Crazy Quilt Sells for $11,100 on eBay

ebay ^ | 05/09/2006 | Self

[js1138]

The auction is over. Obviously it has been hit by a lot of viewers and the image server is overloaded or has exceeded its allowed bandwidth.

The pictures might be viewable later.

[mrs tiggywinkle]

It's beautiful. The ebay link has close up pictures..the embroidery is amazing. Very impressive.

[Mamzelle]

Gee, I'd like to see the pic. All I get are little blue question marks. I'll try it on a different browser. This quilt claims to have "paintings" on it--but I'd be interested to see if these are the tobacco pouches (beautifully illustrated) that crazy quilters of the last century--er---last last century, used in their quilts.

[Mamzelle]

There is a new process for transferring graphics to pattern via home printer--it's available through "Dick Blick" art supplies. It's an improvement over the process of a few years ago. Not only can you transfer to fabric, but to practically any paintable surface. Can't remember the brand name right now...

[Mamzelle]

1884 is pretty old--fabric is not forever--I have a few quilts this old and they've been treated well, but the old dyes have still shredded some of the fabric.

I'm glad a beautiful quilt got some attn, but I'd sure like to see it. Crazy quilts are an amalgam of old silk (silk damask, velvet, etc) and silk does not last. The gowns of the First Ladies in DC are falling apart.

It's one reason I tell owners of fine quilts (to the horrors of would-be curators)--enjoy them now.

[Republicanprofessor]

Interesting. Wish I could have seen the image; ping me again if you see one. I know there are some tremendous things being down with illusion in contemporary quilts, but otherwise I'm pretty new to this field.

These are quilts by Deidre Scherer. They are astonishing in person.

[Mamzelle]

A price like this would be expected from an early Amish quilt (in bright wools) or a colonial-era applique (the kind of applique where patterned fabric is cut out of a small piece of ornate fabric and applied to a plain muslin background, thus extending the decorative capacity of an expensive piece of patterned fabric). Other elaborate appliques fetch good prices.

But Crazy Quilts have usually been the ignored category. They have kind of a "crocheted potholder" kitch/fashion that apparently they have overcome! The tobacco bags I mentioned earlier were really a lovely bit of early fabric printmaking and they were often cut into crazy quilts.

The Amish quilts were made from the plain (but often very vivid and intense in color) unprinted fabric that they favor in clothing. These quilts inspired many modern fabric artists, because the bright hues made for the radiant illusion I think you may be alluding to.

[andysandmikesmom]

Hair, have you ever visited the little Capital Museum?...its near the Capital Campus...I have not been there for a few years myself, but when our son was young we used to go over there quite a bit and see the exhibits...

Its a small museum, but they have a lot of nice exhibits..now, I have enjoyed making quilts over the years, and also enjoy reading about different types of quilts...one time at the museum, we were looking at an exhibit in the downstairs section, and I saw this quilt, which appeared to be made, totally out of yellow strips, of a fairly uniform size and varying colors of yellow...this quilt looked exactly like a quilt I had seen in a quilting book, which explained that back in the 'old days', women who quilted were always thrifty and used any materials which were available, especially for free...old worn out clothing was cut up for quilts, old feed sacks were cut up for quilts, and this quilt that I saw, if it was what I thought it to be, was a quilt made up of cigar bands...

Apparently when the gents bought cigars, each cigar had a band of yellow material, which appeared to be a type of satin, and the band was wrapped around the cigar...thrifty ladies, collected the yellow bands, and slowly(depending on how many cigars her men smoked), the ladies had enough of these yellow bands to sew together and they made what was called a 'cigar band' quilt....so there I was, looking at this exhibit, and wondering, if indeed, this quilt I was viewing was a 'cigar band' quilt...they are reputed to be quite rare, so I was wondering if I was privileged enough to be seeing this quilt...

So when we went into the 'tourist trap' upstairs, I asked the saleslady if she knew about the quilt, and she did...she assured me I was right, that was indeed a 'tobacco band' quilt...should you ever get the chance to visit that little museum, its worth the time to view it..dont know if the 'cigar band' quilt will still be there, but there are many other fine exhibits in this little museum...