Auction Fail

Last night was the auction at my friend V's son's nursery school and my quilt was on the [silent auction] block. I was led to believe that the clientele would be a bunch of high rollers looking for an excuse to throw a lot of money around in the name of benefiting their children's education, and that the handmade items historically sold very well.

Well, they started the bidding on my quilt at $37. That's right, $37 for a one-of-a-kind, completely hand-made quilt. I don't want to get too high on my horse, but, really? That barely covers the cost of materials. Did I mention I completely hand-stitch the binding? I mean, I realize no one who doesn't sew realizes what that entails, but I didn't realize quite how poorly it would translate.

After 2 hours there were a whopping 3 bids: $37, $42 and $57. How. Depressing. As this as unfolding I was updating my dear friend M, who particularly loved the quilt, and she flew to the rescue, all the way from Pittsburgh. With only minutes left in the silent auction, she called V, asked her to make a telephone bid and won the quilt for $150. It will now have a happy home with a fellow craft-lover who is having a baby this summer. I am so touched that M did this, and really feel pretty bad that she laid down so much cash for something that the "market" (or at least the market of West Village mommies and daddies) obviously valued at 1/3 of the price! But, I am also so pleased that it's going to someone who will truly appreciate it.

In the meantime, lesson learned: no more charity auctions for the moment. Le Sigh.

(Hopefully) sold to the highest bidder!

My good friend V is a member of her son's coop preschool and asked me to make something for their annual auction. The proceeds support the school. Her initial request was a knit hat and mittens but I said I'd rather make a quilt.

The tricky part was that since the item was for sale, I had to come up with my own pattern; I didn't want to risk infringing on anyone's copyright. I'm very pleased with the result!


The quilting is pretty light - only a row of loops across each of the linen panels. The fabrics are from the California Dreamin' collection (purchased here), Jay McCarroll's Garden Friends Collection (purchased here), and others from Purl Soho and the stash.


I was originally going to do all rows of the colorful fabrics but was afraid it would be overwhelming and would not apply to a broad audience of potential purchasers, so I toned it down. Of course, that was after I had cut all the rows of colorful fabrics so I have enough left over to make four more of these (and I just might).

Now hopefully everyone will think any wonkiness is just homemade charm and pay top dollar for it...