Friday, 11 April 2014

Wools & Waggas

Embroiders Guild Project: 2002 

Having mentioned the Embroiders Guild, I need to add in a quilt that I had almost forgotten about.  Alison had brought some wool samples to one of our regular meetings in 2002 and suggested that we could use them to make a quilt to donate to the Guild in 2003 for a raffle.

Group Christmas Party at Bondi
A basic block using foundation crazy piecing adding embroidered detail into the woollen fabrics was voted in as a interesting take on the woolen wagga format.  Waggas were the recent “big thing” as Australia was discovering its own quilting history thanks to the research of Annette Gero and Margaret Rolfe.  The Rajah Quilt had been “discovered” in 1987 and its connections to convicts aboard the Rajah in 1841 on their way to Australia made known.  We were ripe for discovering our own heritage and Depression era waggas, made initially by men, were a popular source of inspiration.  There’s quite a bit of info out there that relates to the wagga story so I’ve added a few interesting links that you might care to follow.

I think we rather enjoyed putting together this quilt, reminiscing about times of “making do” and learning about past lives.  It was finished at our October Meeting in 2002.  Luckily I found a stray photo or two to remind me of it.
I'm guessing this was my block
with its minimal embroidery..