Keryn here, as guest blogger. Mereth's computer is sulking and refusing to co-operate, so I will post a few pictures just so's you have something different to look at. Mereth, meanwhile, will continue her 2 hour conversations with consumer relations people who have heavy accents and insist their names are Trev-Or, or Der-rek, or Pee-Ter. Sunil, or Asram would be nearer the mark....

Many years ago, more than 25, I came to live up here in Queensland. I had been making patchwork for over 10 years, but I had no stash as such. I had bags of dressmaking scraps and bits and pieces, but most of it wasn't all that suitable for patchwork. I was a poverty-stricken student, and couldn't afford to buy yardage. Instead I haunted the op-shops and flea markets, buying old cotton clothing with the sort of patterns that I associated with the vintage quilts in the American magazines.

Of course I shared all my finds with Mereth, posting her parcels full of what many people would think of as rubbish. But when we had washed our treasures and pulled them apart we had fabric to make into quilt blocks.
Mereth started making these blocks, by hand, soon after her third child was born. (He's now 19.) It took a year to accumula
te enough for the quilt, using only the fabrics that I had sent her. She splashed out and bought new material for the sashing and border, and spent months and months hand-quilting the Baptist Fans. The cotton batting was not easy to quilt through, and she wore holes in her fingers trying to finish the quilt before I arrived for a visit. Because it was a Surprise Gift for me! But with three small boys and a part-time job she ran out of time, and it was still on the frame. Which was great, because I helped quilt two rows of those fans, and we had lovely afternoons sitting at the frame quilting, with the sun streaming in the window and our 5 kids running around laughing, and the dog barking, enjoying being together.

Eventually the quilt was delivered to me on one of her visits up here, and it's been loved and appreciated ever since. That paisley border is divine....

The binding is the black fabric that I bought on my honeymoon, adding to the memories in this quilt. I love quilts that have layers of meaning to them, making them more than just a pretty thing.