Quilt No.762PHM - Powerhouse Museum

Powerhouse Museum
Owner: 
Powerhouse Museum
Location: 
NSW Sydney
Maker
Maker: 
Elizabeth Garrett
Made in
AUSTRALIA VIC
Date: 
1901 - 1920
Description: 
"A double-sided patchwork quilt machine-pieced from plain and patterned rectangular woollen patches, each 130 x 200mm. The fabrics came from a tailor's swatchbook of men's, and possibly women.s, suiting samples and are mainly in tonings of olive green, brown, blue and cream. The two layers are bound together with a pieced border strip that forms the outside edge. There is no filling or quilting." [PHM]
2140 x 1660mm
History: 

The maker was Elizabeth Garrett , born Elizabeth Butler about 1870 and died 1946. It was made about 1910 at Box Hill Melbourne. The quilt was passed from Elizabeth Garrett to her daughter Elsie Garrett Hanna, and then to Elsie's daughter Mrs. Val Skinner of Mosman. Val Skinner gave the quilt to the Australian Costume and Textile Society and it subsequently came to the Powerhouse Museum when the ACTS collection was transferred there in 1983. It is used for research and exhibition purposes only.

Story: 

"The family landed at Portland and joined the gold rush; later they moved to James Street, Box Hill, where this quilt was made and later still moved to the bush outside Melbourne. Elizabeth was one of seven girls and one boy and was the dressmaker for the family. Elizabeth was married and had three children at the time the quilt was made, around 1910. Her first daughter Elsie was born in 1893."
"In January 1986 Val Skinner, the maker's granddaughter, said that everyone in the family used the quilt when they went camping and that later on, when they could afford to buy bed covers, it went under the bed." [PHM]

Elizabeth Garrett c.1910
Elizabeth Garrett c.1910

Related Quilts:

Annette Gero,
Wholecloth quilt originally covered with cretonne and recovered with orange satin. Machine quilted. Padding of wool.
1270 x 1160mm
Muriel Thompson
Quilt in pattern known as 'double weeding ring'. All cotton, using old prints, plaids, checks and solid colours, with plain blues and red squares at the intersections of the circles. White background. Hand pieced. Padding is Hobbs Heirloom: cotton 80%, polyester 20%. Backing is cream quilted cotton. 2500 x 2100 mm.
Gillian Albers
Patchwork quilt made from hexagons in 'Grandmother's Flower Garden' design, in blue and aqua cottons, polyester and flannelette. Quilt is backed. No padding or quilting.
2380 x 2320mm
Virginia Solomon
Log Cabin quilt featuring centre square and 3 outer borders. Evidence of later repairs and additions by machine and hand sewing. There is white paint on it. The log cabin pieces are sewn on to black netting. There is no padding and the backing is a centre piece of gold damask/sateen and green and black sateen borders.
1728 x 1321mm
Elsie Shephard
Double sided patchwork quilt/rug constructed from squares machined together in strips and then the strips joined. It is made in one piece and then doubled over. The materials are mainly wool, worsted, part cream machine made jumper, pink and blue mohair, blue and white spotted flannelette and cream blanket and all are scraps or from worn clothing.
1690 x 1370mm
Shirley Maywald
Patchwork crazy quilt in velvets and silks, no pieces over 4" long. Colours are black, maroon, pinks, blues and pastels, and all seams embroidered with coloured silks in herringbone stitch. Backing is green, there is no padding. Quilt is bound with black velvet 1/2" wide. A patch near the centre is embroidered: '1909' and '1948'.
940 x 915mm