Quilt No.381FB - Fay Burgess

Fay Burgess
Owner: 
Fay Burgess
Location: 
NSW Sydney
Maker
Maker: 
Eliza Hillyard and Ellen Page-Knight
Made in
ENGLAND
Patterms
Patchwork, Mosaic, Hexagon
Date: 
1901 - 1920
Description: 
Hexagonal piece of patchwork made up of 9 rows of rosettes of hexagons in a wide variety of colours and patterns mainly in silks and velvets. It is incomplete. Backing papers are still in the outside rows and also basting threads. Hexagons are joined by fine whip stitching. It is unlined.
1370 x 1220mm
History: 

Eliza Hillyard commenced the cover in England pre 1914. It was brought to Australia in 1914 when Eliza's daughter Ellen and her husband Tom (Thomas Montague Page-Knight) emigrated with their 4 children, Alice Maude, Vera, Beatrice Lucy and Charles Arthur. Ellen added rows of velvet and silk hexagons to Eliza's work. Ellen's daughter, Alice Maude , continued the work adding additional rows of hexagons. These are now the outer layer and still have some basting threads and papers in place. It is thought that Maude's work was in the 1930s and 1940s. The present owner, Fay Burgess, was given the work by her aunt Maude (Keage). Fay is the daughter of Vera May McGeachan (born Knight).

Story: 

Eliza Worth (later Hillyard) b. 1886 was a needlewoman to Queen Victoria, mending linen. Her daughter Ellen (later Knight) made corsets and it is thought that some of the silk hexagons were from off cuts of corsets. Maude, born 1911, had a business as a dressmaker and made dresses for women married at Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney.
The present owner has a basket of pieces from the quilt and also Eliza's work bag with her initials embroidered on it.

Rt: Ellen Knight c.1905, Centre: Alice Keage c.1932, Lt: Eliza Worth
Rt: Ellen Knight c.1905, Centre: Alice Keage c.1932, Lt: Eliza Worth

Related Quilts:

Gundagai Historical Museum
Quilt No.335GM - 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
Patchwork, Mosaic, Diamond, Tumbling Block
Dianne Thompson
Quilt No.361DT - Dianne Thompson
Patchwork quilt made from Suffolk Puffs in a mixture of bright and pastel prints and plains, mainly in cotton materials. Hand sewn. No padding or backing.
1630 x 1440mm
Patchwork, Suffolk Puff
Billie Briggs
Quilt No.1051BB - Billie Briggs
Hand pieced crazy quilt in a variety of plain coloured velvets. All seams are over embroidered in a variety of stitches. There is no padding and the backing is heavy black cotton. 1900 x 1630mm.
Patchwork, Pieced Random, Crazy
Powerhouse Museum
Quilt No.758PHM - Powerhouse Museum
"A tied patchwork wagga quilt made from swatches of men's wool suiting fabrics in blue/grey and pink/brown tonings. Rectangular swatches have been cut in half diagonally, and the resulting right-angled triangles paired to form larger equilateral triangles which alternate dark with light across the field. The quilt has been machine and hand pieced, then machined in vertical stripes.
The centre field is bounded by two strip-pieced borders at top and bottom, and three down each side. These are sewn from rectangles, using light pink/brown tones for the inner border and darker colours for the outer borders. The quilt is padded and backed and the side seams are secured with black herringbone stitch. The three layers are tied together invisibly with lazy daisy stitches in black cotton from the back." [PHM] The padding is a wool blanket and the backing is two pieces of cream twill cotton.
2030 x 1440mm
Patchwork, Mosaic, Typically Australian, Tailors' samples
Lurline Lydiard
Quilt No.31LL - Lurline Lydiard
Unfinished crazy patchwork quilt. Materials are mainly silk, velvet, woven ribbons, woven brocades. Hand embroidery using many different stitches also machine embroidery eg frog. Some individual patches have names, initials, dates probably relating to family members. There are also place names several of which may refer to Australia. Apart from the embroidery on individual patches there are overlaid a number of floral displays across parts of the quilt. Backing is flannelette with selvedges of blue and pink. 1300 x 1300mm
Patchwork, Pieced Random, Crazy, Typically Australian, Motifs or Names
Art Gallery of South Australia
Quilt No.302ASA - 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
Patchwork, Mosaic, Diamond