Quilt No.618POW - The Pioneer Women's Hut

Owner: 
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Location: 
NSW Riverina
Maker
Maker: 
Lorna Foster
Made in
AUSTRALIA NSW
Date: 
1941 - 1970
Description: 
Hand and machine pieced top and back using irregular pieces of men's hand and machine knitted jumpers and navy serge. The backing is mainly serge, part of an uncle's bus conductor's uniform. The pockets from the uniform have been left as is. There is no padding.
1850 x 970mm
History: 

This quilt was made by Lorna Foster who lived on a farm at Taradale near Tumbarumba NSW c.1960 It was made for her son John who used it for many years and donated it to The Pioneer Women's Hut. It is displayed occasionally at the msueum.
1850 x 970mm

Story: 

Lorna Foster made other quilts like this one made for John when he was truck driving. He worked at the Manus Prison farm and was a truck driver for Tumba Transport at the weekends. The quilt was made in 1964 for John to take truck driving. He handled large sums of money on these trips and used to hide it in the pockets on the quilt. The family lived on a farm at Taradale near Tumbarumba NSW and John's garndfather was John Ebenezer. John said of his mother "she was sewing and knitting all the time. She even made our long grey trousers."

Related Quilts:

Old Government House
Patchwork quilt in Log Cabin pattern made from silks, velvet, cottons and taffetas, in prints and plain, around a centre squares of black velvet. Colours are, in the dark sections, blues, greens, browns, yellow and pinks. The base of the blocks is blue and white ticking. The padding is probably cotton. Backing is of green cotton. There is an attached frill on all sides of green cotton, faded to dull light brown.
1630 x 1350mm
Brenda Bird
Suffolk Puff quilt made from a variety of scraps of dress materials including cottons and terylene. It is backed with white cotton sheeting and edged with a frill of white terylene. There is a matching pillow sham.
1740 x 1300 mm.
National Trust of Australia (SA)
Randomly patched quilt in many different colours and fabrics. There are appliquéd shapes over many pieces including Suffolk Puffs, hearts, hexagons and other shapes. There is an embroidered inscription "A11 to S11 1829" which is thought to mean AN to SN 1829. There is no padding and the backing is white cotton.
2000 x 2200mm
Annette Rich
Unlined quilt. Central square of floral chintz with rectangular and chevron border making a larger frame that is set within another square-on-point frame edged with 2 toned red leaf pattererned chintz. This quilt is mainly pieced (squares, triangles, lozenges) but the hexagon rosettes are appliqued. Dress and furnishing cottons dating from the early 1800s. Raw edged, unfinished. All hand stitched.
2400 x 2400mm
National Gallery of Australia
"The coverlet is of cream cheesecloth, highly decorated with applied figures and pieced fabric bands. The appliqué bands follow the edge of the coverlet for some time and then become circles radiating from the centre. The bands form two framed circular areas that carry appliquéd images. A smaller area lower centre of the cloth depicts birds and insects. In the centre of the work is a bordered oval with two aboriginal figures, an angel, kangaroo, emu and kookaburra, with the words 'Advance Australia Fair' embroidered in black thread. The stitching and construction of the coverlet is quite crude." [NGA] The quilt is not padded or lined. 1640 x 1550mm
Annette Gero
This domestic Wagga is two layers of woollen army blankets with the top layer in rectangles joined in rows. The backing is hessian bags that originally contained meat meal.
11650 x 1130mm