Quilts

Fleur Margaret Lehane
Unfinished cotton frame quilt. The centre square is 4 triangles and this is surrounded by a border of smaller triangles. Most of the other borders are of triangles in a wide variety of materials, printed and plain.
2286 x 1829mm
Alicia Murdoch
Cotton quilt entirely of hesagons. Some are formed into rostttes or flowers and have a print border of 12 hexagons, an inner circle of 6 hexagons in a plain colour and a yellow hexagon centre. The padding is cotton wool and the backing plain off white cotton.
2210 x 1430mm
Bud and Patricia Ford
Rug made of 12 lamb skins stitched to a blue and grey checked bush rug. 1931 x 1525mm
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
Yvonne Hore
Reversible quilt. Both sides are small squares of cotton scraps mainly left over from children's clothes. Plain and patterned pieces in a wide variety of colours. Hand stitched. Padding is pieced men's clothing, jumpers, cardigans, trousers. The present owner zig zagged over the seams, bound the edges and 'clouted' (her term) it in circles and squares.
2080 x 1570mm
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Patchwork quilt made up of 100mm multi coloured squares in a variety of materials including cottons, synthetics, lurex, plain and printed. Each square has dacron padding and is then joined in strips and the strips joined. All hand sewn. The backing is blue synthetic whole cloth 60mm of which is returned to the front to form a border.
1500 x 1200mm
Old Government House
Patchwork quilt in Log Cabin pattern made from silks, velvet, cottons and taffetas, in prints and plain, around a centre squares of black velvet. Colours are, in the dark sections, blues, greens, browns, yellow and pinks. The base of the blocks is blue and white ticking. The padding is probably cotton. Backing is of green cotton. There is an attached frill on all sides of green cotton, faded to dull light brown.
1630 x 1350mm
Julie Atkinson
Reversible wholecloth cotton quilt with elaborate hand quilting. One side is cream patterned material and the other plain pale yellow. It is padded but the type of padding is unknown.
2450 x 2000mm
Margaret McMillan
Cotton log cabin double bed quilt. Each square has 52 pieces (i.e. 13 pieces x 4 to make a square). There are 192 squares so a total of 10.092 pieces. There is probably no padding. The backing is calico with a floral pattern done in running stitch.
2200 x 2200mm
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.
The Pioneer Women's Hut
Possum skin rug. Skins are recantular centre back pieces, approximately 230mm x 140mm. They are hand stitched together in 11 rows running the length of the rug. At one end, the last row of skins goes across the rug. The backing is stitched to the skins and is mainly grey woollen material with a green piece added at one end. There is a scalloped edge and dark blue rat tail braid on the back 60mm from the edge. 2025 x 1400mm
The Pioneer Women's Hut
The top is machine pieced patches of used clothing. The backing is large pieces of dress materials and either end patches similar to the top. The padding is a chaff bag or similar with patches of worn, matted children's jumpers sewn directly on to it.
1400 x 1150mm
Wanda McPherson
Patchwork quilt made from pure wool suiting samples in shades of navy blue and brown. Quilt is constructed in 11 rows containing 11 pieces. Each piece is 14cm x 9cm. No padding. Backing is of mauve cotton with a floral pattern of closely spaces white/pale mauve flowers.
1480 x 900mm
The Embroiderers' Guild of S.A.Inc Museum
Wholecloth quilt in white cotton voile with alternating designs of Australian wildflowers worked in multi coloured cottons and shadow work. It is backed with yellow voile. There is no padding.
2010 x 1910mm
Bob Sloan
Double sided quilt made from all wool worsted suiting samples. Machine construction. There is no padding.
1840 x 1330mm
Robert Constable
Hand embroidered pink silk quilt with white embroidery. Wide border of hand made lace thought to be French late 18th century. Cream silk backing and very thin padding.
2700 x 2400mm
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
Western Australian Museum
Possum skin rug made from rows of possum pelts sewn to a woollen blue checked blanket. 1720 x 1370mm
Annette Gero
Hand pieced frame quilt with centre frame and borders of squares set on point. There is a blue patterned border. The backing is white and it is finely quilted. "The fabrics themselves are all absolutely typical of the period [1830 t0 1840] and many, if not most, of them can be found as illustrations in historical textile reference books - in this respect the quilt is virtually a book chapter in itself and has a particular value to a quilt historian. At about this period in England cottons and chintzes were being produced in great quantity and were relatively modestly priced." [Annette Gero]
2540 x 2540mm
National Gallery of Australia
" The quilt is a patchwork of red cotton fabric. Each piece is decorated with embroidery in thick white cotton thread and with cotton appliqué. The edge of the quilt is decorated with a red cotton unlined border strip decorated with cutwork daisies, producing a scalloped edge. The images and inscriptions carried on each of the pieces of various sizes are a time capsule to notions and everyday life at the turn of the century.
In the centre is Queen Victoria surrounded by a garland of floral emblem of the Empire. (This square is dated 1901) Other squares carry scenes of daily life, farm animals and mottoes. "When a woman throws herself at a man head she seldom hit the mark." There are several spelling errors within the inscriptions. The latest dated piece is 'Dec 1903'. The embroidery is quite crude and large, and shows the work of two hands." [NGA]
The quilt is not padded. It is lined with pink cotton flannelette. 2230 x 1910mm

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