The event is a shout out to a bicentenary celebration held in 2004, when a quilt made in 1841 by women brought to Hobart on the Rajah convict ship was displayed in Hobart.

Forty quilts were created for the 2004 display, one of which was sourced for the event at Woolmers.

Estate volunteer Trixie Gillard said the Tasmanian Embroidery Guild quilt was accompanied by an audio- visual history presentation for the launch of Wrapped in Guilt.

"We had the inaugural event on Friday," Ms Gillard said last week.

"It was attended by Mary Nye and Joan North of the Launceston branch of the Tasmanian Embroidery Guild, they made one of the displayed quilts.

"They were absolutely thrilled about the presentation, thrilled to be invited and that their quilt was on display in the collection."

She said the Rajah quilt was three metres by three metres in size and presented to Governor John Franklin when the ship arrived in Tasmania.

The quilt was made to prove the industriousness of the convict women, many of whom learned to sew on the voyage.

Ms Gillard said the history of the women, and the involvement of prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, was particularly significant for Woolmers and Brickendon, which were both assigned women from the Rajah arrival.

"We don't have the Rajah quilt now, it's a national treasure over 130 years old and sits in the National Gallery in Canberra," she said.Wrapped in Guilt will be displayed at Woolmers until the end of July.