A little bit of normalcy

Yesterday we finally got some rain to clear out the pollen. The pollen this year has been insane. I think everything bloomed all at once. We took advantage of the beautiful day and got the kayaks out on the neighborhood lake. This goose was keeping guard for the nest. If you look at the mound on the right you can see the female on the nest. He looks pretty calm here but I did get a little close for hos comfort earlier and he let me know.

We have our first Bluebird nest of the season too!

One thing I've been working on for a few weeks is dyeing a stash of quilt backs for veterans quilts. Of course, our quilt club isn't meeting but I expect that the next time we get together (probably June) that I'll have a ton of quilts to quilt. But I did have 2 tops of my own and one of Mom's and I got those done this week working on them in between masks.

I have a small stash of plaid fabrics and many of them are charm squares. I decided that I needed to use some of them and came up with this incredibly simple idea for a veterans quilt. The whole thing is based on a 4" grid. The finished size is SUPPOSED to be 48 x 60 but this one is 4" short and I didn't notice it until the top was done. It's OK, it's still a nice lap size and I fixed it with the next one.

Once I made the first one and saw how easy, but striking, it was I just had to make a second one and this one is the right size. I think it would be fun to carry this on through more borders for a larger quilt. It's a great way to use plaids. Well, at least I think it's a great way to use plaids.

​The "solid" fabrics for both quilts are pieces left over fabric from other quilts that I've made. The tan was a backing fabric.

The wavy crosshatch was the way to go on these quilts. I got each one quilted in about an hour. and since I had pre-cut the binding, the finishing was fast too. It feels so good to accomplish something other than masks!

The backing is a hand dyed gray-brown. I don't know how long it will be before the VA is taking quilts again but these 2 will be ready.

I"m going to quilt one for Mom and maybe 2 more as I'm waiting on an ordered batt for the vintage flower quilt that I'm going to do next.