This is a Mac rich post (ie. no quilting content) and is dedicated to Meggie, who I figure needs a bit of cheering up after the rotten spell of events she's been having.



In my absence Mac's education continued apace.











He had already mastered the "Sit", as you know,



and the "Shake Hands".

Now we give you the "Sit Up and Beg",

and the "Play Dead".

Mac's motivation, not to say Philosophy of Life, can be summed up succinctly as........

"Keep Yer Eye on the Cheese!"

I think there's something in that for all of us.......

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While we're on the subject of rocking horses, friend Kathy that I met in Perth sent me some pictures of her childrens horses, FOUR of them all made by hubby Paul. What a wonderful Dad to make one for each child (then there were no fights presumably). The cutest thing is that he made the girls horses into unicorns, I'm sure they will all become treasured heirlooms for the next generation.

And even though she tells me the two little boys in the photo are now 6'5" and have well and truly outgrown their steeds, I'd still love to have this little stable in my family room.

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My brother is a keen woodworker and while I was in Western Australia I got to help with his latest project, somewhat unimaginatively named Harry the Horse. Doug had already built a smaller rocking horse which turned out beautifully, (even though it was made with the timber from packing cases) and making a full sized one was the next step.

We spent some companionable hours in his workshop sanding and applying the first of many coats of size and gesso. And as all the joints needed to be covered with strips of a fine fabric scrim, I even got to use my rotary cutter on this project.

When Keryn and I were little we loved to be with Dad in his shed if he was building something. We would decorate our hair with the long golden curls the plane shaved off, or make dangling earrings that bumped elegantly against the neck. We must have been a bit of a trial, always peering over the edge of the bench and asking "What are you making now?" If he didn't want to bother with explanations he said "A wigwam", which made me cross- even I could see it wasn't a wigwam. I still have many of his tools and I treasure the memory of his patience with us; he could have got things done a lot quicker without two little helpers. (A bit like Keryn's cats!)

Now that the computer is behaving better I'm wasting a lot more time catching up on everyone's news, and not sewing as much. It doesn't feel right, I've spent practically every night at the machine and miss those hours of productivity. I was looking at the blocks and wondering how many I'd made since the computer troubles drove me to the machine at night.

Then I wondered how much actual fabric I'd cut up to make this pile, so I weighed a one metre length, which was 200g, and my stack of blocks weighs ......

One whole kilo! That's 5 metres you know! I'm pretty impressed, 5 metres gone from the stash. We won't mention the teensy bag of material from Western Australia that despite it's skimpiness still added at least twice that metreage to the general fabric pool.

Oh well, 5 metres is not to be sneezed at and when I find setting and backing fabric for this lot then we'll be talking big numbers used up.

Jo asked in the comments if I'd based a block on Karen Cunningham's designs. I know the one she means, but my inspiration came from this old quilt on ebay, like so many of my projects. The setting will be quite different, this pink does nothing for the blocks and I'm itching to sew mine together. Wouldn't you know it, I only have a fat quarter of the fabric I want to use, so I think I'll wait until Keryn and I are in Sydney next week and try to find more of it.

It's a great block to sew, it really seems to fly out of the machine, and I've used the last of some precious fabrics to make it special. I'm thoroughly enjoying this block and don't want to stop making them.


Where's my puppy gone?

Sigh.

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I'll have to get back into "blogger mode", but I feel out of practice now. I don't know that I can go back and answer everyone's comments, so I'll just start fresh and go on from here.

I got a rapturous welcome from Mac, and marvelled over how much he'd filled out in the two weeks I was away. He hasn't grown much in height, but he's so muscly and developed now he's lost that puppy look forever. Oh well, they all have to grow up, don't they?

Matt bought him a mouse with a string pull that makes it vibrate. For the first few times we pulled it for him, than he got sick of waiting and learnt how to do it himself. Now he holds it in his paws, pulls the string and the mouse climbs up by itself. At the last minute he throws it in the air and catches it in his mouth, then repeats the procedure again. The original mouse didn't last long and had to be replaced; he's a bit rough on his toys.

