Online Article about the upcoming V&A Quilts 1700 - 1945 exhibition in Brisbane

The latest Cultural Concept Circle Muse News - Society and Culture Special contains a very interesting article written by Caroline McDowall and  titled 'Quilts - Counterpanes of Comfort and Cultural Significance'. It provides some background information to accompany the 'Quilts 1700 - 1945' exhibition, which will be held in Brisbane starting 15th June 2013 at QAGOMA.

To view this article, go to http://www.thecultureconcept.com/circle/quilts-counterpanes-of-comfort-and-cultural-significance

Report on Jennifer Palmer's talk to the QSG of NSW on 4 May 2013

In a most interesting and comprehensive talk on Saturday 4^th May 2013, Jennifer Palmer spoke about how we can document our quilts and store them in the best condition. She began by explaining why we should all document our quilts, giving us examples of the theft of quilts here and overseas. Such documentation provides evidence for future owners of an item and its provenance, and also provides a snapshot of its condition.

She gave us each a Textile Documentation Worksheet, and using the example of a quilt in the National Trust collection, Jennifer worked through the different sections, explaining exactly what should be recorded and why. Apart from the obvious sections such as dimensions, image, complete physical description (so if lost or stolen, it could be verified), she told us how important it is to record the history of an item (including ownership, family stories and use information). As Dr Annette Gero showed us later with one of her quilts, research into the fabrics can prove or disprove oral history.

Full description of a quilt is needed (quilt label, pattern, shapes, colour, materials used, style, construction techniques and type of sewing), along with a unique identification number. We often forget to include and update exhibition history (prizes, publications, collaborators, time taken to make, unique fabrics used etc.). We all agreed that for our purchased quilts and quilt tops, the provenance and valuation data should always be captured. Jennifer also pointed out that when describing any research into an item, it is important to document all sources of information, especially online sources such as Trove, so they can revisited for updates.

Later discussions covered the always controversial area of quilt valuation (both initial and subsequent revaluations), along with the storage, care and conservation of our textiles. We picked up valuable tips from Jennifer in all these areas, thanks to her extensive experience with collections. We were also given a list of conservation products and suppliers, along with valuable information about the Australian environment and appropriate pest management techniques.

Sandra Lyons introduces Anne Seddon and her family's hexie quilt top

For show and tell, Sandra Lyons introduced us to Anne Seddon who showed us her wonderful family hexie quilt top (with intact papers), made in the late 1800s. Anne spoke about her family history and stories of the quilt.

Annette Gero also brought her example of a hexie quilt made about the same time by Mary Morehead. She spoke about how important it is to verify the family story of quilts by inspecting fabrics for clues, and by researching family history, such as birth/death/marriage data and newspapers online.

Karen Fail then showed us a more modern quilt made by her friend Larraine Scouler, which she purchased from the family after Larraine’s death. She spoke of the personal attachment she had to this quilt - it featured in her first book, “Quilting Back to Front” - and how this important detail could be lost if she had not documented it.

We finished the day by closely inspecting the quilt tops brought to the event. Here are 3 examples of hexie quilts, all made around the same date.

QSG of NSW tours of the Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection in June 2013

10.30am on Wednesday 5^th June 2013 and Friday 21^st June 2013 – Tour of the Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection.

The Quilt Study Group of NSW has arranged for two tours of the Historic Houses Trust’s Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection. It is located in the Mint Building on Macquarie Street and is open to the public from Tuesday to Friday. It contains many items of interest touching on the history of houses, garden design and interior furnishing in New South Wales. 

The librarian will show us paintings, prints, textiles, wallpapers and other large format collection items, and you can stay on to continue your research into your quilts by using their excellent specialist research facilities. See http://www.hht.net.au/collections/library for further details.

Numbers for each tour are strictly limited to 15 people but there are currently some places left on both dates. Please contact the Quilters' Guild of NSW Office (ph: 9283 3737) to secure your place on either of the tours.

Dr Annette Gero talk at the V&A Quilt exhibition in Brisbane on the 20th July 2013.

In conjunction with the ‘Quilts 1700 – 1945’ exhibition of quilts from the Victoria and Albert Museum that will be on show at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane from mid June to late September this year, there will be a series of free talks and workshops.

Dr Annette Gero, FRSA, will give one of the monthly illustrated talks on Saturday the 20^th July 2013. In her talk, titled ‘200 Years of the History of Quilts in Australia’, she will examine the fascinating history of quilting in Australia, comparing the extraordinary British quilts brought to Australia during the colonial period with those featured in ‘Quilts 1700 – 1945’.

