Quilt Show part 2.

There were so many quilts at the show, there's no way I could take pictures of all of them, let alone post them all here. But there were a couple that I wanted to comment on.

I really liked this one because it uses the traditional techniques of peicing and applique, but I think it breaks a lot of the stereotypes about quilts being 'girly' or 'grandmotherly'. It's also pretty modern - it's called "Surfing the Web."

Now clearly I don't have a problem with things being girly, and I love hanging out with grandmas. But it's nice to be able to point to specific examples that illustrate the broad range of quilts & quilters out there.

And this one... well first it caught my attention because it's almost exactly what I was planning on making for my nephew - the colors, the fabrics, the pattern etc. Although, I was going to line up the triangles so that the upward and downward pointing ones would make diamonds, and I was going to do something different with the boarders. I did enjoy seeing an example of the quilt I want to make, and really it's beautifully done.

Here's a close up of the quilting. I'm like 99% sure it's all machine peiced & quilted. It's a lot higher quality than anything I've made to date.

But honestly, it's not that spectacular, it's not even that original. Not only is it a pattern a novice such as myself could figure out without much inspiration - the quilter mentions that she got the pattern from a quilting magazine. The triangles are 5" a side - pretty large compared to a lot of quilts. I bring up these criticisms only because it was for sale... for $1,200. Yes, one thousand two hundred dollars US.

Which brings up the eternal issue in crafts - how much something costs to make vs. how much it's actually worth. Calculating in a profit - I can believe that $1,200 worth of time, effort, skill, and materials went into this quilt. It's not an unreasonable price. But is it worth it? It's machine made, it's not an original design, and the quilting is nice, but doesn't add too much to the design (IMHO). I just don't think anyone would pay that much for it. And as of the time I was looking at it, no one had purchased it. Many other quilts had been sold, very early in the day, and I'd say the average price was somewhere between $300 & $800. This quilt was the highest priced quilt I saw, but it was far from the most impressive.

Is it overvalued? Were other quilts undervalued? Are there buyers willing to pay that much for a quilt of that quality? I don't know. I do know that I won't be quitting my day-job to stay home & quilt any time soon!