nailed it!

The Bob Timberlake pillow sham arrived yesterday. In case you missed the whole story, it goes with the quilt I had been trying to identify for the last eight years. Last weekend, I posted a picture of the quilt on Facebook with an urgent plea for help identifying it, and San Antonio quilt dealer Deborah Ursell nailed it. Bob Timberlake!

Words cannot express how truly grateful I am for Deborah and her vast knowledge. I am also eternally grateful for everyone else who helped me with information I have been seeking about the quilts that will be in my "New York Beauty" book. As I may have mentioned earlier, having such difficulty identifying a mass-produced object can be frustrating. Finding out what that object really is-- a huge relief, and a burden off my shoulders!

The pillow sham has its original tag, and it came in a plastic pouch with a price sticker. Original price was $14.99, and the design was called "Sunrise" - product was called "Sunrise Quilted Sham". I found the sham on eBay as soon as Deborah said she thought my quilt was Bob Timberlake. Talk about serendipity! The auction was ending just a few hours later. Of course, the pictures would have been sufficient, but I just had to have the sham-- the clue that verifies the true origins of the quilt.

By the way, a side note. There are many people who enjoy quilts and quilt history who would not understand why I would be so excited about a factory-made, mass-produced quilt that was likely made overseas. My answer is, it's part of quilt history, and we need to know about it. Otherwise, people will buy the quilts and have as much difficulty identifying them as I did, particularly when the tags have been ripped off, as was the case with my quilt.  That is why I plan to include this quilt and a couple other mass-produced items in my book. Maybe other people will see these things in the book and it will solve their mysteries, too.