Quilt No.450PS - Pat Stevenson
1803 x 1398mm
This quilt was made by Elsa Beavis in Melbourne for Pat Stevenson in 1958/59. It is still owned by Pat Stevenson and is still used.
" Elsa Beavis was the needlework teacher in charge of the subject at Flemington Girls School in 1958 when I started teaching there in 1958. Elsa had made a similar quilt for another staff member and when requested agreed to make one for me.
I was to provide the materials. So I gathered fabrics left from my dressmaking, my students dressmaking, and pieces collected from my working time in the dress trade 1954 and 1955 at a sportswear and casual clothing factory. My mother provided the 2 old worn sheets that form the backing to the patchwork.
Elsa Beavis was a lady who did all types of needlework. I had done much embroidery but never met cross stitch and traditional forms of counted thread work, to which she introduced me.
Of a Norwegian extraction, she made exquisite traditional folk dress for dolls with the traditional decoration. Many prizes were won by her at the Royal Melbourne Show in the years I knew her.
She later married a widower and became Mrs. Elsa Williams, living at Gladysdale and teaching at a High School in Yarra Junction Victoria. Unfortunately I lost track of her, but I owe her a lot, as my mentor, to the wider world of textile arts."
[Pat Stevenson 14.3.98]
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The patchwork layers are joined at the edges with machine stitching. The patchwork layers and padding are machine quilted on the front down 2 vertical lines following joins in the patchwork; therefore not being totally straight. The lines are more noticeable on the reverse as the 2 sides do not match. The front face is displayed at the NGA.
Between the patchwork layers is a striped cotton blanket in black, sky blue, white and cream." [NGA]
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