Dazzling quilts on display at Kitchener City Hall expected to rake in big money at auction

Kitchener City Hall is currently home to several spectacular quilts which are to be auctioned off at the Mennonite Relief Sale in New Hamburg on the last weekend of May.

Included amongst the pieces is the feature quilt for the auction, “Three Pieces of a Pod,” which will likely fetch big bucks when it hits the auction block.

Last year, the quilt auction raised $127,350 — an average of $578.34 for each of the 250 quilts which were sold.

The most expensive quilt sold for more than $6,000. While that might seem to be an extravagant price, over the years, a pair of quilts have sold for more than $40,000.

In 2015, the feature quilt of the auction netted $42,000.

“It had a lot of authentic African fabrics, and then members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild each did little African pictures, and they were all put into this quilt and it was really quite stunning,” said Judy Pearce, who handles quilts for the Mennonite Relief Sale.

WATCH: Quilt sells for $42,000 at auction

This year’s feature quilt can be viewed from a prime location in Kitchener City Hall.

“If you walk in from King Street and look straight ahead, that is where we put the feature quilt and it is called ‘Three Pieces in a Pod,’” Pearce said.

A trio of quilters was selected to put together this year’s quilt well in advance of the auction.

“They have been making and donating quilts for about five years and the quilts are always spectacular,” Pearce said. “So we asked them a couple of years ago if they could do a feature quilt for this year and it’s really quite amazing.”

‘Three Pieces in a Pod” and the other quilts on display at Kitchener City Hall were selected with care from the 211 pieces which will go up for auction on May 26.

“The ones in city hall are chosen because some quilts look really, really great up close and look equally as great from far away, and you need to have a quilt in there that has a lot of different value in it,” Pearce explained. “A lot of lights and a lot of darks so that it shows really well from that far.”

While the quilts on display are all large, the auction will also feature smaller wallhangings as well. Almost half of the quilts will be on display at various stations throughout the region.

Waterloo City Hall and the Joseph Schneider House Museum will each have quilts on display, as will River Gardens Retirement Home. The Quilt and Fibre Art Festival will also be home to 40 quilts as well.

For the first time, several vintage quilts will also be sold in New Hamburg, although they will be part of a separate auction on Friday night, which sells various donated items, including kitchenware, small furniture and electronic items.

A third outdoor auction on Saturday morning will feature a restored Ferguson 35 Deluxe Tractor.

In addition to the auctions, the sale also includes Mennonite foods from around the globe and fresh-baked pies, home-made jams and other goodies.

The relief sale raised $331,000 last year and more than $14 million since it was first established in 1967.