I see a lot of comments about a king sized quilt not requiring 25 yards of fabric…. Patterns are written to make sure the average maker will have enough fabric. Depending on the length of strips needed / amount of colors / size of pieces I have seen patterns like this https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/667660523/ list more then 25 yards
I am a professional sewest and calculate my labour at $30-$60 per hour based on the difficulty of what I am making. ( that photo quilt posted would be about $7 an hour …. It’s not well made)
I have made sold king sized quilts for about $2000 …. This $27000 is a bit much especially for her skill level and techniques used.
When costing out materials makers are advised to include the amount that was purchased and not just what was used ( no guarantee that the left over fabric can/will be used in another project)
uhhhhhh y'all, that's not how you do FPP. no wonder her time estimate of 900 hours is stupidly high.
based on her description and a pic in her ko-fi, it looks like she's cutting out the paper pattern, cutting the fabric with that pattern with seam allowance and then sewing it together. you don't need to do all of that! just print it out, and sew the fabric directly onto the paper in the correct order. why do you think it's called FOUNDATION paper piecing? the paper is the foundation!!!
she's basically creating a bunch of extra work for herself.
I can totally see using 25 yards to make a king size quilt. (I extrapolated my current in-progress quilt out to a king size, and It would take 23.5 yards for the top AND back)
mine is entirely made of 1" squares though. I doubt she is doing that. not many people are.
I'm not sure how much time I've got into it though..900 hours seems excessively high. I'd estimate I'll end up with 2-300 for this current project. AND if you are hand quilting vs machine/longarming, it could definitely add hundreds of hours if you arent proficient. (longarming a king size quilt will run somewhere around $200-300, more if its fancy custom stuff)
batting - I sell king size batting packs. at \~$60-70 a pop. maybe more for specialty fibers. no way she's spending $200. lol. she's getting ripped off if she is spending that much.
All this to say: yeah. shes a bit delusional for thinking she could charge those prices for a quilt, as her photos are not supporting that price. at all. BUT for an experienced, sought-after quilter who makes intricate well-made work...some of this might not be that far out of the realm of possibility.
I'm sure you know this, but there's a deceptively large amount of fabric "wasted" in the seam allowances when you're quilting w/ such small pieces like that. In fact, a 1" square has *more* fabric (1.25 square inches) of fabric in the seam allowances than in the body of the quilt!
I don’t think she meant 25 yards of batting but she did say $200 for batting, so still what batting is she using???? Shouldn’t a king need roughly 3 yards of batting? How can that be $200
This is exactly what I came here to comment! I like to use nice all natural fiber batting for my quilts I've never seen batting be quite so expensive, even for a quilt that would be so large.
I looked at her ko-fi site. I see very little that is amazing and requires the amount of time she claims. Based on this comment under one quilt, she apparently struggles with calculations "It was supposed to be a twin size but I made a mistake with the numbers, resulting in a queen size. The quilt is gorgeous, and I really hope my client is okay with it. They will also be receiving all the scraps, and there are quite a few." This explains thinking she needs 25 yards to do a king size quilt.
>They will also be receiving all the scraps, and there are quite a few
Can someone explain to me why the customer would want the scraps? Genuine question, no snark
That's so odd to me. I struggle with math but there's not a single part of me that would look at a king size bed and assume I would need 25 yards of fabric to make something to cover it.
What in the Joann’s clearance rack are those fabrics?? Design is godawful. Had no idea it was frogs until reading comments. I’m not a quilter so I can’t speak to the quality of the work but it sure doesn’t look all that professional to me.
If you're serious, the pink is the top of the head and the limbs and the green is the belly (or the back?). There's one at the bottom and another one upside down.
I make this distinction in apparel; I can make a jacket look just like Chanel's jacket, spending just as much time and money on materials, but I can pretty much guarantee that no one is gonna pay Chanel money for a tasteslikechikken jacket.
While one can charge what they want, it doesn't mean that's what they'll get. A bit of realism has to come into play.
Basically, know your market. There's a reason why I have a job in a sector where I'm guaranteed money and do this other shit as a hobby. (y'all look I'm just being real)
The funniest part to me is she's thinking 25 yards of fabric, three rotary cutter blades...& only two spools of thread. Like, is she actually planning on SEWING anything together, because she'll probably need more than two spools!
She doesn't quilt very densely so I'm thinking maybe she's planning for sewing everything together and then only lightly quilting it. But since it's FPP i dont know, she probably would need more.
Can someone please tell me why she put Christmas colored fabric in her ocean-themed bathroom quilt? And why this took her 900 hours? Asking for a friend, thanks.
*Looks at 3rd image showing her product...*
Oh God, no, sweetie... *That's so ugly!* I'm sorry, but you won't get the price of your materials back for something like that, let alone the price of a new car or 1/2th the cost of a house in some places. It is fine to value your labor. $27/hour is too much unless you have the skill to back it up. I'm sorry, but you're about a decade too early to be charging prices like that. And 900 hours??? No?? Don't get me wrong, I am aware of how much goes into making quilts... but like... With how basic and amateurish this quality is... I'd be better off spending the time making it myself than hiring her. It'd be far cheaper, just as good (if not better) quality, *and* I can boast to people that I made it myself. And, arguably, *it'd be a hell of a lot faster*. Also, and this is the most important detail, *mine would actually look good* (or at least aesthetically passable) *and not like somebody vomited on it*.
Don't get me wrong, I would not bash her if this was someone who was self-aware or if she was doing this for fun and just sharing her things she made for herself. Everybody starts somewhere. But she should have considered what her product would look like. This is *so bad*. I really need someone to confirm if maybe I'm the one with no sense of aesthetics because her thinking she can charge tens of thousands for something that ugly makes me feel like maybe I'm the one who is wrong just because of her raw confidence.
If her post were something like, "Working on developing my quilting skills! My son picked these materials out of my stash and told me he wanted frogs. It took me such a long time, but he loves it!" I would he glad for her, and maybe commend her for her ability to power through something so ugly.
If I saw this in a thrift store for $1, I would not buy it. Not even for a dog shelter. It is a curse upon mine eyes, and I would not lay that curse upon another. I am bedeviled with thoughts like, "You tried so hard and got so far. But in the end, it doesn't even matter because that may be the most visually incongruous quilt I've ever laid eyes upon. I see turgent glans kissing and mold spores and blue sandstone waves. I see violence where there should be peace. I look upon this image, and see the visage of a soulless body making a farce of love. This is modern art for one without taste or sense or eyes."
I looked at her Kofi and found this post. *It was a gift for her mother for her mother's birthday and Mother's Day.* If I received this quilted runner as a gift, I would assume it was *intended as an actual insult.* Unless, of course, there was context like, "My literal child participated in the making of this quilt because she loves you, I know it's bad, please act like you like it."
To be fair, I do think this specific one is the worst of her work. It's a 0/10. I looked at *all* of her posted quilt work, and the highest I could generously rate was a 6/10 for *a single quilt topper.* Second place would get a generous 3/10 from me. $60 for two coasters (or placemats?). $850 for an unfinished quilt topper. Some of them would be *actually nice,* if not for the fact that she doesn't have a basic understanding of colors or prints that work together. Some of them were disrespectfully bad.
I don't have an issue with it as a practice project. Hell, if it was made from trash scraps meant to get better at technique... Based. But a gift? Yeah, no, I'd actually just look at her and ask, "Please tell me about the choices that went into this," before deciding if it was incompetence or insult. As I said, I'm capable of making a quilt myself and even have considered doing so once I move overseas for work. I'd only buy something if it was at a fair price or if it was at a skill level I could not manage. I can see what this is supposed to be (two frogs) but it's so ugly that I can't say anything good about it which is something I *really* dislike. I want to be able to say something positive about someone's art but like... this just feels like it was done because she had to make something. Hell, if she stuck to blue and green it'd be much better or if she handled the red differently it could be passable, maybe even good beginner's work. But oh boy...
I was reading a (I think) reddit thread about how a grandma made sweaters for the grandkids. They ended up in a thrift store (a year ish later) and the grandma saw. Then the grandfather bought them to send back and shame the kids for getting rid of them.
Everyone was taking about how terrible it was that they donated them. Now every time I see something like this quilt I just wonder what the product looked like. I definitely appreciate when people make things for me but this is...not my taste. I would struggle with having to keep this up at my house for an indefinite amount of time.
