Quilt needs a home

Anthony Radford | Bendigo Weekly | 25-Aug-2011 4.06

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NAME GAME: The historic quilt needs a permanent home.
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It has been restored and preserved behind perspex, but a quilt that gathers within its folds a rich array of Bendigo history cannot find a home.
“We’ve asked everyone we can think of,” Judy Woodlock of Strathdale Quilters said.
“Right now, one of our members has it stashed away in her bungalow, which is difficult. It needs a home.”
The quilt is only one of two Australian signature quilts which date from before 1900.
The Bendigo quilt probably predates the other one, made for the Lancefield Presbyterian Church in 1896.
Research led by historian Robyn Ballinger and carried out by a group of women from the Strathdale Quilters and the Bendigo Regional Genealogical Society has indicated the quilt was made for the Golden City Fancy Fair in 1895, as a fund-raiser for the Sisters of Mercy Convent school.
This Sunday, the quilt will make a rare public appearance, at the Capital Theatre, from 10am to 4pm. The Heritage Signature Quilt committee hopes Bendigo people may be able to supply information about the names which appear on the quilt.
Some of the names are of prominent people,å such as the man who would become Victoria’s first premier post-federation, AJ Peacock, and the mayor of Bendigo, DB Lazarus.
Other names, such as Freda, Jennie, Maudie and Myrtle, were perhaps the women who made the quilt.
Mrs Woodlock has researched some of the names through digitalised records of wills kept by the Public Records Office. She said they hope to do more research and eventually to put it on permanent display.
“The art gallery says they don’t have room, and the library doesn’t want it,” Mrs Woodlock said.
“Our only option is the plaza and museum that were planned for the front of the Cathedral, but we don’t know if it’s going to go ahead.”
b.Entertained

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