Quilt No.429HH - Helen Hancock

Helen Hancock
Owner: 
Helen Hancock
Location: 
QLD South West
Maker
Maker: 
Marion Best
Made in
AUSTRALIA QLD
Date: 
1881 - 1900
Description: 
Fragment of a crazy patchwork quilt hand stitched in cottons, silks, silk velvets and silk brocades. Variety of fancy stitches including blanket, feather, herringbone worked in various kinds of cottons and some chenille thread. There is also some beading. The backing is red cotton. The fragment is now framed.
484mm x 484mm
History: 

The quilt, of which this is a fragment, was made c1890 by Marion Best (Fairlie) 1862-1954 in Maryborough Queensland. It then passed to her grand-daughter Marion Ham and is now owned by her great grand-daughter. Helen Hancock. It is framed.

Story: 

Marion Fairlie came to Australia from England in 1862 as a baby. Her parents came to explore the possibility of growing cotton for their muslin factory in Glasgow, Scotland. This was prompted by the failure of the American cotton crop. Maryborough proved unsuitable for cotton growing so James Fairlie started a joinery business making window frames from Queensland red cedar. He is said to have made a fortune.

Helen Hancock
Helen Hancock

Related Quilts:

N.S.W. Parks and Wildlife Service
Large double sided quilt of rectangles and squares of men's suitings, patterned and plain on both sides. The top has a central motif of a circle of three segmented rings radiating from a single hexagon. The outer ring is all tailors' samples and the inner rings are a variety of materials. There is some featherstitching in red. The quilt is sparsley machine quilted.
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Utility patchwork quilt made up of mainly squares of furnishing material machine pieced. It is backed with machine pieced patches of woollen jumpers, mainly machine not hand knitted. The back is possibly the top. There is no padding.
1950 x 1270mm
Annette Gero
Cotton frame quilt with a diamond in the centre of the frame and a border of straight pieces. The outer border is diamonds. The quilt is hand sewn and hand quilted.
1910 x 1830mm
Irene Treneman
Cotton quilt, checks, plains and patterns. Machine construction. Rectangles stitched together in strips and then strips joined. The backing is a cotton print. There is no padding and no quilting.
2420 x 1220
Ruth Flett
Quilt is made of wool tailors' samples, each measuring 6 x 3 1/2 inches. The colours are predominantly navy and grey. Most pieces are striped but some more distinctly than others. Both sides are mad eof smaples, one side being mainly grey and the other almost exclusively navy. There doesn't seem to be another layer of material as padding. There is no added decoration. Made on a treadle sewing machine.
1703 x 1423mm
Albury Regional Museum
Patchwork quilt or cloth made from pieces of woollen material used for regimental uniforms in England last century. Star pattern in colours, red, pale blue, green, maroon, yellow [white] and brown. Hand pieced probably by more than one person. Red fringe machined on. Red flannelette backing in poor condition. Two layers, not quilted.
1780 x 1700mm