Editor's note: This is the fifth story in an ongoing series about interesting hobbies in and around the Norwalk area. If you have an interesting hobby you would like profiled, contact Staff Writer ...

DAVENPORT, Ia. – A length of burlap-colored linen is stretched taut across a square wooden frame on a pedestal. In one hand, Beth Anne Smiley holds a thin strip of colorful wool under the linen, and ...

Some people retire to play golf or travel. Fritz Mitnick left her job because she was hooked on another pastime — literally.

From a tiny studio beside her 1880s Graton farmhouse Brigitta Phy paints pictures with fabric, hook by hook by hook, painstakingly keeping alive a fading art that dates back at least to Colonial times ...