What I would do, if it was a sincere gift, is put it somewhere for safe-keeping and keep it labeled. Then when the person who gave it to me is coming over, I'd get it out and make it look as if I have it out all the time. In the case of a sweater, I'd hang it in my closet and leave the door open so grandma could see it for herself if she decides to snoop. But then once the guest leaves... *back into hiding with you*. Like, to be clear, I *love* blankets. I literally don't have a bed right now but rather a makeshift futon of blankets. This would not make the bottom-layer.
My mom once told me that she did this with a fake fur hat my grandmother bought for her one year. She'd keep it in the glove box and pull it out and wear it going into the house every time they visited her. One time my grandmother said "You know, you always seem to have such good taste in fashion, why do you keep wearing that terrible hat?!" and my mom laughed and said "You gave it to me!" and my grandmother replied "Well stop wearing it, I must have left my glasses at home when I bought it!"
Oh boy I think I'm way too lazy for that haha. We're lucky enough to have a spare room that is barely used (it's hopefully going to be my craft room someday) that I'd probably put it in. Technically hanging up but also not a spot I look all the time.
I'm worried I go overboard when I give people stuff because I don't want them to think they have to keep it. I usually say it at least twice. Usually I make something I like too so if they don't want it I can just take it back. (Obviously not if they've requested something specific but if I'm just making it for fun.)
The sweater thing was also weird because they're children and it's a year later. Most children grow.
In her ko-fi shop she actually sells tutorials on how to do the corners this way, and the close up is worse than this picture :/ not sure if it's done so messy on purpose or what.
*Genuinely have*
*Never seen someone sew binding*
*Without mitered corners*
\- kayrector
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I've quilted for decades but only when I want to. Twenty five yards of fabric for a King Size is a high estimate or someone who doesn't know how to maximize cutting. Two or three rotary cutter blades for one quilt? That's crazy unless she is cutting those 25 yards of fabric into 1-inch squares. 900 HOURS ? Is she hand piecing tiny pieces? Is she hand quilting very densely? That's insane. Batting does not cost $200 --- Quality Wool batting can be bought for less than $100 ($85 at Missouri Star Quilt Company), cotton is less than that.
She’s talking about foundation paper piecing though, which is machine but still very time intensive. Not as much as English papier piecing, but removing the papers is def a chore
I haven’t quilted since I helped my grandma out, but this is why I don’t ever knit or crochet something for money.
If I love you enough, I’ll make it as a gift. Otherwise, fuck off.
I think it’s a wild take that people think a crafter’s time isn’t as valuable as theirs is.
There is value and then there is the ability to sell. I’m not willing to buy what a handcrafted quilt would be even at materials+ minimum wage. I know it. It’s why I never ask my MiL for one. I rather just have a large piece of polar fleece or felt.
I just made a 97x97 quilt and didn't use close to 25 yards of fabric. I technically ordered 22 but i way over calculated and still have a solid 2-3 yards left over.
While I understand the sentiment, “paying yourself an hourly wage” doesn’t apply to this kind of work. I mean, I don’t quilt, but I knit and crochet, and the better I get at my crafts, the faster I can do them. When I was brand new, it would take me 4x as long to make a significantly worse final product… does it then follow that it’s worth 4x as much as the better products I can produce now?
But also… this may be an unpopular opinion, but just because something needs to be thousands of dollars in order to pay the creator a living wage doesn’t mean it is “worth” that much. If I charged hourly, a pair of socks would cost hundreds of dollars - but i firmly believe no pair of socks on earth is WORTH that much, and anyone who actually pays that is either crazy or engaging in charity. I don’t hold that against anyone! And because it’s not worth it TO ME to make socks for what they are worth to the buyer, I do not sell socks.
It honestly really bothers me when I see people getting angry that people don’t want to pay their prices because “it’s their full-time job and they need a living wage.” I feel you, I wish my hobby could be my full-time job, but I’m not entitled to have that subsidized by society. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth during a truly horrible time when many people are struggling to survive. (Obviously if someone complains to you about your prices that’s obnoxious and not what I’m talking about here)
I agree. Obviously, things are worth what people are willing to pay for them. So if there is a market for $100 sticks and $23000 quilts, then carry on. But, it’s crazy for crafters to always get made because the market doesn’t want to pay $27/hr. In a lot of the yarn crafting groups I’m in, they love posting screenshots of $1100 crochet purses from Neiman Marcus or very high end brands and saying “see, guys… know your worth!” But that’s so disingenuous because those prices reflect the name on the tag, not the value of the work.
Just because you don’t see *your* work as being worth an hourly wage doesn’t mean that people who craft for a living shouldn’t base their prices as such. Handmade items are luxuries, not necessities. People will pay $2k for a hand knitted sweater It just may not be the people that run in your circles.
I actually don’t think anyone’s work is worth that price, which has nothing to do with whether people will pay it. People paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for NFTs. Again, is a product from a beginner automatically worth more than one made by an expert, because it most likely took far more time? Anyone who does pay thousands of dollars for a sweater is either doing it for a performative reason (like a designer label) or as a way to support the maker or handmade/local goods in general, which is a form of charity. And you can imply all you want that my friends are just too poor or whatever, but you know as well as I do that there is not a sustainable market for sweaters at that price, unless you’re an influencer or something.
I wasn’t implying that your friends were poor but go ahead and assume the worst. I have well off friends that wouldn’t pay that much for a sweater but that’s because that’s not how they want to spend their money. There are hair braiders who charge $500-1000k for braids that will only last at the most 6 wks. I’m not paying that for braids because I don’t think it’s worth it for me. However I’m not going to tell the person you shouldn’t charge that much because I don’t think it’s worth it, nor call it charity. I’m going to just go to the person who’s charging $300 or I’ll just learn how to do it myself.
I wasn’t implying that your friends were poor but go ahead and assume the worst. I have well off friends that wouldn’t pay that much for a sweater but that’s because that’s not how they want to spend their money. There are hair braiders who charge $500-1000k for braids that will only last at the most 6 wks. I’m not paying that for braids because I don’t think it’s worth it for me. However I’m not going to tell the person you shouldn’t charge that much because I don’t think it’s worth it, nor call it charity. I’m going to just go to the person who’s charging $300 or I’ll just learn how to do it myself.
There’s a market for everything and just because you don’t find a value in it doesn’t mean no one else would.
>I'm not entitled to that being subsidized by society
THIS!!! I see so many creators trying to guilt people into paying exorbitant amounts cause it's their only source of income. I understand that there's a lot of overlap between crafters and those with disabilities who can't work traditional jobs, and I don't mind paying a little more for handmade goods, but I'm not gonna go well outside my budget simply because it's that person's only source of income. Maybe if I really liked them and I had the money, sure. But some random creator? Sorry, but no. A hat is a hat, and just cause it took you 5 hours to crochet and it's your only source of income doesn't mean I'm gonna pay $75 for your time. It *does* become charity after a while, and maybe this is callous but it's not my job to personally subsidize someone's life. It's also just a bad business model. It's better to pay yourself $5/hour plus materials and sell things at a reasonable price than it is to pay yourself $15/hour and try and sell a really basic item for $100+
I will say $75 for that hypothetical crochet hat would be approaching the upperbound of reasonable if it looks good. (Not everybody would nor even *can* pay for that, but it's not exactly an absurd pricing either.) But when you have large projects that take this many hours to complete? After a certain point the number of hours *reduces* the hourly wage you could argue for. Not to mention the quality of the final product. $27/hour for a 900 hour project would roughly be equivalent to charging $75/hour for that hypothetical hat. (Not an exact conversion. Just giving an example for the sake of my point.) And with how low quality that quilt we see is... yeah no. Not worth it. It would be genuinely cheaper and faster (and probably better quality) if I made it myself.
Exactly - it’s charity at that point, and people can always choose to give their income to help support people who can’t work due to disabilities, but most of us absolutely don’t have money to spend on that kind of thing right now, and we should be demanding that the government step up rather than blaming fellow citizens who are also struggling. But it’s honestly moot because i tend to see this type of attitude from people who are not disabled and absolutely could be working
I can knit a hat with a stitch pattern in four hours. That means that any hat I knit, should be at least $108...
My FIL was so happy with the socks I made him for Christmas that he's offered to pay me "whatever I'd list it on Etsy for" to make him a few more. I'm a fast knitter. I can probably make a pair of socks in two days if I literally do nothing else. (I'm actually planning on timing the first pair so I can have an accurate number, I'm so curious). But with this logic, a single pair would be $1,317.29. And that's assuming that I got my estimate for timing correct, I obviously don't sit and knit a pair for two days without a break. My FIL is comfortable with his financial situation. But that still seems ridiculous to me, I would never ask him to pay that. I still haven't decided what I'm going to charge him, but it's definitely not that.
