Friday, October 15, 2010

Full Circle - Almost

Remember the other day when I wrote about the quilt I made that a friend purchased at an auction? Well, she brought the quilt to show me last night and we had an interesting discussion about it.

It seems that she went to this auction because the advertisement listed that "old quilts and other antiques" were going to be sold. There were a couple of old quilts (1957 and 1970s) and Liz was able to purchase one of them, but most of the quilts were not antique.

Now, here's what's interesting. My quilt was in the "old quilt/antique" category. Granted it looks old because it was made with all homespuns and homespun plaids, but this quilt is clearly machine pieced and machine quilted and there is the fact that it was signed and dated! Anyway, it didn't really matter to Liz that this quilt wasn't old. She wanted it because of the colors and the fabrics and she just loved it. Period! It would've simply been a bonus if it was an antique.

This situation does make me stop and wonder how many people have purchased a quilt (or other item, for that matter) thinking that it was old (an antique), when it really wasn't. I understand that "buyer beware" is important but - wow - my quilt had a date on it (black ink on a muslin label), so how did the seller (auctioneer) not see it and decide that this quilt was an antique? Anyway, this is just a reminder to all of us the look closely when buying "antiques." (I feel like I've just been on Antiques Roadshow and was told that my heirloom was a fake!)

One other thing about this quilt. I'm really glad that I've gotten more practice at things like machine quilting and binding. Maybe that's why the auctioneer thought it was old. It sure looked like an antiquated machine made those free-motion hearts in the cornerstones! :-)

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