Outing with Fabric, Food, Railroads

I ordered two fabric panels online from Wooden Gate Quilts, a local quilt shop. Two days before Valentine's Day, Frank and I took a drive to get them from curbside pickup. The quilt shop is 20 miles away and would take about 25 minutes each way. At roughly 20 miles to a gallon and approximately $4 a gallon, we would be investing $8 to fetch $16 worth of fabric. But the day was gorgeous with blue skies, fluffy white clouds, blooming trees, and mild temperatures; we welcomed being out of the house, seeing different scenery.

I masked up when we arrived to get my pre-paid order waiting in a bin outside for me. The shop is tucked in at the far corner of the parking lot, the last in the line of gray stores with cute railway station style white trim. The shop's address is 125 Railroad Avenue, Danville, CA.

My package contained two panels. One can never have too many cute woodland creatures (unless they are the squirrels who totally ripped all the stuffing out of our outdoor swing and deck chair cushions). But these fabric critters were rabbits and I never tire of sewing bunny pillows for Alex. The animals on the other snowy panel would make up into whimsical Christmas pillows. Both these panels have mirror images so I can easily put front and backs together and only generate half the pillows. I must admit, you can have too many pillows and I suspect I am very close to that point. I already have too many quilts but I keep making them, too.

Across the parking lot, in similarly styled architecture, was a bakery & cafe. It was open but absolutely no one was there and it had outdoor seating. Frank and I were three weeks and two days beyond having gotten our first Moderna vaccine on January 21st, so we decide to be adventurous, treat ourselves, and eat out at the venue appropriately named Life is Sweet. We reasoned it could also be considered our earlyValentine's Day celebration. Our fare was simple – grilled cheese and cream of tomato soup – but it was gooood! We got two vanilla cupcakes boxed up to savor once we got home. The bakery is totally gluten free, an added bonus, but the taste was surely not compromised.

 

From our cafe table we saw a railway signal, so afterward, once we'd finished our meal we walked over to explore further.

Closer inspection of the writing cast into the side read U.S.& S. Co. Swissvale, PA.  I learned later from Wikipedia that U.S. & S. stands for Union Switch and Signal Company. Companies that use/have used US&S products worldwide include are listed in the second photo. We did not need to travel farther than our nearby town of Danville to learn a bit more of national train history.

Frank, standing next to the signal gives a sense of its scale. Just down Railroad Avenue a bit is the historic Danville railway station. Frank and I have visited there with Alex and we reminisced about our excursion there in 2016. See my blog post dated 9/27/16.

We were away from the house barely more than two hours, but felt refreshed and upbeat. Fabric. Food. Trains. Great Memories. Life really is sweet!