Who's a clever boy then?

When I went to Perth I knew that I didn't want to sit around doing nothing and 'relaxing', so I
took a couple of kits and my sewing equipment with me.(Fortuneately the sewing machine was already there).I'm reminded of that Crowded House song that says something like "Everywhere you go, you always take the weather with you". Well, everywhere I go, I'm happier if I can set up a little space like this. Then I feel right at home, and I've got something to occupy myself with. There was lots of days where we stayed home, and I hate to think how I would have occupied my time if I hadn't had my portable sewing projects with me. Other people don't seem to understand my compulsion, and my comment "I like to be productive" was countered with "This is a holiday, you should Relax!" I shuddered at the thought of sitting on the lounge with my feet up, just not my scene at all. As it was I read nine books while I was there, so I wasn't chained to the machine. Non quilters just don't get it.I worked on these two sets of blocks, that were cut to use up scraps at home. The lighter blue and cream ones will probably go in a seperate quilt and the others will have more scrappy companions- don't know yet as I was just getting rid of the bits and pieces. I'll be like Scarlett and 'think about it tomorrow.'

I'm not a good tourist, I was far happier coming home with my stack of blocks than souvenirs of Perth. And a leetle teensy bag of material came home with me too; not much, just a smidge, as Keryn says barely enough for one person.......

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I really can't believe how long it's been since I could just sit at my computer and blog without a care in the world. My stinking system refuses to play nicely and Vista may soon end up in the trash. Sorriest day in quite a few years when I agreed to give THAT a try. Not that I'm bitter or anything.....

Where do I start?Keryn has done such a wonderful job of keeping things happening here and I'll owe her big time for this. I felt so guilty about not posting, as if I were letting the side down somehow, and it bugs me that I still won't be able to post regularly until I get the computer looked at Again, grrr.

The trip over to Western Australia was illuminating in many ways. For example it taught me that I Hate sitting in the back seat! No wonder kids fight and squabble, and I was tempted to moan "Are we there yet" at ever increasing intervals. But Australia is very wide, and after driving for 11 hours on the first day we were only at the border of South Australia. Arghh! I went to bed in a little roadside cabin place and knew that we had to drive for another 11 hours the next day, and then another 5 on the third day. Not an inspiring prospect, but it certainly made me realise how big this country is.

We stopped and viewed the Great Australian Bight, which was very impressive, huge cliffs and roaring waves and spray, but the warnings about the undercut edges and how they were likely to crumble away beneath your feet made me a tad nervous.

The scenery is rather montonous, and the Nullabor is aptly named, with nothing but low bushes for hundreds of miles. There is a straight stretch of road that is 90 kilometers long and perfectly flat, you don't feel like you're getting anywhere at all. But it's a unique experience, and I'm glad we did it. I was just terribly glad I was going to fly home and not have to face it going back the other way!

To amuse myself I tried to sketch but had limited success because I was sitting in the back seat, we were going 110 kph and there was nothing much to see anyway. I like to draw from what I can see, but I had to try and fix an image in my mind amd draw from memory, which was a challenge and helped to pass the time.

Quite by chance the Quilting and Craft show was on in Perth and I went to have a look around. I was walking past a booth and heard someone say "That looks like Keryn!" and another voice answer "No, it must be Meredith because she's in Perth now!" Guaranteed to make my step falter and wonder what on earth was going on. It was Kathy (blogless unfortuneately) who had met Keryn once before and Nicola who had only read our blogs. What an eerie experience to finally meet someone in real life who has read these posts and actually seemed to enjoy them. I spent the rest of the time with them, and worried that I was hi-jacking their day, but we all seemed to get on so well. And I think I got the winning photo out of those taken, we all look relatively normal and as if we're having a good time.

More later when I can get back on.........

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Mereth is back home, still without internet access, and nursing a sore mouth after having a tooth out. That's not nice at the best of times, but when you're jetlagged and sleep- deprived it must be awful. Poor thing.

