Down Under Quilts - Issue 134, 2009

could have been used for Borders 1, 3, 4 and 7. If similar templates with double seam allowances were made, they could in turn have created the larger squares and triangles of Borders 6 and 8. Simple division of one of these squares would provide the triangles of Border 2. As with any frame construction, errors become magnified as the size increases. This distortion is further magnified when patches are joined along a bias edge, which seems to have happened in five borders. Perhaps Kezia’s only previous experience was with piecing over papers, which would eliminate such bias error. Some squares have also been sewn with the wrong orientation.

Today, we would consider this quilt poor, rough work but as a communal project made on a journey to Australia in 1841 it is a tour de force.

This article first appeared in Textile Perspectives no. 46, Winter 2008, published twice-yearly by The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles. www.quiltersguild.org.uk and appears here with their permission.

Reference: A Study of Quakers, Convicts and Quilts by Carolyn Ferguson published in Quilt Studies 8, The Journal of the British Quilt Study Group.

The Rajah quilt is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, and appears here with their permission.

To learn even more about the Rajah Quilt, see Annette Gero’s new book – turn to page 30.

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