The Jane Austen Quilt

Jane Austen was both fond of and good at needlework. Several pieces of her work survived and can be seen at the Jane Austen’s House museum in Chawton, Hampshire, UK, including a white embroidered Indian Muslin tucker, a white embroidered lawn handkerchief and this patchwork quilt which was made by herself, her sister, Cassandra, and her mother at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

 

In May 1811, in a letter to Cassandra, Jane asked, “Have you remembered to collect pieces for the Patchwork? — we are now at a standstill.”

This very fine patchwork quilt uses 64 different fabrics. The quilt is worked using two sizes of lozenge diamond, and a rhomboid shape of black-and-white spotted fabric for the light-coloured ‘trellis’ effect dividing the diamonds.

Each diamond-shaped patch is placed in sequences of four around a central diamond-shaped floral motif featuring a basket of flowers. The quilt has a deep border of smaller diamond patches adorned with landscapes and flowers.