She will cheer up when I finish making the bookings for our trip to Sydney for the quilt show at the end of the month. We usually meet there every second year, and have a great time catching up with old friends and making new ones. We have a long list of internet buddies, and every time we go to Sydney we meet another few in person, which is always great. And sometimes they DO look like you'd imagined.

The picture is a Churn Dash top that Mereth made more years ago than I care to remember. I think it was last century. It's been waiting for me to quilt it, but I have been shamefully neglectful. I'm looking forward to putting something nice in those setting triangles; this pineapple is from her Elaborate pack, and I digitised those designs last December. I could quilt this top while I am in Sydney at my friend Kaye's place, and Mereth would love to watch the Statler doing it's thing on her top. That's a Plan!

What I want to know is, why don't I have any of this material? Another bit she didn't share with me. She maintains that she had the merest scrap, a mere nothing, not enough for even one person really. Yeh right!

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Mereth is flying to South Australia today, and will be back home tomorrow. I have no doubt that Matt and Mac and Jessie will be overjoyed to see her again. And she will KILL me for posting this stuff behind her back! So while I can, here's another post, something she wrote about Jessie, the dog of very little brain, and limited bladder control....
My dog is so dumb and her head is so small she only has room for one
thought at a time in her head. Her stream of conciousness would go
something like this....

My ear is itchy.......was that a cat?........hi mum!...(grovel on
tummy for a bit).... oops, I wet myself....my ear IS itchy!....was
that the gate?...better go see....nup.....It IS a cat!....now my
tummy's itchy.....CAT....CAT....CAT...!...!...is that food in my bowl?

Sits down, scratches ear...

She's so dumb that if you stand by the gate and lift the latch (it
clicks), but don't open the gate, she'll just run straight into it.
"I heard the latch, therefore the gate is open, even though I can see
it's not." Now, I don't do this deliberately *hermm*, but sometimes
I'm a little slow when I'm juggling bags and such. So yes, I admit, I
do find it funny. Does that make me a bad person?

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Mereth is due to return home on the 28th, but then she still has to get that @#$%^ computer online so it will be a while before you hear from her. It shouldn't be this hard, especially when it's a super-duper new computer system, supposed to solve any and every possible problem. I have to upgrade my laptop, and I'm not looking forward to dealing with Vista as the new operating system. It will drive me mad if I can't work hassle-free.

The Texas Star quilt is another scrappy one made entirely from vintage fabric. I don't have it here with me, so I can't give you any close-ups, but they are as fascinating as the DWR scraps. It is a nice pattern to piece, I have one on the go as my hand-sewing. I love the white background, but I have trouble using white in my own quilts. It seems too stark and I end up going with cream or off-white, yet I love the look of it in other people's quilts. Another foible I need to eradicate.

And because I'm still searching for more photos of Mereth's quilts to put up here I will leave you with another of her creations. She's an extremely gifted artist, and her drawings have put mine to shame since we were 7 years old. While she was sketching horses anatomically correct in every detail I was still drawing them with all four legs on one side of their body. I KNEW there was something wrong, but had no idea what. The fact that Mum lavishly praised my work just made me doubt her judgement!

It must be that artist's eye, because my DS even in preschool never drew anything out of perspective; he drew what he saw, and the car always had two visible wheels and two partially hidden by the body of the car. Mereth's eldest boy John was showing by age 5 that his talent was going to surpass his mother's. The boy is brilliant! (Proud Auntie here). I wish I could show you some of his drawings, but I don't have any. Maybe Mereth can post a few when she gets on line.

My skill lies in drafting and geometry, I'm more a technician than an artist. But that just makes my occasional artistic success even sweeter. I labour over my patterns, whereas Mereth's just flow off her pen and instantly appeal. I'm going through her amazing sketchbooks working up some new designs, which is why I'm dwelling on her talent. Still, I'm the one who puts them on the computer and makes them available to everyone, so I guess I can be content with my skill in that field.

