Patches…

This was a very popular song in the 60’s and even today, there are some who still consider it as one of their evergreen favourites. I never liked the song though – I always thought it was kind of depressing because if you listen to the lyrics, you will see that the story is about a boy who wanted to marry a girl from a poor family background but the parents objected to the whole idea and resorted to “watching the door” to prevent them from meeting each other…and in the end, the poor girl, thinking that the boy did not love her anymore, committed suicide and she was “…found floating face down in that dirty old river…”

Anyway, this is not going to be about the song or the singer…nor a dog we once had and we called it Patches because of the patches of black that it had on its body, but about something my mother used to make when I was young. I remember how she would save bits and pieces of cloth and cut them into square or triangles and then she would arrange them in patterns and sew them altogether to make simple patchwork quilts for us to use as blankets. She also made smaller ones to cover the radiogram (and later the television set) and also the sewing machine.

Well, she does not make them anymore, of course…but the other day, when I was at the shopping mall round the corner from my house, I was captivated by these very lovely patchwork quilts on display. They have bed covers (with two matching pillow cases)…

…that may double as blankets for king or queen-sized beds…

…and smaller ones for singles…

…and they also have what they call carpets but I would prefer to refer to them as rugs…

…and cushions.

According to the people, they are from Korea and may be washed in the washing machine, no problem at all. Some of them are really so very beautiful even though they are obviously machine and factory made, not hand sewn or with a sewing machine…and definitely not the result of a labour of love like the ones my mum used to make.

I bought a few that day…

…including one for my friend, Jimmy, who is on transfer and will be leaving Bintulu and moving into his new house soon…and I also got one for my daughter…

…and keeping it for her till she comes home sometime in November.

I really was at a loss as to which to choose as they all seemed so nice to me – I certainly hope that they will be happy with the ones I have chosen for them.