The Boatmaker is a real person who lives in Nazaré, a beach town on the coast of Portugal. I was so intrigued by this quiet industrious man, I snapped this photo. It was probably one of my favorite moments of the trip. I kept going back to look at the picture and finally realized he needs to be made into a quilt.
The Boatmaker is printed on 100% quilters cotton and has been thread painted with thousands of yards of colorful thread. Measures approximately 34" X 41"
Nazaré, specifically Praia do Norte or North Beach, is home to the biggest surf-able waves on the planet. And this is the town where I found this local man, sitting quietly in the shade while he meticulously worked on his scale model replicas of the local fishing boats. Somehow I cannot reconcile anyone going out in a little fishing boat (I am talking about a real life size one) and tackling some of the biggest waves on the planet.
The waves were tame the day we went in early Spring 2019. Only 10-15 feet high. I was impressed with their size and ferocity! I was told that the really big ones show up late in the Fall season, closer to November and can reach 70, 80 and sometimes up to 100 feet high.
Nazaré is a beautiful, quaint seaside town with some of the best fish I have eaten. We sat on the veranda in the shade eating a whole fish cooked just for us. Watching the waves and thinking of the people who surf the waves, fish the seas and carve beautiful small boats in homage to this beautiful part of the world.
This quilt can been seen during National Quilt Month at my exhibit at The Gibby in Middletown, DE.
