Heading North!

Last Friday morning I was up at 4am to get to the airport in time (early!) for my 6:50am flight heading north. It was amazing. I got there about 5:20 and checked in my bag, then heading to security. If you know the Knoxville airport, there's a long hall with waterfalls before you get to security, a long uphill hall. Well, the line to security was all the way to the end of the waterfalls!!! It did move but I was glad I had a plenty of time before my plane was scheduled to leave! I think it was the beginning of spring break plus being Friday might have done it.
Uneventful flight to Minneapolis and then a 3 hour layover which suited me fine. I hate those 25 minute layovers where you have to really rush and worry about getting to your next plane. There was a lady on our plane that had a 20 minute space before her next one left. I hope she made it.

So, no problems, we got on the flight to Regina and the plane took off on time. It's an hour and 40 minute flight. About the time I thought we should be heading down to Regina we just kept going, then the pilot said that the weather was horrid in Regina, a white out, and they were waiting for a window where it cleared a bit and then we'd head down. We circled for at least half an hour and then had to head back to Minneapolis!!!

My sister was in that whiteout. She left Moose Jaw in good weather and suddenly couldn't see anything. She was driving her daughter's white car!!! and got to where you couldn't turn back, just keep going and hope no one hits you. She saw a tractor trailer in front of her and could just see the top of him so she followed him til he turned off. Then she kept going. Couldn't always even see one of the center line marks. Not sure where you are. Then she realized she was being followed by a tractor trailer who made no move to pass her altho others did. I think he was her angel. Once she got to Regina she could barely see her turnoff and ended up following another tractor trailer to the airport. Then not sure if we'd be in later, she hung around awhile. She also stayed in Regina a few hours til it cleared out enough to drive home. I'm sure the late night flight was able to get in.

So we were struck in Minneapolis. Not a ton of us, but enough. About 10 of us ended up going down to get the little emergency pack they give you with a toothbrush, etc. because it had a big tshirt we could sleep in! We all got reservations at the Ramada for $55, a discounted rate, apparently. Also a free shuttle! Dinner that evening was fun with the 3 I ate with. We sat there for 2 hours laughing and figuring out who they all know from Regina. Regina's really a small city and people there all kind of know each other! More so than Knoxville!

Out of my window I could see the Mall of America and Ikea!! It was cold!! and I didn't much feel like going to a mall and buy anything that I'd have to take to Canada and back. Besides, I've been to the West Edmonton mall which is bigger! A mall's a mall! The ones that went Saturday said it was a zoo and not worth going to, probably because of spring break!

 Got to the airport Saturday afternoon and hung around, finished reading my book and bought another one waiting for my 9:45 pm flight!! There were 7 of us from that flight on it. It's funny how when you've been together awhile, you're instant friends and the wait for the flight was fun, chatty, not like normal waits for flights. But then, also, we all sort of worried til the plane actually landed in Regina, just before midnight! The bags all arrived too, having sat down in the Minneapolis airport waiting for us. They said they had to go with us on our flight because it was international flying. What if they'd screwed up and our bags hadn't gotten on? Glad we didn't have to find out! Then another hour drive to get to Moose Jaw. It was kind of cold too!

However, it's up around melting out there. They say 2/3 of the snow has already melted. I took a picture of her back drive. That's melting snow. So, at night it freezes and it's ice. It's melted more since I took that picture and more water. It's nicely melting but that doens't mean there won't be more snow falling while I"m up here and, for sure, before spring really comes! I've driven in this to pick up Mom from dialysis on Monday but I"m hoping not to have to drive much in this. It's not horrid but I'd rather let someone else drive who's driven in this all winter!

 So, what are we doing? My sister told me to bring fabric for a stack n whack, that we were going to attempt that! I forgot to take pictures while I was cutting them but you basically stack 8 layers of identical fabric and then using your rotary cutter, cut out idential stacks of fabric. Here are a few of the ones I did.

 You sew them together and  each circle looks different. Here's one example of what I did just before I sewed the last seam.

 This is one of my sister's circles. Her fabric is incredible with roses and tiny blue flowers. I love her fabric!

 You just sew them assembly line, one after another! I made 24 of them.

Now we have to figure out how we'll assemble these. We're going to applique them onto squares of fabric and then sew them together with sashing, etc. We're off to the fabric store to pick my fabric. My sister already has hers. The one thing, tho, is that fabric costs more here (and the dollar's the same or worth a bit more than the US dollar) with prices from $9.99 which one grabs but more likely it's $15.99!!!! I'll pay that I'm sure. You  really couldn't buy the other fabric before you made the circles because it looks altogether different than the original fabric.
So, that's the latest from this week. I missed a day with my Mother but am glad that at the end, we were all able to safely fly up here!
Carol