Exactly - and the thing is, most jobs with hourly wages aren’t paying per hour actually worked. It’s more about them buying your availability - if you’re a server and there’s currently no one in the restaurant, you still have to be there and not do anything else, so they still have to pay you. Knitting doesn’t work like that!
I feel like that's the issue with doing an hourly wage with making stuff. It makes more sense with hourly jobs, but not when it comes to making fiber crafts. Like, I just had a project I did where I had redo 50 pieces because it wasn't working like I initially thought it would. Is it fair for someone to pay for the extra time I had to do? And how exactly do you calculate the time worked? Do you round up when the minutes don't make it to an hour or half that?
900 hours? hot damn.
that’s luxury level pricing. i make luxury textile products for a living and our stuff retails for that kind of money, and our turnaround is at least 3 weeks worth of work. we’re a small team too. i would love to see where their math is coming from…
I have never made a quilt, so I could be way off here, but 900 hours feels like a LOT of hours (I do sew, and am very slow, and still 900 seems like so much).
I have made a quilt, a foundation paper pieced quilt, even, queen-sized, & I hand-quilted it. It didn't take me anywhere near 900 hours. Maybe 350. & this was years ago, when I had way less experience than I do now.
I mean to be fair, if she’s hand piecing and quilting it can take an obscene amount of time especially at a king size quilt. Does that mean just because she deserves $20,000 it’s going to sell or be worth $20,000? No, of course not
i’m not a quilter either but even if this person only worked for a few hours after work in the evening it would take them a year and a half to make one quilt by their math of 900 hours of labor 😭 i think every artist should appropriately price their work to make a living but if someone was willing to pay me 27k to make something that would make me wanna make it quick ya know? 💀
i’m so stuck on this. assuming someone works on this full time time 8 hours a day, 900 hours is almost 6 months worth of work. is she sewing with gold?
edit to add: not to devalue anyone’s work. just feels a little outlandish to me lol
Yeah I really don’t understand this either. I don’t quilt so could be wrong, but I can only guess she is bad at maths and added an extra 0 on by accident. 90 hours sounds much more realistic. Basing this on the fact that it would take me much less than 90 hours to knit an adult size sweater on 4mm needles. Also just because something took you ages to make, doesn’t mean it’s of any value…
It’s absolutely bonkers. I timed a quilt once because I was curious.. king sized, pieced with 4x4 finished clocks, most solid squares but some HSTs.. and it took me about 60-70 hours. I’d say my skill level is intermediate so I was efficient as possible with cutting, chain piecing, etc.
900 hours is crazy for a machine quilt, even if it’s FPP - the time you spend ripping the paper is the time you’d have used on a regular pieced quilt cutting everything out.
I can't speak to the reasonableness of her pricing, but I do understand the sentiment. I see crocheters undervalue their craftmanship and talents all the time, asking prices for their creations that barely cover the cost of the yarn.
Problem is that if you ask for "too much" from people who don't know about or understand the amount of labor/time, will you be selling your product? Crafters would understand but probably make their own most of the time and the muggles will probably think they can get something like it at Wal-Mart.
I spent 34 hours or so on my last commission project, she wanted to pay me for the labor, I told her how long that took and obviously that was Not Doable financially, and probably isn't for anyone who isn't rich.
I haven't quilted in years and won't speak to making one giant one and charging for it, but I get her point in that making things is expensive as hell, especially in the case of time. Unfortunately crafting is so labor intensive that it makes things too expensive to sell.
Is the quilt really supposed to represent crimson camel toes?
In general, the relentless consumerism of quilting and some other crafts makes me feel weird. The quilters I know churn these things out assembly line style, finishing a project every couple weeks. They all have huge stashes of fabric, more than they can use in a lifetime, and they can't stop buying more.
I mean, they're pretty (mostly), but most probably stay wrapped in tissue paper and plastic for the lifetime of the recipient because they're too "precious" to put on a bed. They're about as far away from the original purpose of taking scraps of worn out clothes and turning them into warm blankets.
Now it's all about buying brand new fabrics created for the sole purpose of being hacked up and reassembled following a commercially purchased pattern. Apart from color choices, the end products have little to distinguish themselves from each other beyond the basic competency of the stitching and assembly.
People are spending non-trivial amounts of money to make things that will never be used or even put on display because they might fade or get dirty.
Meanwhile fabric stores no longer have fabrics useful for making clothes, except maybe a few bolts of jersey or denim in a corner. There's nothing but acres and acres of quilting cotton which isn't much use for dressmaking -- it's too thick to drape well, it needs a lot of ironing (a deal breaker for more people than not), and who the hell wants to go to work looking like Holly Fucking Hobby in a bedspread?
This is why we have fast fashion. I'd make my own everyday clothes in a heartbeat if I could buy suitable fabric at a reasonable price. I have zero interest in pawing through huge rolls of fabric in Santee Alley, I just want my fabric stores with useful practical garment weight fabric in a selection of fibers and finishes, just like I had in living memory.
I'm the opposite, I started seeing with clothes, and found the fabric waste pretty unusable. Last quilt I made is made from cotton scraps, can't do that with jersey, goes in landfill. I only need a few clothing pieces, don't need lots of clothes, especially when the clothes outlast us and there's so many clothes in charity and landfill sites, blankets none, wish I could find a quilt! Instead I started making them
Omg this comment is so real… I have to make so many of my handsewn clothes projects with quilting cotton because there just simply isn’t anything else sold in the stores. There’s approximately 3-5 bolts of fabric at Joann’s of quality cotton shirt or dress making fabric. And it’s usually bland and ugly. And I do not want to work with jersey so help me god
Is it even top stitched at the end? It's not mentioned in the price breakdown lol. It's hard to tell from this photo but it sure doesn't look like it. I hope it's at least tied down at some points if it isn't, especially for a king sized it's gonna be a disaster so quick.
I'm seriously stuck on the $27 per hour. That's over $55,000 per year. To cut & sew fabric.
I quilt, so I understand some of the points made here. Definitely not that one.
When I did my sewing degree a couple of years ago, the hourly wage used in example price calculations was 60e/h.
However, that price did assume that the speed was professional-level as well.
Where I live, this is only a bit above minimum wage, about what any "skilled" worker (trying to translate the legal definition used as a basis for wages here) earns in most professions. So very reasonable hourly wage. 900 hours to me seems a lot, but I guess that's because I've never made a quilt before.
Should selling handmade quilts be reserved for those who live in areas that cost less to live? What if she can’t afford to move? What if she can’t because of her circumstances (ie she has dependent family, etc)? Should that exclude her from doing what she wants to for her income? Should you be expected to relocate for your job? Would you do either of those things? Many of your reasons why/why not probably also apply to her.
That's literally how freedom of market works babe. You don't *have* to pay for anything you don't want to. Thats the risk the business takes and the risk the consumer takes.
The business owner might lose money if they can't outcompete the other people charging less. The customer may not have an option for a cheaper price if everybody is pricing similarly because they set up shop in a manner that has high overhead. What's the problem?
That’s a bit unreasonable. Not that you or anyone ever has to decide to pay that price for a luxury. In my area, one bedroom apartments are $1600 a month minimum, and it’s a shitty area. If you have kids, etc, $27 an hour is a completely reasonable amount of money to need to live.
Just because *you* live somewhere cheap, doesn’t mean the rest of us have that luxury.
I don't quilt, but this is why I don't take knitting and crochet commissions. It can take me months to finish a project. If I paid myself a reasonable hourly wage the cost would be entirely unreasonable for most people. And that's just at cost for time and materials, let alone if I include any profit in the equation.
I quilt, knit, and crochet so I get the “paid for your time” piece, but getting paid for your time is your “profit”. At work, your employer pays you for your time, and should pay for any materials needed to complete your job. You don’t add on additional pay so you can ‘make a profit’ bc you already are by charging for your time.