For more details, go to http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/coming_soon/quilts_1700-1945/programs_and_events/lectures_talks_events

Saturday 4th May 2013 – Jennifer Palmer – Talk and Workshop on Documenting and Researching your Quilts and other Treasures

Jennifer Palmer will talk to us about how to document and research our precious textiles. These could be quilts you have made that you want preserved for future generations or those made by other people that you have collected. There will be some old quilts and coverlets brought along by Annette Gero and other quilt collectors that Jennifer will use as examples. She will also touch on quilt valuations and how to store and care for your quilts.

The sample document and guidelines Jennifer has prepared can also be used to document any other objects you own.

Since 1997 Jennifer has worked as a Collection Manager with a diverse range of objects in the collections of the National Trust of Australia (NSW), the Art Gallery of NSW, The Powerhouse Museum, the Mitchell Library, the Queensland Museum and museums in the UK. Most recently Jennifer provided guidance to the QSG of NSW on the replica Frederica Josephson coverlet project that is now held in the National Trust's collection at their Observatory Hill location.

Bring along a tape measure and your own new and old quilt treasures (especially those with interesting quilt labels) and start to document them in the workshop at the end of the talk. If you have any new quilts you have finished and want to show us, please bring them along too for show and tell.

This event will be held at The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. Time: 2pm – 4.30pm. Admission fees  are: Guild members $5, non-Guild members $10. There is free entry to the Powerhouse Museum if you are coming to the talk and afternoon tea is provided.

Report on Lyn Dennis' talk to QSG of NSW on 9th March 2013

Lyn Dennis is a member of the Quilters' Guild of NSW Inc., the Needlework Tool Collection Society of Australia, and the International Sewing Machine Society (UK).  In 2012 Lyn travelled solo to France and the UK to pursue her interest in the history of patchwork and quilting in Great Britain. She designed her travels to include the study of quilts that are little known of in Australia.

 

Lyn started her talk by giving us a detailed description of the famous Anna Brereton Bed Hanging she saw in the Norwich Shire Hall Textiles Study Centre. Anna started the project in 1801 and retreated to sew it in her bedroom after the death of her beloved son. This four year project brought Anna back to normal society. The bed quilt has hexies cut from wonderful chintz fabrics and coffin patches are sewn on the bed hangings. Anna used different coloured threads to join the pieces and it was lovely to see them in the close up photos that Lyn took of the parts of the bed hangings she was allowed to view.

Brereton Bed Hangings

A photo of this amazing group of bedding textiles along with a description of Anna’s life can be found online at http://brereton.org.uk/brinton/bedhangings.htm. It is also in Janet Rae’s book, The Quilts of the British Isles. There is also a close up detail of one of the bed curtains on the Norfolk Museum’s website - see http://www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/nmaspub5.asp to start your search in the Costumes and Textiles section for the bed curtain.

 Lyn then spoke of her visit to Gawthorpe Hall in Lancashire and the quilts and coverlets she saw in the wonderful Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth Collection (see http://www.gawthorpetextiles.org.uk/ for more details). The collection contains the finest collection of textiles outside of the Victoria and Albert Museum. From the age of nine Miss Rachel collected, studied, made and taught textile techniques. Today there are some textiles on display in the public rooms but the best way to see the quilts is by arranging a behind the scenes viewing, as Lyn did. Gail Marsh, the curator and author of a number of books that contain detailed photos from the textile collection, showed Lyn 15 quilts from the collection. 

Lyn's Patchwork Tea Cloth

 

Lyn started this section by talking about the Patchwork Tea Cloth. It is a coverlet stitched to the backing fabric around the appliquéd pieces, signed I.B. and was made between 1780 and 1810. The strips of fabric were joined with run and fell seams and it contains an 18” centre, has 4” wide toile and coloured fabric strips and is finished with vandyke triangles on the outside. Both Lyn and Maureen Teager have made copies of this quilt. Maureen’s won a first prize in the 2006 Sydney Quilt Show and Lyn is still quilting hers. In quilt classes in Australia it is taught as ‘Gilly’s Coverlet’.

Maureen's "Tribute to Gilly's Find"

Close ups of the appliqués are also in Gail Marsh’s book – ‘19^th Century Embroidery”.

Lyn then showed us photographs she took of both the 1833 Wedding Coverlet and the 1834 baby cot quilt made by Nancy Horsfall. You can see pictures of them in the V&A book Quilts 1700 – 2010 – Hidden Histories, Untold Stories on pages 70 and 71 (Brigitte Giblin also teaches a quilt based on it). The wedding coverlet is large (102” x 101”) and the cot cover is 34” x 45”. They contain similar fabrics and patterns and the inscriptions on both coverlets are excellent for quilters today. The wedding coverlet is a frame or medallion quilt appliquéd with simple motifs and shapes cut direct from fabric. The frames are all of differing sizes and it is finished with a border of chintz fabric.

