Patchwork Quilts

Powerhouse Museum
"A tied patchwork wagga quilt made from swatches of men's wool suiting fabrics in blue/grey and pink/brown tonings. Rectangular swatches have been cut in half diagonally, and the resulting right-angled triangles paired to form larger equilateral triangles which alternate dark with light across the field. The quilt has been machine and hand pieced, then machined in vertical stripes.
The centre field is bounded by two strip-pieced borders at top and bottom, and three down each side. These are sewn from rectangles, using light pink/brown tones for the inner border and darker colours for the outer borders. The quilt is padded and backed and the side seams are secured with black herringbone stitch. The three layers are tied together invisibly with lazy daisy stitches in black cotton from the back." [PHM] The padding is a wool blanket and the backing is two pieces of cream twill cotton.
2030 x 1440mm
Kaniva District Historical Society
Crazy patchwork quilt, mostly velvet, with two rectangular frames or borders of green fabric. All patchwork pieces have embroidery over the seams, mostly herringbone. Quilt is edged with a cream cotton ruffle. Cotton backing.
1625 x 1625mm
Pioneer Settlement Authority
Centre medallion of hexagons surrounded by blocks of tumbling blocks. Rows of triangles around the edge. Each corner has a star within a hexagon. Hand stitched with the traditional 20 stitches to the inch. There is a silk tassle in each corner. Materials include: silk, silk ribbon, taffeta, brocade, velvet, striped silk, faille. The backing is cream holland.
1580 x 1510mm
Marie Pye
Quilt of scrap hexagons. Hand pieced over papers with some papers still in place. Materials used include seersucker, plisse, chambray and various other textured cottons used in dressmaking. The owner has restored the quilt. The backing is a soft cotton in indigo blue and the padding is flannelettte. "I machine tied the quilt in its restoration using cream cotton at the intersections so that it doesn't impinge on the interesting fabrics and the overall scrap effects." [Marie Pye]
2590 x 2170mm
Jan Tregoweth
Patchwork quilt of cotton hexagon patches grouped in 'flowers', comprising 4 rings of patches around a central hexagon. Prints and plains are used, the colours mainly browns, greens, yellows, dark blue and dark pink. The 'paths' are in a yellow-brown cotton. Cotton backing. The padding is probably an old blanket. The quilt is an irregular shape, and is tied.
2550 x 1870mm
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
Kapunda Historical Society
Patchwork quilt made from cotton fabrics in stripes, small prints, and plains. Centre block is pieced red and white triangles within a blue and white striped frame, with a row above and below of triangles in a flying geese pattern. Two rows of triangles in the flying geese pattern are on either side the full length of the quilt. Quilt is bordered with red cotton. Colours are red, white, pink, blue and yellow. Padding is probably a woollen blanket, the backing is linen. Closely quilted all over.
2180 x 1930mm
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
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
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
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.
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Frame quilt, hand and machine sewn, centre square of squares (7 rows by 7 rows) of 2 triangles, with red border. Alternate rows of triangles, rectangles, 'flying geese' border, squares, squares set on point with triangles, wide red border. Hand quilted throughout in chevrons, single cables and single scallops. The padding is a hand woven cream wool blanket and the backing is cream cotton twill.
2330 x 2030mm
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
Robyn Gallaway
Machine made cotton quilt with 100mm cotton squares placed diagonally with peaks running around the edge. The colours are mainly autiumn tones and the patterns include checks, tartans, florals, geometric and plains. Materials were scraps left over from sewing projects such as children's clothes. There is a matching valance.
Diana Cameron
Small patchwork piece possibly made from salesman's samples. There is no opening in the back so it is not a cushion cover. There is no padding. The backing is green polished cotton. There is a 40mm fringe around the edge.
520 x 520mm
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.
Shelley Cameron
Cotton scrap quilt with shapes of squares and diamonds and strips. There is no padding and the backing is calico.
2125 x 1440mm
Gloria Martin
Double sided quilt machine made from clothing scraps. Shapes are mainly rectangles in corduroy and wool blend. The padding is an old grey blanket.
1524 x 1372mm
National Gallery of Australia
" This is an unfinished section/piece of crazy quilting. Ribbons divide the piece horizontally into three sections; between these are bands of pastel fabrics and embroidery in the crazy quilt tradition. The fabrics and threads employed are very luxurious: laces, satin ribbons and silk velvets. The embroidery is very fine, employing a wide variety of stitches and threads. This patchwork piece is padded with cotton wadding and backed with tarlatan." [NGA] 1170 x 1020mm

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