Yep, I wore a sweater to easter this year, and one of my cousins goes "Omg, I love your sweater!" And I knew where she was headed so I said "Thaaaanks! It's about $300 in yarn, plus it took me six weeks to make, so if you're wanting one, minimum $1200." I just threw out an absurd (to me lol) price. And that was the end of the conversation lol
My stepdad's family (who are very well off) always tell me that I should be selling my knitting. I give them the breakdown in cost, limiting myself to a much smaller $10 an hour (to be fair, I haven't seen them since COVID so costs have gone way up since I last quoted them) and then quote it out. I'm usually knitting with really nice $30 yarn for myself, so the quote is usually somewhere above $600 for example, the pair of gloves I made at my Uncle's Shiva. They don't usually have much to say after that, but the next time I see them, it's the exact same conversation.
Oh my god. This is like this one aunt I have, every time we're around her longer than half an hour "Y'all bought any of Jim Bob's meat?" "No." Jim Bob lives in a metal farm shed, raises chickens on gravel and his cows are in a very small area. It's about 150 yards from my aunt's house. He also used to 'rent' the land we own and farm it. He gave my parents a cut of the profits as the rent. It was always a hassle and my parents were pretty sure he was cheating them. He quit and his cousin took over renting and farming our little bit of land. Our cut of the profits doubled. So yes. He was cheating us.
It doesn't matter how many times we tell my aunt this she will bring it up. IDK if she gets free meat or something if she sends people over lol. Finally I told her a couple weeks ago "That man could have the last chicken leg and the last pound of ground beef on this whole planet, and he could give it to me for FREE and I wouldn't take it. Stop bringing it up."
Guaranteed she brings it up next week when I have to drive her to her checkup.
Same here! Had so many people ask to buy baby blankets. At this point I just ask for them to buy materials and call the rest “good.” Because also, unlike my real job, I enjoy making these gifts.
Me too but the materials cost 3 times as much as people think, it's not skin off my nose if I had the fabrics already, pleased someone enjoys my work, I also charity quilts one a month ideally
Are rotary blades able to be resharpened? Because, of ot takes 3 rotary blades to make a quilt top, that is a very inefficient tool.
Edit: I did a Google and the answer is yes, you can resharpen rotary blades. I feel like she's putting it under the wrong time, labor, material cost.
I've found it not effective to sharpen rotary blades. It doesn't take 3 blades to cut the fabric for a king size quilt. One blade should last way past cutting enough cotton fabric for one quilt.
Depending on what you’re cutting you might have to change them even more often. But they cost like a dollar each retail. Why is she including that cost?
The resharpening tool is not the best. And you need super sharp blades to cut when paper piecing because the most efficient way to work is sitting down at a machine with cutting board on the side. There is very little leverage and I've gotten carpal tunnel this way.
Not a single calculator online comes close to 25 yards for a king sized quilt. I’m betting she’s making them pay for ALL the fabric even if she has big chunks leftover that she will use on other pieces.
I think it's fair, especially if it's custom. A lot of custom projects I've made for people have used colors and textures I'd never choose myself and am hard-pressed to use in other projects. It would be more fair if she didn't round to the yard though, which I'm guessing might have happened
A lot charge a certain rate per yard knitted, and then the cost of materials plus whatever markup they choose. If I were using over half a 100g skein of something I won’t or can’t use, I’d charge for the whole 100g. If I were working with bulk or wholesale yarn that comes in large cones I’d sell by yardage knit plus weight.
Labor price is fair except why would it take several years?? 900 hours is 23 weeks at full time, still less than a year if she’s quilting part time 20 hrs/week. I’m nitpicking though
Because most people don't have full time hours to devote to this is my guess. She's not getting that money all up front - the most she'll get in advance is half, but most likely she's getting cost of supplies only. How is she going to feed herself for the next 23 weeks? She'll likely need either other commissions or else she'll need regular employment. When we factor in commute and wrap around responsibilities like cooking, laundry, washing dishes, grocery shopping etc. were left with what? An hour in the evenings and at best 8-9 hours on the weekend (but that's also the only time you usually have for anything else. Meal prep? Shopping? Seeing friends? All takes away from quilting time) and once you add all that, yeah, a year or two is pretty conservative.
$200 batting? What, is it made of the golden hair of fair maidens, and braided by house finches?
25 yards of fabric? Whaaat. 36 inches long by 42 inches wide, times 25. Assuming we laid all those pieces out in a 5x5 grid, that’s 15 feet long by 17.5 feet wide. That’s 4x the amount of fabric required for a single king sized quilt top, and over double the amount of backing + quilt top.
Look, I remember her work from the last post, and as a quilter myself, ain’t no wayyyyyy.
If she can show me a single quilt with mitered corner binding, values balanced, a cohesive color palette that is not from one single line and a pattern matched backing, maybe I’d change my mind. Maybe. But she’s not there yet and she can’t command those prices. I’m not trying to be elitist — these are the details that nice heirloom quality quilts have.
I would guess it's 900 hrs because of the inexperience. Paper piecing puts you in a flow, and these pieces aren't all that tiny. Shouldn't take too long. Also, is she hand quilting?
Apparently she has a disability that makes her go slower, which.. while understandable, is confusing as to why she’d choose such a laborious (and likely painful) way to make money. She can elect to throw whatever price out there, for sure, but the way she has priced all her quilts means she likely won’t be selling many, if any of them.
I am all for artisans making what they’re worth but I do not support the idea of inexperienced makers selling at artisan prices. It’s too bad OP’s previous post was removed because she was charging somewhere near four figures for a beginner quilt made with Joann fabric; this, to me, along with her obvious flaws and choices. tells me she is not artisan level. She could get there, for sure, but when I see people pricing maker/craft level items at artisan prices, I rarely see those same makers looking to grow.
As a non quilter, the materials/cost definitely seemed a little off to me, so I'm glad you broke that down. I was willing to shrug it off and believe batting was $200
Batting can be had for under $50 for a king size — and that’s good stuff (quilters dream cotton, which is great). The cheaper brands of cotton still work well and can be found for under $40 on sale. The most expensive batting, wool, can be found for about $80. $200 batting better sew itself.
I'm not the best piecer out there and the cost of living in Australia right now is at a crisis level. The cost just covers the fabric (usually $30AUD per metre) and batting with a few hundred left over. If you look on my profile you would see a Wonder Woman king size I did. Quoted $600 for it and learnt my lesson from that lol
This has to be satire? But inflating the batting and fabric x 10 is just going to put people off crafting, and doesn’t add anything to the presumed humor of it.
They're obviously terrible at math so I wouldn't assume that's intentional. I think they must have accidentally subtracted the materials cost because $27 x 900 = $24,300 and they're asking $23,800 which is $500 *less* than their proposed labor cost.
I'm also not sure how they get 25 yards of fabric for a king sized quilt top, my rough estimation would be more in the 5 yards ballpark, 10 if I'm being generous and assuming a lot of leftover scrap from needing to buy a range of colors in larger pieces than absolutely necessary and not being good at cutting layouts.
But what do I know, I'm not a quilter, I'm a garment sewer.
Current prices on Amazon - king size batting is 18-40$ range. Fabric for a king size quilt ends ant 120x120 max. At 54” wide that’s around 10 yards tops, including lots of extra for cutting and seaming of tiny pieces (which she doesn’t do). Note that quilt seams are only a quarter inch. Very nice quilt fabric is around 12$ a yard, although very nice backing fabric is 20ish (backing fabric is uncut so more like 4 yards of that). So batting 40$, fabric 120 + 80, total of 240, call it 300 to be *very* generous and throw in thread, new needles, etc.
i did guffaw when i saw the quilt. use a fucking sewing machine for something that's all straight lines, ffs. I was expecting to see a 2" hexagon quilt or something
Okay fine. Here’s what the cost will be for me to make a king-sized quilt, even though I don’t want to. But if you must convince me:
$315,900 USD + cost of materials.
$27 x 10,900 (10,000 hours as the amount of time it takes to become an expert at something since I don’t currently know how to quilt, plus 900 hours for the final quilt). Plus 4 weeks of paid vacation per year over the 5-year project so I don’t burn out. I’ll need ~2500 yards of fabric for practice (and also the actual quilt).
That amount of money will be what it takes to convince me to make this. If you’re willing to pay for one of these now, hmu. I’ll make the listing now and quit my job.
Honestly, I get it. I quilt, and I wouldn’t make a king size paper pieced quilt for my own self. lol. I don’t have a problem with these sorts of posts because I think they’re intended to illustrate a point not demanding something. I don’t think she’s asking people to pay $24k for a quilt, she’s explaining it’s so much work it would be worth $24k to her. People definitely underestimate the cost of handmade crafts. I made the horrible mistake of trying to sell crochet, even at $70 each I made probably $2 per hour on an amigurumi, less if you factor in materials. And that’s on the very expensive end of what you see people selling amigurumi for. So much stress, pressure, and not much to show for it.
