The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne is raising funds to purchase the quilt ‘Housetop Variations 1930s’ made by Gees Bend quilter Martha Pettway:.
This quilt, from the 1930s, is by leading quilt-maker Martha Pettway, featuring the ‘Housetop’ pattern – a design of concentric squares – unique to Gee’s Bend. Pettway used vibrant domestic cotton fabrics on the face of the quilt, while the reverse features a backing comprised of rice, sugar and fertiliser bags. This use of readily available materials underscores the socio-historic context of quilt production of the time.
With your support NGV has a rare opportunity to acquire this important hand-stitched quilt by Martha Pettway, one of the most important quilters of Gee’s Bend.
A short video presentation on the proposed acquisition (and how to donate towards it) is on the NGV website: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/support-us/ngv-foundation/help-tell-a-new-story-in-the-ngv-collection/(NGV on Facebook, 23 December 2021)
6Originally made from old, recycled fabrics, the traditional kantha cloth is an example of 'flat', or unwadded quilting, worked on multiple layers of fabric. Bangladeshi or Bengali kantha cloths were made by women for use in their own homes as bedcovers, mats and all-purpose wrappers. The stitching consists of embroidered patterns, ranging from simple floral motifs to elaborate scenes, combined with running-stitch quilting in a colour matching the background fabric. On older quilts, the quilting runs around the embroidered motifs, a technique known as echo quilting … Victoria and Albert Museum
‘… The lives of the working poor were rarely recorded in Georgian Britain, we know so much about Joe the Quilter because he was made famous by his death. A plan of his house was made, and a list of its contents, as they were subsequently auctioned …’. Bowes Museum Blog, 18 September, 2015
The Bellamy Quilt, Norwich Castle Museum
Welcome to the wonderful Bellamy Quilt: a spectacular love story in textiles. The Bellamy Quilt was made by a couple, Charlotte Alice Springall and Herbert Bellamy, who worked on it together during their year-long engagement between 1890 and 1891. They were eventually married 129 years ago today, on the 24th November 1891, in the parish church of St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth. What a brilliant way to spend time really getting to know each other before taking those wedding vows! … Ruth Battersby Tooke, Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, 24 November 2020
Quilts for a Living: The Harness Family
Molanie Lowe Harness's husband Jerry was killed in a coal mining accident in Briceville, Tennessee in 1919 when she was pregnant with her 14th child. Daughter Anna Opal was about five and recalled the hard times of her childhood in the Appalachia of Anderson County for interviewer John Rice Irwin in the 1980s … Barbara Blackman, Women’s Work: Making a living making quilts, 4 June 2019
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