Quilts

Barbara McCabe
Patchwork quilt made from squares of cotton fabrics, from curtains, left over from dress making projects, and new fabrics. Colours are bright primaries and some pastels, prints are checks, florals, stripes and plain. Pieces were stitched together without any particular order. No padding or quilting. Backing is a cotton bedspread in turquoise and blue stripes.
2520 x 1600mm
Lyn Uppill
Patchwork quilt of hexagons, handsewn, in print and plain cottons and rayon. Central star group has diamond shaped groups of patches, with smaller flower shapes, an inner border of a star shape in yellow hexagons, and an outer border of hexagons in vertical bands. Colours are mainly blues, reds, greens and yellow, the 'paths' and border are a pink print. The backing is herringbone stitched to the border or sashing, which has mitred corners.
2400 x 2340mm
Ruth Hansen
Quuilt constructed from large pieces of used clothing pieced together to form the top. There are layers of under shirts once used by the maker's father and also by her husband Bill. The backing is an old cream blanket.
1700 x 1200mm
Tanya Shephard
Patchwork quilt of squares measuring between 190mm and 220mm machined together. Materials include chenille, wool and nylon. There is no padding. The backing is green gabardine
1350 x 148mm
E Shuttle
Wholecloth quilt made from orange cotton cretonne for back and front. Padding is made from old blankets stitched together. The quilt weighs 16 lb.
1423 x 1118mm
The Queensland Women's Historical Assoc.
Quilt top of plain, floral and printed cotton hexagons in a diamond pattern, separated by plain white hexagons. Hand written letters have been used as templates and some are still in position but the ink is faded and the writing now illegible. Tacking stitches are still in place.
3048 x 2210mm
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Rug made from 54 Platypus skins; 6 rows of 9 rectangular pelts, brown with creamy yellow edges, machined together. The backing is red felt or baize and extends beyond the top with a punched scalloped border. The backing is hand stitched to the top and has a centre motif of a flower outlined in black braid within a large black rectangle. 1890 x 1635mm
Bill & Barbara Meynink
Patchwork quilt made from brightly coloured printed cotton fabrics in hexagon patches hand sewn together in rosettes, and stitched by machine onto a border of bright teal blue fabric. Fabric scraps for the patchwork were donated from friends. No padding. Backing is polished cotton curtain lining.
2312 x 1969mm
Diane Kern Hamilton
Dresden plate quilt with pointed pieces set around a white centre. Fabrics are checks, floral patterns and plains of the 1930s. The twenty blocks are sashed with plain mauve fabric which does not meet evenly in some places. The padding is two layers of cotton bedspreads. The backing is open weave rough quality cotton.
1860 x 1550mm.
Illawarra Historical Society Inc
Wholecloth quilt, both sides cretonne in different rose patterns. 120mm double frill matches each side. Padding is possibly hessian bags. It is hand quilted in large stitches in white/cream cotton in strips with circles, diamonds and scrolls repeated.
2070 x 2030mm
Marjorie Treasy
Machine sewn quilt made from 125mm squares of scraps left over from dressmaking, joined in strips and then the strips joined. There is a border of fawn cotton and the backing is the same material. The padding is an old blanket and the border is padded with sheep's wool.
1400 x 925mm
Brenda Bird
Suffolk Puff quilt made from a variety of scraps of dress materials including cottons and terylene. It is backed with white cotton sheeting and edged with a frill of white terylene. There is a matching pillow sham.
1740 x 1300 mm.
Sharon Stacy
Wholecloth quilt of white cotton with hand appliqued flowers in 3 shades of red. The centre of the quilt has 6 separate flowers radiating from a circle and each corner has a separate arrangement of flowers. The white cotton quilting is in diagonal lines and a daisy pattern. There is a narrow red border widely scalloped. The backing is white cotton. There is no padding.
2236 x 1905mm
Queenscliffe Historical Society Inc
Patchwork quilt made of 1 inch hand paper pieced hexagonal patches (English technique), with plain and floral patterned blue fabrics in clusters at regular intervals throughout the taupe coloured patches. Centre of quilt has a cluster or 'flower' of 4 rings of patches, the centre group embroidered in blue satin stitch: 'MW 1938'. Border consists of 3 rows of medium, light and dark blue hexagons. No padding. Backing is of blue cotton sateen.
2185 x 1372mm
June Brown
Reversible wholecloth quilt of floral cotton material with a sateen finish. Machine quilting in rows holds the layers together. Padding appears to be an old blanket, cream wool with grey and pink stripes.
1950 x 1850mm
National Gallery of Australia
"The quilt consists of 12 blocks of crazy patchwork with an embroidered border. The quilt is made of 167 different fabrics; most of these are silk. These velvets, printed silks and satins are beautifully embroidered with flowers, household items and Kate Greenway images of children at play. Many of the motifs have a strong influence from the Aesthetic Movement. The edge of the quilt carries a border in maroon silk decorated with tendrils and daisies in very fine embroidery.
The patches are joined with hand sewing and embroidery, however the 12 panels are joined with machine stitching (chainstitch machine stitching). The blue silk lining was hand sewn into position with silk thread." [NGA]
"The quilt does consist of three layers but the central layer is not padding. The crazy patch pieces were sewn together and this was lined with white cotton fabric prior to the embroidery at the edges of the 12 panels being placed. This in turn was lined with a fine blue silk." [NGA] 1810 x 1460 mm
Una Braby
Cotton quilt made from squares of patterned and plain materials. It has a mauve cotton flounce around the border and a mauve cotton backing. There is no padding.
2700 x 1350mm
Ida Blenkiron
Rectangular quilt with front and back made of rectangles of cotton samples of shirt materials, in checks, stripes and plains. Colours are soft muted reds, greens, blues, yellows and browns, and pastels. Construction is 3 to 4 rows of rectangles joined across the quilt. Padding is probably an old blanket. There is a row of hand quilting approximately the width of one patch in from the edge, holding the layers together.
1870 x 950mm
Nancy Stinson
The padding consists of layers of pieced used clothing including; part of machine knitted child's wool dress (Nancy had this when she was 3 or 4); part of father's cardigan; parts of 'neck to knee' bathers in light green and dark green wool. The padding is all hand pieced and machined around the edge. There have been 2 wholecloth cotton covers to this quilt. It is one of a pair.
1870 x 1020mm
National Gallery of Australia
"This is a coverlet of pale blue cotton muslin, highly decorated with appliquéd pieced bands, figures, and embroidery. The edge of the quilt is finished with bands of yellow, white and green cotton attached with ladder stitch.
Down the centre field of the design and 4 poems embroidered in quite crude chain stitch. Each piece of prose is accompanied by an appliquéd illustration. For example a large clock accompanies a poem of time. 'While shepherds watch their flocks at night�.'is illustrated with a beautiful scene of the manger watched by an angel, cows and sheep. The appliqué and embroidery is executed crudely with large stitches in running and overcasting. The quilt is signed, 'M.J.H. aged 84 yrs.1924.' " [NGA] There is no padding or lining. 1640 x 1540mm

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