Hurry up and wait... and wait

Waiting is not fun. Especially in the frozen north. At Mayo Clinic, my sis has had to go through testing procedure after testing procedure, sometimes with a few days passing between results. After each result, more tests are ordered and the cycle starts all over again. Some of those waiting days were spent back in Ames.

My mom and I were so frazzled we had to DO something. So Mom taught me how to make a quilt from a paper piece pattern. I'm not a quilter, so this was a challenge! In fact, in the list of required fabrics, notions, etc, on the back of the pattern, right there on the list was

"Seam Ripper (sorry!)"

so even the designer knew that this thing would be a special learning opportunity :-).

The good thing is that it kept us both busy and occupied while waiting for the doctors to tell us the next step.

Thanks for the lessons, Mom!!

I'm home now and finished the quilt tonight. I'm giving it to my mother-in-law.

I used the embroidery feature on my Ellure to make the tag.

By the way, we're waiting for more test results again...

4-Star

Is it a 4-star hotel?

A swanky shopping mall?

An executive building?

No. It's the Mayo Clinic. No kidding. It could be mistaken for any of the above.

I'm up in the frozen north (they are telling me this has been "such a mild winter," HA!) at the Mayo Clinic to be with my sister, who was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This place is amazing.

Everyone think positively. We are.

WWAGD?

A friend sent me a link to a fabric shopping bag for sale online. It had a picture of Al Gore and the letters WWAGD at the top. Well, what would Al Gore do? And what would Al Gore do if he could sew? He'd make nifty fabric grocery bags, of course! I made these from a free pattern at The Creative Thimble website. I had to use a little more fabric than they indicated to be able to make the straps from fabric (instead of webbing), because after pre-wash and -dry, my fabrics shrunk quite a bit. Can't wait to try them out at H-E-B. As usual, click to enlarge photos.