Quilts

South Australian Museum
Rabbit Skin Cloak. Rectangular pieces stitched together with sinew and later repaired with fishing line.
Marian Russell
Patchwork quilt made from squares of wool, cotton, tweed, corduroy, tartan and stretch knit fabrics. Colours are mainly reds, greens, blues, pink and orange, mostly solid colours with some checks, stripes and florals. Padding is an open weave hessian material. Backing is a loosely woven cotton, pieced, buff coloured with a woven red and orange thread. Machine pieced, machine quilted in a large rectangle.
1601 x 915mm
Janine and Eva Chick
Hexagon quilt, hand sewn, using a wide variety of patterned and plain cotton scraps left over from dressmaking. 6 hexagons are placed around a centre one. There is no padding. The backing is brown flannel turned over to the front with hexagons hand stitched to it.
1220 x 763mm
West Tamar Historical Committee
Wholecloth quilt with both sides of floral cotton. The padding is thought to be hessian bags.
2060 x 1300mm
Art Gallery of South Australia
Rectangular patchwork crazy quilt pieced in squares (3 across by 4 down), in silks and wool, with red sashing between blocks and red border, quilted. Colours are dark, with red and light blue. Embroidery includes double feather, rope, herringbone, satin, cross, sword edge, buttonhole and coral stitches, and French knots. Embroidered flowers include lily of the valley, rose, daisy, and sunflower, also butterflies. Backing is pieced in the frame style, with a large centre red square, within 10 frames or borders. Embroidered "In Most Loving Memory of My Darling 1883", "V.H.B." Hand sewn.
1900 x 1500mm
Marion Coleman
Quilt made of Tailors' wool samples in stripes, checks and plain,, rectangles in different sizes machined together in strips. Colours are grey, navy, brown, light grey and cream. Lining or backing is of patterned cotton, in three layers as it has worn and been replaced. Machine and zigzag quilting.
1626 x 1271mm
Maria Politis
Wholecloth quilt made of deep cherry red satin with backing of sky blue satin. The padding is cotton wadding. It is hand quilted and the pattern is an all over one of four leafed clovers with a border of crescent shapes within straight parallel lines.
2000 x 1700mm
Joyce Lannin
A hand sewn quilt of more than 6,536 hexagon pieces in cottons, silks and polyester mix. There is a centre circular pattern of hexagons within a larger hexagon and small hexagons form larger hexagons in a random pattern on the quilt top. There is no padding and the backing is a plain fawn sheet with a floral edging in hexagons. 2880 x 2550 mm.
The Embroiderers' Guild of S.A.Inc Museum
This Adelaide Chronicle wildflower quilt has alternating squares of green and fawn headcloth embroidered with Australian wildflowers on the fawn squares and stylised floral motifs on the green squares. It is bordered and backed with the same green material. It is padded.
2350 x 1530mm
National Gallery of Australia
"The Rajah "quilt" is a patchwork and appliquéd bed cover or coverlet. It is in pieced medallion or framed style: a popular design style for quilts in the British Isles in the mid 1800's. There is a central field of white cotton decorated with appliquéd (in broderie perse) chintz birds and floral motifs. This central field is framed by 12 bands or strips of patchwork printed cotton. The quilt is finished at the outer edge by white cotton decorated with appliquéd daisies on three sides and inscription in cross stitch surrounded by floral chintz attached with broderie perse on the fourth side. All fabrics used in the Rajah quilt are cotton with the exception of small amounts of linen and silk threads. The quilt shows evidence of being produced by many hands." [NGA] The quilt is not padded or lined. 3372 x 3250mm
Mare Carter
Patchwork quilt, all cotton including cotton filling. "8 pointed star" with turkey red surround, white background. Hand stitched and hand quilted.
2109 X 1727mm
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.
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
Christine Kable
Durham type wholecloth quilt of cotton sateen, hand sewn and quilted. Apricot on one side and yellow on the other. The padding is possibly coarse cotton.
2465 x 2057mm
Charlotte Nattey
Cotton quilt of pieced hexagons and some diamonds made for a baby's basket. Colours are mainly blue and pink and two 'Punch and Judy's' are appliqued in the centre. There is no padding and the backing is a cotton floral in blues and greens.
760 x 660mm
Nancy Dunlap
Quilt top in block design based on hexagons in a variety of patterned cotton with a plain pink hexagon in the centre. The hexagons are linked by triangles of pink cotton. Cottons include florals, stripes, checks, tartans and novelty prints. 2080 x 2300mm
Effie Kalenderidis
Wholecloth quilt made from blue satin with turquoise blue cotton backing. The padding is cotton wadding. The quilting pattern is a large central motif of a daisy with a fan design in each corner. The in fill pattern is of curved and straight parallel lines and the border straight parallel lines. It is all hand quilted.
2000 x 1660mm
Hazel Jarmyn
Patchwork quilt made from cotton hexagon patches in the 'grandmother's Flower Garden' pattern, in bright prints and plains, with cream 'paths' made from dress material. Padding is flannel sheeting, and backing is the same cream material as the 'paths'. The centre of the 'flower' patches are autographed with friends' names and dates, as are some 'petals' and cream patches, in black ink.
1550 x 1400mm
Kereake Wray
Wholecloth Greek quilt. "The fabric is a beautiful silk satin with a formal pattern of soft yellows and pinks on a turquoise background. Surrounding this is a 40cm wide border also of silk satin (cerise coloured). The quilt is machine pieced but hand quilted. The method of quilting is very interesting. A thick cream twist has been used and at first glance it seems that the quilt is tied as there are long pairs of stitches with gaps of about 4cm between them. However, either a long needle was used to make a pair of stitches OR each side may have been quilted separately with the needle only going half way into the wadding which is about 2 cms thick." [Kereake Wray] The padding is kapok approx 2 cm thick and the backing is deep coral pink satin. 2200 x 1960 mm.
Alyce Wright
Cotton scrap quilt in a pattern known as 'Grandmothers Fan'. It is hand quilted. The padding is hand carded cotton and the backing is muslin.
2235 x 1880mm

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