A Huge Change in Direction

Warning: Heavy memorial post. Sunday August 2nd 2026: I logged into my paid job as a Medical Laboratory Scientist for the last time.

This was the Auslab login screen. It had a separate password to other systems. My username and password was unchanged from when Auslab started sometime around 1997.

 After 36 years of actual working, the time had come to hang up my coat and put down the tools. Here are a few of the changes in tools during my career in the Lab. 

The burner: went out of fashion due to the gas. They had been known to be accidentally left on all night. So it was a welcome change to move to disposable loops instead of metal loops. You always had to hold the loop down into the flame to sterilise it properly. I always wondered how many bacteria we missed because we killed them from the heat.

    

The disposable loops were calibrated to pick up volumes of liquid. Urines were plated out usually with a 1ul loop so we had an idea of the growth volume of bacteria ( if any) and this was useful to the doctors.

 

I spent the last 2 years working only in microbiology where things changed slowly but also rapidly. You could coast along for awhile then suddenly huge changes, then back to very few. We had a few systems from a French Company and I ended up using 3 of their machines. 1 was ancient when we got it, the next lasted many years, then this beauty (the one on the right) turned up while I was on leave in 2024. Only bailed me up once where I had to repeat the cards I had set up. This machine can do identification and sensitivities 

(where we would test antibiotics against the bacteria) to see what the Doctors could use to treat your infection.

The machine on the left is also the current best thing in microbiology as it re organised the work flow. It uses a laser inside which vaporises a tiny dot of bacteria, or fungi and reads the spectrograph and compares it to a known database and in a few minutes can tell you what the organism is. The organism does have to grow on a plate (usually) overnight before you can place a dot on a slide. Compare this to doing other biochemical tests by loading into the first machine pictured again overnight. This helps the Doctors to have an idea of what the patient is dealing with. I had an adventure with this machine one day, it decided to not work, I was told it was a sensor issue and needed to pull the side off, replace the sticky tape holding the sensor in and then it would work. Hey presto, it did. A very cheap option to keep a very expensive machine going. The set up bench in between both machines. We now also can do set up at the plate reading bench.

Down the other end of the laboratory were the 3 other sections which I last worked in during 2023. When I first started working in 1980, we used test tubes, pipettor bottles for reagents and note books for results and filing card reports for patient results to send around the hospital at the end of the day. When I arrived in Bundaberg, I was excited to use one of these. A flow through Gilford Spectrophotomer. The previous one I had used in small places were static, meaning you used cuvettes which had to be cleaned etc. This machine sucked up the liquid you were analysing, and made life so much better.

Then we went to semi automation. We had to load racks on this machine called the Integra. It was quite a zippy machine as it had probes that flitted around inside and packed a punch if you had a body part in the way. From there, the machines got larger as more tests were added.

When I finished on Sunday, there are now 2 of these filling up the space. You open a drawer, place the tube in, a little carrier comes along picks it up and then it goes whizzing around the outside then directed where it needs to go in either module. I was quite happy to last use these machines in 2023.

Back in haematology, my least favourite lab section, I found this image of the first Coulter Counter I used. The S model. Prior to this machine, red and white cell counts were done manually in a counting chamber. The errors involved using counting chambers could be quite huge. We do still use them today but for cell counts in urines. For this machine we made 2 dilutions counted the white cells, red cells then if my memory serves me correctly, I think we lysed the red cells then poured that solution into another machine to measure the haemoglobin (a very important indicator of a person's blood volume). 

This has been replaced by much better machines that measure all haematology parameters making the job much better.

I haven't mentioned Transfusion Medicine where we sometimes had to race around getting blood ready for traumas in a hurry finding compatible blood for the patient. I found it to be the most stressful section and in recent years, we became pharmacists as well with the dispensing of other plasma related products. I have one of my best uni mates who spent her whole career as a transfusion specialist, not for me. I preferred the bacteria. 

Today, I went swimming and have been working in my Fabric Store, I actually thought I would be a bit sad about hanging up the lab coat but it has actually been a liberating feeling. I have written the above as I have been asked to write a brief history of our Lab as work has begun on a new hospital for Bundaberg which means another new Lab. I worked in 2 and a complete remodel of the 2nd to be the 3rd.  

