I look forward each year to meeting new friends and reconnecting with old ones in a fabulous new setting at the Annual Seminar of the American Quilt Study Group, aka AQSG (www.americanquiltstudygroup.org). Friendship renewals are always wonderful; add in lots of beautiful antique quilts and it is a heavenly event. Seminar this year was held earlier than usual (the end of August) in Lincoln, Nebraska, as Lincoln is not only home to the International Quilt Museum but it is home of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. We quilt scholars have to work around the beloved football schedule in order to visit this great location.

Fall Seminar is the annual meeting of AQSG, and it changes locations each year. Generally, switching venues allows for small group tours of the unique collections of local museums and historical societies. However, Lincoln is home to the largest publicly held quilt collection in the world, the International Quilt Museum, and so our event was built around this amazing collection and historical resource.

At the opening reception held at the museum, we viewed the famed Reconciliation Quilt, a tour de force of fabric story telling of America coming back together after the Civil War. Made in New York state in 1897, it is a stunning piece that comes with a record-setting auction price. We were also able to see several other stellar antique quilts, as well as a new large-scale flag quilt made by art quilter Luke Haynes. We were treated to regional culinary treats, too. It was a true feast for the senses and informative as well.

There were several special small tours of the museum available. I was lucky enough to attend to different tours. The first was a “Behind the Scenes Tour” of the museum, where we learned about the museum’s storage and quilt acquisition procedures and examined a number of historical quilts and compared them to other quilts in the collection. A highlight was an incredible early Eagle Medallion quilt from the early 1800s. The second tour was a guided visit of the comprehensive “Material Nation: 250 Years of American Quilts” exhibit on display currently at the museum. With more than 11,000 quilts in the collection, you can imagine that they were able to really properly showcase the broad history of American quilting. Visiting Nebraska allowed us to see this very special exhibit. It was very educational and a delight to see many quilts I only see in books, like an amazing Baltimore Album and early broderie perse applique quilts. It also featured many art quilts from the last 50 years. Visit the exhibit online at www.internationalquiltmuseum.org/exhibition/material-nation-250-years-american-quilts. Other tours visited the archives of the Nebraska Historical Society and the Sunken Gardens. It showcased a quilt-themed sunken garden which was designed like a living patchwork garden.

Another benefit of visiting new places is the chance to experience the essence of different regions of our great country. On the drive from Omaha’s airport to Lincoln, we saw the beautiful fields full of corn and sunflowers, and several river crossings, quite a change from the landscape in my home of Utah. We passed lovely old churches, homes, and historic farmsteads; we sometimes forget how much more history there is in the Midwest. Tune in next issue to learn more about scholarly paper presentations, silent auction, live auction, show and tell, study centers, vendors mall, and so much more from this wonderful event.

Whether you want to become a certified quilt appraiser or are simply curious about appraisals or appraisers, I think you will find the training process interesting. While doing appraisals I am often asked, “how do I become an appraiser”? My short answer: contact the American Quilters Society for certification information and join the American Quilt Study Group. To be an AQS Certified Appraiser, you must have a full and well-rounded knowledge of quilt history, as well as contemporary quilting, including traditional, modern, and art quilting. You must be able to date, evaluate, and value a quilt from any period and virtually any style or construction technique. Hmmm, starting to see why the process is a bit daunting and only a few obtain certification? There are only about 60 Certified Appraisers in the United States and Canada (if it were easy, everyone would be doing it).

The American Quilters Society (AQS) in Paducah, Kentucky, is the only national organization specializing in the certification of quilt appraiser, and they have a training, testing, and certification program. To start appraising, you must attend the AQS Three-Day Appraisal Skills Course for the basics of appraising. The classes are “designed to give prospective quilt appraisers an idea of what they know, what they don’t know, and what they need to know in order to pass AQS testing before becoming a Quilt Appraiser Certified by the American Quilter’s Society.” For more information on the certification program, including their comprehensive reading list, visit www.americanquilter.com/connect/aqs-certified-appraisal-program.

With perseverance, practice, and a lot of study, certification is an attainable goal and a rewarding and exciting journey. I did it while living in the desert, starting with no knowledge of antique quilts and only a few years of quilting experience, so you can do it, too. After taking the Appraisal Course, I began appraising quilts (old and new) for friends and the public. AQS only certifies seasoned appraisers and notes, “appraisal skills are acquired through experience and working in the field.” I joined the American Quilt Study Group and fell in love with learning history through quilts. Because there were no antique quilts to practice on in my area, I began to collect them, learning history and valuations in the process. I intensely read the books on the AQS list (yes, another new collection).

I also continued to keep up with contemporary quilting techniques, patterns, fabrics, and designers, in traditional, modern, and art quilting. I observed the prices for fabrics, books, patterns, and completed quilts and learned how to value the time and materials involved and well as the more elusive factors such as visual impact and artistic merit. While quilt appraising is different from show judging, appraisers do need to distinguish levels of workmanship and quality in order to determine costs to remake a quilt. A finely quilted quilt, whether by hand or machine, will be valued higher than one that is poorly made, and it will cost more to replace it or remake it. Similarly, workmanship and condition, among other factors, determine replacement value in antique quilts.

There are so many amazing quilt history resources available online now and many social media communities in which to share and learn about all types and eras of quilting, old and new, and develop your quilt appraisal skills. I hope your quilting journey is as wonderful as mine continues to be

Want to know more about your antique quilt or a family heirloom?

Donating a quilt to a charity and want to get the correct tax deduction? Entering a quilt in a national contest and dreading shipping it across the country? Made a gift quilt and want to be sure it is appreciated and doesn’t end up as a dog bed? Interested in selling quilts and wondering about pricing? Want to be sure your hard work is protected and not valued like a discount store blanket?

