History
Eliza Hillyard commenced the cover in England pre 1914. It was brought to Australia in 1914 when Eliza's daughter Ellen and her husband Tom (Thomas Montague Page-Knight) [who] emigrated with their four children, Alice Maude, Vera, Beatrice Lucy and Charles Arthur. Ellen added rows of velvet and silk hexagons to Eliza's work. Ellen's daughter, Alice Maude, continued the work adding additional rows of hexagons. These are now the outer layer and still have some basting threads and papers in place. It is thought that Maude's work was in the 1930s and 1940s. The present owner, Fay Burgess, was given the work by her aunt Maude (Keage). Fay is the daughter of Vera May McGeachan (born Knight). Eliza Worth (later Hillyard born 1886 was a needlewoman to Queen Victoria, mending linen. Her daughter Ellen (later Knight) made corsets and it is thought that some of the silk hexagons were from off cuts of corsets. Maude (born 1911) had a business as a dressmaker and made dresses for women married at Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney NSW. The present owner has a basket of pieces from the quilt and also Eliza's work bag with her initials embroidered on it.
Description
Hexagonal piece of patchwork made up of nine rows of rosettes of hexagons in a wide variety of colours and patterns mainly in silks and velvets. It is incomplete. Backing papers are still in the outside rows and also basting threads. Hexagons are joined by fine whip stitching. It is unlined.
1370 x 1220mm