The last 2 photos are of the same corridor from each end. This is the current work area sandwiched between the corridor. This leads to the MDU section where covid and virus testing is done. We had to beg some space back from another hospital department to fit that section in. You can understand why they need a new larger laboratory to work in. One other thing I will not miss, they could never get the air conditioning correct. It seemed to hover at 18C and was always freezing.

I usually get my blog printed so I can look back on this in my very old years. Hope you have enjoyed my brief trip down the lane of memories.  Next post, will definately be about quilts.

April and Easter

 April can be a weird month for me, as The Sydney Royal Easter Show is usually on. This means, I hold the fort at home for approx 10 days. Somehow the working dogs go crazy, (Scruff the only female always seems to be on heat for the duration) sending the boys into a barking frenzy.  This year was no different. I usually set myself a sewing project to work on while I can devote most of the spare time to it. This year, a quilted jacket and new applique blocks were on the agenda. I also added in a bit of fabric dyeing when I got the jacket to a certain stage of completion. The photo does not do it justice. The pink is an ombre hot pink. Fully reversible with set in pockets on the pink side. I have to ask the intended wearer if they need pockets on the black/pink side. I will need to probably hand stitch them on.

I have decided to use up my dye powders and try to sell bundles of batik cotton, hand dyed with less mottling to be suitable for modern quilters. I have been using Jane Dunnewold's techniques learnt from her classes, and think I can modify the process to suit. I am aiming for a "solid type hand dye", a mottled type and a paler mottle from the one solution.

My finished bundles so far. Many more to do. I have also been dyeing Pimatex PFD alongside Batik Base and finding no difference at all in the finished cloth.

Block 1 in my new applique series, has been stitched by my wonderful stitcher (my sister, who just loves these) I have finally convinced her to use Glide thread instead of Rasant for the stitch. Even she agrees that the quality of Rasant thread seems to have decreased in our opinions. Seems more lint accumulates in the bobbin. I am hoping to have 16 of these completed soon. They are based on tiles rotating around a central point for the design.

I have also been adding new fabrics to my shop. I have quite a few fabric bolts sitting in our lounge room (the storage area for most things). Who watches the very dismal programs on our Main Stream Media in Australia anymore? We definitely don't and during this current Fuel Crisis caused by world issues but also both our main political parties, who wants to listen to them, so our Lounge Room has been converted to de facto fabric storage so the TV stays OFF.

Family wise, it has been school holidays and they have all been busy so haven't visited us. I did get to Mundubbera to catch up with my siblings as they were tidying up Dad's House. This has been a long project but getting to it's final stages. I am still waiting on legal documents to complete other issues.

I brought home a chiming clock. After working out how to adjust it, it is merrily chiming and telling us the time all through the night and day. Amazing what childhood memories surface when you hear the sounds. Both my sets of grandparents had these. My grandmother also had a digital clock which she would touch in the night and the Siri like voice would tell her the time. She liked both of them. Somehow I think I prefer the chiming. Will be interesting to see what the grandkids think.

It is fascinating to sit and watch the mechanism as it belts out the hour strikes.

Also in the box of memorabilia, I was given more family photographic slides to digitise. I found this little beauty from 1966, sitting on the stairs eating a biscuit. It looks like I had the sleep apnoea eyes back then too.  

One great excitement in the family, I haven't mentioned is Dad was posthumously inducted into the Australia Citrus Growers Hall of Fame as a recognition for his life long work in the Citrus Industry. My siblings went to the conference in Adelaide in March to receive his plaque. He spent most of his life developing the orchard and new markets etc with his OAM rewarding him. This was industry recognition as well for him. 

I found this slide of the wooden boxes label before they changed to Here's the Best brand. The picture is of our house, my grandparent's house and the original packing shed. I can vaguely remember this label which was before my grandparents retired to Mundubbera in 1965. The same house which we have been cleaning up and sorting out 2 lifetimes of possessions. I have already been hearing about what my 2 daughters plan on doing with all of my quilts and stuff. I am not sure if I want to hear more about that.

Will keep you updated with progress on the quilt blocks.

