Captain Sully Sullenberger

Weeknight Sewing

I’m midway through Highest Duty by Capt. Sully Sullenberger and I continued listening to the audio book last night while I sewed; I think the story is very compelling. I love listening to a good story while I’m working on a creative project. When I’m finished I’ll write more about what I think about the book.

So, this is my “quilt top”; all my pieces of hand-dyed or screen-printed fabric are sewn together here, along with the piece of fabric along the sides with the reverse applique clouds. Remember, all this fabric was once as white as snow:

Now I’ll start adding shapes to the top, as well as cutting some away; here’s the first “sheer” shape I added, you can see it in the upper left-hand corner:

It’s faint, but that’s the idea. Soon I’ll have layers of different shapes. I hope it’ll look as cool as I imagine it.

“Highest Duty” Gets My Highest Ratings

I got the audio book of Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters by Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, and I got it just in time for the first anniversary of his spectacular landing of a US Airways flight in Hudson (January 15th). So far the audio book is really great! Right now I’ve finished the first disc, which describes what sounds like an idyllic time in Captain Sullenberger’s life, when as a teenager he had affordable flight lessons in the wide-open, largely unregulated skies of North Texas in the late 1960s. I’ve always wanted to fly and can only imagine what a fantastic experience that must’ve been for a young person. The disc also mentioned how the Captain packed a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich for work the day before his famous landing….because the airlines don’t give the flight staff meals anymore. Meals are only for passengers in first class.

Art Quilt as Blog Banner, or, Birth of a Blog

I’ve wanted to blog for a while, but always found a reason not to. I first thought about blogging during last year’s ginormous financial meltdown, when the only person (surprise) providing any real useful information was John Stewart. Does anyone remember that episode when he found the conch? That summed up so accurately the spirit of desperation then. When I saw that, I thought: I really need to have a blog.

Then, a few months later when Capt. Sully Sullenberger landed that plane in the Hudson, I thought: I should be blogging! That was absolutely brilliant and heroic. I was really annoyed with myself then that I didn’t have a blog.

So at that point, I started thinking about what my blog would look like. If I blogged. And I started to build the art quilt that would be my blog banner. I took my time, of course; I don’t like to rush; and, more importantly, I really favor a more introspective approach to blogging. And I wanted things to look right.

So, to start, I turned to my trusty overhead projector:

birth of a blog 1

As you can see, I still remember some Palmer method from grade school. I colored in my cursive; then I added in a free-hand fiddle, button accordion and sewing machine to sum up the tangible blog-themes I could think of:

birth of a blog 2

Then I realized I’d forgotten the bow:

birth of a blog #3

Then I took it outside and sponged on dye. I had to dye the fabric and throw it in the washing machine a total of three times before I got the look I wanted, which was something like this:

birth of a blog #4

After I was done dyeing the fabric, I quilted it together and–voila!–my banner was finished. As were my excuses. So, welcome to my blog!