Mosaic Quilts

The Queensland Women's Historical Assoc.
Cotton quilt , octagons of printed floral joined with squares of printed and plain. Yellow floral border. Cotton backing with very intrictae pattern in machine stitching.
2540 x 2490mm
Margery Smith
Patchwork cot quilt made from hexagons 63mm across in a variety of cotton prints and plains. The bright coloured patches came from children's clothes and dressmaking scraps. No padding. Backing of unbleached calico. Hand sewn.
1524 x 1169mm
Barbara McCabe
Patchwork quilt made of squares and rectangles in woollen fabric, stitched together without any particular pattern. Colours are mainly green, grey, blue, black, pink and some yellow. Fabrics are plain, checks and stripes. No padding, quilting or binding. Backing is a remnant of synthetic fabric. The quilt has been well sued and is very worn with fabric torn and marked in some places.
1400 x 400mm
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Quilt with alternate red and white diamonds in cotton, with wide border of white cotton and a white cotton crochet edging. All diamond patches and edging were joined to white border decorated with feather stitch. White border edged with zig-zag white feather stitch. Centre rectangle of white has 4 red petals edged with white feather stitch and 4 red diamonds each embroidered in white clockwise: '1898', 'R', 'L', 'K'. Diamonds edged with feather stitch. There is no padding and the backing is white cotton.
2420 x 1740mm
Val Ireland
The top of this utility quilt is machine pieced rectangles of woollen materials joined in strips. It includes corduroys and velveteens and woollen tartan. The backing is an Indian cotton blanket.
1651 x 1271mm
Ryder Lundy
"Hexagons pieced over cardboard hand-sewn together. Each rosette was then machine quilted 1/8th to 1/4 inch from edge of rosette in shape of each rosette. Quilt is mainly cottons with a few rayons. Some checks and stripes are used but mainly florals. Has been machine quilted in rosette shape using green on green fabrics, lemon on lemon, orange on orange and red on red." [Ryder Lundy] There is no padding and the backing is gold curtain fabric extended at the end and one side with matching taffeta. 2220 x 1270 mm.
Annette Gero
The top is mainly squares of flannel machined together with patches of dress materials stitched randomly on top. There is no padding and the backing is calico. The top and backing are held together by a binding only. It is one of a pair.
2010 x 1680mm
National Trust of Australia (NSW)
Hand pieced and quilted quilt in silks, wool and cotton dress materials. The centre is a hexagon star in pink and yellow with black points. Most of the body of the quilt is pieced in Tumbling Blocks with an outer border of triangles. The backing is pieced from large rectangles of blue satin, rust-brown moire taffeta and brown-grey silk in a 'rectangle within a rectangle' pattern. The quilting is all over and finely done in yellow thread in a variety of patterns including snails, petalled flowers and hearts.
National Trust of Australia (NSW)
Pieced patchwork quilt of hexagons in cottons, chintzes and linen. The centre is pieced in 6 point hexagon stars, then radiating out are large hexagons alternating with tumbling blocks, then 6 piece hexagon stars and 4 piece hexagon diamonds. Some pieces have Egyptian patterns dating from 1800 - 1805. The backing is cream linen.
2450 x 2200mm
Ann Cuthbert
Patchwork quilt of hexagons in pattern known as 'Grandmother's flower garden'. All cotton. Rosettes are set in a white 'path' with the centre and first ring in solid colours and the second ring prints. There is a yellow border and an outer border in pink. It is hand pieced and hand quilted. The padding is cotton and the backing is white cotton with 2 border edges in light and dark blue. These borders were originally part of the top. There is an inscription "Dear daughter from Mother".
2390 x 1880mm
Dorothy Taylor
Patchwork quilt made of hexagons in printed cottons, colours predominantly red, blue pink, brown and yellow. Handsewn. Attached to a white cotton backing. Cotton padding.
1829 x 1829mm
Phyllis Dowling
Hand pieced cot quilt made from small rectangular shapes of a great variety of materials including cottons, silks, wools and velvets. The backing is cotton sateen in 3 colours and is brought to the front to form a border of pink, cream and yellow.
1170 x 920mm
Annette Gero
Quilt top of hexagons in silks and satins, pieced over papers in the English tradition. Some paper templates still in place. One states: 'Semi - Monthly Regular Clipper packets to New Zealand, Port Phillip, Sydney�2nd of each month..Adelaide' suggesting it may have been from a shipping timetable.
1580 x 1830mm
National Gallery of Australia
" Reversible patchwork quilt of woollen suiting in grey, blue, navy, maroon and brown. The fabrics appear to be new tailor's sample pieces (the sizing is still present on the fabric, signifying it has never been washed). The patches are rectangular and vary in size. Both sides have different designs. The front of the quilt has 4 rows of 12 vertical rectangles then below this are 4 rows of 7 horizontal rectangles followed below by 4 rows of 11 vertical rectangles. The reverse of the quilt has a section at the top and bottom composed of 5 rows of 9 horizontal rectangles. The central area is made up of a centre section of 6 rows of 5 vertical rectangles; flanked on either side by a column of 10 horizontal rectangles and two columns of 8 smaller vertical rectangles.
The patchwork layers are joined at the edges with machine stitching. The patchwork layers and padding are machine quilted on the front down 2 vertical lines following joins in the patchwork; therefore not being totally straight. The lines are more noticeable on the reverse as the 2 sides do not match. The front face is displayed at the NGA.
Between the patchwork layers is a striped cotton blanket in black, sky blue, white and cream." [NGA]
2082 x 1386mm
National Trust of Australia (TAS)
Quilt made of hexagons in cotton materials, the hexagons set in the 'Grandmother's Flower Garden' pattern with 6 patterned patches set around a plain coloured centre patch and white hexagons forming 'paths'. There is a white cotton backing with the edges turned under all the way around and top and backing are joined by a blue machine sewn satin stitch. The patches are hand sewn.
2160 x 1830mm
Mare Carter
Patchwork Quilt, all cotton including filling. Pattern is "squares and diamonds". Quilt is faded but blue is probably the predominant colour. Hand stitched and hand quilted.
1624 x 1194mm
Val Ireland
Utilitarian quilt. The padding is pieced used clothing and possibly reused blanket. The top and backing are machine pieced cotton scraps in a wide variety of pattern and colours.
1626 x 1601mm
Fran Williams
150 x 210mm pieces of bound suiting samples overlapped and machined together then herringboned with gold/yellow thread. Each piece has an embroidered motif, using single thread, mainly non Australian birds and animals. '1903' is embroidered on a centre piece. It is hand quilted. The backing is a black floral print. There is no padding.
1800 x 1940mm
Josephine Curtis
Taylor's sample quilt made from men's suit swatches, mainly greys and blues. Edging is 6cms wide, of blue flannelette. Padding is an old grey blanket, and the backing is of printed pattern corduroy. 1680 x 920 mm.
Gillian Albers
Patchwork quilt made from hexagons in 'Grandmother's Flower Garden' design, in blue and aqua cottons, polyester and flannelette. Quilt is backed. No padding or quilting.
2380 x 2320mm

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