That is the question I asked myself this morning as I stared into my refrigerator wishing that my leftover salad would turn into leftover pancake batter.

It reminded me of one of my father’s favorite stories to tell about his mother; a story about a time he didn’t finish his dinner.

His mother, like many people of her generation, did not abide wasting food, so (according to legend) my father’s uneaten dinner went into the refrigerator only to reappear at breakfast without the benefit of reheating — just a cold congealed mass of what had been served the night before.

My father assured me that he never left any food on his plate after that.

So while I surveyed the leftovers in my refrigerator, I decided that in the interest of honoring my grandmother and reducing food waste, I would eat the salad.

With breakfast eaten, I set out to get some work done on my 2016 North Carolina State Fair project, the elements of which are based on what little I know of my Grandmother Nora’s life, and while the 2014 North Carolina State Fair project that I did based on my maternal grandmother’s life was a celebration of what I knew about her, this piece is an exploration of the life of a grandmother I never knew based on the few artifacts I have and whatever mentions I can find of her in the archives of the Edwardsville Intelligencer.

As the coming week is going to be chock full of errands, I decided that I needed to begin with an inventory of pieces so that I would know where I was which would be a good indication of where I need to go.

My mother has an upcoming appointment with a doctor who sometimes runs very far behind, so I decided that I would make a list of how many one-round granny squares needed to be done, and then I would not make any of them today so that I would have something to do at that appointment:

With the inventory of one-round grannies completed, I turned my attention to the center panel which is not really the least bit portable even though it is still just comprised of pieces that I have yet to fit together.

I tried laying them out:

and while it was fun, it was ineffective, so I then laid out all the pieces organized by color:

and managed to add a few before the day was over:

The most challenging part of this panel (how will I fit these pieces together in a coherent and attractive fashion) is still to come, but I at least I am moving forward, one stitch at a time.