In 1948, on the Sam Summer farm near Gap, Pennsylvania, a new idea to help raise money for world relief was tested.  An auction of donated goods, “excellent food, farm equipment, household goods, and quilts,” sponsored primarily by the Maple Grove district churches raised, $5,012.73.  During its first four decades, the sale was held every other year, assuming the name, Gap Community Relief Sale in 1984 with its move to the Martin sale Barn near Intercourse.  The 2004 sale is the thirty-fifth sale in the fifty-six years since that first sale. This year’s sale was held at the Solanco Fairgrounds in Quarryville.

We were fortunate to be able to interview several persons on Friday evening connected to the sale, including Leon Summer on whose family farm the first sale was held.  Leon does not remember quilts at the first sale, but Anna Kauffman, sale quilter, says she thinks quilts have been there since the beginning.  Mildred Kennel remembers her mother having a quilt in the first sale, bought by a Marie Smith for $50.  According to Shared Blessings:  Origins and History of the Gap Relief Sale 1929-1998, in 1984, Gap sent a quilt to the West Coast Mennonite Sale in exchange for dried fruit; and on August 4, 1998, Elda Marten raised an offering of $852 by leading a quilt demonstration for the sale.

Nancy Stoltzfus, from the Old Order Amish, who was not even born at the time of the first auction, now manages it—setting up the display (045), retrieving the Quilt List (catalogue) from the printer, fielding questions. 

The Quilt Auction began after lunch on Saturday. Three of the large quilts sold for $1000 or more.  “Grapes,” , an appliquéd quilt, brought a round of applause when it sold for $1800 as did “Leafy Boston Commons” (4100) when it brought $1200.  Nearly $18,000 was raised by the quilts and wall-hangings.

“Hired Man’s Quit,” was donated by MCC Material Resource Center in Ephrata.  This quilt is one of twenty-two quilts of the same design sent to sales around the US.  Each one was pieced by MRC Quilt Room director, Connie Lapp from one very large stash of plaids donated to the Center.  Every “Hired Man” was marked, quilted and bound through the efforts of Amish and Mennonite women’s groups who spend all day on a regular weekly, monthly or yearly around MRC quilt frames.  We have seen “Hired Man” at sales in Brownsville, TX (Marilyn owns this one), Versailles, MO, Sioux Falls, SD, and now at the Gap Sale.

The Gap Sale, though the original, is not the largest by any means.  But its simplicity may be reminiscent of earlier sales.  A majority of the volunteers working this sale—managers, quilt supervision, auctioneers, food sellers and servers—were Amish.  Amish were scattered through the crowd.    No AC in the auction barns.  The Quilt List was a combination of seven whole and half sheets of paper, Xeroxed, the last four had been copied by hand on notebook paper.  The auctioneer had a gavel and a white sheet was spread on the stage so the quilts—all hand-quilted—would not get dirty when held up on display by hand