Patchwork Quilts

Helen Jarmyn
Patchwork quilt made in the 'Trip Around the World' pattern, from cottons and some fine dress linen, in bright and pastel solids. Each colour is placed in a diamond shape on the quilt. Patches are 10cm square, quilt has 620 squares. The linen was mainly used to work the cross stitch. Quilt has a 2 inch border in black. Backing is sheeting. Each square is embroidered, with many different stitches, in geometric, floral, animal, insect and abstract designs, in different colours.
2760 x 2350mm
Julie Pearce
Rectangular quilt of print and plain cottons pieced in squares and rectangles, the centre group of pieces surround a larger piece of pale blue fabric, within a frame or border, of bright pink material, then 3 rows of squares and rectangles. Backing of plain fabric. Machine stitched on a treadle machine.
Celia Dolley
Cotton scrap quilt with shapes of diamonds, strip and squares. The quilt has been repaired using machine zig zag in white cotton. There is no padding and the backing is calico.
2175 x 1625mm
Griffith Pioneer Park Museum
Patchwork quilt made from hexagon patches of cotton, silk, brocade, sateen and wool. Some silk patches are individually lined. Colours are mainly red, blues, purple, black, yellow and brown, with some pastels. Many silk patches have disintegrated, showing the paper templates. Quilt has a brown cotton inner lining, then a blue cotton backing, and is edged on the reverse with checked silk. Hand sewn by more than one person: one experienced sewer, one not so experienced.
1370 x 1170mm
National Museum of Australia
A 'Farm Life Quilt' made from alternate squares of beige linen and brightly coloured cotton headcloth. The coloured squares are farm animals and birds in a variety of embroidery stitches. The beige squares have a cornucopia design embroidered in dark brown stem stitch. There is a wide border front and back of beige linen. The backing is brown and white check cotton. There is no padding.
Margery Creek
This utility quilt is mainly constructed from long strips of cotton seed sack material. It is machine pieced and quilted by hand in a diagonal pattern. There is a red border. The backing is cotton flannelette and the padding is cotton.
1601 x 1525mm
Jillian Towers
Hand pieced patchwork quilt with blue and black checkerboard central frame surrounded by 4 borders of irregular sized rectangles. Mainly dress materials with possibly some furnishing material. It is not quilted or tied. The backing is a large rectangular red check table cloth with 3 borders of irregular shaped pieces down 2 sides and 1 border down 2 sides. There is no padding.
1860 x 1730mm
The Temora Rural Museum
All cotton hexagon quilt using a wide variety of colours and patterns. The hexagons were hand stitched by Sylvia Schleibs in the same style she and her daughter, Norma Gilchrist, had previously made 3 hexagon quilts. There is a calico border and backing.
2000 x 1450mm
N.S.W. Parks and Wildlife Service
The top is strips of mainly wools in blue, maroon and purple. The backing is imitation fur in brown and grey. They is no quilting. The padding appears to be a double sided pieced quilt from men's suitings or tailors' samples.
1500 x 1130mm
N.S.W. Parks and Wildlife Service
Double sided quilt. Side 1 has a central patch of small rectangles and borders of half square triangles. Seamed construction. Side 2 is crazy patch in wools and cottons on to a backing material. There is one round segmented circle in the centre. Machine pieced and quilted.
2050 x 1610mm
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
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Single bed quilt made up entirely of hexagons in 'Granny's Flower Garden' pattern. The rosettes are made up of 8 hexagons and a central one. Native flower prints, including wattle, on a white background. Plain hexagons in white, yellow and blue form a scalloped border. Hexagons are hand stitched and the 2 layers are quilted in running stitch. The backing is a pieced sheet.
2400 x 1500mm
Wendy McPhail
Repeat block in Ohio star pattern. Wide border of triangles, pieced blocks and stripes. Stars are in greens, pinks, mauves (all now very faded) and white. Wreath quilting in squares with smaller wreath quilting in triangles. There is padding and the backing is a poly/cotton sheet. 2500 x 2450mm
Mrs. L. M. Chick
Hexagon quilt made by hand from a wide variety of cotton materials. There is no padding and the backing is calico.
2286 x 915mm
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
National Gallery of Australia
"A medallion or framed quilt in design. There is a central field of small patchwork diamonds, and from this radiates plain stripes of fabric bordering areas of patchwork panels. The edge of the quilt carries bands of red cotton, which are slightly larger at the top and bottom edges, and here the band is additionally decorated with appliqué diamonds. The fabric of the patchwork is cotton in fine plain weave of pale coloured florals and small geometric designs. The framing and border stripes are of bright red twill weave cotton. The small diamonds of the central field are hand sewn, with more use of machine stitching around the outer edge of the quilt.
The quilt is not padded. The patchwork is fully lined with a printed plain weave cotton fabric with a design commemorating Queen Victoria's Jubilee. The design is based on a repeated grid of circles. In the centre of each circle is a cameo of Queen Victoria, surrounded by images of the national flowers of England, Scotland and Ireland: the rose, the thistle and the shamrock. The edge of the front face of the quilt is trimmed with a red and white cotton braid." [NGA] 2380 x 2220mm
Art Gallery of South Australia
Patchwork quilt in the Tumbling Block pattern in light and dark silks in bright colours. On both sides and at the bottom is a wide border in Tumbling Blocks, the pattern vertical at the sides and forming a triangle centre bottom, with an edge on both sides of two black bands with pieced diamonds between. Made for a poster bed. Hand sewn.
1790 x 1750mm
Peter and Jan Newman
Suffolk Puff quilt with puffs mainly in patterned cotton pieces saved from 60 years of household sewing. Puffs are formed into rosettes and the holes are on the top making a decorative feature. It is hand sewn.
2700 x 2400mm.
Ida Blenkiron
Patchwork quilt of square and rectangular patches, mainly in cotton fabrics, in plains and prints. Colours are predominantly yellow, pinks, blues and prints on white. Backing is the same except there is a piece of patterned curtaining material as a patch across the middle width. Padding is old blanketing.
1830 x 1140mm
Bill & Barbara Meynink
Patchwork quilt made from brightly coloured printed cotton fabrics in hexagon patches hand sewn together in rosettes, and stitched by machine onto a border of green moire taffeta. No padding. Backing is green cotton satin curtain lining. There is a matching pillow sham.
2591 x 2540mm

Pages