Quilts

Historical Society of Cockburn
Handmade quilt in off centre log cabin pattern. Pieces are floral furnishing and dress fabrics, in twenty blocks. There is no padding, and backing is of bright floral cotton. 1900 x 1500 mm.
National Trust of Australia (SA)
Randomly patched quilt in many different colours and fabrics. There are appliquéd shapes over many pieces including Suffolk Puffs, hearts, hexagons and other shapes. There is an embroidered inscription "A11 to S11 1829" which is thought to mean AN to SN 1829. There is no padding and the backing is white cotton.
2000 x 2200mm
Bob Sloan
Double sided quilt made from all wool worsted suiting samples. Machine construction. There is no padding.
1840 x 1330mm
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
Peter and Jan Newman
Suffolk Puff quilt with puffs mainly in patterned cotton pieces saved from 60 years of household sewing. Puffs are formed into rosettes and the holes are on the top making a decorative feature. It is hand sewn.
2700 x 2400mm.
Maria Kirke
Wholecloth quilt made from deep pink satin. The quilting pattern is a centre circle with a stylised flower surrounded by crescent shapes. This is set in a square and there is a fan design in each corner. Parallel lines create a border. There is a frill on all sides of the quilt. The padding is raw cotton.
2000 x 1770 mm
Kereake Wray
Wholecloth Greek quilt. "The fabric is a beautiful silk satin with a formal pattern of soft yellows and pinks on a turquoise background. Surrounding this is a 40cm wide border also of silk satin (cerise coloured). The quilt is machine pieced but hand quilted. The method of quilting is very interesting. A thick cream twist has been used and at first glance it seems that the quilt is tied as there are long pairs of stitches with gaps of about 4cm between them. However, either a long needle was used to make a pair of stitches OR each side may have been quilted separately with the needle only going half way into the wadding which is about 2 cms thick." [Kereake Wray] The padding is kapok approx 2 cm thick and the backing is deep coral pink satin. 2200 x 1960 mm.
Patricia Cmielewski
Crazy patchwork quilt made from silk and cotton fabrics, in patterns and plains, in bright colours. Patches are arranged around a central diamond shaped patch in yellow which is bordered with light blue. All seams are covered with featherstitch and herringbone stitch. Patches were stitched onto a calico backing. A recent calico backing ahs been added and dark blue binding attached to the edge. No padding.
1555 x 910mm
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Double sided utility quilt made from machine pieced squares of tailors' samples and men's and boy's suitings. The padding is 5 or 6 layers of pieced used clothing including darned, threadbare socks, part jumpers, blanket pieces etc.
2090 x 1340mm
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
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
Margery Creek
This utility quilt is mainly constructed from long strips of cotton seed sack material. It is machine pieced and quilted by hand in a diagonal pattern. There is a red border. The backing is cotton flannelette and the padding is cotton.
1601 x 1525mm
Denise Frahn
Wholecloth quilt, machine sewn, made from cotton chintz with a pale green background and a floral pattern of bunches of pink roses and blue flowers, reversible. The centre is stitched in a diamond pattern with two outside borders, then filled with feathers, using a broom handle to force the feathers through. Cover made from 36" fabric, the pattern matched exactly. Excellent condition. Feather filling was collected by the makers from backyard poultry, geese, ducks, fowls. Called an eiderdown.
1830 x 1480mm
Alison Barlow
Quilt in traditional design called 'Seven Sisters'. Seven stars, each of six diamonds are set against a cream background, surrounded by bright pink triangles. Hand pieced and hand quilted. Padding is cotton, and backing is cream calico. 2100 x 1850 mm.
Joanne Pedler
Crazy patchwork cot quilt made from a wide variety of materials, patterned and plain. Some seams are overstitched with feather stitch and herringbone. One of a pair. There is no padding. The backing is taffeta.
1500 x 2000mm
Rosemary Blake
Single bed quilt made from sugar bags stitched together covered with a ticking type fabric. This inner layer is then covered with muslin, dyed yellow. It is similar in construction to 80RB but much lighter as the sugar bags are lighter than the heavy jute potato bags.
1520 x 990 mm
Teona Smith
Suffolk Puff or puff-ball quilt is made from scraps of dresses and pyjamas, mainly cottons, but also taffeta lining fabric, net, lurex, flocked organdie. The quilt is in bright clear colours, the fabric mostly in small prints, ginghams, different size spots, a few large prints, Chinese brocade, nylon. Puffs are 5cm across, and set 31 puffs across by 45 down. Puffs are squared off when whipstitched together, so corner holes are smaller than usual.
2180 x 1500mm
N.S.W. Parks and Wildlife Service
Double sided quilt. Side 1 has a central patch of small rectangles and borders of half square triangles. Seamed construction. Side 2 is crazy patch in wools and cottons on to a backing material. There is one round segmented circle in the centre. Machine pieced and quilted.
2050 x 1610mm
Yass & District Historical Society
Patchwork quilt made from diamond patches in the 'Cotton Box' pattern, in a wide variety of cotton fabrics, including plains, checks, stripes and florals. The patches have blotting paper templates. The quilt is edged with diamond shapes in a red floral cotton. The backing is of the same red floral pattern, featuring yellow, turquoise and white flowers and leaves. Hand sewn.
2135 x 2033mm
National Trust of Australia (WA)
Quilt of pale yellow cotton sateen with a centre star motif with 8 points in pink cotton sateen. A border of pink cotton sateen has pink triangles on each side. The quilt is machine sewn and elaborately hand quilted with designs including fleur-de-lys shape, feathers, vine pattern, clam shells, 8 petalled flower and cable pattern with the main ground cross hatched. The backing is pale yellow cotton sateen.
2235 x 2065mm

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