Town and Country Program

Thursday I did a Program on Quilting Collecting to the Aiken Town and Country Club. What a great group of women and what wonderful quilts they brought with them!
The night before the program I started to get a bit nervous...which hardly ever happens with me. I rewrote my outline, I pulled more quilts into the bins (just in case no-one brought a quilt to talk about) and I added more "ancillary" props like feedsacks, old Mountain mist patterns, some old quilt blocks, and some old marking tools. I'm not sure if I was nervous about not being able to fill 90 minutes or that I wouldn't be able to finish in 90 minutes...

English Paperpiece circa 1840, Georgia

In the end it worked out fine. Better than fine. We had about 40 members attend and almost all of them had at least one quilt in hand. A bit of sensory overload but I think I prefer it that way! Unfortunately with that many quilts there was no time for me to take photos. One of the members who did take some promised to email me copies...

Usually I organize my presentation around the history of quilting. My audience has always been quilters or genealogy groups. Since this group was focused on antique collecting I changed the emphasize from history of quilting to evaluating a quilt for condition, workmanship and date made. I started with 4 quilts in poor condition and then worked up to excellent. I tried to have a quilt from varying time periods in each group.

I think it worked well. In 90 minutes folks can learn to spot condition issues and get an idea of what good workmanship looks like. As far as the date part I pointed them to the resources. (though I am fairly sure they all can tell a 1930's from a civil war era now!)

There was a great variety of quilts in the audience....tiny 1930 baby wedding ring quilts (two almost alike by two different quilters - both is excellent condition), a Drunkards Path with sawtooth border in off-white and double purple that made me stop breathing for a minute, two gorgeous indigo's (and since we are only 100 miles from the larges indigo plantation in the US during the 1800's it is always exciting to see indigo!) The quilts ranged from the 1840's to 1950...I may be spoiled. I wonder if I'll see such a great collection again.

It also helped that the meeting was in the Aiken Museum which is in an old antebellum style building. The room was beautiful and the people working at the museum very helpful.

After the talk which ended up going until noon (but no-one left and they asked me to keep talking!) we had lunch at Melia's...nothing like homemade raspberry pie after a morning of quilts....

Lecture Preperations...

String Star, Cape Cod Mass, circa 1920

Thursday I am giving a talk to the Aiken County Town and Country Club. About 50 people have signed up which according to the coordinator is a good turnout.

(Small Lemoyne star block from Abbevill, SC Quilt top circa 1900)

I had to rewrite my regular talk to include some basics on quilting. (Only a few of the attendees will be quilters.) The focus now is how to evaluate condition of a quilt and what resources are there to help you identify the date and type of quilt.

I am bringing about 20 quilts with me to use as examples. Attendees are invited to bring a quilt with them but as I have no idea what may show up I want to have the "bases" covered. (all conditions, at least one from each timeperiod including an applique, a rework, a wholecoth, a medallion, a chintz, and a sampler...that should do it....)

My biggest challenge will be keeping it it all under the 90 minutes scheduled for the presentation...I do have a friend coming with me who is going to act as timekeeper for me!

The things ya learn...

I know that in our appraisal class last April in Paducah they said to be prepared for some unusual experiences...I think I may have a good teaching point for them next year.

A few days ago I got a call from a woman who does estate clear-outs. In the past I have looked at a few things for her customers but so far nothing has really warranted an appraisal (value less than $200.) She had a customer who had a "lot" of textiles and quilts and wanted a specialist to evaluate them. She told me two things that I later appreciated - consider charging by the hour and remember that the executor is the decision maker.

I will not go into specifics but picture this: a large two story house full of stuff, a sister and two brothers who barely speak to one another, and quilts and textiles in every corner of every-room. When I arrived I asked the sister/executor what she wanted appraised and why she wanted an appraisal. She wanted all of the textiles "looked at" to see if they were "worth anything" because her brother was convinced they were valuable and didn't trust the folks handling the estate sale. "So let me get this straight," I asked, "you want me to go through the entire house, find textiles and provide a valuation on each of them?" "Yes," she said, "and if you could fold them and put them into one of the bedrooms that would help us when we make out decisions this afternoon on what each of us is going to keep."

