Sisters: "eBay-O-rama"

eBay purchase: 1830's Sunburst Diamonds from New England

On Friday, I did a class lecture called "eBay-O-Rama". It was my first time speaking in public on the subject of buying and selling on eBay, and we had some fun with it. In the first part, we looked at five quilts, all purchased on eBay. I gave information about the quilts, but did not divulge how much I paid for each of them.

The first quilt was an 1830's Sunburst Diamonds quilt from New England. In good condition with only minor wear in a few spots, this quilt is wonderful a sampling of early print fabrics. It has a very fine, 1/4" binding rolled from back to front, and the back/binding fabric is a fine red on white polka dot.

eBay purchase: 1840's Sprigs of Laurel Medallion from Baltimore

The second quilt was the 1840's Sprigs of Laurel Medallion from Baltimore. This quilt features a bold design I've never seen anywhere before, and was made around the time of the Baltimore Album quilts. It includes beautiful, double-line decorative quilting as well as grid quilting. The amount of Turkey red fabric in the quilt suggests it was made by an affluent family. Because of the painstaking process needed to produce this red, the fabric would have been ten times more expensive than other cotton fabrics.

eBay purchase: Crossroads quilt, c. 1870, Texas

The next quilt was a red, white, and green Crossroads quilt, c. 1870, from Texas. This rare pattern was first published by Clara Stone in 1903 and was called Cross Roads to Bachelor Hall, but the quilt is older than 1903. The pattern has other names, such as Wagon Wheels. It is densely quilted and in good condition.

eBay purchase: Esprit Amish crib quilt, c. 1900

Quilt number four was an Amish Nine-Patch on point crib quilt, which was once part of the Esprit Collection. I briefly described the Esprit Collection, and talked about how the quilt still had velcro on the perimeter of the back. Esprit used velcro to display quilts. 

eBay purchase: "Bible Story" c. 1979 by Lucy Mingo, Gee's Bend

The last quilt was "Bible Story" made in 1979 by Lucy Mingo of Gee's Bend, Alabama. I told the story about how I acquired the quilt, again without divulging the price, and also shared what I knew about Lucy. It was exciting to talk about this quilt because I had just met Lucy, she and all the other Gee's Bend quilters in Sisters had all just signed the back of the quilt, and Matt Arnett of Tinwood was in the audience responding to some of the questions and comments. 

After we looked at all the quilts, I passed out a handout with a quiz on the first page, and said, "I bet you all didn't expect a pop quiz today, but don't be afraid, it's a fun quiz!" The objective was to match each of the five dollar amounts provided at the top with each of the five quilts. There were some good guesses, but I don't think anyone got all of them right. And I'm not going to give away the answers, because I can see myself doing this talk again some time. 

We wrapped up the talk by going through the res of the handout, which included my top ten tips for buying and selling on eBay, as well as samples of the listing creation page and completed auction. The whole presentation was very interactive, especially when we talked about the ins and outs of eBay, and I responded to all questions as we moved through the materials. And, as if by magic, we ended at 2:30 on the dot! It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to sharing this talk with other groups in the future.