Friday, October 7, 2016

After leaving Fabric Depot we headed to Menucha and their Blues in the Gorge program. It was a lovely sunny day and, although the drive to the facilities wasn’t long, we took our time and drove along the Historic Columbia River Highway. We passed a number of large waterfalls but the one we were headed for particularly was the Multnomah. When we arrived there was no parking to be found – it was completely jammed packed and even from the vehicle we could see why. It was just beautiful. We headed back towards Menucha but found parking at Wahkeena falls just half a mile away. There was a hiking trail leading back to Multnomah so we walked it and, after a look at the falls, we had lunch.

Menucha was the homestead of John Painter and his family who settled there in 1874. They fled Hawaii when members of the family were threatened with isolation in a leper colony. Most of the family later succumbed to complications from leprosy and are buried on the property (but I never found their gravesite). The property was purchased by the Meier family as a summer retreat and they built their main residence (Wright Hall) in the early 1920s. The Meier’s were Jewish and hadn’t been allowed into any of the country clubs in Portland; their home became a popular spot for many of the wealthy families from across the US.

But we were there for the music. One of the four instructors was Mary Flower who was the first performer at our first House Concert and it was nice to connect with her again; she will be returning to Powell River next week to do a show at the Cranberry Hall. The accommodations were basic but I had a good long counter to work at with a not-too-uncomfortable chair. Meals were adequate but I would have liked to have had a kettle or small coffee pot in the room or even in the common area of the dorm we were staying in. Pat enjoyed the sessions and I got a lot of stitching done. Pat will consider going back next year but I think I’d probably stay at home; I’ll get as much stitching done and be in a more comfortable environment.

Each evening there were performances by the instructors and one evening was devoted to the students. I enjoyed the concerts and when we got back to Portland on Sunday evening we attended another concert by all four of the presenters. There were a lot of the people from the music camp in attendance so we didn’t feel like strangers.

Our hotel looked out over the river and felt luxurious after the dorms at Menucha. One of our trips down one of the hallways led past a couple of bookshelves. I stopped to look at them and found several books that were on my list of books to read. The books all had prices marked in them so I asked one of the employees if they were for sale but she said they were available to hotel guests; they were books that had been left behind in the past. I limited myself to two of them!

We had looked forward to our day in Portland with quite a few things planned but Pat was pretty tired from the event and we settled on a trip to Powell Books. Powell’s is like Fabric Depot – only for books! We could have spent days in there but our parking meter only allowed us 90 minutes and we used that up without any difficulty. I was overwhelmed when it came to the crafting room – yes, I said room! I ended up with only one crafting book; two of our house concert people (back to back performers) sang songs of the Underground Railroad and, while performing in front of my quilt, mentioned the quilts of the Underground Railway. This seems to be the only book available that talks about the history of those quilts.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in our room and got an early start on Tuesday morning, driving all the way home. The weather wasn’t as nice as it had been on the way down, but we were both glad to be home.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

I promised to update you today on our Portland trip but Part 1 will only include my trip to Fabric Depot – a vacation all on its own! Before we left for Portland some of the Guild members who had been there told me Fabric Depot was like Costco only full of fabrics – they weren’t joking. We hit the warehouse on a day where everything was 25% off with an outdoor section at 30% off.

I had been told that the shop had wool felt squares that were a very reasonable price (at $1.99 they weren’t kidding). I had just purchased an eBook and I had a Christmas pattern from there that I wanted to make. When I saw the gorgeous colours I picked out a second pattern from the book (it was downloaded on my iPad) as well as the linen backing for both.

While I waited for my linen to be cut I found this small travel iron. I purchased one a couple of years ago at Walmart but it never worked properly for me (the cord wouldn’t stay attached). I’m hopeful this will work and it is the perfect size for the small pressing board I picked up at a recent yard sale.

I thought we were done when Pat found the outdoor sale. None of my fabric cost more than $5/yard and because it was the outdoor sale I got another 10% off that. I have nothing in mind for these fabrics but if nothing else they will be good backing for quilts. There were a few patterns that caught my eye, as well as a couple of templates.

For the second time that morning I thought I was done and then Pat found these cute little tins full of fabric and a pattern.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

We arrived home last night just at supper time – it was a long drive all the way up from Portland but we (meaning Pat) timed it so we missed most of the rush hour traffic. Most of the major cities had HOV lanes which we took advantage of.

I unpacked my suitcase last night but my “goodies” are still packed away. I’ll dig them out tomorrow and show them to you.

While we were away the Cran Hall board were busy and we have a new tenant coming into our rental house. There was some concern from one of the Board members that the house wasn’t nearly clean enough for the new people to move into, particularly since the rent had gone up. I suggested we do a cleaning bee and only Dee took me up on the offer but she didn’t have any time until Saturday.

I went to the house this morning and got a start on things. There is a lot of mildew around the windows and that is mainly what Dee was concerned about. I scrubbed down four of the six windows – they aren’t perfect but they are better. Apparently there is some sort of an oil we can spray on that will keep the mildew from returning too quickly.

I noticed a lot of other maintenance things that could be done easily so I’ll continue working for the next couple of days. I think I’ll go to the Economy Shop and get some new curtains for all the windows. Some of them have venetians and they are just too disgusting to even clean.

I didn’t realize there was a full basement under the house. There is a lot of junk under there that has been left from previous tenants. There is also stuff down there that I think we could sell for a few bucks. There are boxes I never even looked into so maybe there are treasures in with the junk!

Hopefully there will be more help on Saturday as a bee really isn’t a bee if you are working alone.

The concert last night was good and I really enjoyed the performers. They napped most of the afternoon (Kayla suffers from motion sickness and the ferry did her in) so I had time to hem a pair of pants that had been “on my pile” for a few weeks (okay, I’ll be truthful – it actually was a few months). We didn’t have a full house for the show but we were close. There were a lot of new faces in the crowd and they seemed to have enjoyed the evening and we hope they will come back.

After cleaning up and getting some of the furniture back in place we sat up until late. I gave up shortly after midnight and went to bed; it was almost two when Pat came to bed. I don’t know what time the performers called it a night but sometime after Pat came to bed someone ate the leftover pasta from dinner.

Everyone was up and about in plenty of time for the ferry – in fact they somehow had times mixed up and were an hour earlier than they thought.

After they left I did a few errands around town and was pretty useless for the afternoon. I decided I had just enough energy to watch a few episodes of The Bridge which is sub-titled so you can’t do anything else but sit. The timing worked well as one episode corresponded nicely to one load of laundry. It wasn’t so much that I needed to get the laundry done but more that I didn’t want to have to come home to it.

We’re off on our Portland trip tomorrow so I’ll have to find enough energy for some packing. Clothes are easy to throw in a suitcase particularly since we are driving. I’m glad I packed my crafts while I was thinking clearly.