Quilts

Guna Naoumidis
Wholecloth quilt made of gold satin with a backing of beige coloured cotton. The padding is wool. The quilting pattern is an all over diamond pattern, framed in a border of straight and wavy parallel lines. It is hand quilted.
2000 x 1820mm
Mary Robertson
Domestic Wagga made from 3 bags joined (the bags feel lighter than the jute wheat or flour bags) and covered back and front with floral cotton featuring large roses in red and oranges. The cover is machined.
1750 x 840mm
Shelley Cameron
Cotton scrap quilt with shapes of squares and diamonds and strips. There is no padding and the backing is calico.
2125 x 1440mm
The Queensland Women's Historical Assoc.
Hexagon rosettes of printed and plain cotton in a flower pattern. Incomplete, top layer only.
2439 x 1981mm
Joan Bradford
Utility quilt with wholecloth top and backing of twill upholstery material. Machine construction. Padding is 2 layers of wool blanket. Stitched through all 4 layers.
1474 x 1093mm
National Trust of Australia (SA)
Hand stitched unfinished crazy quilt with patches placed around a centre hexagon pieced in log cabin type strips. Materials are mainly silks and satins and pieces are mounted on grey cotton material. Seams are overstitched in herringbone stitch. 1520 x 760mm
Kay Bruce-Smith
Quilt top. The centre piece is appliqued with cross strips and triangles with 'Chester 4 �.' printed on a centre blue strip. The last letters are difficult to read. The borders are triangles, rectangles and squares in cottons (including dimity) and some chenilles.
1860 x 1760mm
Bud and Patricia Ford
Round rug of whip tail wallaby skins pieced into centre circle. Skins have been joined and then stitched on to maroon baize backing which has traditional punched scalloped edge. The skins are wattle bark tanned. Diameter 1449mm
Margaret Wright
Crazy patchqork quilt, handsewn, composed of six large squares of patches in brocade, velvet and silk in random shapes and sizes. Patches are stitched to others by blanket stitch in yellow thread. Some patches have surface embroidery, e.g. a dragonfly, flowers, music notes, and names, 'Minnie', 'Loyetta' (house in Ballarat), 'Diana'. There are also five small cream bobbles. Colours are red, gold, brown, pinks, greens and blues. Padding is flannel, and quilt is backed and edged with maroon or burgundy ribbed silk.
1461mm x 687mm
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
Mr. K.Green
Crazy patchwork quilt made from silk, cotton and velvet in pastels and rich dark colours with a wide border of dark burgundy silk velvet. Decorative embroidery stitches including straight, herringbone and feather edge each piece. Most pieces have embroidered motifs including crown, flowers, horseshoe and Australian motifs of wattle and emu. Date '1891' worked in cross stitch on one piece. The padding is wool and the backing dark red satin and these are joined by diagonal machine stitching in yellow thread.
1750 x 1100mm
Molly Palmer
Patchwork quilt with repeat blocks of Log Cabin pattern in cottons. One side of the square has blue fabrics, the other side has pink. Blocks are separated by a floral and a blue strip. The quilt is finished with a dark blue border on 2 sides, and a light and dark blue border on the other 2 sides. Dark blue binding around edge. Hand quilted with a cable pattern on the borders. Padding is probably synthetic. The quilt is backed.
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
Mary Elizabeth (Beth) Burnett
Tumbling Block quilt made from pure silk ribbons, patterned and plain. The quilt edge follows the block shapes. The backing is polished cotton printed with flowers.
2743 x 2439mm
Barbara McCabe
Patchwork quilt made of squares and rectangles in woollen fabric, stitched together without any particular pattern. Colours are mainly green, grey, blue, black, pink and some yellow. Fabrics are plain, checks and stripes. No padding, quilting or binding. Backing is a remnant of synthetic fabric. The quilt has been well sued and is very worn with fabric torn and marked in some places.
1400 x 400mm
Jean Cameron
White cotton quilt with blue embroidery. There is a lattice grid embroidered with 30 squares one way and 24 the other and in each square there is an embroidered signature or initial. In one is "The Home Missions Fete 1923" and in the centre "D.A.Cameron, Moderator" the date 1921-22 and 24 signatures within a more heavily embroidered rectangle. There is no padding and the backing is white cotton.
2120 x 1680mm
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Double sided patchwork quilt. Machined squares and rectangles joined in strips and then the strips joined. Wide variety of materials, mainly woollen from hand or machine knitted jumpers, many patched. All materials came from worn garments from family and friends of the maker. No padding.
1860 x 1410mm
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
Pioneer Settlement Authority
Centre medallion of hexagons surrounded by blocks of tumbling blocks. Rows of triangles around the edge. Each corner has a star within a hexagon. Hand stitched with the traditional 20 stitches to the inch. There is a silk tassle in each corner. Materials include: silk, silk ribbon, taffeta, brocade, velvet, striped silk, faille. The backing is cream holland.
1580 x 1510mm

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