Quilts

Yass & District Historical Society
Patchwork quilt made of approx. 730 Suffolk Puffs, using mainly cotton materials in florals and plains. Each puff is 45mm diameter. The quilt centre has a square of 16 pink puffs outlined with a single row of blue puffs. Each corner of the quilt has a square of 9 puffs in a single colour. No padding. Quilt is edged and backed with a red and white tartan cotton.
Fleur Margaret Lehane
Unfinished cotton frame quilt. The centre square is 4 triangles and this is surrounded by a border of smaller triangles. Most of the other borders are of triangles in a wide variety of materials, printed and plain.
2286 x 1829mm
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
N.S.W. Parks and Wildlife Service
Double sided square quilt mainly in cottons. Side 1 has been made in 4 squares each consisting of different sized strips and rectangles. With side 2 there appears to have been 2 stages as if the quilt was extended perhaps to match side 1. It is also squares, rectangles and strips. Sparsley machine quilted. There is no binding but side 2 has been turned over to side 1 and stitched by machine.
1525 x 1525mm
Western Australian Quilters' Association
Quilt made from furnishing materials, mostly velour type or uncut moquette. The colours are dusty pinks and beige/camel/blue. It has been put together by making wide strips of various sized rectangles sewn together and any missing piece in a rectangle added by using another piece of material to complete the shape. There is no padding and the backing is winter cotton.
2000 x 1650mm
Yvonne Hore
Reversible quilt. Both sides are small squares of cotton scraps mainly left over from children's clothes. Plain and patterned pieces in a wide variety of colours. Hand stitched. Padding is pieced men's clothing, jumpers, cardigans, trousers. The present owner zig zagged over the seams, bound the edges and 'clouted' (her term) it in circles and squares.
2080 x 1570mm
Old Government House
Patchwork quilt in Log Cabin pattern made from silks, velvet, cottons and taffetas, in prints and plain, around a centre squares of black velvet. Colours are, in the dark sections, blues, greens, browns, yellow and pinks. The base of the blocks is blue and white ticking. The padding is probably cotton. Backing is of green cotton. There is an attached frill on all sides of green cotton, faded to dull light brown.
1630 x 1350mm
Art Gallery of South Australia
Patchwork quilt made of hexagons in cottons in a variety of prints. The patches are arranged in the 'Grandmother's Flower Garden' pattern, with dark patches around a light centre patch. The 'paths' are cream cotton. The border is made from diamond shapes placed alternately vertical and horizontal, between two edges of red striped fabric, with mitred corners.
No padding. Backing is red cotton, embroidered 'M.A. Wilson 1863'. Handsewn.
2500 x 2170mm
The Pioneer Women's Hut
The top is a wholecloth piece of twill type cotton and the backing is a wholecloth piece of finer patterned cotton. The padding is a layer of pieces of used clothing stitched together, including part jumpers, some darned. These are inside an old folded blanket.
1540 x 950mm
The Temora Rural Museum
All cotton hexagon quilt using a wide variety of colours and patterns. The hexagons were hand stitched by Sylvia Schleibs in the same style she and her daughter, Norma Gilchrist, had previously made 3 hexagon quilts. There is a calico border and backing.
2000 x 1450mm
National Trust of Australia (SA)
Quilt made of white cotton net, embroidered or 'voided', with an all-over pattern of parrots perched on branches and flying around a flowering tree. There is a tufted effect on the edges of figures. The top has a centre panel with 2 side panels attached to match the pattern. Quilt is lined with white cotton, and edged with a white cotton fringe. There are 2 matching pillowshams. Handsewn.
11920 x 1830mm
Wanda McPherson
Patchwork quilt made from pure wool suiting samples in shades of navy blue and brown. Quilt is constructed in 11 rows containing 11 pieces. Each piece is 14cm x 9cm. No padding. Backing is of mauve cotton with a floral pattern of closely spaces white/pale mauve flowers.
1480 x 900mm
Valinda Gale
Patchwork quilt made from squares of cotton prints in florals, stripes, spots and checks, joined together in rows. Colours are predominantly blues, reds, yellow and pastels. Binding is of turquoise blue fabric. Materials appear to be from the 40s or 50s. Patches caught in the middle with a woollen knot - red, yellow, blue wool. No quilting. Backed in blue fleecy flannel.
Single bed length and width.
Bob Sloan
Double sided quilt made from all wool worsted suiting samples. Machine construction. There is no padding.
1840 x 1330mm
Barbara McCabe
"A single bed cover made up of squares and recrangles of woollen fabric pieced together by a Vicker Sewing Machine from Myer Melbourne. The fabrics are either new (left over scraps) or used (unpicked woollen garments). The backing is an old (used) candlewick bedspread. There is no padding. It is faded and worn due to being used for other purposes later. There is a 66 cm high clown that ahs been appliqued on mainly by hand using blanket stitch. It is also made from scraps of fabric. The hands were cut from an old felt hat."
2400mm x 1660mm
Griffith Pioneer Park Museum
Patchwork quilt made from hexagon patches of cotton, silk, brocade, sateen and wool. Some silk patches are individually lined. Colours are mainly red, blues, purple, black, yellow and brown, with some pastels. Many silk patches have disintegrated, showing the paper templates. Quilt has a brown cotton inner lining, then a blue cotton backing, and is edged on the reverse with checked silk. Hand sewn by more than one person: one experienced sewer, one not so experienced.
1370 x 1170mm
Despina Petridis
Wholecloth quilt made of deep pink satin with a cotton backing in a similar colour. The padding is cotton. It is hand quilted and the pattern is a central motif of a star inside a circle surrounded by parallel lines forming large cable or knot design. The border is of one zig zag and four parallel lines.
1970 x 1770mm
National Gallery of Australia
"A medallion or framed quilt in design. There is a central field of small patchwork diamonds, and from this radiates plain stripes of fabric bordering areas of patchwork panels. The edge of the quilt carries bands of red cotton, which are slightly larger at the top and bottom edges, and here the band is additionally decorated with appliqué diamonds. The fabric of the patchwork is cotton in fine plain weave of pale coloured florals and small geometric designs. The framing and border stripes are of bright red twill weave cotton. The small diamonds of the central field are hand sewn, with more use of machine stitching around the outer edge of the quilt.
The quilt is not padded. The patchwork is fully lined with a printed plain weave cotton fabric with a design commemorating Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The design is based on a repeated grid of circles. In the centre of each circle is a cameo of Queen Victoria, surrounded by images of the national flowers of England, Scotland and Ireland: the rose, the thistle and the shamrock. The edge of the front face of the quilt is trimmed with a red and white cotton braid." [NGA] 2380 x 2220mm
Ella Jarvis
Wholecloth quilt of pink satin with machine qulting in squares across the main part of the quilt, and two rows of two lots of stitching around the wide border. The quare pattern on the quilt top is overlaid with a grid of applied thick white braid. Backing of cotton. Padding appears to be enclosed in white cotton. Fragile condition.
1650 x 1370mm
Julie Pearce
Rectangular quilt of print and plain cottons pieced in squares and rectangles, the centre group of pieces surround a larger piece of pale blue fabric, within a frame or border, of bright pink material, then 3 rows of squares and rectangles. Backing of plain fabric. Machine stitched on a treadle machine.

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