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.

October Family Notes and November Update

 I have to acknowledge a story of survival, brought about by the dedication of carers at the hospital run aged care facility caring for our father. He has now spent 16 months being completely dependent on his carers and us for everything. He turned 90 in September and we gathered up his siblings and as many of his children and grand children to spend the morning with him. He still loves his small pieces of chocolate and the time people spend beside him. If his old self knew what he would be doing now, he would be appalled and angry but thankfully he isn't. 

We also took the opportunity that day to meet the newest member of the family with a new granddaughter in law meeting quite a few of the rest of us. Always exciting when love prevails.

A further update:

This post had been sitting in Draft form for 2 weeks.

Our Dad went into palliative care on Monday 20 October after losing the ability to swallow and aspiration pneumonia was beginning.

He passed away Thursday 23 October 2025 after a very busy life.

Vale: Mr Henry Allan Meyer OAM.

A pioneer and servant to the Citrus Industry of Mundubbera and to the Meyer Family.

I will dedicate a further post to his story in the upcoming days.

'

The Obligatory New Year's Eve Post

 Apart from being shocked at the very small amount of blogging for 2024, I have mixed emotions about seeing 2024 go by. Warning: this post is very full of memories, so if you wish to bail out now, I don't mind, it is helping me to write this.

It has been a busy year for all of us here at Ivanhoe. I reluctantly ended up on extended leave from my part time Medical Lab Science position. This did allow me to concentrate more on my sideline business of retailing Batik Fabrics for the discerning quilter. Despite the economic conditions forced on us by our federal and state governments, my small business has continued to grow. Am not sure if I am responsible for this growth by my fabric selections and great service or just more people are searching for quality batiks at reasonable prices. The closure of a few more local quilt shops may help my business but, in my area, 3 have been sold and reopened with younger people at the helm. 

The cattle business has thrived and we have been busy planting leucaena. A few hiccups along the way but the special fencing and learning about seed planting depths and weed control has seen some economic advantages in our finished weights. We have continued on with the red brangus breed.

My quilting and art quilts, has been a slow process. I entered this into the Textile Art Biennale but it wasn't selected. It is a combination of piecing, crochet cord, quilting and needle lace stitches. This took me about 8 months to complete, and the long time was partly caused by an issue with my eyesight (seems to be caused by obstructive sleep apnoea) I had never heard of floppy eyelid syndrome until I saw an opthamologist in August. Am currently on a weight loss mission, as well as learning to sleep on my side to see if it improves without a CPAP machine. 

Photographing it certainly taught me some more skills. I made 2 new pieces for our Tangled Threads exhibit in Wondai for Botanicals and that's it for my art quilts.  Next year we have a new Exhibition for June called Time and Place. I am hoping for 1 piece at least. 

In December, after using up my leave, I resigned from my Part Time position and soon will be going back for re training to work as a casual scientist in Microbiology only. This will be a challenge both time wise and thinking wise. The work should be slightly easier as we now have new devices to help us identify bacteria much more quickly than in the past. If I manage retraining, I will be on a 1 weekend every 4 weeks roster.

Family wise, the children and grandchildren are all busy with school, work and living. My father entered full time care (reluctantly at first in January) and has continued to decline ever since. A hip fracture whilst in care in June with subsequent surgery to repair it, has ended his mobility and he has been bed bound since. His dementia has turned him into a different person from the always thinking farmer engineer that he was. Right up until the weekend which saw him taken into hospital he was still building things with timber in his good moments. Sadly as the year has progressed, they have been less and less.

Weather wise, the year has been wet! We received rain when we needed it, then lately it has been when we don't need it. Flooding and dodging the water over our 2 bridges in either direction from home has been the norm lately, but it is better than the mind sapping droughts we have suffered.

One thing I am proud of is my self discipline with swimming. I have managed to reach 2 goals and am continually adding a few more. I managed to swim 5km in under 2.5hrs non stop and can now do butterfly stroke, might not be the prettiest butterfly stroke in the pool but I do get to the other end. I need to channel the same discipline into my art practice. The IT skills I have learnt from having my small business have been quite immense and this is where the discipline has been focused. Currently am teaching myself to use the long ago acquired Electric Quilt 7 with a view to adding PDF patterns to Batik Fabrics Online. I have a mentor in Kingaroy who has been a great help.

During the Christmas week, I spent some time with my Brother and Sister in Law sorting out Dad's house. It was great excitement to find a box of photo slides taken in the 60's. Told you this post was full of memories! I have managed to save them digitally and this is just a few.

Quite a few photos of Mum dressed up, (Dad used to love seeing her dressed up!) and in her swimming togs, which I wont show on here.

Myself at the age of 6. My hair was already doing it's own thing.

