Gordon Cooper: Who Am I ?

Gordon is not a quilter, but he shares a home with three computers, five and a half sewing machines, a massive fabric stash, innumerable quilts and a heap of "work in progress." Perhaps he's a patchworker's assistant? 

Gordon and DW Molly retired to Omokoroa in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty about 10 years ago. Two years after that, Molly caught the quilting bug and since then nothing has been the same! Gordon's first involvement with patchwork was the use of a computer CAD program to draw and print patterns for foundation piecing. Next came an extension to the house in the vague hope that fabric, batting, stray pins and short pieces of thread would be confined to the new purpose-built sewing room. It was a forlorn hope. 

In 1999 they both attended the New Zealand Quilters Symposium where Gordon completed an EQ4 class with EQ's N.Z. representative Mary Metcalf. Before this he had found a reference to Info-EQ, joined the list, and started saving Info-EQ items that appeared useful. It was very soon realised that the collection of hints and help could get out of hand. The number of messages appearing in the email In-Box seemed to be never ending. So, the YesUcan database was born. A few months later a copy was sent to Electric Quilt. Penny liked the idea so it has been tidied up, "hopefully" debugged, and is now being published for anyone to use.
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A few facts about the Coopers.

Gordon is 72, worked in aviation electronics and the video/film
industry. Other interests -- writing, amateur radio - particularly 
Search and Rescue, and emergency services.

Molly is a few years younger, was working in theatrical costuming
before they retired to Omokoroa. Other interests include quilting,
quilting, and yachting.

They have two daughters; both sew. The elder, who lives in London
U.K. is part way through a Fine Arts Degree course in Fabric & Fibre; she weaves too.

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Comment on the editing in YesUcan. When I first started, it was
going to be restricted to EQ4 related items only. I have tried
to stay with that "ideal" but some non EQ tips/hints appearing
on the List have been too good to throw away.

The earlier items were stripped of all non-related text, even the
author's name was deleted. I realised that perhaps names and a few
extra phrases should be included if the program was to "go public".

The method of editing has been fairly simple. In this I have been
helped by most responders including the original question in their
reply. 

• 1. Highlight the item in Outlook Express and use the Ctrl C 
  and Ctrl V Windows utilities to copy the whole item 
  into a database Response window. 

• 2. Delete everything after the responder's name.

• 3. Scroll to the top of the window, highlight the question
  and Ctrl C/V it into the Question window. Tidy this up,
  decide on a Subject Name and type this into the Subject
  window, also makeup a Keyword. Enter the Contributors

• 4. Back to the Response window, strip off unwanted words
  and edit it to fill the window width. 

• 5. Tick on the Navigator Bar to load the page into the
  database.

• 6. If I think I already have this topic in the database, 
  I use the Find facility to search for it. If I can 
  not find it, then it goes in as a new item.

Otherwise, if the response takes a different line to the original answer, I tack it on in the existing response window. However, if there is nothing new - or improved, the new item is discarded.

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