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Owner:
National Gallery of Australia -
Location:
ACT -
Maker:
Christina Brown -
Pattern:
Patchwork -
Pattern:
Embroidered -
Pattern:
Crazy -
Dimensions:
Height: 181
Width: 146
History
Christina Brown made the quilt. The National Gallery purchased the quilt from a family living in New South Wales in 1989. "Christina Brown (born 1815 United Kingdom, died 1895 Australia) made this quilt. Mrs. Brown immigrated to Australia with her husband from Scotland in 1842. The Brown family had a property [called] 'Cooerwull' at Bowenfels near Lithgow, New South Wales. Christina raised 3 children in the 1840's but did not produce this quilt until she was in her seventies, around 1890." [NGA]
Description
"The quilt consists of 12 blocks of crazy patchwork with an embroidered border. The quilt is made of 167 different fabrics; most of these are silk. These velvets, printed silks and satins are beautifully embroidered with flowers, household items and Kate Greenway images of children at play. Many of the motifs have a strong influence from the Aesthetic Movement. The edge of the quilt carries a border in maroon silk decorated with tendrils and daisies in very fine embroidery.
The patches are joined with hand sewing and embroidery, however the 12 panels are joined with machine stitching (chainstitch machine stitching). The blue silk lining was hand sewn into position with silk thread." [NGA]
"The quilt does consist of three layers but the central layer is not padding. The crazy patch pieces were sewn together and this was lined with white cotton fabric prior to the embroidery at the edges of the 12 panels being placed. This in turn was lined with a fine blue silk." [NGA] 1810 x 1460 mm
