After nearly 75 years travelling the world, a historic World War 2 quilt made by members of the Strath Taieri Country Women’s Institute has returned home and been unveiled at a public ceremony in Middlemarch.
Middlemarch Museum curator Dawn Coburn said the quilt was created by 57 women from the institute in 1941-42, and sent to the front lines in the Middle East during World War 2, to keep wounded soldiers warm.
The women’s names, motifs and small pictures of farm animals and local scenery were embroidered on the quilt, along with words of encouragement for the troops.
Since the war, the quilt has slowly made its way back to Strath Taieri, via the Middle East, India, South Africa, Greece, the Netherlands and Australia.
It was last held by Queensland resident Chi Chi Murray, the granddaughter of an ambulance driver who was given the quilt during the war, by a soldier recovering from injury.
Mrs Coburn said the quilt was returned to Middlemarch in December last year, and after several months working out how to preserve it at the museum, it was revealed to the public in an official ceremony on Saturday.
"We had to work out how to display it. It’s never been able to be displayed in public.
"We’ve actually got it on a stand with a backdrop and a blind down the front.
"We were told not to cover it in glass because it needed to have air circulating around it.
"So to protect it from light and dust when the museum is not open, we pull down the blind on the front."
More than 140 people, from across the country and Australia, attended the ceremony, including 25 sons and daughters of the quilt’s creators, she said.
However, the guest of honour was the only surviving creator of the quilt, Margaret Donaldson, of Mosgiel.
"It was very special to have her there. She’s the only person still living who contributed to the quilt."
