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Suiting Samples Quilt

  • Owner:
    Powerhouse Museum
  • Location:
    NSW Sydney
  • Maker:
    Caroline West
  • Pattern:
    Patchwork
  • Pattern:
    Geometric
  • Pattern:
    Wagga
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 203
    Width: 144

History

The quilt was made by Caroline Mary West on a property near Trundle NSW in about 1930. It was handed down through the women of the family, to her grandson Mr Ian Foster of Newport. Ian Foster gave the quilt to the Powerhouse Museum in 1985. "The quilt was made by Mrs Caroline Mary West (nee Bray) in about 1930. Caroline was born on the 14 June 1872 and married a grazier, Everett Pearson West, in 1904. They lived on a property near Trundle, in the central west of New South Wales and had six children, four boys and two girls between 1905 and 1915. The quilt is thought to have been made in the 1920s or early 1930s during the Depression. The woollen suiting fabrics used to make the quilt were obtained from Tom Ellis the local tailor. Caroline Mary West died on 19 March 1947." [PHM]

Description

"A tied patchwork wagga quilt made from swatches of men's wool suiting fabrics in blue/grey and pink/brown tonings. Rectangular swatches have been cut in half diagonally and the resulting right-angled triangles paired to form larger equilateral triangles which alternate dark with light across the field. The quilt has been machine and hand pieced, then machined in vertical stripes. The centre field is bounded by two strip-pieced borders at top and bottom, and three down each side. These are sewn from rectangles, using light pink/brown tones for the inner border and darker colours for the outer borders. The quilt is padded and backed and the side seams are secured with black herringbone stitch. The three layers are tied together invisibly with lazy daisy stitches in black cotton from the back." [PHM] The padding is a wool blanket and the backing is two pieces of cream twill cotton.
2030 x 1440mm

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