Quilt No.289TH - Thelma Harris

Owner: 
Thelma Harris
Location: 
SA
Maker
Maker: 
Alice McLean
Made in
AUSTRALIA SA
Patterms
Wholecloth, Utilitarian
Date: 
1921 - 1940
Description: 
Wholecloth quilt with both sides made from heavy, woven, striped cotton in brown and fawn, blue grey and orange. The filling is a grey blanket.
1271 x 1067mm
History: 

Made in the 1930s by Alice McLean for her son Doug when he was working out on sheep stations in the Olary area. It was called a 'wagga'. Owned by Mrs McLean's daughter, Mrs Thelma Harris. Previously it had been kept in her father's house.

Story: 

"I have a Wagga made by Mother during her time on the North East Railway early in the 1930s. It is very heavy the inner looks like an old grey blanket & both sides are covered with a woven cotton material which has a few signs of wear. We still have the hand machine (Singer) which sews perfectly. I also have a velvet (crazy patchwork) cushion which she made when she was a young woman."
"Our Mother died in 1934 when I was 10 years and the youngest of four children. I am 75 years now. I have the block in the Jamestown cemetery made over to myself and my two daughters know I want to be buried there beside my Mother."
[Thelma Harris 21.3.1999]

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