Simply curious about the value of your beautiful, quilted creations?

Yes, those are a lot of different situations and diverse types of quilts, but a Certified Quilt Appraiser can help you with all of them!

Finding a Certified Quilt Appraiser

Why do you need a certified quilt appraiser? Your quilts deserve a certified appraiser who has been thoroughly trained in all types of quilt appraisals (antique, vintage, new, traditional, or modern). You need someone who has been tested by an organization that monitors their credentials, continues training, and can assist you if you have a problem. The American Quilters Society (AQS) in Paducah, KY, is the only national certifier of quilt appraisers. Their training, testing, and certification program started in 1988. There are about 60 AQS Certified Quilt Appraisers in the United States and Canada.

For an AQS Appraiser visit www.americanquilter.com/connect/aqs-certified-appraiser-directory.
Most certified appraisers belong to the Professional Association of Appraisers Quilted Textiles (PAAQT), established in 1992 to promote the importance of quilt appraisals and to provide continuing education and networking. They maintain an appraisers list at paaqt.com.

Wondering about getting an online appraisal by sending in some photographs of your quilt? Sorry. Written and certified quilt appraisals are legal documents and require that the appraiser personally examines the quilt.

Decide on the Type of Appraisal You Need

Insurance: the most common type of appraisal stating a value for replacing the quilt with one of similar like and kind (comparable sales). For an antique quilt, it would be the cost to purchase another quilt from a similar era and with similar workmanship and condition. For a new quilt, insurance value may be the cost to purchase a similar one or the cost to reconstruct a similar quilt. Record of sales, fame of maker, awards won, etc., can increase the value.

Fair market value: needed if you want to sell your quilt and based on what the quilt would sell for in a transaction with a knowledgeable and willing buyer and seller in a standard marketplace. Also used for estate valuations.
Donation value: for a quilt donated to a museum or other organization and based on fair market value.

By Georgia Starley, guest columnist
A note from Sandra Starley: This month I have turned my Covering Quilts column over to a special guest writer, my mother, Georgia Starley, who has a deep fondness for printed feed sacks from the late 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

I would like to tell you I have a profound love for fabric. Some might even call it an addiction. How long have I had this condition? I believe it started when I was big enough to lift the lid on an old tin trunk in my mother’s room; I could have been three or four. The shelf or drawer had buttons, lace, old cards, rickrack, bone crochet hooks, and tiny bundles of scraps of fabric, and of course, little balls of string. When I got big enough to lift the insert out of the trunk, I found two dolls, an old blue baby book, and the most incredible trim with blue glass beads on it. Well, you get the picture. But these finds just piqued my curiosity; they were not the cause of my addiction. It was the fabric, but not all the fabric. I hated to touch the taffeta; it gave me goose bumps. The fabric I liked was the colorful floral prints. I was hooked. It was years later that I found out they were flour or feed sacks. Did I wear feed sack clothing growing up? I don’t know. All our dishtowels were sacking. My treasures were carried in small sacks.

Twenty years ago, I found a whole group of people with my same addiction. I was bidding against them in auctions. They write books about bags and sell small scraps for big bucks. We meet together and admit our addictions. It was through these groups that I began to learn and understand the history of textile bags.

Up to the middle of the 1800s, products were carried in wooden barrels, kegs, boxes, or tins. Cotton production, the Westward trek, and the great expansion of American farmland gave birth to a new form of packaging and transporting goods. It is much easier to carry bags on the back of a horse than boxes. Early bag measurements were based on the size of a barrel. The weights were in pounds: 196, 48 or 49, 24, or 12.  By the early 1900s, smaller size bag weights were common: 6, 4, and 1-pound bags. In 1943, the U.S. War Production Board ordered bags to be in standard sizes of 100, 50, 25, 10, 5, and 2 pounds. Checking bag weights can help you date or identify your bags.

The Fourth of July 2026 is the perfect time to review the rich heritage of American quilting. I hope you enjoy this overview and start your own tour of American quilts using the topics shared below.

1970 -1990: A Groovy Fabric Celebration – Bicentennial Quilts, Quilt Guilds, Quilt Shows, and More

There was something celebratory in the air, and almost everyone caught it. It was a combination of patriotism, a return to the land and arts and crafts, along with free time to sew and create. Think red, white, and blue and all things stars and stripes. Most towns joined forces to construct Bicentennial quilts: historical documents in fabric. These often portrayed 200 years of local history. It is delightful to find that 50 years later, these quilts are being admired once again.

Bicentennial quiltmaking jumpstarted an interest in quilting and quilt history. This led to many great improvements in quilting, especially the rise of the quilt guild, people who met together to share their love of quilts. Utah established the oldest statewide quilt guild in 1977 to “preserve the art of quilt making, teach quilting skills, and document Utah’s rich quilt heritage.” Just a few years later, the American Quilt Study Group started (1980), along with State Quilt Documentation Projects. This time is also critical to the huge quilting industry we have today, including the large Quilt Show with classes and vendors, begun with the International Quilt Festival (1975, Houston, Texas).

In the mid 1980s, Olfa’s development of the rotary cutter (1979) completely revolutionized fabric cutting and the entire quilting business, leading to many quick quilting techniques. Quilting programs started on television, and magazines and books and patterns were quickly becoming available. Most quilts were traditional and were still sewn and quilted by hand, but machine piecing was gaining ground. Machine quilting, once thought of as “cheating,” turned a corner in 1989, when Caryl Fallert was awarded best in show at the AQS Paducah show. It was a very controversial award and set the scene for today’s massive machine quilting phenomenon.