Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Relief Sale Quilts: The Baltimore Album quilts

In 1997, as a fairly new member of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild I was asked to teach appliqué classes. Here was my chance to make an appliqué quilt for the Relief Sale! Right from the start, both the guild and the Listowel Mennonite Church were involved.

I came up with the following plan: after the workshops, each participant went home with a kit. They were asked to make the 12½" block; patterns ranged in difficulty from very easy to hard. The patterns were taken from Elly Sienkiewicz's series of books. Out of these blocks I hoped to receive enough to make one Baltimore Album Style quilt.

The results were overwhelming. The return rate was 100%, so I ended up with enough for 2 quilts. The quilts were assembled at the church. In the winter of 1999 members of the guild were asked to come to the Listowel church to help with the quilting.

Mini Baltimore Album (72"x72") Hand appliqué and hand quilted by members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and Listowel Mennonite Church.

Auctioned for: $7500 in May 1999.

The smaller quilt was sold first, in the spring of 1999. The larger Baltimore Album quilt was entered in the Ontario Juried Show, where it received the prize for the best group quilt. On a dare, I entered this quilt at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, where it received an Honorable Mention in the group category. It was auctioned for an amazing $16,500 in the spring of 2000.

Baltimore Album quilt (82"x82") Hand appliqué and hand quilted by members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and Listowel Mennonite Church.

Auctioned for: $16,500 in May 2000.

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