Quilt No.462MW - Margaret Wood

1860 x 1290mm
Mrs. Doris Rodgerson, mother of the present owner, asked Mrs. Tadgell in 1936 to make the quilt for her daughter. Mrs. Rodgerson supplied the materials and Mrs Tadgell made it on her treadle sewing machine. It has never been used and always stored in the linen press firstly in Margaret's parents' homes and then in Margaret's homes all in the Box Hill and Blackburn areas. In 1998 the quilt was offered to the Museum of Lilydale.
"Early this century, my grandparents William and Maria Young, bought some bushland running down to the Olinda creek, below Mt. Evelyn. On the hillside, they built "Kookaburra Cottage" which they referred to as their Mountain house. Beside them, a Mr. Clarrie Earl built a luxurious log cabin, with Charlie Mezgar (?) as resident caretaker. It is now known as Chateau Wyuna. Ours was a timber shack, where our family and friends spent so many happy week-ends. They travelled by buggy prior to their Fiat owning years, setting off from Box Hill on Friday evenings.
Down the hill and across the creek on the flats, I remember Mrs. Tadgell's farm, with cows. It was about 1935 that Mrs. Tadgell sewed on her treadle machine, a velvet patchwork quilt for my single bed������The final backing was an artificial silk, which later suffered moth damage. My Mother replaced this in the early post-war years, when material was scarce, by hand stitching on a striped folk weave cotton fabric. It is not in keeping with the quilt's elegance, but does hold it firmly on the bed. The velvet surface is without blemish or wear. It has remained in our linen press, being considered too delicate to stand up to children's wear and tear. The stitching is perfect and a lasting tribute to Mrs. Tadgell's ingenuity and skill in creating this lovely quilt."
[Margaret Wood July 1998]
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The work is not padded "The lining at the edge of the quilt (for approx.175mm) is a plain weave fabric of a Chinoiserie design. The centre field of the lining is a rectangular panel of a twill weave brushed cotton fabric with a striped floral design." [NGA] 2215 x 2070mm
2286 x 915mm
2200 x 1100mm
1900 x 1900mm
The quilt is not padded. The patchwork is fully lined with a printed plain weave cotton fabric with a design commemorating Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The design is based on a repeated grid of circles. In the centre of each circle is a cameo of Queen Victoria, surrounded by images of the national flowers of England, Scotland and Ireland: the rose, the thistle and the shamrock. The edge of the front face of the quilt is trimmed with a red and white cotton braid." [NGA] 2380 x 2220mm