What's it worth? Appraisal for tumbling block quilt

Christy says;

Hi,
The quilt I am having you appraise was made by my husband’s grandmother Madeline Thomas.  She was born in 1913 and lived to be 93 years old.  She was an amazing seamstress with an interesting story.  She is known as the “apron lady” of La Crosse, WI because she sewed and sold thousands of aprons to the local factories and people here in La Crosse.

  Madeline was married in 1930 at the age of 17.  Before she was married she and her twin sister went to vocational school, at the age of 14, and learned how to sew.  When they were finished with the program, they went to work at a local garment factory until she was married and moved to the farm a few years later. 
 
As a young person her parents would hire her and her twin sister out to farmers for the entire summer.  The last day of school, they left home and did not return until the first day of school in the Fall.  Their parents kept the money they earned and they never saw one penny of it. 

It was not something either of them wanted to do, they had no choice.  They were essentially slaves.  The last day of school they would walk home and the driver would be waiting to take them to the farm they would be working on.  Madeline told me she and her sister cried when then rounded the corner and saw the farmer waiting for them.  They were just children, but were forced to work like adults. 
 
Madeline had an incredible work ethic her entire life.  She ran a farm, caring for her own family and her elderly in-laws.  When she sold the farm and moved to town, she supported the family sewing.  The local newspaper did a story on her a few years ago. 

She used to sell her products at the local holiday fair.  The last few years of her life my sister-in-laws and I did the selling for her.  Many people came up and asked me if the twins were still alive.  The twins sold at the holiday fair every year for over thirty years.  She made enough money to pay the taxes on her house at the fair.  She was an amazing person. 
 
I have four quilts that I plan to save/store for her four great granddaughters.  They are all in excellent shape.  The one I am sending is a tumbling block pattern.  The front has 3 1/2 X 3 1/2” parallelograms (?) and the back is 3 1/4 X 2 3/4 blocks.  Some of the pieces have smaller pieces sewn together to make the correct size block or pgram.  The quilt has red, blue and green yarn ties. 
 
Thanks for your help with the appraisal.  I look forward to hearing from you.
 
The first three photos are of the front of the quilt and the last two are the back.
 
Sincerely,
Christy

AW says; Christy, that’s a sad and at the same time amazing story. Apparently that type of child labor was abided by here in the early days when times were much tougher than they are now.

The challenge here when apparising such a beautiful hand made item, is getting the value correct among it’s competition in the marketplace as well as it’s own value.

For example, if one were to actually sell the quilt, the best possible place to sell it would be a local auction to where the twins were native. It simply would be more appreciated there, than anywhere else.

As you can imagine, that value, would likely far exceed the value of such a quilt in an antique shop. BTW, if the family ever did decide to do something like that, documented provenance is a MUST.

Thanks for taking the time to relay such an interesting story with your quilt.

• Retail value; $475 (This is NOT an auction value, I believe place in a good auction native to the area, this quilt could bring quite a bit more)
• Wholesale value; $250
• Quick sale value; This item should not have to suffer a quick sale.

Keywords

• Quilt
• hand sewn
• antique textile
• tumbling block pattern
• The Apron Lady
• La Crosse WI