The tea towel bedspread on display at the Henry Parkes Museum until the June long weekend has a long and colourful history. Tricia Jackson (Hutton) started buying and collecting tea towels more than 35 years ago on her first visit overseas to England. She first bought one for her grandmother Elizabeth Medlyn.
This encouraged her to start her own collection expanding to about 30 tea towels representing special memories of family trips and holidays.
When Tricia rediscovered the towels recently she decided to have the towels made into a bedspread. Rose Jones jumped at the chance to make something different for her favourite hobby.
One side of the quilt depicts English, Scottish, Irish and other country scenes, while the reverse side depicts Australian and New Zealand scenes. Some of the Australian scenes bring back memories of books and colourful birds. There is also one called Dolphin Dreaming with drawings of indigenous Australian animals.
The leftover tea towels were made into two pillow shams and a carrybag.
This display is one of the most unusual objects we have ever had at the Museum, so if you like to look at lovely unusual things please come and visit the Museum and enjoy the lovely objects we have in our collection.
By Yvonne Hutton