A few cousins, sister and brother at our grandparent's house (there were 6 boy cousins missing that day but we had the eldest and youngest of all of us there), where my sister and I learnt to sew! Grandma and Grandpa certainly ran a great holiday house.

My sister and younger brother at the holiday house.

My sister and I off to school. I still have the weird legs, probably the cause of the osteoarthritis which I now suffer from. At least we had a hat and shoes on.

Christmas in 1966, where our tree was always a Box Tree (not sure of the correct genus name, some sort of Eucalypt, not the English version of Box), cut down on Christmas Eve and usually wrapped in crepe paper as we could not afford many decorations. See the little face down the bottom right, my brother who was 2 yrs old. Again my hair was doing it's own thing.

So, it's afternoon on New Years Eve, we are currently flood bound in one direction after another deluge yesterday. Some parts of Kingaroy had 275mm in a couple of hours, so it comes down the Stuart River and floods our low bridge. We drove in last night and posted the orders for fabric so they would not be delayed and smelt the water rising up fast as we drove back over the bridge. I think we had about an hour to spare. Am looking forward to 2025 with some trepidation as it will be a juggling act time wise, physically and emotionally. Wishing you all the best and hope if 2024 has been difficult for you, that maybe 2025 treats us better.

Back to Blogging

 After a hiatus which has gone on for longer than expected I am back to blogging. Life has been a bit busy. After having 6 months away from my Medical Scientist job, I decided to go back to work in November but not as a continuous shift worker but day shift only and working in Microbiology. This certainly kept me busy as well as running my Batik Fabrics Online store. Due to staffing issues, I am now required to be a continuous shift worker again, working night shifts and unfortunately my body cannot stand up to this, so am now once again taking leave which looks like it will be until I have no more leave to take. This leaves me with mixed feelings about quite a few issues. It will certainly give me more time for Batik Fabrics Online so am looking forward to developing it further if the current economic outlook lets me.  Batik Fabrics Online — Arrivals in Store   is where you can find my store. I have been busy adding new fabrics ordered 6 months ago. I am also in the process of setting up a blog for Batik Fabrics Online and have now added a pinterest account as well. 

Currently I am in the WIRE program learning how to use ChatGPT in your business amongst other resources hoping this helps me become more resilient and can understand and use IT tools more effectively.

 My own personal art journey has also slowed so am certainly looking forward to getting back on track with it. I have been working for months now on a piece for Tangled Threads upcoming exhibition in Wondai Gallery this year.  Friday 23 February sees our Alchemy exhibit open in Chinchilla Gallery so I might pop along to have a look. 

Family wise, we had a quiet Christmas, sharing the day with our 2 daughters, son in law and grandkids up at Agnes Water where they were holidaying for a week. Back through Bundaberg we stopped off for a family Boxing Day lunch where we had Dad and his siblings together for quite likely their last formal lunch together. He has since been moved into care as he can no longer live by himself even with daily visits from the nurses. This has been a struggle for us all, but it is improving.

Farm wise, it was getting pretty desperate during October with some stock losses (mainly due to dam bogging even though we have troughed most of Ivanhoe) and cows dying during calving so it was a huge relief to see the rain arrive late November. Our federal government needs throwing out of office for not removing the people in charge of our BOM Bureau of Meterology ( Manure) as it is nicknamed. These people do not know how to do weather forecasts and caused cattle prices to slump with their forecast of a severe el nino which didn't eventuate. We get more accurate long range predictions from AV Weather. We have used his knowledge for years now but we cannot control the cattle market when BOM gives out inaccurate information using computer models instead of doing correct data analysis of actual conditions. 

I have included some photos of batik fabrics to show you the wide range of styles that batiks can be. 

I have also done some hand dyeing of fabric, I did a short online course with Jane Dunnewold last October and now am nearly ready to do more. I have bought a gelli plate and am waiting for some paints to arrive so am hoping to soon have some fabrics coloured by me ready to use, either in my store or in my art projects, September is creeping up fast, will keep you informed of any progress.

Sad Last Days of Autumn 2023

 Sad last days of autumn 2023, saw my family mourning the loss of our dearest Mum. She spent the last few years of her life in care.  A short tribute to her vivacious spirit which kept her going when things  went against her. 

With her pet dog Freda, who occasionally got to visit her.

On her last birthday in August 2022. We managed to wheel her down to her house for a morning tea on her veranda with friends.

A wild, chaotic photo after numerous attempts with half of her great grandchildren in 2016. 

A small piece of my artwork which she admired and wanted to buy. So I  gave it to her and it hung on her wall in her room until she passed away 2 weeks ago.

A photo I took in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens of her favourite flower, the rose. This image was on her Frameo device which brought the world into her room. Love you Mum, RIP.