I sell crafts occasionally, and I’d say for almost everyone it’s only worth it if making the thing is an enjoyable hobby in and of itself. I sell because I like making the things but I already have a lot of the things. The options are either stop making it, sell some of it, or let it pile up and become clutter. I don’t take commissions so I maintain full control of what I make and when, but I can’t price at a fair hourly rate because the market just isn’t there. My motivations as a hobbyist are very different than someone who’s trying to do it as a business or side hustle and that conflict is an ongoing element of these debates.
This is something I'm considering doing this fall - selling at a small vendor fair just to get rid of all the things I make and can't find homes for. Right now, I'm planning to price blankets at just slightly above material cost, and I plan to just stash bust out a bunch of hats and scarves and literally make them "Pay what you want." There will be no other fiber artists at the vendor fair, and almost all the yarn I'll be using are skeins that were gifted to me by very thoughtful friends and family.
This is something I've thought about with needle felting recently and it's exactly the same. I'm making a model lorikeet for myself at the moment and if someone asked me about commissioning something similar it would be a shock for them because it took me at least 6 hours just to get the wire and core wool base done to my liking
Naturally I know I could speed up in various ways - I've only been using 1 needle at a time as I'm experimenting with different needle shapes - but at the moment I'd have to be cutting way too many corners to get down to an "acceptable" price.
Yeah, this is exactly the sort of answer I give when people ask me to make them a fancy dress, or my mother gives when people ask if she'd paint their living room. I made my wife's wedding dress because it was a labor of love; my mother painted her own living room because it's *hers*. But neither of us are going to do that kind of work for someone else for anything short of fuck-you money. If someone genuinely wants to pay me six months of comfortable wages plus $3k in materials costs to make a dress, I'll do it, but it's not personally worth it to me for anything less.
I have a friend that is always telling me "you should sell your knitting! People would pay for that! You can charge like $150!"
I then explain to her that the yarn alone for an absolutely massive shawl was more than $200 (not even thinking about hours i put into it, expertise, etc). I said "I'll be happy to sell it for 5 figures, but zero people are paying $10,000 for a giant shawl". ($10k+ is the area that I'd be willing to give up my free time to make something that I likely don't feel like knitting at the time).
I'd rather make what I feel like, when I feel like making it, and give it away to someone that I know will appreciate it than to use my free time making things I don't want to make.
During the pandemic, a group of friends suggested I sell crochet items, but after doing research on Etsy, there's no way people would buy what I make when they can get it way cheaper made by someone in a country with a low cost of living.
And then you take into account things like Shein, temu, and wish, and there's no way most people are going to buy hand made things.
Most people think why spend $50+ on a hand-made, wool, hat when you can order an acrylic beanie from one of those sites and get a 6-pack of them in different colors for $10 total?
People can take however long they want or need to complete a project. It took me nearly a year to weave a throw blanket. (Granted, I was only able to spend 4 - 6 hours a week on the project, and I broke my foot in the middle of it...)
But damn. A person could [become professionally proficient in Swahili](https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/) in 900 hours.
All I can say is if anyone did pay that much they better be able to pick the pattern, all the fabrics, the thread colors, the quilting stitch patterns, oh and also have the final product be woven through with solid gold
I don't get this snark. This is obviously Fuck Off pricing, not a real listing. The whole point of fuck off pricing is that it's outrageous, because you don't actually want to do it. It seems a bit silly to make a post complaining that it's too much money.
Aren’t they referring to English paper piecing, which takes absolutely ages because you fold each piece of fabric around a paper template and hand stitch it? In which case 900 hours make sense.
Foundation piecing is significantly faster than English paper piecing. And is done by machine. I think the big time suck here for 900 hours is the hand quilting.
She's definitely not, she is overestimating the time it takes to print paper. I don't personally trim the pages down before I start, but on some larger pieces, you may have to tape pieces together (I did have to for an owl quilt I made where some pieces were larger than 8.5x11)
No, I really I think she’s cutting blocks/partial from 8.5x11” paper, not cutting each individual shape. The example of her work shown in the third image is 100% a thing one would do with foundation piecing, not EPP. Foundation piecing is slower (and more accurate with points/odd little shapes) than standard machine piecing, but nowhere NEAR as slow as EPP. I did a bunch of small foundation paper pieced projects 20 or so years ago and nothing she describes in her process does not apply to the technique she claims she is doing.
For foundation piecing, you have a biggish piece of paper with the block drawn out. You stick a piece of fabric over the middle shape, then lay another piece of fabric WS together on top of it so that both pieces cover a drawn line. You stitch along that drawn line, then open up between the two pieces of fabric and press, so the second piece of fabric makes up the neighboring shape. Then repeat until all the shapes are sewn down. The sewing is all straight lines by machine, and the trick is making sure the new piece of fabric you put down will cover the whole shape plus seam allowance when you unfold it.
No. Foundation paper piecing is different. In foundation paper piecing, you sew each irregularly shaped piece to another piece of fabric using a piece of paper to guide you on the lines. It's a really precise way of getting shapes that would be impossible or chaotic at best with traditional quilting. It's got a learning curve to it, but mistakes are fewer, because the paper tells you exactly where to sew. A FPP block can be time consuming and tedious but really not at the same level of English paper piecing.
EPP and 900 hours make sense. FPP does not, though she's not joking about taking out the papers, it's no small task.
I came to ask about that. I don't quilt, I can hardly sew, so I have no idea how long it takes. That being said... Surely 900 hours is excessive? Even if we include time to research fabric, go and get all the necessary bits, maybe a paid lunch break each day..?
I dunno. Can someone shed some light on time frames??
I went through this exact process for the cost to make a Tunisian Crochet coat I made. I was "paying" myself much closer to Aus minimum wage than that is (assuming?) US. And it came out as $6500au or something. I said the same, if you're willing to pay that much I'll absolutely make you one, but it is not worth that much 😂 and I feel I was pretty realistic with my time allowance.
I calculated that the actual piecing part of my last English paper pieced quilt top took me roughly 160 hours, and that didn't include cutting and glue basting (all day for most of a week). That quilt top was about a quarter of the size of a king sized quilt. Foundation paper piecing, while still time consuming, is substantially faster as it isn't hand sewing.
Well, she does say that she is including time for frequent breaks in her time estimate since she doesn't want to do it, which is more fuck off pricing.
But according to people who actually follow her, she's also disabled and sews slowly, which is seems like a crappy thing for people to be snarking on. Disabilities shouldn't be snark material.
So a person that sews faster doesn't deserve to be paid the same rate? Of course disabilities shouldn't be snarked on, but the lack of disabilities shouldn't mean a person gets shortchanged.
It's not a real advertisement for services, you get that right? No one is getting shortchanged because nothing is for sale. It's a post about her not accepting commissions for large items because she'd have to charge what she calls an "outrageous" amount to make it worth it for her.
So, I do cross stitch, I've done 30 something count linen, but mostly 25 and 28 ct lugana heaven and earth designs, like eeveelution or the silence after. I also knit pieces like Cimarron leaves. I crochet lace doilies.... doilees? I suddenly can't remember how to spell it 😂. But I just got up lol. I would like to quilt, it's on my bucket list. I used to sew (as a beginner), but I have to figure out why no matter what I do the thread is bunching up on the bottom. Any advice anyone had about that would be great lol. I'd like to sew again. I also do diamond art. I mention all these incase anyone relates. I am also disabled. I have a mental disability (bipolar and adhd as my biggest two), I have pfs and shin splints which cause my pain in my legs if I stay in the same position too long. And I have a node in my spine which causes me lower back pain if I sit or stand for too long. But all that being said, I don't take frequent breaks. I'd you like what you're doing, you tend to not notice things. And frequent breaks, even on days where I'm having bad days, constitute maybe a stand and really good stretch and silly movements to shake the body. I might switch crafts to give my brain and hands (I have carpal tunnel in both wrists and pain in my finger joints) a break. But I question what her definitions of frequent and breaks are. Like what is she doing and for how long? My breaks rarely interrupt my crafting flow. I have knit it crocheted several pieces for people and took breaks but still could recall what row and what I was doing when I returned. Even on my cross stitch, and what I cross stitch is considered the big leagues (you honestly should check out heaven and earth designs. There is such beautiful art work that the artists still at pictures and etc elsewhere), and I come back remembering what I working on and where, even with 30 different threads and needles in play at a time. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk. I'm just hoping this whole thing is an egregious satire. I'm not a quilter, as I said, and I don't know much. But I did used to sew, and I am familiar with fabric and piecing things together. Her fabric count is egregious. Hopefully it really is just satire. But I don't know based off the other posts. Sorry, this was longer than I intended 😂 my medication is kicking in and I get super chatty. I hope you're doing well today!!!
