Things are bowling along with our Maid’s Quarters and it’s starting to look very realistic. There’s one special item I wanted to share with you today, which comes from our collection. It’s called a Wagga quilt and it’s on the Maid’s bed. Forgive the boxes, we're still unpacking!
Wagga quilts are very specific to Australia and I’m really excited to have seen one in the flesh (so to speak). In the first half of the 20th century, these quilts were created from flour and wheat bags or, as this one was, from men’s suit samples or swatches. The term “Wagga quilt” came from the wheat bags originally used in the quilts – Wagga Lily Wheat. These quilts are a great example of ‘making do”. Material was scarce, but people recognised that these suit samples were good quality material and made from wool. So they sewed them together to keep warm at night.
I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to go begging at the back door of a tailor shop, to see if they have any modern swatch books they don’t need anymore!
You can read more about Wagga quilts and see another example at the Powerhouse Museum’s website, here and you can read a good history essay on Wagga quilts here.
