Debbie Leonard Lovejoy is hoping someone finds her Rajah Medallion Quilt Top which she was in the process of making. It was last seen at the Best Western in Keene, New Hampshire on December 12, 2015. The quilt top was in a colorful, eye-catching African-made workbasket which, overloaded as I was carrying various bags, was inadvertently left behind in the motel room as we departed. On this occasion, neither she or her husband did a room check. We have since contacted Best Western management multiple times, to no avail.

The design of this traditional medallion style quilt was painstakingly worked up by Marsha Molloy, a quilting teacher and friend in Western Massachusetts, based on a quilt top in the collection of the Australian National Gallery of Art made by unknown female convicts while sailing halfway around the world on board the Rajah. Their top was constructed with sewing supplies and guidance given them by a Quaker Society in England. Debbie started her quilt top in September 2010, and the restarted it is 2015. There were nine borders still remaining to be done.

This quilt top is about 42-1/2″ square. It has a muslin background with reproduction prints in browns, greens, red, blue, and gold. Debbie designed the 20″ center block, whose leafy bower in broderie perse, is composed mostly from In the Time of Toile © Shelburne Museum by
Froncie Quinn for Red Rooster Fabrics, design #15921. There are five birds along with red and blue flowers. The first border has squares on point. The second border has applique “Rajah” crosses, four per side, and a six-petalled poinsettia in each corner. The fourth border has a narrow, fine-dashed stripe in orange on black background with mitered corners.

If you find a quilt top that fits this description, please contact Debbie at drleona@yahoo.com.