Friday check in: placemats and

 Where has the week gone?    

Zion Woman's Club board met Tuesday afternoon to allocate funds to local agencies.  ($300 to six, with $200 remaining for as-yet-unknown requests.  We are a small-budget operation!)   AAUW met by Zoom Tuesday evening for an excellent program by the director of Reform for Illinois, an organization working for transparency and fairness in state/local election funding.  

I spent an hour at the AT&T store on Wednesday resetting the Yahoo app so I can get email on my phone.  It turned out that I had an old, not-used Yahoo email address that the app kept defaulting to, rather than the att (dot) net email that I do use. "Is this a vote for gmail?" I asked the guy.  "Maybe," he said knowingly.  I've been able to go back and forth between my gmail and att emails but the thought of canceling to one completely is daunting.

Tech problem resolved, I took a walk at Sand Pond (part of the state park). Red-winged blackbirds chased this crane away from their nest. I suppose that after that the crane wasn't concerned about me and I got this close to snap a photo. 

Last evening (conveniently, 6-7:30 p.m.) the Waukegan Historical Society hosted The Bonds of War with Diana Dretske, historian at the county's Dunn Museum.   The museum archives has a photo of five local men who were in Co. C, 16th Illinois Volunteers.  One was identified (his descendants gave the photo to the museum). She decided to find out who the others were. 

All the men were born in the British Isles in the early 1840's and came to the Illinois as children.   They were recruited to the Union cause in 1861 and eventually fought at Chickamauga.  (The Union lost.)   Of these five soldiers, one was killed and the other four spent the rest of the war in different Confederate prison camps.  The four returned to Lake County, their farms, and their families.

This forensic research is fascinating!   I bought Diana's book and look forward to learning more.

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I'm preparing the display for the P.E.O. convention next week. If I could knuckle down and concentrate it would be all finished.  Instead I'm letting myself get distracted by quilting.  

Seven placemats, quilted but not bound. I'll meet OMG for May.   The tulips are appliqued on blocks left over from the April top-along pattern, Turnkey.  I've had a box of 2-1/2" HSTs on hand for years and I used them often.  The pinwheel is another leftover. 

I thought I was finished with the red/white/black combo, but the red/white HSTs didn't want to go back in the box. Then they wanted some company so I made a whole lot more.   This star is one possibility.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday