Quilt No.905CFM - Carbethan Folk Museum

Carbethan Folk Museum
Owner: 
Carbethan Folk Museum
Location: 
QLD South West
Maker
Maker: 
Ellen Smith
Made in
AUSTRALIA SA
Date: 
1881 - 1900
Description: 
Patchwork quilt in a variation of Log Cabin. The materials are cotton and cotton velveteen. The backing is twill cotton ticking. There is no padding.
1499 x 1169mm.
History: 

Ellen Smith made the quilt at Nairne South Australia probably about the turn of the century. The family moved from Nairne to Crows Nest in Queensland. Fred Smith, Ellen's son, went to SA to visit his family and brought the quilt back in the 1930s. Fred gave it to his daughter Beryl Deeth (Smith) who donated it to the Carbethan Folk Museum at Crows Nest Queensland.

Story: 

"Ellen [Haines] arrived from England on her 17th birthday, the 8th May 1850, on the 'Lysander'. She later married the bullock driver who transported her from port Adelaide to her brother (Perc)'s place at Nairne. They arrived at 2 a.m. in the morning and Ellen's sister in law just moved over in her bed to make room for her that night. She and Mr Hillman [her first husband] had a son who died, and is buried near the forked gum tree in Nairn cemeteery and Mr. Hillman also died from injuries received in an accident, and is buried in the Hillman vault in Nainre cemetery." [Extract Geneology of John Smith by Dawn Foote]
Edis Smith was born in 1827 in England and arrived at Port Adelaide on the 'Star Queen' in 1854. He and Ellen Hillman were married in 1857 and they had twelve children: Emily, Mary Sophia, Rebecca, Zilla, Frederick, Rosina, Hephzibah, Elizabeth Amy, Isabella Annie, Albert Edis, Martha, Herbert Edis. It is said Ellen made a quilt for each daughter.
Ellen was a deeply pious woman and with Edis (a lay preacher for 50 years) helped build the Nairne Wesleyan Church. She died in 1916 aged 83. [Source of information, geneology of John Smith]

Edis and Ellen Smith
Edis and Ellen Smith

Related Quilts:

Valinda Gale
Patchwork quilt made from squares of cotton prints in florals, stripes, spots and checks, joined together in rows. Colours are predominantly blues, reds, yellow and pastels. Binding is of turquoise blue fabric. Materials appear to be from the 40s or 50s. Patches caught in the middle with a woollen knot - red, yellow, blue wool. No quilting. Backed in blue fleecy flannel.
Single bed length and width.
Barbara McCabe
"A single bed cover made up of squares and recrangles of woollen fabric pieced together by a Vicker Sewing Machine from Myer Melbourne. The fabrics are either new (left over scraps) or used (unpicked woollen garments). The backing is an old (used) candlewick bedspread. There is no padding. It is faded and worn due to being used for other purposes later. There is a 66 cm high clown that ahs been appliqued on mainly by hand using blanket stitch. It is also made from scraps of fabric. The hands were cut from an old felt hat."
2400mm x 1660mm
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Unfinished patchwork top made from hexagon patches in the 'Grandmother's Flower Garden' pattern, in glazed and unglazed cottons and some twill fabrics. 7 patches for flowers with white and some cream patches forming paths. All fabrics are patterned and date from c.1825-1840, including pieces of toile de jouy, stripes and florals. Colours are predominantly reds and blues with some green, brown, purple; one flower is in chrome yellow, 8 flowers are in turkey red indicating probably the latest fabric. The quilt is hand sewn and the papers are in tact in most patches.
1508 x 940mm
National Trust of Australia (SA)
Hand stitched unfinished crazy quilt with patches placed around a centre hexagon pieced in log cabin type strips. Materials are mainly silks and satins and pieces are mounted on grey cotton material. Seams are overstitched in herringbone stitch. 1520 x 760mm
Helen Cornish
Patchwork quilt in the Log Cabin pattern, each square 14cm x 14cm, made of used cotton fabrics with a fine wool fabric as the centre square of each. Colours are mainly reds, blues, greens and maroon, and pastels, in prints and plains. Quilt has a wide border of dark blue cotton with mitred corners. The padding is black and white mattress ticking, and the backing is the same dark blue cotton as the border. Machine stitched.
1770 x 1170mm
Friends of the Hawkesbury Art Society
Patchwork Quilt consisting of diamond shapes forming a Tumbling Block pattern. All cotton, mainly patterned pieces, with signs of blotting paper templates. Hand sewn. The outer border of patches consists of off-cuts from nurses' uniforms of the times as 2 of the maker's daughters were nurses. It is thought most other squares were probably from material samples from large city stores such as Anthony Horderns. Backing is red cotton in a paisley design.
2030 x 1890mm