the tutorial. Oh! Now I must do this. Life and other people do have their expectations of us and so there is no choice but to do this other thing also.

Oh my how the day has flown! Now all is quiet and I am too tired to concentrate. ....sighs

Ah well, there is a nice fresh day tomorrow.

Boat in Transit

My husband is an experienced sailor. He first crewed aboard a 50' Morgan regularly off the coast of San Francisco at age six, with an old sailor who believed in assigning duties to everyone regardless of age. Over the years he's sailed in various lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. He is, however, unfamilar with the Chesapeake Bay.

The little sailboat was in Seaford at Mills Marina, which is located on a large creek. There are sailboats there. I wonder if they trucked them in. What I remember of the charts is that the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay is shallow. REALLY shallow as in two to six foot deep. Our boat's draft is only 3'2", but considering that sailboats can't be sailed in a nice straight line down the middle of a channel what happened next is not surprising.

It ran aground; the motor pulled it free of the drifted sand. Again. Two groundings later attempting to make it out of the channel, he came aground on rocks, rather than shifting sand and called for a tow. The man who towed him to Dare Marina a bit further south in Yorktown, informed him that the sand bottom does considerable shifting, is extremely shallow in spots up to five miles from shore and is not adequately reflected in the charts.

That was a big "Ouch!!" It didn't go anywhere for two weeks.

There were however, priceless moments including several minutes when a pod of dolphins accompanied the boat.