March Madness

March Madness is certainly the phrase. We jetted off to the South Island of New Zealand for a woodchop competition. The over 60's (Veterans) Australian men vs New Zealand veterans. The first race was at the Invercargill Show. This was the playground beside the competition.  They were quite amusing to watch. We won the first race (best of 3)

Having a few days between the shows we drove out to Lake Te Anau on the west coast, where we did a few tourist events. We visited the Glow Worms up from Te Anau. Amazing to think they are merely eating sandflies which cause their glowing. ATP was mentioned, (adenosine tri phosphate) from the Krebs cycle in energy production in their tails. We followed that up by sailing on a 90 yr old boat on the lake. The owners are very passionate about their vessel and also took us for a hike through the fiordland forests.

This is actually a fungus turning the rotting timber the teal colour.

We also went on a helicopter flight up to the top of the mountains above Te Anau and then back to Lake Manapouri.

After the old boat sail, we hopped into a Jet Boat with some other woodchoppers and went down the river from Lake Te Anau. Drinking water straight from the lake is something you can't do here at home.

We hopped on a bus and went out to Milford Sound the next day, stopping at the Mirror Lakes and the Flat where everybody has to have their photo taken. The site was used in some movies. 

Milford Sound is very spectacular and we were lucky a small amount of misty rain fell, making small waterfalls appear.

We ended up at Wanaka where I managed to swim in the Clutha River. A very brief swim but I did submerge myself after taking this photo to show how clear the water is. A very beautiful spot.

Meanwhile back home, we had 350mms rain in a very short while, bringing back the floods like 2013 but not quite as high. Muddy brown water everywhere not like these scenes at all.

These photos are like postcards used to be. I would have liked to be there a few weeks later with the leaves changing colour in the deciduous trees. 

If life allows us, we would like to go back in winter time. As always, wait and see.

 

February Round 2- Some Frustrations

 I mentioned previously that I hoped to crank up the sewing machines. I did make a start and managed to sew 2 long sleeved shirts from an old pattern in my collection, well I thought I was doing great. The shirts have ended up being sleeveless. I need to drop the armhole, widen the sleeve a bit. My swimming regime has strengthened my arms. Lucky for me, I had to work the weekend where I could pick up bias tape (I know I could make it, even though it has got pretty pricey) from Spotlight Bundaberg to finish them off. Whilst in there, I had a look through a pattern book. Apparently these are also going the way of the dinosaurs. The parent company has been sold in the USA so I believe that my collection of patterns and Burda Magazines will have to suffice in the future.  I did manage to buy this pattern. I recently found a Muu Muu pattern 2nd hand and this is slightly similar to it. So, I get around to cutting the pattern out to discover that it is probably the wrong size. I did a bit of online shopping for the smaller size and paid albeit reluctantly the inflated postage price for 1 pattern. Since running a small online retail business I know what the actual AUSPOST postage charges are and am glad that I do not inflate my postage costs for my customers. I have the fabric sorted for the second style, just waiting for the smaller pattern to arrive. I am thinking we might use these as a style for our future Pop Up shops for Batik Fabrics.

One of my fabric customers purchased a set of fabrics for the Modern Quilt Studio Mystery Quiltalong commencing February 20, 2026. I looked it up, read about it, They are using Grunge fabrics, whilst I prefer Batiks and obviously she does too. I signed up, decided to use prints as opposed to her tonals and I think I will use a navy background while she is using cream. We get our first instructions sometime on Friday or Saturday so we will start doing some sewing. I need 23 fabrics plus background so a few may be deleted or swapped. We will keep you updated.

Beginning of Febrary 2026

 Often been said "Where the bloody hell did January go?". I feel like that this year. The heat, the tennis, trying to unpack fabric boxes, keep up with the fitness routines and trying to tidy up after Christmas, (shifting furniture to accommodate all of the grandkids that needed a bed) kind of spilled over into re arranging 5 rooms in this house, including the Batik Fabrics Online fabric rooms. So, February (the BEST month of the year) has arrived and I feel just maybe, I am catching up.

My new corner for my laptop, instead of using the large table (my sewing table) as a very untidy desk. My laptop was currently in use in the other office in this photo.

It was a very hot day, so here it is out under the one air conditioner in this old queenslander.

