Quilt No.75HAS - Friends of the Hawkesbury Art Society

Sophia M. Wilbow was born in 1829 at Pitt Town NSW to William Henry Payton and his wife Mary, nee Ward. Mary Payton died in 1837 aged 27 when Sophia, the eldest,was still a child. Sophia married Thomas Mitchell Wilbow in 1846 and she gave birth to 14 children, 9 of whom were girls. One was very retarded and one died when young. Sophia and Thomas lived in the Windsor district (near Sydney) where Thomas was a farmer and hotelier.
"Sophia was a great needlewoman, and did embroidery as well as plain sewing, and never used a sewing machine. She made a patchwork quilt for all of her daughters���the last quilt she made was for her youngest daughter Jane and it was 'special'. It was the only one she made with the hexagon pieces, each piece being only the size of a 10 cent piece�." This quilt has over 7000 pieces and in 1991 Joyce Hedges (great grand-daughter of the maker) donated it to the National Gallery. Another of Sophia's quilts, the one made for Elizabeth b.1866, is part of the collection of the Yass and District Historical Society Inc.
After Sophia Wilbow's death in 1924, aged 95, two of her unmarried daughters, Grace and Jane, lived on in their home "Colmier", 17 Dalhousie Street, Haberfield, Sydney.
In 1998 Joyce Hedges donated this quilt of Sophia's to the Hawkesbury Art Society at Windsor NSW.
[Family information from Joyce Hedges 27.3.97]