Today, September 13th, is the first day of the annual SAQA Benefit Auction. Today is Diamond Day – on which any and every quilt donated to this year’s auction is for sale at $1000. Bidding for your must-have quilt for $1000 opens in a few hours’ time at 2.00pm Eastern Daylight Time (Washington DC zone USA) and this phase closes at 12 midnight EDT.

As they were donated the quilts were divided into three groups, and next monday, September 16th. the reverse auction commences for Group 1, starting at $750 with the price falling every day until a quilt sells or the bidding for that group closes at the end of that week. My Ebb&Flow #30 will be auctioned in Group 3, the week beginning Monday September 30th. Full details of how the auction works at http://www.saqa.com/auction-view.php?scat=61&s=0 includes bidding guides and FAQs. It’s interesting that my works usually sell for a similar price per unit area to my larger pieces. (Fascinating side note – would you believe some makers price their works at $/square inch?)

All the auction quilts are 12″ x 12″. All are original designs and made using an enormous variety of surface design techniques, including hand painting, digital printing, hand and machine applique, machine collage, and variations of ‘patchwork’ This year mine is another improvisational patchwork piece in the Ebb&Flow series.

You can see them all on SAQA’s website http://www.saqa.com/auction-view.php?scat=61&s=0 displayed in the three groups in which they’ll be auctioned. You can place a bid from anywhere in the world using your credit card, and if successful, of course they’ll send it to you.

There are always a few artists whose pieces are in hot demand and go on Diamond Day or for the $750 on the first group day. It would be a great thrill to be among this year’s top earners for SAQA, an organisation I have supported every year it has been held, bar one.