Kathy Kansier and Quilt Appraisals

Yesterday the speaker at the East Cobb Quilters guild was Kathy Kansier. This is a large guild that I belong to in Cobb County GA. Kathy is a certified judge quilt appraiser and also a great teacher. She gave a great talk about the judging process and tips on what judges are looking for in winning quilts.

After lunch Kathy held an appraisal session and I was lucky enough to be her assistant for the afternoon. We were very busy and I did such things as measuring and counting blocks. She appraised 11 quilts and all but 2 of them were antique. We had a crazy quilt dated 1885 that was in incredible condition. It must have belonged to a wealthy family since it was made up of silks, brocades, velvets and other fabric that would have been very expensive for that time. One of the most incredible thing about this quilt was that it has some sort of photo transfer. Kathy said that they actually had a process that used turpentine back then to do this.

Another quilt was dated 1849 and was created by the ladies of a church for a minister who was moving west. All of the blocks were signed and dated. The women who brought this in had a hand written letter from a great aunt that documented the history. Someone else had a quilt that they had found in the attic of their grandmothers house in NC that was from the 1870s. Kathy was so knowledgeable about quilt history and I learned so much. She was also very gracious in letting me be her assistant. If you like quilts and history, you really would have loved this!