-
Owner:
Dianne Firth -
Location:
Canberra -
Maker:
Dianne Firth -
Pattern:
Patchwork -
Dimensions:
Height: 130cm
Width: 125cm
History
I worked in a company that designed interiors for several Government buildings. The brief required predominantly wool soft furnishings. As a consequence suppliers brought us swatches of potential fabrics with colours referencing the Australian landscape, mostly sourced from Australian and New Zealand woolen mills. Afterwards I couldn't bring myself to throw out these samples. Making patchwork quilts seemed a perfect use. 'Colours of Australia' is one such example and has been used for many years as a picnic blanket and as a cover for a storage box. It received an award in the Canberra Quilters Annual Exhibition in 1992.
Description
'Colours of Australia' is 130cm high and 125 cm wide and was made in 1992. There are three layers.
The face layer is composed of machine stitched large and small woolen fabric pieces with darker reds, blues, greens, and purples mostly graded to each corner and paler pieces to the centre. There are ochre, pale yellow and beige highlights throughout. It is framed by a narrow edge of beige-brown cotton. The back layer is red vyella (wool/cotton mix) and tartan wool/polyester fabric. The middle layer is 100% wool batting. The three layers are hand quilted and tied together with dark red knitting wool. The ties fix colour graded buttons on the front with the knot at the back.
The front of the quilt is signed DF:92 and there is a sleeve on the back.
Acknowledgements
Lester Firth Associates P/L
