Quilts

Mare Carter
Child's Patchwork quilt of pieced repeat blocks in red print and white cotton, in 'Bow Tie' pattern. Qult has cotton backing, and wool filling. Some patches are fraying. The quilt has 'Mary Lactitia Thompson' embroidered on it.
1905 x 1296mm
Sophia Haskas
Wholecloth quilt with one side of blue satin and the other of red cotton or sateen. Overall intricate quilting pattern with each part based on a symbol of Rhodes. On the blue side the quilting stitches outlining the deer have been over embroidered in gold braid. The padding is raw cotton.
2040 x 1750mm
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Machine pieced crazy patchwork quilt in plain, floral and striped cotton materials. Some pieces are seamed and others are sewn direct on to calico backing. Each piece is outlined in red stranded cotton in herringbone stitch.
2150 x 1770mm
Alysoun Ryves
Red Applique on an off white background. All applique is by hand using herringbone stitch. Three different red materials are used for the applique each printed with a different tiny all over pattern. There are 3 different applique shapes: the 9 major shapes have 8 points; the daisy pattern has 8 petals; the edge pattern is used along the top, left and half of the bottom edge of the quilt and sometimes has 4 points, sometimes 3 and sometimes 2. There is a tiny red piping around the quilt along the bottom and both sides. It is hand quilted in 100mm long zig zags 12mms apart all over the quilt. The quilt is signed twice on the front, once in ink and once in embroidery. It is signed 'Anna Edwards Jan 1858'. There is no padding and the backing material is similar to the off white background material of the top.
2270 x 2180mm
South Australian Museum
Skin rug of kangaroo or wallaby skins. Rectangular pieces stitched together.
Fran Williams
150 x 210mm pieces of bound suiting samples overlapped and machined together then herringboned with gold/yellow thread. Each piece has an embroidered motif, using single thread, mainly non Australian birds and animals. '1903' is embroidered on a centre piece. It is hand quilted. The backing is a black floral print. There is no padding.
1800 x 1940mm
Powerhouse Museum
"A quilt or coverlet of natural cotton sheeting with appliqueed motifs cut from a variety of crimson cotton damask. The quilt is hand sewn and nearly square and has a 12 cm border made from the same crimson damasks. The applique motifs consist of a range of hexagons, rosettes, flowers, hearts and stars that radiate outwards from a large centrally placed star shape. All are the same shade of crimson red which suggests they were dyed in the same dye pot. The fabrics are now quite thin and soft which suggests that the quilt, or the fabric it was made from, was well used." [PHM]
1960 x 1950mm
Sharlene Rogers (for Nadia Brookes)
Pieced squares, each square with a cross and 4 small squares in red. Crosses are in rows alternating 2 shades of blue and 2 of brown. Cream background. Now unlined but remnant blanket like material in corners. Originally had a cotton frill. Quilt was made from scraps of material used for making children's clothes.
Gloria Martin
Double sided quilt machine made from clothing scraps. Shapes are mainly rectangles in corduroy and wool blend. The padding is an old grey blanket.
1524 x 1372mm
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Patchwork quilt, machine construction in pink and white twill cotton, log cabin pattern. Each log cabin block was constructed with the backing in place, in groups of 4 blocks placed together. Each block 200mm in size.
2300 x 2050mm
Susan Shannon
This hand pieced and hand quilted hexagon quilt is in a pattern often called 'Grandmother's Flower Garden'. The background is white and there are concentric rows of double rosettes each with a yellow centre. The colours start in the centre of the quilt with pink and then follow the rainbow. Paper templates were used. The padding is cotton (American) and the backing is cotton floral poplin.
2360 x 1730mm
Margaret Eisenhauer
Wholecloth quilt covered with floral cretonne both sides, deep pink and yellow flowers on a cream background. The padding is hessian/jute type bags joined.
One of a pair but the other quilt is larger.
1800 x 900mm
Santa Maltese
A 'foot' quilt, "copri piedi" used on the bed. Pink satin top and blue satin backing. The pink top is hand embroidered in a trellis pattern in shadow stitch and within each section there are hand embroidered sprigs of flowers in silk threads. The whole top is elaborately quilted. The silk cord binding is twisted into four decorative loops at each corner. There is a thick padding of cotton grown locally in Sicily.
1260 x 650mm
June Brown
Rectangular cot quilt of green floral cretonne with pleated frill. Machine made. The backing is the same material. It is tied not quilted. The padding is old woollen jumpers.
1050 x 610mm
Alyce Wright
Cotton scrap quilt in a pattern known as 'Grandmothers Fan'. It is hand quilted. The padding is hand carded cotton and the backing is muslin.
2235 x 1880mm
National Trust of Australia (WA)
Hand sewn quilt (possibly child's or table top) of crazy patchwork in silk, silk ribbon and cotton velvet. The top has surface decoration of embroidery on all seams, feather stitch and blanket stitch variations. Many of the crazy patches are also embroidered. The centre patch has a rooster embroidered in lame thread. Embroidered motifs are hearts, butterflies, guitar, cow, Little Red Riding Hood, horseshoes, crown, clover leaf. Stitches are feather, stem, satin and blanket. Embroidered initials are 'B', 'R', and 'S'. The backing is dark grey silk.
840 x 840mm
Julianne Humphris
Patchwork quilt of hand sewn hexagons in a variety of print and plain cotton fabrics from 1950-1960. Colours are mainly pinks, blues, greens and yellow, with some red, and white. Quilt has a wide border of yellow poplin, which also forms the backing. No padding.
2280 x 1520mm
Heather Roobol
Patchwork quilt has three centre squares, one in blue/white/brown in a cross pattern, one in framed square, one with diagonal strips in a pink frame. The rest of the quilt is made from strips of rectangles in different sizes sewn in rows. There is a narrow pieced frame, then an outer border of pieced rectangles. Mostly pastel colours. No padding. Backing is calico. There is a little embroidery.
2160 x 1601mm
Margery Creek
Cotton quilt made in the USA. The pattern is called 'Turkey Tracks'. It has a cotton backing and a bottle green binding. The red patches have faded to pink. The quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted. Two names are written on tape sewn on the back viz: Cora Phelps and M.Hoover.
2135 x 1727mm
Marie Pye
Quilt of scrap hexagons. Hand pieced over papers with some papers still in place. Materials used include seersucker, plisse, chambray and various other textured cottons used in dressmaking. The owner has restored the quilt. The backing is a soft cotton in indigo blue and the padding is flannelettte. "I machine tied the quilt in its restoration using cream cotton at the intersections so that it doesn't impinge on the interesting fabrics and the overall scrap effects." [Marie Pye]
2590 x 2170mm

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