A flatbed scanner is on the sewing cabinet. The table you can see, belongs to a purchase made late January. I went on a road trip to Strathpine, met a wonderful lady who was selling her 1 year old Juki Industrial Straight stitch sewing machine. I was driving Dad's RAV 4, and the table plus machine fitted perfectly in the back so I figured he was smiling from above. One of his lifelong passions was visiting clearing sales and acquiring old stuff and making do. I have actually used it to sew a facing on a quilt. 

My thoughts are, I used to have to clear my table of paperwork, fabrics etc, lift a heavy machine on, set it up etc before I even sewed a stitch. Now, I just walk in, remove the cover and turn it on, It actually talks to me, sit and sew. Plus, it is under the air con!  Happy Days. 

The fabric room just inside the door, still needs a bit more re arranging but there is lots of new fabrics to move in yet so is still a work in progress.

The main cutting table, and the Long Arm sitting patiently waiting. I use the table part as storage for stationery supplies and underneath for fabric. I do turn it on regularly to keep it oiled but I do still hope to have time to actually quilt with it again.  Will let you know how February turns out, as we go.

January 2026 No New Year's resolutions.

 I am finally catching up with the date. Christmas 2025 and now New Year 2026. I have been reflecting on life in general after Dad's passing at the age of 90. I know that after birth, death is a certainty, and you always hope that family members live their lives to the fullest that they can. Having experienced infant deaths in our close family members also makes you grateful for long lived lives and cherish your grandchildren if you are lucky enough to have any.

I have not made any resolutions for this year. I have come through 15 months of lifestyle changes including weight loss, a fitness regime that seems to be working, and managing CPAP therapy to the extent that I no longer need prescription drugs to lower blood pressure and manage my blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. I am also pleased I no longer have to run the machines that measure those levels too in my professional job. One dream for this year though is to make more of an effort to keep up with family (all too often it seems we catch up at funerals!) We are going to have a family reunion in Mundubbera in July. I seem to have been tasked with the preliminary organisation of it. We are going to walk/ride the new Rail Trail from Philpott into Mundubbera for a start.

I didn't find much time for my art quilts in 2025,and hope to enjoy a few hours per week delving back into creating. I think we have 2 exhibitions for Tangled Threads this year. Time and Place is one theme which I have a piece nearly ready for. The Space Between is the 2nd theme with a colour challenge lurking in there for good measure. I will try to show my progress if any.

The above quilts are of a Baltimore Style shadow applique quilt I made in the 1990's which we ( my sister and I) worked on re-creating using batiks and some more modern applique from April to July 2025. We finished it in time for my Pop Up shop at Bundaberg Quilters Exhibition in August 2025. I am so lucky in my Tangled Threads group we have a long armer who custom quilted it for me. I now stock suitable background fabrics and patterns for the new quilt in my online shop, Batik Fabrics Online.

On the farm front, we have continued the leucaena plantings and also pangola grass. This has helped with shortening the turnover time of finished cattle leaving the property and has eased the stocking rate pressures. I really wish someone would take over the farm accounting as well but the magical fairy hasn't arrived yet. Yes, we have also been chief dog whisperer while his owner goes travelling.

I have successfully transitioned to a casual microbiology scientist filling in on weekends once a month for where I spent a huge chunk of my life. Pathology Qld's upper bean counters (or whatever it's new title is) as it changes with each new Government have maybe realised in this era of difficulty finding regional staff that are suitably experienced are utilising their older employees in a more appropriate way. I am now 1 of 3 casuals which provide enormous assistance to the permanent staff.  How long will I keep doing it for? Depends on my health and fitness. I did have some elective surgery in October to fix 2 issues and that seems to be fixed at this stage so that could help to keep me there longer.

I have systematically been cleaning out my fabric room and with some re arrangement of our living room and spare bedrooms have a much better organised work space for batik fabrics and my sewing. Still a huge work in progress though as I have quite a bit of new stock to process.

I did attend the Australian Quilt and Craft Market in November for retailers. It was quite interesting to meet some wholesalers in person and meet some pattern designers too. The flight home was an adventure with a fire in the Qantas terminal shortly before we were due to board our flight. We ended up staying an extra night in Melbourne and finally left 13 hrs later. My daughter (the well seasoned traveller) says Melbum is now NOT on her bucket list to return to, causing her PTSD.  I am not sure if I will spend the dollars to attend this year. 