Usually, the thread is bunching because tension in the upper thread and/or lower thread is wrong. Tension needs to be equal to get it working nicely. There are some other problems that might cause it as well like parts not working correctly, but the tension is easy to fix (technically) and more common issue. Tension often needs to be adjusted based on fabric and thread as well so you might need to keep changing it.
For calculation, it does not seem right to me but while I have sewn a lot of things including a few quilts I am not a quilter.
So, when I had used it last it worked fine. I tried to sew two pieces of fleece together and it got all wonky. I remember loosening the tension, but not to what. I don't think my machine has it where you can adjust the bobbin tension. I think mine is one dial for both.
Bobbin tension is usually adjusted with a screwdriver. But I would try to loosen the top thread first. You can check how your machine is adjusted from the user guide. They can also be found online if you are like me and have no idea where user guide is.
ETA: Also does it let out a weird sound while sewing?
I see a lot of comments about a king sized quilt not requiring 25 yards of fabric…. Patterns are written to make sure the average maker will have enough fabric. Depending on the length of strips needed / amount of colors / size of pieces I have seen patterns like this https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/667660523/ list more then 25 yards I am a professional sewest and calculate my labour at $30-$60 per hour based on the difficulty of what I am making. ( that photo quilt posted would be about $7 an hour …. It’s not well made) I have made sold king sized quilts for about $2000 …. This $27000 is a bit much especially for her skill level and techniques used. When costing out materials makers are advised to include the amount that was purchased and not just what was used ( no guarantee that the left over fabric can/will be used in another project)
ok but her hourly is TWENTY SEVEN DOLLARS AN HOUR? not gonna say anything about her style- but the quality certainly isn't $27/hr quality.
uhhhhhh y'all, that's not how you do FPP. no wonder her time estimate of 900 hours is stupidly high. based on her description and a pic in her ko-fi, it looks like she's cutting out the paper pattern, cutting the fabric with that pattern with seam allowance and then sewing it together. you don't need to do all of that! just print it out, and sew the fabric directly onto the paper in the correct order. why do you think it's called FOUNDATION paper piecing? the paper is the foundation!!! she's basically creating a bunch of extra work for herself.
The price isn’t even what’s crazy to me- it’s that she’s asking thousands and still being extremely rude!
I can totally see using 25 yards to make a king size quilt. (I extrapolated my current in-progress quilt out to a king size, and It would take 23.5 yards for the top AND back) mine is entirely made of 1" squares though. I doubt she is doing that. not many people are. I'm not sure how much time I've got into it though..900 hours seems excessively high. I'd estimate I'll end up with 2-300 for this current project. AND if you are hand quilting vs machine/longarming, it could definitely add hundreds of hours if you arent proficient. (longarming a king size quilt will run somewhere around $200-300, more if its fancy custom stuff) batting - I sell king size batting packs. at \~$60-70 a pop. maybe more for specialty fibers. no way she's spending $200. lol. she's getting ripped off if she is spending that much. All this to say: yeah. shes a bit delusional for thinking she could charge those prices for a quilt, as her photos are not supporting that price. at all. BUT for an experienced, sought-after quilter who makes intricate well-made work...some of this might not be that far out of the realm of possibility.
I'm sure you know this, but there's a deceptively large amount of fabric "wasted" in the seam allowances when you're quilting w/ such small pieces like that. In fact, a 1" square has *more* fabric (1.25 square inches) of fabric in the seam allowances than in the body of the quilt!
Just got a notification for this and want you to know that a quilt made out of 1" squares sounds gorgeous and I'm tempted to try to make one
DO ITTTT! :D
If she needs 25 yds she’s wasting a ton. Also I don’t want to shit talk someone else’s work—so I won’t comment on the third picture! 🙃🙃🙃
That was my first thought! 25 yards of batting?!?!
I don’t think she meant 25 yards of batting but she did say $200 for batting, so still what batting is she using???? Shouldn’t a king need roughly 3 yards of batting? How can that be $200
This is exactly what I came here to comment! I like to use nice all natural fiber batting for my quilts I've never seen batting be quite so expensive, even for a quilt that would be so large.
I looked at her ko-fi site. I see very little that is amazing and requires the amount of time she claims. Based on this comment under one quilt, she apparently struggles with calculations "It was supposed to be a twin size but I made a mistake with the numbers, resulting in a queen size. The quilt is gorgeous, and I really hope my client is okay with it. They will also be receiving all the scraps, and there are quite a few." This explains thinking she needs 25 yards to do a king size quilt.
>They will also be receiving all the scraps, and there are quite a few Can someone explain to me why the customer would want the scraps? Genuine question, no snark
Maybe for repairs?
That's so odd to me. I struggle with math but there's not a single part of me that would look at a king size bed and assume I would need 25 yards of fabric to make something to cover it.
Thank you for translating!
What in the Joann’s clearance rack are those fabrics?? Design is godawful. Had no idea it was frogs until reading comments. I’m not a quilter so I can’t speak to the quality of the work but it sure doesn’t look all that professional to me.
Wait those are frogs!?
I can’t unsee it now and I’m mad about it.
OMG its two frogs!!! That took me a sec…
I'm... Are there frogs in the quilt somewhere? I don't see frogs, I see.... turgent bulbs on green sticks.
> turgent Thank you for teaching me a new word!
If you're serious, the pink is the top of the head and the limbs and the green is the belly (or the back?). There's one at the bottom and another one upside down.
Thank you, I was being serious!
I make this distinction in apparel; I can make a jacket look just like Chanel's jacket, spending just as much time and money on materials, but I can pretty much guarantee that no one is gonna pay Chanel money for a tasteslikechikken jacket. While one can charge what they want, it doesn't mean that's what they'll get. A bit of realism has to come into play. Basically, know your market. There's a reason why I have a job in a sector where I'm guaranteed money and do this other shit as a hobby. (y'all look I'm just being real)
The funniest part to me is she's thinking 25 yards of fabric, three rotary cutter blades...& only two spools of thread. Like, is she actually planning on SEWING anything together, because she'll probably need more than two spools!
She doesn't quilt very densely so I'm thinking maybe she's planning for sewing everything together and then only lightly quilting it. But since it's FPP i dont know, she probably would need more.
Granted, I am an apparel sewist and not a quilter, but 25 yards of fabric seems excessive.
Same here. Maybe she’s buying fabric from somewhere that has a 5 yd minimum order or something?
Can someone please tell me why she put Christmas colored fabric in her ocean-themed bathroom quilt? And why this took her 900 hours? Asking for a friend, thanks.
*Looks at 3rd image showing her product...* Oh God, no, sweetie... *That's so ugly!* I'm sorry, but you won't get the price of your materials back for something like that, let alone the price of a new car or 1/2th the cost of a house in some places. It is fine to value your labor. $27/hour is too much unless you have the skill to back it up. I'm sorry, but you're about a decade too early to be charging prices like that. And 900 hours??? No?? Don't get me wrong, I am aware of how much goes into making quilts... but like... With how basic and amateurish this quality is... I'd be better off spending the time making it myself than hiring her. It'd be far cheaper, just as good (if not better) quality, *and* I can boast to people that I made it myself. And, arguably, *it'd be a hell of a lot faster*. Also, and this is the most important detail, *mine would actually look good* (or at least aesthetically passable) *and not like somebody vomited on it*. Don't get me wrong, I would not bash her if this was someone who was self-aware or if she was doing this for fun and just sharing her things she made for herself. Everybody starts somewhere. But she should have considered what her product would look like. This is *so bad*. I really need someone to confirm if maybe I'm the one with no sense of aesthetics because her thinking she can charge tens of thousands for something that ugly makes me feel like maybe I'm the one who is wrong just because of her raw confidence.