Here is Maureen Teager’s copy of the Nancy Horsfall cot cover, “Hush a Bye Baby”.

Lyn was especially taken by the quilt donated by Miss Grimshaw. It is 98” x 111” and has the initals E.I. and the year 1812 is embroidered on it. In the centre is a piece of silk dated to 1700 that is tamboured with chain stitched flowers. This centre is bordered by unusual bias edged lappets. The rest of the top contains randomly placed units of hexies, daisies, hoverflies, flower vases, two floral panels and two- and three-petal flowers, appearing to be a representation of a parterre garden. We were especially taken by the close up photos Lyn had taken of the different elements used, especially the hoverflies and their wool antennae. An image of the full quilt can be seen on page 74 of the V&A book Quilts 1700 – 2010 – Hidden Histories, Untold Stories.

Miss Grimshaw's Quilt

We then saw detailed images of an 1850 Medallion Irish Chain and Flying Geese quilt. It contains small print fabrics, a simple 30” centre of red squares on point, and a dark border of 12.5” Irish chain blocks. The centre included some interesting turquoise, pink, mauve, brown and corn coloured fabrics. As Lyn remarked, it showed a love of stitching, not calculating! The final quilt we saw in detail was the Medallion quilt made in the late 1800s by Mary Bateman (she died aged 96). Again, it was a lovely quilt.

 

After the talk Noeleen Lutton showed us her interpretation of a silk bedcover from the V&A collection that she made in one of Jennifer Corkish’s classes (see page 13 of the V&A book for the original).

Noeleen's quilt

2013 Quilt Study Group of NSW Events

The Quilt Study Group of NSW has planned the following events for 2013. The events will be held at The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (except for June). Time: 2pm – 4.30pm. Admission fees to events are: Guild members $5, non-Guild members $10. There is free entry to the Powerhouse Museum and afternoon tea is provided.

Saturday 9th March 2013 –Lyn Dennis –Talk about her 2012 UK Quilt Research Trip

Lyn Dennis will give an illustrated talk for the Quilt Study Group of NSW about her quilt study trip in May 2012 to the United Kingdom. While in England, Lyn was able to study some of the quilts in the collections at both the Norwich Guild Hall, Norwich and Gawthorpe Hall, Lancashire. We will see and hear about 10-12 quilts in these collections in detail.

Bring along quilts you have made based on English heritage quilts or any old English quilts you own for show and tell.

Saturday 4th May 2013 – Jennifer Palmer – Talk and Workshop on Documenting and Researching your Quilts and other Treasures

Jennifer Palmer will talk about how to document and research your precious textiles. These could be quilts you have made that you want preserved for future generations or those made by other people that you have collected. The sample document and guidelines can be used to document other objects you own.

Jennifer has worked as a Collection Manager with a diverse range of objects in the collections of the National Trust of Australia (NSW), the Art Gallery of NSW, The Powerhouse Museum, the Mitchell Library, the Queensland Museum and museums in the UK.

Bring along your own quilt treasures (especially those with interesting quilt labels) and start to document them in the workshop at the end of the talk.

10.30am on Wednesday 5^th June 2013 and Friday 21^st June 2013 – Tour of the Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection.

Following Jennifer Palmer’s talk, we have arranged for two tours of the Historic Houses Trust’s Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection in the Mint Building on Macquarie Street. It is open from Tuesday to Friday and contains many items of interest touching on the history of houses, garden design and interior furnishing in New South Wales. The librarian will show us paintings, prints, textiles, wallpapers and other large format collection items, and you can stay on to continue your research into your quilts by using their excellent specialist research facilities. See http://www.hht.net.au/collections/library for further details.

Numbers for each tour are strictly limited to 15 people but if there is more demand, we can request another tour date. Please contact the Quilters' Guild of NSW Office to secure your place on either of the tours.

Saturday 5th October 2013 – Karen Fail – ‘Friendship Quilts’

Friendship quilts provide a lasting memory of shared lives and are a link with quilt makers of the past. Karen Fail, author of Between Friends - Quilts to Share, will talk about the early history of friendship quilts and their role in the lives of quilt makers.

Bring along your own friendship or group/collaborative quilts to show us. These could be made from birthday blocks, to commemorate a special event in your life or made as a Round Robin.