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.

This seminal year 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. Americans have definitely made quilting into the art form that it is today.

1890-1925: Fabric of the Machine Age

Think dark colors, blues, blacks, mourning prints, reds, pinks, checks, and plaids. Quilters had access to a large variety of fabrics. But synthetic dyes were often unstable and not colorfast, which led to disaster: tan appliques instead of red or green. This likely led to the decrease in applique quilts. My favorite fabric trend of this period is the wonderful, preprinted patchwork, aka “cheater cloth” that was made by the mile. These were often found as a whole cloth quilts or as the back of simple pieced blocks. Another is the delightful conversation or novelty prints featuring little cats or dogs, anchors, and other sailing motifs, and equestrian or horse themes.

A strong trend was the “Colonial Revival,” creating interest in antique quilts, although the quilts tended to be from the 1850s, not the 1700s. The Ladies Art Co. began publishing a catalog with hundreds of different patterns with a name or title for each. LAC was the early source for commercial patterns and pattern name. This period was the beginning of quilt pattern designers. One of the first was Marie Webster, who authored the groundbreaking book “Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them” in 1915. She shared many antique quilts as well as her own creations. With widely available patterns, fabrics, and motorized sewing machines, quilting was quite popular.

Redwork embroidery quilts were made early on in this period, and many were made as fundraisers for churches and charities like the American Red Cross.

1925 -1950: Fabric of Modernism

An era with lots of white/light backgrounds and in the 1930s a light minty, pale green, often referred to as “that green” or “Nile Green.” Quilters could easily find a variety of commercial patterns in magazines and newspapers with the rise of quilting columnists and celebrity designers, like Ruby McKim, and Anne Orr. A pivotal event was the 1933 Century of Progress Quilt Contest sponsored by Sears, which drew more than 24,000 entries. While the contest promised prizes for innovative and progressive designs, the judges chose tradition designs as award winners. Many amazing modern designs were submitted, and those creations were probably the seeds that later flowered into the Art Quilt Movement.