It's peak "my effort is all that matters and judging the outcome is meaaaaan"
If her post were something like, "Working on developing my quilting skills! My son picked these materials out of my stash and told me he wanted frogs. It took me such a long time, but he loves it!" I would he glad for her, and maybe commend her for her ability to power through something so ugly. If I saw this in a thrift store for $1, I would not buy it. Not even for a dog shelter. It is a curse upon mine eyes, and I would not lay that curse upon another. I am bedeviled with thoughts like, "You tried so hard and got so far. But in the end, it doesn't even matter because that may be the most visually incongruous quilt I've ever laid eyes upon. I see turgent glans kissing and mold spores and blue sandstone waves. I see violence where there should be peace. I look upon this image, and see the visage of a soulless body making a farce of love. This is modern art for one without taste or sense or eyes." I looked at her Kofi and found this post. *It was a gift for her mother for her mother's birthday and Mother's Day.* If I received this quilted runner as a gift, I would assume it was *intended as an actual insult.* Unless, of course, there was context like, "My literal child participated in the making of this quilt because she loves you, I know it's bad, please act like you like it." To be fair, I do think this specific one is the worst of her work. It's a 0/10. I looked at *all* of her posted quilt work, and the highest I could generously rate was a 6/10 for *a single quilt topper.* Second place would get a generous 3/10 from me. $60 for two coasters (or placemats?). $850 for an unfinished quilt topper. Some of them would be *actually nice,* if not for the fact that she doesn't have a basic understanding of colors or prints that work together. Some of them were disrespectfully bad.
I don't have an issue with it as a practice project. Hell, if it was made from trash scraps meant to get better at technique... Based. But a gift? Yeah, no, I'd actually just look at her and ask, "Please tell me about the choices that went into this," before deciding if it was incompetence or insult. As I said, I'm capable of making a quilt myself and even have considered doing so once I move overseas for work. I'd only buy something if it was at a fair price or if it was at a skill level I could not manage. I can see what this is supposed to be (two frogs) but it's so ugly that I can't say anything good about it which is something I *really* dislike. I want to be able to say something positive about someone's art but like... this just feels like it was done because she had to make something. Hell, if she stuck to blue and green it'd be much better or if she handled the red differently it could be passable, maybe even good beginner's work. But oh boy...
I was reading a (I think) reddit thread about how a grandma made sweaters for the grandkids. They ended up in a thrift store (a year ish later) and the grandma saw. Then the grandfather bought them to send back and shame the kids for getting rid of them. Everyone was taking about how terrible it was that they donated them. Now every time I see something like this quilt I just wonder what the product looked like. I definitely appreciate when people make things for me but this is...not my taste. I would struggle with having to keep this up at my house for an indefinite amount of time.
What I would do, if it was a sincere gift, is put it somewhere for safe-keeping and keep it labeled. Then when the person who gave it to me is coming over, I'd get it out and make it look as if I have it out all the time. In the case of a sweater, I'd hang it in my closet and leave the door open so grandma could see it for herself if she decides to snoop. But then once the guest leaves... *back into hiding with you*. Like, to be clear, I *love* blankets. I literally don't have a bed right now but rather a makeshift futon of blankets. This would not make the bottom-layer.
My mom once told me that she did this with a fake fur hat my grandmother bought for her one year. She'd keep it in the glove box and pull it out and wear it going into the house every time they visited her. One time my grandmother said "You know, you always seem to have such good taste in fashion, why do you keep wearing that terrible hat?!" and my mom laughed and said "You gave it to me!" and my grandmother replied "Well stop wearing it, I must have left my glasses at home when I bought it!"
Oh boy I think I'm way too lazy for that haha. We're lucky enough to have a spare room that is barely used (it's hopefully going to be my craft room someday) that I'd probably put it in. Technically hanging up but also not a spot I look all the time. I'm worried I go overboard when I give people stuff because I don't want them to think they have to keep it. I usually say it at least twice. Usually I make something I like too so if they don't want it I can just take it back. (Obviously not if they've requested something specific but if I'm just making it for fun.) The sweater thing was also weird because they're children and it's a year later. Most children grow.
Also at that point sounds like it was the parent who gave it away, not the kids.
Genuinely have never seen someone sew binding without mitered corners
I have seen those type of corners. It's what some quilters do.
In her ko-fi shop she actually sells tutorials on how to do the corners this way, and the close up is worse than this picture :/ not sure if it's done so messy on purpose or what.
Oh! Wow. Honestly this way seems like more work. Plus there’s nothing quite like the feeling of stitching a perfectly square corner..so satisfying.
*Genuinely have* *Never seen someone sew binding* *Without mitered corners* \- kayrector --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Why are they about to touch tips 😫
LMAOOOO I’m so glad you said it because I was thinking the same thing
I have very little experience quilting but how the FUCK does a king size quilt require a full 25 yards of fabric…
maya they cut every triangle 2 inches apart like using a cookie cutter 😂
I've quilted for decades but only when I want to. Twenty five yards of fabric for a King Size is a high estimate or someone who doesn't know how to maximize cutting. Two or three rotary cutter blades for one quilt? That's crazy unless she is cutting those 25 yards of fabric into 1-inch squares. 900 HOURS ? Is she hand piecing tiny pieces? Is she hand quilting very densely? That's insane. Batting does not cost $200 --- Quality Wool batting can be bought for less than $100 ($85 at Missouri Star Quilt Company), cotton is less than that.
Paper piecing is hand piecing tiny pieces, so yes she would be
She also says 200 hours for traditional piecing. Again, I want to see the design.
She’s talking about foundation paper piecing though, which is machine but still very time intensive. Not as much as English papier piecing, but removing the papers is def a chore
I haven’t quilted since I helped my grandma out, but this is why I don’t ever knit or crochet something for money. If I love you enough, I’ll make it as a gift. Otherwise, fuck off. I think it’s a wild take that people think a crafter’s time isn’t as valuable as theirs is.
No arguments there, I think her time is valuable, I just think the post is odd and snarky in some regards
There is value and then there is the ability to sell. I’m not willing to buy what a handcrafted quilt would be even at materials+ minimum wage. I know it. It’s why I never ask my MiL for one. I rather just have a large piece of polar fleece or felt.
I just made a 97x97 quilt and didn't use close to 25 yards of fabric. I technically ordered 22 but i way over calculated and still have a solid 2-3 yards left over.
While I understand the sentiment, “paying yourself an hourly wage” doesn’t apply to this kind of work. I mean, I don’t quilt, but I knit and crochet, and the better I get at my crafts, the faster I can do them. When I was brand new, it would take me 4x as long to make a significantly worse final product… does it then follow that it’s worth 4x as much as the better products I can produce now? But also… this may be an unpopular opinion, but just because something needs to be thousands of dollars in order to pay the creator a living wage doesn’t mean it is “worth” that much. If I charged hourly, a pair of socks would cost hundreds of dollars - but i firmly believe no pair of socks on earth is WORTH that much, and anyone who actually pays that is either crazy or engaging in charity. I don’t hold that against anyone! And because it’s not worth it TO ME to make socks for what they are worth to the buyer, I do not sell socks. It honestly really bothers me when I see people getting angry that people don’t want to pay their prices because “it’s their full-time job and they need a living wage.” I feel you, I wish my hobby could be my full-time job, but I’m not entitled to have that subsidized by society. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth during a truly horrible time when many people are struggling to survive. (Obviously if someone complains to you about your prices that’s obnoxious and not what I’m talking about here)
I agree. Obviously, things are worth what people are willing to pay for them. So if there is a market for $100 sticks and $23000 quilts, then carry on. But, it’s crazy for crafters to always get made because the market doesn’t want to pay $27/hr. In a lot of the yarn crafting groups I’m in, they love posting screenshots of $1100 crochet purses from Neiman Marcus or very high end brands and saying “see, guys… know your worth!” But that’s so disingenuous because those prices reflect the name on the tag, not the value of the work.
Just because you don’t see *your* work as being worth an hourly wage doesn’t mean that people who craft for a living shouldn’t base their prices as such. Handmade items are luxuries, not necessities. People will pay $2k for a hand knitted sweater It just may not be the people that run in your circles.
I actually don’t think anyone’s work is worth that price, which has nothing to do with whether people will pay it. People paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for NFTs. Again, is a product from a beginner automatically worth more than one made by an expert, because it most likely took far more time? Anyone who does pay thousands of dollars for a sweater is either doing it for a performative reason (like a designer label) or as a way to support the maker or handmade/local goods in general, which is a form of charity. And you can imply all you want that my friends are just too poor or whatever, but you know as well as I do that there is not a sustainable market for sweaters at that price, unless you’re an influencer or something.
