Quilt No.757PHM - Powerhouse Museum

Owner: 
Powerhouse Museum
Location: 
NSW Sydney
Maker
Maker: 
Catherine Sarah Yates
Made in
AUSTRALIA NSW
Date: 
1921 - 1940
Description: 
This padding originally had a cretonne cover. "The filling was made from a variety of old woollen clothing and worn and patched woollen banket scraps, handstitched together with large running stitches. The pieces of clothing include heavily darned machine and hand knitted socks, a knitted wool bed jacket, part of a baby's machine knitted blue jumper, hand knitted baby's leggings, a number of darned singlets and underpants, a darned knitted pink bootee and other assorted knitted woollen garments and pieces of flannel. Cotton name tags on some of the garments are printed with the name C.S....
History: 

"The quilt was made by Catherine (Kit) Sarah Yates (nee Fenner) at 'Trida' near Armidale in the late 1930s.
Catherine was one of nine children. She was born in Sussex, England on 10 January 1913 and came to Australia with her family on the 'Benalla' in May 1925. Catherine worked as a house maid between 1927 and 1931, and was 18 when she married Ernest (Ern) John Yates (1906-1984) on 10 January 1931 at St. John's church at Uralla. They settled at Watsons Creek fourteen miles from Bendemeer on the New England tableland on a piece of ground called a 'miner's right'.
Ern and Kit made their family home on 'Kareela', a sheep station, 17 miles from Armidale on the Bundarra Road. They had four children: Dorothy, born in 1935; Kenneth, born 1938 and died of measles in 1939; Mary, born 1940; and John, born 1943. The family moved to Armidale in 1947 to give the children a better schooling and greater opportunities. Catherine had a stroke in 1964 and died aged 49. Ern worked on the land all his life. He trained his own sheep dogs, broke in and shoed horses, was a good gardener and a great family man who helped in the house, cooked and unpicked clothing for the eiderdowns.
"After Kit Yates' death the quilt was passed on to her daughter Dorothy Stevenson of Armidale. Dorothy gave the quilt to the Powerhouse Museum in 1985." [PHM]

Story: 

"In August 1984, Dorothy Stevenson wrote: 'The eiderdowns I think were agin to the 'Wagga'. The covers were made of cretonne. The lining was a sheet or calico. Onto this any clean old woollen rag was stitched in layers, to make it thick and warm. The three I remember were for the big oak cot in my parents' room. The cretonne was in different shades of pink, blue flowers, and a very bright green. Then the two eiderdowns my sister and I had. These were quilted with quite big stitches, so were easy to undo to wash.' "
"In May 1985 she wrote: 'My Mother cooked, sewed, made jam, darned the winter clothing. She loved children. Her family was her life. She moved many times in the early years of her marriage. Often to very poor housing but it was always turned into a home. Nothing was ever thrown out, she had a use for everything. She taught her children to fend for themselves. Her son learnt to knit, sew and cook just the same as the girls. She made her own clothes. At this she was self taught. She nursed her father in the last months of his life (1955). She often sang and whistled as she did the daily jobs and always trapped rabbits when she lived in the bush. And always had a flower and vegetable garden.
"Kit had seven brothers and one sister who was the youngest. Kit was the middle one. Kit my mother lived life to the full. She knew how to laugh, how to love and how to cry. St Peters cathedral Armidale was full of mourners for her funeral. She was well loved.' " [PHM]

Ern and Kit with Mary at 'Trida' 1941
Ern and Kit with Mary at 'Trida' 1941

Related Quilts:

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.
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.
Heather Leonard
This 'Quilt' is made from an army great coat from the second world war. The seams have been unpicked and pieced together by machine zig-zagging the flat edges (with Singer treadle sewing machine). The pocket slits are turned back and seamed rather than being pared off. The outside edges are turned over and blanket stitched in red. It does not have a backing.
1620 x 1180mm
Irene Copping
Durham quilt. Hand quilted with Durham Feather Pink on one side and cream on the other. Cotton material with a slightly sheen cotton used for the quilting. Cotton wool padding.
2440 x 2150mm
National Gallery of Australia
" A coverlet of 7 pieces of cream muslin. The edges of the work are secured at the top and sides with bands of green and floral strips. The lower edge has been turned and hemmed. The 'quilt' is highly decorated with bands and diamonds of appliqué fabric. The upper centre field is appliquéd with images depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden surrounded by trees and a variety of animals and insects. In the centre is a smaller appliquéd image of the manger with mangel and cows. The quilt is not signed or dated, but each of the imaged areas is accompanied by a descriptive text. The writing is executed in black chain stitch. Beads and sequins have been used to depict the eyes of some of the animals in the Garden of Eden. As with all of Mary Jane Hannaford's quilts all work is hand sewn and quite crude and coarse in execution. The quilt is not padded or lined." [NGA] 1810 x 1590mm
Bob Sloan
Double sided quilt made from all wool worsted suiting samples. Machine construction. There is no padding.
1840 x 1330mm