I spent some time in Stuart working on smaller sewing projects while there were no cushions in the saloon and I was farming out the bigger jobs to Canvas Works. It still left me with plenty to do:
I visited a local upholstery shop and sewed new curtains and tie-backs 
out of some fancy-patterned, silky-textured Sunbrella I ordered from there, that was the most expensive fabric I've ever bought ($75/yd.) - even for The Fox, which has earned the finest of everything we can lay our hands on. Worth every penny, that fabric with its little rectangular dots of browns and creams - but I'm glad I used only about a yard of the stuff for all the boat's curtains.
I re-cut our foredeck cover to fit around our new permanent inner forestay and its wee roller-furler. I split the cover along its upper seam for the couple of feet between its bow attachment and the inner forestay and re-sewed it with a zipper and a wide flap to 
protect said zipper from the elements; I enhanced it with two clips at its bow attachment, revised its attachment points where it clips to the lifelines on either side; and added suede at all its new chafe points. Fairly straightforward, and the grey suede patches made the piece look more finished. Almost as if I'd known what I was doing.
I made a new wee roller-furler cozy for the inner forestay's new wee roller-furler, the better to keep it protected from the weather and from nesting birds/insects during those times we're in port for prolonged periods. Darned if I failed to photograph it (it might be under the foredeck cover I photographed up there, for all I know), but at any rate it's a simple Sunbrella rectangle with drawstring casings on its long edges and finished on its short edges with Velcro. I simply wrap it around the roller-furler, close the Velcro, pull the drawstrings. Done. And if any of you think that a roller-furler cozy is prissy overkill, I invite you to spend a July in Mazatlan, Mexico, when the barn swallows are nesting and the cockroaches are hatching. Or how about a June in Florida, when the love-bugs are mating and leave their caustic little body-juices everywhere. You'll be wanting to seal your whole boat in a giant Sunbrella Zip-Loc bag, I'm tellin' ya.
I picked up some small throw pillows and several pieces of some inexpensive, brightly-colored fabric at a Stuart-area fabric/craft store, and finally made several envelope-style slipcovers for said pillows, with some of the molas I'd bought from the Kuna in Panama months earlier. I eventually made enough slipcovers to mix-n-match a couple of different color schemes, all of which of course look just faaabulous against the new beige Miami suede of our saloon cushions. Over here on the left is an example of my 2-shades-of-blue-plus-white-and-black collection. GB likes the new pillows because all the slipcovers - molas included - are machine washable, so he can spill at will.
And I accomplished all this, with my loyal Pfaff and my poor saloon table...and naught but a dilapidated cockpit cushion upon which to sit. Trying conditions indeed, but without cushions cluttering up the seating area, I *did* have more room for sewing supplies....
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