Quilt No.450PS - Pat Stevenson

Pat Stevenson
Owner: 
Pat Stevenson
Location: 
VIC Melbourne
Maker
Maker: 
Elsa Beavis
Made in
AUSTRALIA VIC
Patterms
Patchwork, Pieced Random, Crazy
Date: 
1941 - 1970
Description: 
Crazy patchwork stitched on to an old sheet. Machine constructed with 2 sides similar. It is made from left over dressmaking materials of the fifties. The 2 sides with cotton wadding in between are bound together with a 55mm pink and white gingham binding.
1803 x 1398mm
History: 

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.

Story: 

" 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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