I am sure it is no surprise that I look at eBay a lot! One of the things that drives me crazy is incorrect information. Quilts and quilt tops are often misidentified and more often than not they are misdated.
I spotted one a few days ago. A lovely quilt top
Very cute I thought. Nice bright 40′s and 50′s fabrics
look at that funky paisley on the left.
The seller listed this as being made in 1890…based upon family provenance. Yikes….family got that one wrong, so I wrote to the seller, the seller added a note at the bottom of the listing which I don’t think people read….it sold for $197.24 with 25 bids, I hope that the buyer knew what they were buying.
Sometimes I buy something that I know is not correctly identified in the listing. I just got a new quilt top and this is what the listing said.
UNUSUAL, DIAGONAL, VINTAGE, 40S, FOLK ART, STRING SNAKE TRAIL, PATCHWORK, QUILT TOP
*MACHINE PIECED AND HAND TIED
*CIRCA: 1940′S
*OLD COTTONS
*MEASUREMENT: 74″ X 86″
*CONDITION: VERY GOOD ANTIQUE CONDITION.
It is a great top, but not what the seller said it was (I knew that they had it wrong but I wanted it anyway)
Machine pieced yes…hand tied?…its a top, not a tied quilt, nor was it ever tied
Circa 1940′s…not so much….I think 60′s
Old cottons….no, its poly/cotton gabardine. Very heavy fabric that weighs a lot
Measurements 76″ X 86″ …close but it is 70″ x 77″
The condition is good so they got that right.
So they had all the info wrong (even though the seller is a quilt “expert”) but I didn’t care about that…I like it…I love it…I can’t wait to quilt it…look at those colors…the pink pops are great!
here are some individual blocks.
It will make a great quilt…super thick and warm…and tough as iron.
but always question what an eBay seller says….”experts” don’t always know
Happy Quilting
Tim
Oh my, my grandmother wasn’t the only one who made gaberdine quilts in the 60s, LOL!
She worked in an apparel factory, so her quilts were made out of whatever remnants of popular, current clothing of the times!
I didnt realize how many people did use those non traditional fabrics….but then we didn’t have “quilting” fabric…or quilting stores….just fabric and fabric stores….the quilt police werent as big an influence to tell people what NOT to do…Glad to know the your Grandmother was able to put those remnants to good use!!
I couldn’t take my eyes of that beauty. I knew I’d seen the pattern somewhere so I checked Barbara Brackman’s book, The Encyclopedia Of Pieced Quilt Patterns (1993). It looks like a variation of The Rainbow Quilt (# 3350) or The Drunkard’s Trail (#3351), both dated 1942. I dug a little deeper about the gabardine fabric. Personally my quilting hands begin to ache at the mention of the word gabardine. Anyway, in The Amish Quilt by Eve Granick (1989), on page 184, she states that the “Amish have long used gabardine for dresses and suiting. Both wool and gabardine can be found in quilts from the late 19th century to present day.” It really is a lovely piece of work, something I might try to duplicate, but in cotton – good luck!
Thanks Byrd
It is a great looking top isn’t it..the quilt index has one of that pattern identified as “marble snowball/string bowtie
http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1B-3A-623
I know gabardine was used way back…but this one has poly blends so it isnt all that old…but stunning…and my hands hurt already thinking about it….but it will be worth the effort
I get way too annoyed to read the seller’s descriptions on ebay! lol The other thing that bothers me is when they claim it is African American. Argh!!
Pretty score on the quilt top Tim!!
Thanks Lori
That African American thing on eBay realy bothers me too….what difference should that make? and it is rather insulting…particularly when they use the term primarily on poorly made quilts.
Goodness, Lori, do you ever feel annoyed enough by a blatant misrepresentation, innocent or not, of a quilt on eBay to write a note to the seller? Every so often I do, and another quilt friend (ahem, who could that be?), does too. We’ve found that it’s more effective if we back each other up by writing to the seller separately, so if you ever think it would be handy to have us as back up or would be willing to back us up, let me know.
who me?….must be someone else…LOL
Thanks to you, I have begun checking out ebay. I heaved a sigh of relief when I lost the quilt top I bid on. It was a Hands All Around, (which is the block our Guild chose as our logo) and was labeled “Texas Star.” (Yeah, it’s sort of a star.) I suspected the fabric content was incorrect as well. Didn’t matter. though. I wanted it but realized that I have too many of my own quilts to finish (thus the sigh of relief.)
hhahahaha…
texas star must be the only pattern they know..so everything is that
I have also had a few sigh of relief moments when I didn’t win on eBay…sometimes its easy to get caried away…
Won’t that be rather tough to quilt? Maybe ‘big-stitch’ quilting like you’re doing on the strippy quilt would be a good idea for this?
It wont be easy to quilt! that is for sure…but worth the effort….big stitches are much more difficult in thick fabric, at least for me, the big needle and large eye doesnt like to go through …smaller will be easier