Quilt No.431TM - The Townsville Museum

1321 x 1245mm
The quilt was made by Martha Jane Marlton c.1960 from her husband Robert's worn cardigans and jumpers. It was then owned by Jean Marlton, Martha's daughter-in-law and is now part of the collection of the Townsville Museum. It is displayed from time to time.
The maker, Martha Jane Marlton (born Duff) was born in Scotland in 1904. Her parents came from Glasgow where her father was a tailor and when they came to Australia they settled in Warwick on the Darling Downs where Mr. Duff became a tailor in about 1910. Martha Jane Duff was a telephonist at the Warwick telephone exchange and travelled to Townsville in 1929 to work at the Townsville telephone exchange then returning to Warwick to marry Robert William Marlton. The rug is made from his old jumpers and cardigans. He felt the cold especially when travelling between Warwick and Townsville visiting family. After marrying Martha they travelled to Bundaberg, Winton and Chartres Towers as Robert worked with the railways. In 1938 he was injured when a train ran over his foot and he lost one toe. After recuperating for a year they moved to Townsville where Robert worked as a porter at the goods shed.
Martha Jane Marlton came from a family of sewers. Two of her sisters worked for their father in the tailoring business but Martha was not a sewer, preferring the garden. She was, however, thrifty and a conserver and the quilt had been mended and carefully stored. Martha was interested in the Women's Guild and the CWA.
[This information is taken from a telephone conversation with Jean Marlton by Morley Grainger in Townsville 13.3.98]
Related Quilts:
2045 x 1940mm
2200 x 1720 mm.
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
2200 x 1900mm
2360 x 2230 mm
1829 x 1372mm