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Nearly 130 years worth of sewing machines and equipment will be available in a one-of-a-kind auction this weekend. From treasured fabrics to antique sewing machines, Syracuse will become a quilter's haven for the three-day auction.

The auction will be held Friday through Sunday at 125 Plum St. in Syracuse A preview of the available items starts Friday at noon with the fabric collection available for auction from 5-9 p.m.

At 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, auctioning of the sewing machines and accessories will begin. The auction’s final day will begin at 10 a.m. Sunday with the remaining fabric along with other household antiques. For a full list and pictures of the auction lots, visit .

Liz Hunt, a fifth-generation auctioneer who will be leading the weekend, said she has never seen an auction with a collection quite like this.

“I’ve done marbles, lamps, antiques, machinery. You name it, I’ve sold it,� Hunt said. “But with something of this caliber, this is a first. I think it’s the first ever document with this extensive amount.�

The lifetime collection comes from the late Bette Boellstorff, who lived on a farm with her husband, Daniel Boellstorff, near Brock. Sewing had always been a way of life for Bette, who grew up in a family who didn’t have much.

Bette’s daughter, Carrie Knapp, said that Bette learned at a young age how to make things from limited resources.

“To her, a sewing machine was a machine which a woman could make something to provide for her family,� Knapp said. “There’s a lot of machines out there that you associate with men, but this is a woman’s machine.�

During the Great Depression and World War II, Knapp said the Singer Sewing Machine Company was one of the first companies that allowed customers to take a product into their home and continue to make payments toward the final price.

“You could use that same machine to make goods that you’d sell so you could make your payments,� Knapp said.

Knapp isn’t sure when Bette purchased her first sewing machine, but the collection ranges from the 1870s to the early 2000s. Knapp said that while her mom purchased newer models as well, she really had a fond spot for the older models such as the Singer touch and sewing machines.

While documenting the machines, Hunt estimates that they’ve reached nearly 300 sewing machines in the collection.

“Every time we thought we were done writing it up, (Carrie) would pull another sewing machine out,� Hunt said. “They popped up like daisies through the whole time we were writing it up.�

With so many makes, models and ages of machines, Hunt said it’s difficult to estimate what the machines will go for at the auction.

“In my opinion, this is going to set the market,� Hunt said. “This many in this quantity and quality in this location is unheard of. You don’t see this and it’s just kind of mind boggling in a sense, because I don’t know what’s going to happen.�

An auction is a fitting option for the machines as Knapp said growing up, her family often attended farm auctions as a form of entertainment.

“At almost every farm auction, there’d be a sewing machine and my mom would see it and take it home,� Knapp said.

Eventually, people began to recognize Bette’s collection and bring their family-loved machines to her knowing that they would have a safe and adoring new home.

Knapp said Bette and Daniel’s three-story farmhouse had machines in every single room. Bette also had a local retreat studio filled with machines along with storage sheds to house her collection.

After her mom’s death in 2012, Knapp said the collection began weighing on Daniel and they needed to find a way to distribute the machines to people who share Bette’s adoration.

“I’m hoping that the machines find new homes and they find new people who enjoy them as much as my mom did,� Knapp said. “They’ll have another life in another house with another family.�

This weekend will be the first time Knapp and her family will get to see their mom’s sewing machine collection within the same four walls.

“It’s going to be all of her machines from every corner of her world, all together in one room at one time, and that’s something fantastic,� Knapp said.

Hunt is expecting the sale to become a “pivotal point� in her own career because of the uniqueness of the auction. It’s garnering attraction across the country as Hunt has had phone calls from each end of America and even a few from Europe who will be traveling to Nebraska to get their bid in.

“This is the weekend getaway for quilters,� Hunt said. “You’ve got the fabric, you’ve got the accessories, you got the machines and you have a wide variety of machines.�

While it will be hard to see the machines go, Knapp is optimistic about the machines having a new purpose.

“It’s a really good feeling to feel like we can move them into their new homes rather than just sit around and nobody use them,� Knapp said. “That’s more sad than putting them up on an auction and letting people take them.�

Through Hunt’s job, she knows firsthand the difficulties that families can face getting rid of a lifetime collection of this magnitude. However, working with Knapp and her family has given insight to Hunt of the immense love the family had for Bette.

“The amount of care and love and devotion that (Bette) showed to her items is portrayed through the family. They want the same thing for the machines as Bette did,� Hunt said. “They want someone to love and care and show the same devotion that she did all these years.