A Little Trip

We spent the weekend on a very cold trip to the interior of Oregon where Stan had scheduled to be a substitute for one of the preachers. He drove 35 mph the whole time on packed snow, but with traction tires he enjoyed the driving and the snow very much!  His sermon was good and they said he was "medium-winded." That is better than long-winded but not as good as Edward Ferrars preaching "very short sermons" a-la Sense and Sensibility. 

We stopped at a favorite shop and right away the people who owned it pointed out the red truck ornaments. One of them said, "We love our trucks in America, and especially red ones!"

My husband was quite taken by this little canvas painting of a truck, with a ribbon hanger, the size of a post card, with battery operated lights, so he bought some in lieu of greeting cards. As we left the store, someone else told us "This is truck country. We revere our trucks: old ones, new ones, and the ones that are falling apart." He proceeded to describe the garden his wife had grown in the back of his Grandpa's old truck. 

This is a wrought iron carriage that is very popular in summer, when you have to pay a fee to sit in it for a photo.

This is what the inside looked like. People were not lining up for a chance to sit in this snowy seat.

I hope that cushion  is water proof.

The sage green color of this carriage is marvellous. There is a gathered type curtain inside the dome. It is always interesting to see the many ways fabric is used.

The sewing machine was packed and the weekend was spent inside the warm motel room sewing and making cards with some of the family.

This zany zebra flannel fabric had been in the fabric stash for several years and finally turned into warm sleepwear for my girls. Sewing went a lot faster when sequestered in a warm room with no household distractions.  

View from the saloon window. The saloon is an old hotel that is now a restaurant. The upper level rooms are all dining areas and conference rooms. The food there is great. 

Above picture: Looking outside the motel room. The motel had a huge breakfast buffet, where we met some construction workers from Croatia who told us the winter weather was not at all daunting to them. "It is like summer to us!" they laughed.

Some of you will remember helping buy the rose shaped buttons for this coat that I made a few years ago. The local stores had a limited supply of these unique buttons, so blog friends were finding them in their fabric stores and sending them to me.  Ten buttons were needed and the cost was about $2.00 each, as they were very large buttons, which ended up costing as much as the fabric,  so your help was certainly appreciated! 

This picture, above, does not show acurately what looked like a delicious slice of vanilla cream confection, made by the snow plow as it neatly scraped the snow to the right of the road.  It looks like a wonderful sheet cake.

Now here are the cards that were made:

I even took a tea set and a red runner:

Below: more of that chiffon cake.  

Fabric like this would be interesting.

Stopping at a year-round Christmas store on the way back:

a slice of thick whipped cream cake:

Taking tea in the saloon:

Someone was coming for Afternoon Tea later on in the week and I was glad to get home and get ready for that. I saw so much of the color red, including red walls in the motel room, it inspired me to add a few red things to the house just to make it brighter. There were several red pieces of fabric in my sewing room and a couple of red cushions:

The February Issue of Victoria is where  we got the idea for the cards. The cookies on the cover are so lovely and the cards are pastel backgrounds with cameos in the centers.

The coat pattern is a 2009 edition of Butterick #5425.  I added the faux fur cuffs, hem and hooded scarf. Note with polar fleece, the garment is very heavy and warm, and keeps out the wind. A lining is not needed, although the pattern requires it. I had to alter the pattern to accommodate no lining.  This pattern also might make up into a very nice winter dress. Fleece is a non-woven synthetic fabric and it is not one of the recommended fabrics listed on the pattern package. The pattern is made for wool, velvet, poplin and tweed.