Currently I am also working through learning to use EQ8, the quilt design program I have had for years but struggled to work out how to use it to its potential. I want to do this for further designing of blocks and quilt patterns for Batik Fabrics Online. So, looks like another busy year (I hope sales wise) ahead and hopefully some spare time for art quilts. I know I say it every year, hope to blog more too. Hope to see you around as well.

Mr Henry Allan Meyer OAM ( My Father)

 

Mr Henry Allan Meyer 20.9.1935 - 23.10.2025. This photo was taken during 1991 when he was President of the Australian Citrus Growers Federation.

He was the third generation of citrus growers with his Grandfather Philip Meyer planting citrus trees near Gayndah in 1914. His father Henry Harry Meyer moved to an area between Gayndah and Mundubbera called Philpott to continue growing citrus and run a dairy farm where he met and married Alice Kathleen Mitchell. They moved to a Coonambula Road property west of Mundubbera to continue farming there in 1941 as it was considered a better property and in 1945 the first citrus trees were planted, all 250 of them. 

My Dad's claim to fame at an early age was successfully burning down the boy's toilet at Riverleigh School by a misadventure with fire crackers.  He left school and attended Gatton College for further rural based education. Met his future wife Thelma Meredith at the age of 17, when she was 15 at the Annual Mundubbera Show Ball. Performed a year of National Service. Decided that Thelma was the girl for him a year later and if she didn't want to go out with him for their first official date in the Bedford Truck then she was not the girl for him. Luckily for myself and siblings she was quite happy to go in the Bedford Truck and they were married on the 31.8.1957 and 3 children were born during the late 1950's - 60s.

 The restored Bedford Truck.

 I can remember it as a blue colour. It was lovingly restored during the 2000's. I think this was the truck which as a 7 yr old I toppled off the back of when sweeping hay away after feeding cattle and the broom caught on the metal lip and I woke up in the Mundubbera Hospital with concussion a few hours later.

It was used as part of his funeral procession where we took him on a last tour of Mundubbera. He always said, we would take him for a last drive over the bridge and leave him over the other side. We did that Saturday 1.11.2025 and he has been re united with his beloved Thelma (Granny).

He was a very active farmer and lived through rapid changes in the citrus industry. He started out marketing fruit in wooden boxes with very little post harvest treatments to prolong shelf life. He saw cardboard cartons, washing, treating and waxing of fruit enter the post harvest treatments. He participated in exporting citrus to Japan, Canada and other markets. I can remember as a 16 year old when studying at university going along with my family one night to dinner on a container ship with the Captain. 

 Amazing what you find on the internet. A model of it. It was part of the Scan Austral Fleet later being sold to the US for military purposes. It was very interesting going on a guided tour of this while the older folk ate, drank and talked business. I currently am waiting on a shipment of fabric to arrive for Batik Fabrics Online via a container ship but wont be able to see it arrive.

Dad built most of the new equipment needed by learning to weld with the assistance of a local engineer Mr Kugel. A frequent visitor to the shed.

Mum and Dad worked the orchard for many years with my sister, brother and their partners and children until they decided to no longer carry on farming. My brother moved into the mining industry to satisfy his love of machinery, Mum and Dad retired to Mundubbera where according to him they sat in their dunrootin chairs and watched the traffic go by. My sister and husband continued running the farm for the new owners until they retired in 2018 to Bundaberg. 

I currently have 2 male cousins both carrying on the Meyer legacy of growing citrus, 1 in Mundubbera and 1 in Gayndah.

Today he is survived by 3 children, 3 in laws, 8 grandchildren, 5 grandchildren in law, and 13 great grand children. We certainly gave him a fitting farewell and he would have appreciated the final words Piss OFF, go to Buggery uttered at the end of his eulogy.  He spent hours trying to teach his grandchildren to say that phrase. 

I could regale you with many more stories but I wont. Thank you for allowing me to indulge some memories as I know this blog is supposed to be about quilts and fabrics but it is also about the person behind it.