Typically Australian Quilts

Rosemary Blake
The inner part of the quilt is made from potato bags stitched together. These have been covered with a ticking type fabric held to the bags with large stitches using a string type thread. This whole inner layer is covered with muslin, dyed orange. The dye is thought to have been a Dolly dye. The quilt is very heavy. There are small hand stitches in each corner through all layers.
1770 x 1520 mm
Annette Gero
Machine stitched quilt with the top constructed from men's woollen suiting pieces.There are many repairs and the cream patches are recent additions. The padding is layers of blanket pieces. The quilt is very heavy.
1800 x 1600mm
Griffith Pioneer Park Museum
Quilt, machine sewn, has one side of floral cretonne, red floral on cream background. Other side is of fawn cotton knit, irregular shaped pieces with a mixture of straight and curved edges, edges are turned under and the top stitched together. Padding appears to be old blankets, possibly with other material sandwiched in between as it is lumpy.
770 x 340mm
Fred Keen
Patchwork quilt with front and back made from different sized patches of used woollen clothes, stitched in a random manner. Fabrics include men's trousers, and tweeds, checks and plains, in navy, grey, browns and fawn, and some red and white check. Backing is from larger pieces, including large patches of a dark pink, some green and some navy rectangles. Filling of wheat bags and part of a travelling rug was removed because it was too heavy.
1600 x 1000mm
Wanda McPherson
Patchwork Victorian style crazy quilt with 100s of irregular shaped pieces of velvet, silk, cotton sateen, brocade, ribbons and beading. Many pieces have been embroidered with decorative motifs or names. The centre olive green velvet piece is embroidered 'DC 1898', another 'Mother', two names are just readable - 'Louise' and 'Constance A Kenworth'. Several sprigs of raised wattle and leaves are also embroidered on black velvet. Patchwork has a 13cm wide border of olive green velvet with a twisted cord of 3 greens stitched to the edge. Padding is of white cotton flannelette, backing of mid brown cotton sateen.
1580mm x 1400mm
Mal Crawford
The top is an old army blanket, the backing is jute bags and the padding is old woollen material and parts of the maker's mother's fake leopard skin coat. It is hand sewn using a darning needle and fishing line.
1880 x 1132mm
The Pioneer Women's Hut
A buggy rug of machine pieced patchwork of men's suiting samples. There is a large diamond of patches in the centre, bordered by rectangles. There is no padding. The backing is wholecloth tartan wool.
1910 x 1580mm
Beverley Beck
Patchwork quilt, the top made from large squares and rectangles of woollen material pieced in a random manner. Colours are bright pink and green, with brown, blue and grey check pieces. Padding is flannelette and an old singlet. Backing is made of scraps of woollen material.
1350 x 1000mm
Kristine Gray
The quilt top is large patches of random machine pieced reused clothing. The material for the red check binding was purchased at Green and Petrich, Haberdashery, Queen street, St. Mary's. The backing is an old sheet and the padding is an old woollen cream blanket.
1400 x 1100mm
Muriel Mackenzie
Wholecloth utilitarian quilt with velour type material top and cottage weave curtain material on the back. The padding is a 'bush blanket'. There is a binding of turquoise woollen crochet encased in black cotton satin fabric Machine sewn and quilted.
1829 x 1042mm
Kristine Gray
Double sided quilt of random shapes of used clothing including flannel, flannelette, cottons and wools. The padding is flannelette.
Lynnette Brown
Quilt made of two overlapping woollen, children's garments, heavily embroidered with wool (herringbone stitch), backed with checked flannelette, edged with woollen crochet. Woollen crochet edging has 5 rows of treble crochet, with one row of double crochet on edge. No apparent padding.
1020 x 730mm
The Townsville Museum
One side of this quilt is made from pieces of men's knitted jumpers and cardigans hand sewn to a calico base using big stitches and cream and grey thread. The other side is mainly one cardigan with the sleeves removed. There is no additional padding.
1321 x 1245mm
Annette Gero
Strips of mainly patterned cotton dress materials joined to form 3 blocks to make the quilt top. Each block is outlined with a plain deep blue border. The backing is calico. There is no padding and it is not quilted.
2300 x 1520mm
Ida Blenkiron
Wholecloth quilt with back and front of red, blue and yellow cotton floral print and padding made from jumpers, wool skirts, etc. Machine quilted.
1050 x 840mm
Fran Williams
All cotton top and backing. Machine construction. Patches, mainly rectangles, joined in strips and then the strips joined to form the top. The back is a similar construction but larger pieces. The padding is made from lots of hand and machine knitted woollen pieces, including jumpers. Black check binding. It is very heavy. It is not quilted. It is not used. The owner calls it a Wagga.
1340 x 1610mm
Win Groves
Patchwork quilt made from squares of wool and cotton fabrics, from dressing gown material, skirts, and corduroy. Machine sewn onto a cotton counterpane woven in stripes of red, blue, black on white. Colours of fabrics are red, blue, yellow, white and grey, with a dark grey check. Sewn on a treadle sewing machine.
2250 x 2050mm
Barbara Bullock
This Adelaide Chronicle quilt or cover is made from white cotton headcloth. A double band of green headcloth 105mm wide is attached with hemstitching. The top is divided into 225 x 210mm blocks also with green hemstitching. Each alternate block features stylised leatherwood flower and leaves and is embroidered in apricot stranded cotton. The alternate blocks feature other Australian wild flowers. The cover is entirely hand sewn. There is no backing.
2170 x 1970mm
Alys Mercer
This Adelaide Chronicle quilt or bedcover is single thickness white linen with a double thickness wide green border hemstitched in place. The cover is divided into blocks and in each alternate block an Australian bird has been worked in fancywork using stranded cottons.
2019 x 1144mm
Laurel Thompson
Quilt made of squares and rectangles of woollen fabric (coating material) in plain, check and woven patterns, in dark bright colours. The backing is a grey wool blanket and the quilt is bound by a light cotton fabric which has frayed. Machine stitched.
1910 x 1530mm

Pages