Quilts

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
Greg Davies
Patchwork quilt, log cabin with central patch plus 2 logs. Many different materials from 1950s and 1960s. Machine pieced. The padding is a woollen blanket and the backing is a flannelette sheet. The quilt is tied with yellow cotton at each corner.
2170 x 1880mm
Muriel Hartmann
Old jute wool pack opened out and joined together selvedge to selvedge. Ends bound with recycled curtain material.
1550 x 1321mm
Gundagai Historical Museum
Patchwork cot or pram quilt made of diamond patches in the Tumbling Block pattern. Patches are made from cotton, corduroy and velvet, with red, black, teal blue, green, brown and cream predominating. No padding. Backing is of green wool and the quilt is bound with dark red crushed velvet.
780 x 560mm
Powerhouse Museum
Reversible cot quilt, hand pieced, in the log cabin pattern; the blocks measure 150mm square. The patches have been cut from plain and patterned dress, pyjama and men's shirt fabrics. Strong diagonals were created in the overall design through using light and dark colours, often a strong red, to divide the log cabin blocks in half diagonally. The back is made from rectangles of striped men's shirt fabrics in pastel blues, pinks and browns with a large 'flowe' in each corner, each pieced from six hexagon patches around a central seventh hexagon. There is no padding.
[PHM] 1720 x 1150mm
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
Art Gallery of South Australia
Patchwork quilt or table covering dark and light silks in bright colours, pieced from diamond shapes into stars with black patches between the stars. Plain and patterned silks are used for the stars. Border is made from a single row of Tumbling Blocks in plain silks with an edging on each side of truncated black diamonds on blue on the inside, orange on the outer edge. There is a star pieced of diamonds in each corner. Hand sewn.
1830 x 1800mm
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
Annette Gero
This quilt consists of many blocks of different colours with etchings and verse from the bible machine appliqued on to a red backing material. It is a kit quilt.
2580 x 24100mm
June Johnson
Hand sewn cotton cot quilt with pattern of red and white lozenge shaped hexagons measuring approximately 65mm from top to bottom. A centre flower is constructed from 2 circles of 19 hexagons in red and white. This is surrounded by 8 smaller hexagon flowers. Additional single red hexagons are scattered at random on the white background around the rows of flowers. The quilt is not quilted or tied but is attached at all 4 edges. Writing on the back of the quilt (probably added later) reads "Made by Sarah Hodge, Newport, Wales UK for her first child John." There is no padding and the backing is white cotton. 1000 x 1250 mm.
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
The Pyramid Hill Historical Society Inc.
This unfinished cover has a centre frame of a simple block. There are alternating plain and patterned borders including sword tooth, flying geese and squares on point. It is hand pieced with plain and twill weave cottons, variety of stripes, checks, florals and plains. There is no backing.
1800 x 1800mm
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
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.
Sue Batzloff
Patchwork quilt for a child made from suiting pieces from the Castlemaine Woollen Mills in Victoria. One side has dark rectangles in greys and navy, the other side uses pieces in light browns, cream and rust, with dark grey. The edging is also made from suiting. No padding Machine sewn.
1347 x 1271mm
Wendy Springbett
Patchwork quilt made from alternate squares of light green and medium green cotton headcloth. The light green squares are hand embroidered with Australian native birds, the medium green squares are decorated with pulled thread designs. No padding. Backing and binding of medium green headcloth. Made from patterns published in The Adelaide Chronicle.
2650 x 1573mm
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Patchwork quilt made up of 100mm multi coloured squares in a variety of materials including cottons, synthetics, lurex, plain and printed. Each square has dacron padding and is then joined in strips and the strips joined. All hand sewn. The backing is blue synthetic whole cloth 60mm of which is returned to the front to form a border.
1500 x 1200mm
Museum Victoria
Possum skin cloak. Possum skins sewn together with vegetable fibre or kangaroo sinew. Designs incised into the skins, some of which are decorated with ochres. 2070 x 1540mm
Margaret McMillan
Cotton log cabin double bed quilt. Each square has 52 pieces (i.e. 13 pieces x 4 to make a square). There are 192 squares so a total of 10.092 pieces. There is probably no padding. The backing is calico with a floral pattern done in running stitch.
2200 x 2200mm
Kaniva District Historical Society
Quilt of crocheted squares (sometimes known as Granny squares) in pinks, blues, greens and brown, with a green crocheted border edged in brown. Quilt is backed. A cot quilt or a knee rug.

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