Quilt No.615PWH - The Pioneer Women's Hut

Owner: 
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Location: 
NSW Riverina
Made in
AUSTRALIA NSW
Patterms
Patchwork, Pieced Repeat Block, Wholecloth, Embroidered and/or Appliqued, Signature
Date: 
1921 - 1940
Description: 
White cotton quilt of blocks with an embroidered flower in each one. The whole 'garden' is encircled by an appliqued picket fence. There is a cotton backing but no padding.
1840 x 1820mm
History: 

This quilt was made by a group of women from the Boorowa or Cowra districts NSW as a raffle to raise funds for a charity. It was raffled between 1931 and 1935 and the raffle was won by Jessie Jackson, always known as Gipsy. Her daughter Morag Faithfull donated it to The Pioneer Women's Hut. It is occasionally displayed at the museum.

Story: 

The daughter of Gipsy Jackson said the prize for the raffle included a dressed doll and so her mother thought the quilt was a doll's quilt. When the family lived in Queensland and then back in Warren NSW the raffle quilt was always used on the bed in the visitors' spare room.

Margaret Rolfe, well known Australian quilter and quilt historian, recognised the design as one from the American quilt designer, Ruby McKim*, whose designs were also published in the Adelaide Chronicle and republished in the Weekly Times newspaper in the 1930s.

Related Quilts:

Yvonne Hamdorf
Quilt No.1016YH - Yvonne Hamdorf
Wholecloth pram quilt with a top of pink cotton sateen, and the reverse is a more finely woven, ivory, fabric. All over quilting design as main feature, with stylised hearts, leaves and cross hatching. The padding is cotton batting. 870 x 660 mm.
Wholecloth, Quilting as major design element
John Tomkin
Quilt No.1005JT - John Tomkin
Hand stitched, cotton, appliquéd, quilt in a flower pattern on a plain background. Colours are shades of green, apricot and browns. This quilt was known as a 'Bride's Quilt'. Padding is thought to be layers of white fabric raised almost like a wadding. The backing is cotton material. 2470 x 2020 mm.
Wholecloth, Embroidered and/or Appliqued
Alicia Murdoch
Quilt No.679AM - Alicia Murdoch
Cotton quilt entirely of hesagons. Some are formed into rostttes or flowers and have a print border of 12 hexagons, an inner circle of 6 hexagons in a plain colour and a yellow hexagon centre. The padding is cotton wool and the backing plain off white cotton.
2210 x 1430mm
Patchwork, Mosaic, Hexagon
Win Oliver
Quilt No.203WO - Win Oliver
Crazy patchwork quilt made from silk, brocade and velvet pieces, the seams covered with feather stitching in yellow silk. Fabrics are plain, and patterned with tartans, woven spots, stripes and floral brocade. Colours are rich, mainly red, pink, blue, green and cream. Quilt has a patterned velvet or velour border with urns and flowers in pale olive green and black, edged with a fringe in these colours.
1090 x 1040mm
Patchwork, Pieced Random, Crazy
Rozanne Andrew
Quilt No.223RA - Rozanne Andrew
Quilt, single bed size, made from reused clothing roughly handstitched on to a backing of a wool/linen blanket type fabric in green, cream and brown stripes. Clothing is fronts and backs of old jumpers, vests etc as well as opened out sleeves in red, brown and grey. They are stitched together in several layers with long stitches. Another top may have been intended to cover the stitched down layers of clothing.
1500 x 1040mm
Patchwork, Pieced Random, Typically Australian, Re-used clothing or blanket
Powerhouse Museum
Quilt No.756PHM - Powerhouse Museum
"A quilt or coverlet of natural cotton sheeting with appliqueed motifs cut from a variety of crimson cotton damask. The quilt is hand sewn and nearly square and has a 12 cm border made from the same crimson damasks. The applique motifs consist of a range of hexagons, rosettes, flowers, hearts and stars that radiate outwards from a large centrally placed star shape. All are the same shade of crimson red which suggests they were dyed in the same dye pot. The fabrics are now quite thin and soft which suggests that the quilt, or the fabric it was made from, was well used." [PHM]
1960 x 1950mm
Wholecloth, Embroidered and/or Appliqued