Jane Austen was a Quilter.

Novelist Jane Austen was a quilter.  Jane, her sister Cassandra and their mother used 64 different fabrics to make a quilt that still exists today as part of the Jane Austen House Museum collection at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire, England.  In May 1811, Jane asked her sister Cassandra, “have you remembered to collect pieces for the Patchwork? — we are now at a standstill.”

The medallion pattern quilt that Jane made is on display at Chawton Cottage and features a total of 64 different patterns of chintz fabric cut into several hundred diamond shaped, fussy-cut patches framing a central medallion –  a motif cut out of a larger piece of floral chintz in a wicker basket.  

I wonder where each of the 64 different chintz prints came from.  From friends, family or perhaps the leftover fabrics from Jane and Cassandra’s own gowns?