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This is a Double Wedding Ring top that Mereth hand-pieced many years ago. It's made entirely with vintage dressmaking scraps, garnered from every place possible. While I was photographing it I saw many scraps from clothes we made in the 70s, often from material that Mum had bought much earlier. These fabrics have so much character, I just love looking at them and remembering what they were used for, and where we bought them, and even wearing the clothes we made from them.

I (Keryn) am supposed to be quilting it, but I haven't got round to it just yet. I want to design some spectacular feather motifs to fit in the white spaces, but when I think about it, it should have simpler quilting, in keeping with it's simple origins. Whatever I decide to do I'm sure I will have a lot of fun with it. It's beautifully pieced and a delight to study.

I love that little birdy, he's so retro; Mereth and I grew up playing with scraps of fabric like this. We used to go to our Gran's house while our Mum went off to work, and one of our favourite occupations was going through the duster bag in Gran's spare room. I can remember her calling out 'Don't you pull that bag to pieces again!' and Mereth and I busily burrowing through it and answering 'We won't Gran....' All those gorgeous fabrics, and Gran used them to polish the sideboard, and then threw them away. Sigh!

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Keryn here, again. Mereth is still absent without computer, (AWOC?) and doubly absent because she has nicked off to West Australia with our older brother. She's visiting a dear friend over there, and having a small holiday and seeing the WA rellies for the first time in decades. She'll be back in a couple weeks with tall tales to tell. Until then, here's an account she wrote of a visit to her in-laws....

A few years ago the boys and I stayed at my inlaws farm, in the hills above Victor Harbor. The house is a huge old rambling place nearly 150 years old, with 16 main rooms and it's like a rabbit warren inside. My parents-in-law live up one end, and sister/brother-in-law and their family up the other.

I had to stay in a now disused part of their house and MIL asked if I minded, seeing it was supposed to be haunted. I laughed, and said no, because I'd slept in this room before with no problems. Everything was fine until the last two nights, when the brother-in-law and family went to stay at Goolwa for a holiday, leaving their end totally empty.

The first night was very windy, and the big heavy door into the hall slammed itself shut with a bang to wake the dead, or at least the boys and the oldies sleeping miles away at the other end of the house. I got up to go to the loo, and made sure that I shut the door when I came back. It has an old-fashioned latch that has to be raised at least half an inch so I was pretty sure it would
stay put.

Back in bed and snuggling down under the doona I heard the door being pushed open, dragging over the carpet until it was fully open, and then an almighty WHAM! as it slammed shut again. I didn't get up to investigate, but it took me a while to get to sleep as I tried to think of explanations of how the wind managed to lift that latch up....

The next night I wedged the door open so that it couldn't move at all, and went off to bed.I was reading when I heard a patter of feet coming down the hall, muffled on the carpet, and clicking on the lino at the end. It sounded like a small animal, perhaps the cat locked in and now wanting to get out. After a while I realised it was doing circuits of the house through the interconnected
corridors, because it went past again, pad pad pad PAD PAD PAD past the open door and onto the lino.

I got up and began to search for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere and I was rather annoyed because all I wanted was to go to sleep.Eventually I went back to bed and it started again, busy little paws trotting past and fading into silence. While I was listening to it padding past I realised that I could hear claws clicking on the lino, and cat's don't make that particular sound because
their claws are retracted.....

Round and round it went and I became convinced it wasn't a cat, Jessie was locked in the shed and the in-laws are violently opposed to dogs inside, so therefore it had to be a little ghost dog endlessly patrolling the dark corridors.

I didn't feel afraid, but nevertheless I got up and closed the hall door just in case he decided to detour into my room and then I drifted off to sleep, to the intermittent patter of his paws.

The next morning MIL said it couldn't have been the cat, because he parks himself on the end of their bed and complains until they let him out, and the boys said it was a giant rat or a possum. But I know it was a little dog, intent and busy, circling the maze of halls on his unknown errands; coming and going through the darkness of the night.

