Quilt No.121BF - Bud and Patricia Ford
Owner:
Bud and Patricia Ford
Location:
QLD South West
Maker
Maker:
Unknown
Made in
AUSTRALIA QLD
Patterms
Date:
1941 - 1970
Description:
Rabbit skin rug. Hand pieced and stitched on to an Onkaparinga blanket as the backing. The orange coloured blanket shows around the edge of the rug. The skins are very soft and pliable.
History:
The rabbits were trapped in 1951 by trapper George Jackson in the Miles district of Queensland pre myxomatosis. They were tanned at Cloake's tannery in Toowoomba. The rug was then made by Bud and Patricia Ford at 'Aldersyde' homestead (Miles district) in 1952. Used until recently but now stored in the ottoman blanket box as the rug gives Patricia hay fever.
Story:
It took Bud and Patricia Ford 6 months of intermittent work in the evenings to stitch the rug. This was by kerosene lamplight at 'Aldersyde' Homestead, Miles Queensland.
Bud and Patricia Ford with the rabbit skin rug
Related Quilts:
Kangaroo skin cloak of seven gores is made from the skins of seven grey kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus). The skins vary in size and shape, the inner five are roughly triangular. The cloak is edged with a series of loops, through one of these near the collar is a piece of cloth which appears to have tied the cloak together. The skins are sewn together with two sorts of linen or cotton thread. In a small diamond-shaped gusset at the back of the neck there are some stitches of sinew. The skins are sewn together by means of a small hem which was turned back on to the fur, so stitches went through two layers of skin on each gore. There are some small holes in the skins. The skins are very soft and pliable, and greyish in colour; they vary in size and shape.
Longest part: 800mm
Ref: MA Thesis 1973, S.Meagher 'A Reconstruction of the Traditional Life of the Aborigines of the S.W. of Western Australia.
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