Anyone anything about OLD quilts

[quiltingranny]

I have customer that showed me a quilt today, She said a 75 year old man gave it to her and that his mother had started it. I just barely looked at it as we were in the lot at WM, anyway when it was purchased it came in what looks like a thin paper bag the picute is printed on the front but the name of the company or author was torn off. It was stamped on muslin with a blue dashed line the other have was on a pink fabric also stamped with a dashed line, it is partly finished and is applique. Looks similar to a Baltimore design. It appears to be old. She is wanting to see if it is worth anything and if so what. I think she wants to sell it. It sorta reminds me of some of the older patterns Eleanor uses on her show. Thanks for any help..QG

[grandmab]

If the son is 75 years old then its probably quite old. I inherited a quilt that my great great grandma made and the fabric was flour or sugar sacks dyed blue which acturally held up pretty good. One of the blocks was gone and the cotton battening showed. Often the fabric was from used garments. In those days most families were large and they had very few clothes. This Great grandma had 17 children and lived along the Columbia River near the bridge of the Gods. My great grandma who was a mother-in-law to one of the granddaughters of the 17 children also worked on it. I treasure it and realize how fragile it really is. I store it wadded up in a cotton pillowcase which works real well and protects the quilt and does not cause any unnecessary strain on the fabric. They do have wonderful things to clean your old quilts with at the fabric stores if its not extremely old. My quilt has a ton of hand stitches in a fan shape. Thankfully the ones who passed it down had taken good care of it. I would say its hard to set a price on the older quilts, however I feel mine is priceless since I quilt too.

[lhostelley]

There are several AQS certified appraisers around. In Colorado we have 1 I am aware of. Cindy Brick, she is the author of a book for learning appraisels. Her information web page is www.cindybrick.com.
If you wanted to set up an apprasial with her she sets up appointments via her email, cindybrick@comcast.net. I hope this helps.
Linda