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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.

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Finally, I seem to have the computer problems sorted out after two visits from the 'technician' and I can get back to my regular schedule. I've really missed the net, and now I have to catch up with everyone's news and get back to regular blogging.
It was Anzac Day last thursday, and my brother, sister-in-law and I went to the Dawn Service about 25k away. We were all up at five getting ready, and I thought of all the other homes where this quiet bustle was taking place too, ready to pay our respects. It's such an Australian ritual, and it never fails to fill me with emotion.
This year my brother had brought our Dad's medals with him (they live in Perth, and usually one of his son's wears them), thinking I might like to have them this year. Children of returned soldiers can wear them as long as they are on the right breast, not the left, which is where the veterans wear them.

Dad fought in the islands north of Australia and flew kittyhawks on many missions. We still have his log book , and it makes a fascinating document to read. I can remember when we were little, getting ready to go the march which is held later on in the day, watching Dad clean these medals and pin them on his jacket; and afterwards the great time he had with old mates that he might not have seen since last years march.
Dad was stationed at Port Pirie for a while, which is where he met Mum. There was a huge airbase there where they trained but now there is very little left to show what a busy place it was. After the service we went out there to wander around and had a photo taken in front of this Dakota engine which is a sort of memorial. (You can't half tell that we're related!) I thought of Mum, and how she would have loved seeing us together, and me wearing the medals, so it was a significant moment on lots of levels for me.

The good thing about not wasting time on the net is that you can get lots of sewing done. I'm working all over the place, and I keep trying to be stern and telling myself to finish one thing, but I'm having a good time jumping from one to the other. The little broken dishes are being set into these blocks, they end up 5" finished and are as cute as buttons. I can't stop making them.

Keryn speculated that I was going to set the Crosses and Losses in a streak of lightning pattern, which could be nice but wasn't in The Dream.I think Mary guessed that I was going to make a strippy; she's right. But I have a little twist up my sleeve and you'll see it when they're all sewn together.
In the meantime,I have to throw myself on Keryn's mercy and cry "Have you got any of THIS fabric?!!!" It's an indigo print, and I know I split it with her because I only had a piece half the width of .75 metre. Well, sweetest sister, is it still in your stash? Because I NEEEED it! Pleeease try and find it, and with any luck it will be there. I've got other indigos, but this reads as grey, and I want the lower contrast. It's all in The Dream.....

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Who can remember these Crosses and Losses blocks from over a year ago? They were leader-enders that I spoke of in this post. I've been brewing and stewing about them ever since, and tried out various setting materials and designs. I'd always imagined them set on point with white alternate squares, like a two-colour antique quilt I'd seen somewhere.
That looked really blah and boring, and nothing else took my fancy, so into the drawer they went, to mature. (or fester, depending on my outlook)
One day I'd taken them out to try and get them to approve a setting (my blocks are very insistent, and if they don't like an idea they tell me about it, loudly) but nothing was working AGAIN. In disgust I threw them onto a pile of fabric that I was using for a customer quilt. That night I dreamed about the fabric they were lying on, and I saw a setting for the blocks in perfect detail. Amazingly, when I woke up I still remembered it, and when I went into my sewing room and laid it out the blocks said "FINALLY!!" and I knew I could go ahead. It's taken me a while to get to it, but I've never had a moments doubt since that morning about what to do. Never before or since have I dreamed a setting, but it certainly solved the problem!


This photo is horribly washed out and this isn't the setting- just to be a tease. The blocks are sewn into strips with these setting triangles, but I'm not telling where they're going next. Let's just hope my computer behaves and I can post when it's nearing completion.

