Auction Find

My husband loves auctions and is always browsing for online and in city auctions.  This week he found a local online estate auction and it had a box of quilt goodies.  So of course I had to bid on it...hehe.  And I won the box!  So here is what I got for my $30 bid.

A luscious lemon yellow and white 9-patch quilt top which measures 82 x 82.

 It has some spot stains on it but I also got 10 extra pieced 9-patch blocks and one of the white blocks that I can use if needed to repair.  I may be able to get the stains out with gentle washing.  If so I will have some 9-patch blocks that can be pieced into a baby or doll quilt.

 The next bag that was in the box was astounding.  These 9-inch applique butterfly blocks.  There are 243 total of the white background blocks.  The butterflies are hand appliqued down with black thread with button hole stitch.  In the bag were multiple colors of butterflies.  I got 13 Salmon, 32 Red, 26 Green, 26 Yellow, 6 Pale Yellow, 33 Orange, 10 Baby Blue, 7 Teal, 19 Dark Blue, 23 Pink.  Then there were some others were orange background with orange embroidered butterflies 42 of them, 2 green back ground with green embroidered butterflies and then 4 odd ones with different fabrics.  So that is 48 additional of the different background blocks.

 I also found this handwritten note from the quilter which she had done her figuring for the blocks.  On this she lists the colors and that she wanted to make 20 blocks of each of 7 different colors (Orange, Red, Yellow, Orchid, Pink, Blue and Green) for a total of 140 blocks to make 4 twin size quilts.  I'm thinking she had 4 grandchildren for whom these were to be made.  

If you set these 9-inch blocks 5 x 7 you would have a quilt 45 x 63 without any borders or if you used sashing in between.  I figure there are enough applique blocks for 7 quilts that size.  You could also do an 8th quilt out of the different background embroidered blocks.

 A close up of one of the pink butterflies.

 A butterfly garden on my design wall.

 I had so much fun sorting the colors out as I pulled these out of the bag.  Talk about a surprise bag of goodies.

 These are the different embroidered blocks.

 Next there was another bag of applique blocks.  These measure 18-inches.  There were 12 of the blocks with pink flowers and vases.  Hand applique.  Enough of these to make a quilt set 3 x 4 would be 54 inch x 72 inch without any sashing or borders.

 The box just keeps revealing more and more goodies.  Next is a bag with more of the 18 inch applique blocks.  This time with purple flowers and vases.  There were 11 of these blocks.  Yes another quilt!!

 By this point I think I am done, but no.....in the very bottom was a large bag with 4 pillows, some candlewicked, but stained, to me beyond repair.  but at the bottom of the bag was this hand embroidered cloth which measures 88 x 88 inches.  It has some small stains which I think will come out with washing.  She had hand hemmed the edges like it was to be a table cloth maybe, or maybe she was going to trim it down to a certain size later.

 You can see some of the stains at the edge of the basket.

So for my $30 I have enough quilt blocks and tops to make 12 quilts.  WOW!  Now I call that an awesome auction find!  Someday some lady will purchase a box at an estate auction and find some of my UFO's inside.  I hope that she will be just as excited with her purchase as I am with mine.  Makes you wonder if someday someone will complete a project of yours and understand the love and attention you put into the project.  I sure have a lot of admiration for this wonderful lady and her needle work.

Happy quilting,
Shelia