Quilt No.549JL - June Loewenthal

June Loewenthal
Owner: 
June Loewenthal
Location: 
NSW Sydney
Maker
Maker: 
Unknown
Made in
AUSTRALIA NSW
Date: 
1941 - 1970
Description: 
Hand made cotton quilt in repeat block with appliqued Iris pattern. It is a kit quilt. "The Iris, Design "R" of the 'Mountain Mist Series' of Quilt Patterns" from The Stearns & Foster Company, Lockland, Cincinnati, Ohio. Copyright 1930. The backing is cotton and the filling also.
2439 x 1981mm
History: 

The maker is unknown but is said to have been a Scandinavian woman. The present owner purchased the quilt at Tinker Tailor, a shop in the Sydney suburb of Pymble, in the 1950s. It was used as a bedspread at Roberton Park, Kirkham Road, Glengarry NSW an early stone house. It is now used sometimes in the owner's Sydney home.

Story: 

June Loewenthal recognised the pattern in a magazine many years after she had purchased the quilt. She then sent to America for it.
The pattern gives detailed instructions and figures for the block in actual size.
"The charm of this beautiful and unusual Iris Quilt lies in the natural treatment of the design. The finished quilt is a veritable garden of bloom in actual Iris colous!"
"MOUNTAIN MIST PATTERNS are obtainable only with the purchase of Mountain Mist Quilting Cotton. One pattern, (no choice of design), is furnished free with each bat purchased, and also a coupon good for one other pattern at a very low price."
[Extracts from "The Iris, Design 'R' of the "Mountain Mist Series' of Quilt Patterns"]

Related Quilts:

The Queensland Women's Historical Assoc.
Hexagon rosettes of printed and plain cotton in a flower pattern. Incomplete, top layer only.
2439 x 1981mm
Margaret-Anne M Thomas
Cotton quilt hand pieced and hand quilted. Eigth pointed star on a white background. 7 rows of 7 stars with a 70mm border. There is a padding or interlining. The backing is plain off white cotton twill.
2040 x 2030mm
Joanne Pedler
Crazy patchwork cot quilt made from a wide variety of materials, patterned and plain. Some seams are overstitched with feather stitch and herringbone. One of a pair. There is no padding. The backing is taffeta.
1500 x 2000mm
National Trust of Australia (WA)
Patchwork quilt in Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern, consisting of 7 patch rosettes with white 'paths'. Cotton dress and shirting materials have been used in blues, pinks, brown, turkey red and Prussian blue. The quilt is hand sewn and each hexagon is 25mm wide. The backing is cream twill cotton in three panels. There is a hand sewn binding in red/pink cotton. There is overall quilting in chevron or zigzag pattern.
2415 x 2110mm
National Trust of Australia (TAS)
Crazy patchwork quilt of pieces of plain and patterned silks in bright and pastel colours, each patch edged and decorated with a variety of embroidery stitches, including star, spider, french knot and feather and herringbone variations. 2 patches of early aniline dyed blue silk. Motifs of tennis racquet, horse shoes, fan and some embroidered flowers. The patches are stitched to coarse linen. There is a wide border of red plush velvet turned to the underside. There is no padding. The backing is red polished cotton.
1550 x 1435mm
Meg Orr
All over pattern of rows of hexagons with each unit made up of 4 hexagons each 45mm. Patterned and plain materials thought to date from the 1930s including cotton and linen dress materials, synthetics and synthetic crepe. It was an unfinished top and Meg Orr, the present owner, finished it by machine stitching some of the hexagon rosettes to the red twill background and stitching on a backing. There is no padding.
1740 x 1210mm.