This was not an appraisal situation this was more like a textile version of the TV show "Picker." Just then the two brothers arrived. I knew I was in trouble when the first one through the door asked, "don't women pay lots of money just to look at quilts? So why would we have to pay you?"

My proposal to them was that I would charge a flat hourly fee to locate the quilts and quilt related items. I would tag the items and put a suggested sell price on the items. If I found an item worth more than $200. then I would put them in a separate area and we could discuss them before I left. The sister/executor agreed...the brothers grumbled and rolled their eyes a bit.

It only took the brothers a minute to realize that if I had to do the digging then it would take longer and be more expensive...that lit a fire under them! I ended up standing in one room while these guys ran around the house dragging anything made of fabric or related to sewing back to me. Total insanity!
All I can say is they got their money's worth...In three hours I must have valued almost two-hundred items....If I saw one wedding ring quilt I saw 10 (I began to wonder if maybe they were bringing the same quilts back to me as a test?! And with every quilt Brother #1 would say "I think this is from the Civil War.") At the end of the day there was one small singer child's sewing machine still in the box, two Featherweight's in good condition, a pineapple applique quilt circa 1850, and a large box of early printed feedsack in perfect condition in the "valuable" stack.

My brain feels like mush, my legs are exhausted, and I am covered in dust. So what did I learn (this blog is supposed to be both adventures and learning after all....)

1. Be confident about putting a value on what you know. I'm fine with helping out a friend or fellow quilter if they have a question on buying a quilt at a show or if they want help dating a quilt they inherited. However when people call with the express purpose of hiring me to do an appraisal and then try to get my knowledge for free...that isn't cool.

I briefly considered walking away from the whole thing. What kept me? There is that curiosity factor. Maybe there would be something interesting. Also, it was 0630 in the morning (did I leave that out of the story...they wanted to start at sunrise! I gave up sunrises when I got out of the army.) I already lost a good morning sleep to be at this house so darn it I wanted to get something out of it!

2. Taking the time to be very specific with the client up front on what they expect and what I can provide is crucial. Do not assume that everyone understands what an appraiser does. These folks saw the clear-out crew and an appraiser in the same light! In the end they walked away happy - there were some items "worth" money and the brother got a "civil war era" quilt (even if it wasn't the red, white and blue polyester one that he really loved....)

ps...they did give me permission to use this story as a teaching point however they did not allow me to take photos. The photo at the top of this post is a quilt in my own collection and the sewing machine is a similar one to the one in the story.

Starting out....

For the past 25 years I have been collecting antique and vintage quilts. I have assisted in documentation days for my guild and local museum but at the end of the day the owner of the quilt always asks..."so what is it worth."
Now I have a degree in business so I take a question like that seriously. Finally I decided if I was going to put my toe in the water then I best go all in. This year I am taking my interest in quilts and doing appraisals seriously. This blog is about the "journey" from taking the classes in Paducah last week to my going back to Paducah and testing next April.

First the classes...definitely something anyone who is interested in quilt appraisals should take...heck even collectors could benefit from taking the course. Gerald Roy and Bobbie Aug were the instructors this year. I came away feeling pretty good about what I know and didn't know but feel ok with now (IRS paperwork for donations and doing replacement insurance values) and most importantly know my limitations. Part of this year to to work on those limitations!

So here goes...it may not be cooking my way through the Joy of Quilting but I'm sure it will be a wild ride!

(just a note...I will always respect the privacy of my clients and friends. Quilts that I appraise will only be posted with their permission and I will not post appraised values. This blog is about my learning process not a site listing quilt appraisal results!)