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Ok, book me down for the worst mood in Christendom at the moment. A while ago I bought a new computer, and was told I had to have Windows Vista installed instead of XP. What the heck I thought, I'll go with it, everyone else will be using it.....I haven't been able to get on the net without difficulty ever since, and I've spent at least 5 hours on the phone as everyone passes the buck to everyone else. It's the server, it's the modem, it's Microsoft, perhaps my stars are out of alignment or my feng shui is all up the creek. GRRRR! Things were fine until Vista came along!
Even now the damn thing's apologising for not being able to connect me to the net, and I'm on blogger typing this. Idiot thing.
It doesn't help that my technical conversations are interspersed with such phrases as the 'router thingy' and the 'whatsi-cable' showing my true igorance of all things computerish, coupled with my brain never coming up with the right name when I need it.(advanced middle-age syndrome.) I'm not cut out for technical difficulties, I only know enough to do what I need to do and my temper increases each time I'm foiled by the little messages that pop up. Instead of being rational and thinking through the problem, I'm far more likely to scream at the monitor, pull at my fringe in fury and then go off to sulk and drink coffee. Sigh.
Speaking of beverages, Mac has developed a liking for Matt's tea, so he gets to drink the dregs. I love him to bits, but I draw the line at sharing drinking utensils. I've even seen Matt eating an icecream, two licks for him, two for Mac....Nooo!!!! The dog's been wormed I know, but I can't come at that. My love has limits.

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These tiny 1" half square triangles have been my leader- enders for a while.

I decided to press them and see what I could do with them now that an embaressing number had built up.
I'm not quite sure where they're going, but I've started making little Broken Dishes blocks, which you can just see on the tray behind this pile. And when I say little, I mean little, each block will be 2" finished.
I can hear Keryn's voice ( the voice of Reason, may I add) hissing "Throw them AWAY!!!!!", but I hardly ever pay attention until she's proved right. Then, when I'm nauseated by the fiddliness and idiocy of whatever I'm doing I'll agree and go on to something a little saner (and larger...)

Although she once did a block that required many many little 1" half square triangles, some of which I made for her; but we paper-pieced them and it was much easier and quicker than these jumbly little scraps I'm trying to sew.

I went to Adelaide this week, as it was my son's graduation from his School of Art. He wasn't impressed with the whole gown and mortarboard look, but I was very proud of him. And at the end they announced the Industry Awards and he'd won the Excellence in Drawing category, so that made me even prouder.I'm glad he got some recognition for his talent, it's one thing your mother telling you how wonderful you are, but an award looks better on the list of achievements!

While I was in Adelaide I happened to drop into Spotlight, and while they had nothing great, they did have a clearance sale on and I staggered out with these bags. The girl who served me was concerned about the weight and whether I'd be able to manage!!

It took me a while to go through the piles, but I found a number of $2 a metre fabrics, some $3 ones and a couple at $5. Can't pass up the opportunity of cheap backings, so I took the end of the bolts of most of them.
The grand total was (koff, koff...) mumble...36.5 metres...mumble..but lets face it, a backing for $10? The yellow fabric on the bottom had 12.7 metres on the bolt, and I got it ALL!!! For $25! Can't feel the slightest bit guilty, sorry. The pile should have cost $350, and instead was just on $100, so instead of an extravagence, I'm congratulating myself on being a canny shopper. I certainly picked the eyes out of that lot of fabric at the store.
The elation lasted until I got home, fondled and folded it nicely, then looked around in horror and thought "Where the heck am I going to put it!" I can see a major shuffle of the backing fabric storage coming on- where did I think the extra nearly 40 metres of fabric was going to go? Just pop it in a drawer? Right.....

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This is Hannah Porritt, my maternal great grandmother.
She was born in 1879 and was a seamstress and a skilled needlewoman. She lost the sight in one eye when a machine needle broke and flew up into her face, but she still did beautiful work despite that limitation.
She was also a fabric hoarder and Mum saved this piece of her stash, which must date from the 1930's, paper bag and all. I claimed it in the 80's, intending to make a shirt with it, but I'm glad I didn't. It would have been worn out and discarded years ago, and I wouldn't have such a tactile link to tie me with this woman I'm sure I would have liked.
I think it's an early rayon type fabric, but if it was cotton it would surely go in a quilt dedicated to her memory.

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