At the Amish quilt auction in Lancaster, PA

This particular Amish auction (also called a mud sale) was in Bird-In-Hand, PA and is always held the last Friday in June.  I plan my whole vacation around this auction and the one held in Refton which is always held the last Saturday in June.  (I feel like I get two for the price of one since I'm driving 6.5 hours)

Amish auctions are HUGE!  And when I say huge I mean they have various large tents set up in a field and different auctions going on under each one, and some right out in the field under the blazing hot sun!  They auction carriages, horses, handmade wooden items and my favorite quilts among a lot of other things.

Over the next few months I'll be going into more detail about some of the photos I took but I first wanted to start with the way they auction quilts.  It is very methodical and easy to follow if you can understand the auction calls.  And a big shout out to my mother-in-law who introduced me to the auction scene about eight years ago (although not Amish based). 

Under this particular tent they have scaffolding set up on each side of the tent with a clothes line in between them.  Two Amish boys are on each side, one side attaching the quilt with clothespins and the other side taking the quilt down after the highest bid is placed. It is fascinating how quickly and smoothly this goes. 

This is a view from the back where they have all of the quilts folded, numbered and displayed before the auction so one can walk up and inspect them more closely.

After the quilt is auctioned and taken off the clothesline it is then passed to Amish women waiting to "tag and bag" it (next photo).  If you won the auction then you need to go pay for it at another tent, get the receipt, then take it back to this tent to show the Amish women who will then find your quilt or quilts.

A fun photo of a quilt being thrown down after the winning bid was placed, oh and it happened to be me who was the high bidder!

Here's a look as some of the other beautiful quilts being auctioned that day:

This was just a glimpse of the Bird-In-Hand auction, in a few days I'll post pictures from the Refton Quilt auction where they do it a little differently.