Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Funky Kentucky Beauty


I discovered this funky Kentucky beauty on eBay yesterday with just a couple hours before the end of the auction. Good thing I didn't have plans or the evening. Sniping on eBay is serious business! If you're not familiar with eBay snipers, they are bidders who place bids in the last seconds of an auction. These bids are typically much higher than the current bid, which often ensures that the sniper will win the item.


Over the years I've had great success sniping auctions on eBay, and I've known some of the people who bid on items I've won. The most frequently asked question I get is, "Do you use sniper software?" I've never tried it. I bid manually, the old fashioned way, watching the countdown in the last 15 minutes of the auction. In the last minute, I bid, and usually have time for just one bid.


Sometimes I go up against other snipers, as I did in the auction for this quilt. In this auction, the bid was under $200 going in to the last minute. I entered my bid, and when the auction was over I'd won the quilt for $343.88. The other bidder entered a bid of 338.88, and since I bid higher, the system automatically entered an incrementally higher bid of $5 more than the other sniper's bid. Easy peasy.


The quilt is from Kentucky. The top was made in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, and it was machine quilted most likely at a later time. The way the grid quilting goes across the whole quilt is probably not what the maker of the top would've done, but it's interesting and has held the quilt together. There are a couple of large stains on the quilt, so it's kind of a rescue quilt. I may try to work on those stains.


It's also a time-span quilt, and I can't wait to see it in person. The border, which could possibly be a synthetic red rather than a "Turkey" red, may provide some clues about when it was quilted. The back fabric, which appears to be rolled to the front as binding, may have other clues. The life of this quilt intrigues me, and I'm sure it has many stories to tell. 

7 comments:

  1. I have a question...and I'm not meaning this to sound grouchy or mean or anything...but what are the chances of a New York Beauty quilt showing up on etsy, or a quilt dealer's website, or ebay, without you buying it?

    I found your blog a few months ago, and I'm totally loving all these quilts you come across....but now I'm thinking I'll never find one of these quilts in the places I listed above, because you might beat me to it! :) Do you ever pass on any that you come across?

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  2. I do love the colors in the quilt...back to front is really a popular binding method down here in the south. I've seen in on quilts of just about every time period so I'm now doubtful how much weight to put on it for dating a quilt.

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  3. Believe it or not, I have passed up several of these quilts on eBay and Etsy recently. At this stage of the game, I'm just going for quilts that will somehow enhance the collection. Now that I have a Mountain Mist NYB, for example, I probably won't be bidding on another...unless a red, white, and blue one comes up. :)

    Re: the binding- I'm thinking the back fabric may be the best clue. One of my other 1860's quilts has similar fabric turned from the back for the binding, and the fabric has a very specific weave. Will be interesting to compare the two. The quilting and the borders are the two things that may show anachronistic qualities.

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  4. You are lucky I had already purchased yesterday, actually just shortly before that auction or you would've had a sniping fight on your hands. Oh well, I guess you'll give it an okay home. Take care

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  5. The funny thing about that listing is what it was called, which is why I almost missed it.

    "OUTSTANDING EARLY COLORFUL FLOWER APPLIQUE QUILT"

    The only reason why I saw it was that it appeared in the "Recommendations for you" section on the home page. Barely caught it out of the corner of my eye while clicking through. LOL!

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  6. Flower applique quilt? That doesn't even make sense! Nice find Bill!!

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  7. It's probably the last thing I would've ever thought to do as a search. Goes to show, you never know what terms people will use to list a quilt if they don't know what it really is.

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