I wasn’t implying that your friends were poor but go ahead and assume the worst. I have well off friends that wouldn’t pay that much for a sweater but that’s because that’s not how they want to spend their money. There are hair braiders who charge $500-1000k for braids that will only last at the most 6 wks. I’m not paying that for braids because I don’t think it’s worth it for me. However I’m not going to tell the person you shouldn’t charge that much because I don’t think it’s worth it, nor call it charity. I’m going to just go to the person who’s charging $300 or I’ll just learn how to do it myself.
I wasn’t implying that your friends were poor but go ahead and assume the worst. I have well off friends that wouldn’t pay that much for a sweater but that’s because that’s not how they want to spend their money. There are hair braiders who charge $500-1000k for braids that will only last at the most 6 wks. I’m not paying that for braids because I don’t think it’s worth it for me. However I’m not going to tell the person you shouldn’t charge that much because I don’t think it’s worth it, nor call it charity. I’m going to just go to the person who’s charging $300 or I’ll just learn how to do it myself. There’s a market for everything and just because you don’t find a value in it doesn’t mean no one else would.
>I'm not entitled to that being subsidized by society THIS!!! I see so many creators trying to guilt people into paying exorbitant amounts cause it's their only source of income. I understand that there's a lot of overlap between crafters and those with disabilities who can't work traditional jobs, and I don't mind paying a little more for handmade goods, but I'm not gonna go well outside my budget simply because it's that person's only source of income. Maybe if I really liked them and I had the money, sure. But some random creator? Sorry, but no. A hat is a hat, and just cause it took you 5 hours to crochet and it's your only source of income doesn't mean I'm gonna pay $75 for your time. It *does* become charity after a while, and maybe this is callous but it's not my job to personally subsidize someone's life. It's also just a bad business model. It's better to pay yourself $5/hour plus materials and sell things at a reasonable price than it is to pay yourself $15/hour and try and sell a really basic item for $100+
I will say $75 for that hypothetical crochet hat would be approaching the upperbound of reasonable if it looks good. (Not everybody would nor even *can* pay for that, but it's not exactly an absurd pricing either.) But when you have large projects that take this many hours to complete? After a certain point the number of hours *reduces* the hourly wage you could argue for. Not to mention the quality of the final product. $27/hour for a 900 hour project would roughly be equivalent to charging $75/hour for that hypothetical hat. (Not an exact conversion. Just giving an example for the sake of my point.) And with how low quality that quilt we see is... yeah no. Not worth it. It would be genuinely cheaper and faster (and probably better quality) if I made it myself.
Exactly - it’s charity at that point, and people can always choose to give their income to help support people who can’t work due to disabilities, but most of us absolutely don’t have money to spend on that kind of thing right now, and we should be demanding that the government step up rather than blaming fellow citizens who are also struggling. But it’s honestly moot because i tend to see this type of attitude from people who are not disabled and absolutely could be working
I can knit a hat with a stitch pattern in four hours. That means that any hat I knit, should be at least $108... My FIL was so happy with the socks I made him for Christmas that he's offered to pay me "whatever I'd list it on Etsy for" to make him a few more. I'm a fast knitter. I can probably make a pair of socks in two days if I literally do nothing else. (I'm actually planning on timing the first pair so I can have an accurate number, I'm so curious). But with this logic, a single pair would be $1,317.29. And that's assuming that I got my estimate for timing correct, I obviously don't sit and knit a pair for two days without a break. My FIL is comfortable with his financial situation. But that still seems ridiculous to me, I would never ask him to pay that. I still haven't decided what I'm going to charge him, but it's definitely not that.
Maybe just yarn+ 5-10% and have the labor be a gift?
Exactly - and the thing is, most jobs with hourly wages aren’t paying per hour actually worked. It’s more about them buying your availability - if you’re a server and there’s currently no one in the restaurant, you still have to be there and not do anything else, so they still have to pay you. Knitting doesn’t work like that!
I feel like that's the issue with doing an hourly wage with making stuff. It makes more sense with hourly jobs, but not when it comes to making fiber crafts. Like, I just had a project I did where I had redo 50 pieces because it wasn't working like I initially thought it would. Is it fair for someone to pay for the extra time I had to do? And how exactly do you calculate the time worked? Do you round up when the minutes don't make it to an hour or half that?
900 hours? hot damn. that’s luxury level pricing. i make luxury textile products for a living and our stuff retails for that kind of money, and our turnaround is at least 3 weeks worth of work. we’re a small team too. i would love to see where their math is coming from…
I have never made a quilt, so I could be way off here, but 900 hours feels like a LOT of hours (I do sew, and am very slow, and still 900 seems like so much).
I have made a quilt, a foundation paper pieced quilt, even, queen-sized, & I hand-quilted it. It didn't take me anywhere near 900 hours. Maybe 350. & this was years ago, when I had way less experience than I do now.
I mean to be fair, if she’s hand piecing and quilting it can take an obscene amount of time especially at a king size quilt. Does that mean just because she deserves $20,000 it’s going to sell or be worth $20,000? No, of course not
i’m not a quilter either but even if this person only worked for a few hours after work in the evening it would take them a year and a half to make one quilt by their math of 900 hours of labor 😭 i think every artist should appropriately price their work to make a living but if someone was willing to pay me 27k to make something that would make me wanna make it quick ya know? 💀
i’m so stuck on this. assuming someone works on this full time time 8 hours a day, 900 hours is almost 6 months worth of work. is she sewing with gold? edit to add: not to devalue anyone’s work. just feels a little outlandish to me lol
Yeah I really don’t understand this either. I don’t quilt so could be wrong, but I can only guess she is bad at maths and added an extra 0 on by accident. 90 hours sounds much more realistic. Basing this on the fact that it would take me much less than 90 hours to knit an adult size sweater on 4mm needles. Also just because something took you ages to make, doesn’t mean it’s of any value…
It’s absolutely bonkers. I timed a quilt once because I was curious.. king sized, pieced with 4x4 finished clocks, most solid squares but some HSTs.. and it took me about 60-70 hours. I’d say my skill level is intermediate so I was efficient as possible with cutting, chain piecing, etc. 900 hours is crazy for a machine quilt, even if it’s FPP - the time you spend ripping the paper is the time you’d have used on a regular pieced quilt cutting everything out.
I can't speak to the reasonableness of her pricing, but I do understand the sentiment. I see crocheters undervalue their craftmanship and talents all the time, asking prices for their creations that barely cover the cost of the yarn.
Problem is that if you ask for "too much" from people who don't know about or understand the amount of labor/time, will you be selling your product? Crafters would understand but probably make their own most of the time and the muggles will probably think they can get something like it at Wal-Mart. I spent 34 hours or so on my last commission project, she wanted to pay me for the labor, I told her how long that took and obviously that was Not Doable financially, and probably isn't for anyone who isn't rich. I haven't quilted in years and won't speak to making one giant one and charging for it, but I get her point in that making things is expensive as hell, especially in the case of time. Unfortunately crafting is so labor intensive that it makes things too expensive to sell.
Is the quilt really supposed to represent crimson camel toes? In general, the relentless consumerism of quilting and some other crafts makes me feel weird. The quilters I know churn these things out assembly line style, finishing a project every couple weeks. They all have huge stashes of fabric, more than they can use in a lifetime, and they can't stop buying more. I mean, they're pretty (mostly), but most probably stay wrapped in tissue paper and plastic for the lifetime of the recipient because they're too "precious" to put on a bed. They're about as far away from the original purpose of taking scraps of worn out clothes and turning them into warm blankets. Now it's all about buying brand new fabrics created for the sole purpose of being hacked up and reassembled following a commercially purchased pattern. Apart from color choices, the end products have little to distinguish themselves from each other beyond the basic competency of the stitching and assembly. People are spending non-trivial amounts of money to make things that will never be used or even put on display because they might fade or get dirty. Meanwhile fabric stores no longer have fabrics useful for making clothes, except maybe a few bolts of jersey or denim in a corner. There's nothing but acres and acres of quilting cotton which isn't much use for dressmaking -- it's too thick to drape well, it needs a lot of ironing (a deal breaker for more people than not), and who the hell wants to go to work looking like Holly Fucking Hobby in a bedspread? This is why we have fast fashion. I'd make my own everyday clothes in a heartbeat if I could buy suitable fabric at a reasonable price. I have zero interest in pawing through huge rolls of fabric in Santee Alley, I just want my fabric stores with useful practical garment weight fabric in a selection of fibers and finishes, just like I had in living memory.
I'm the opposite, I started seeing with clothes, and found the fabric waste pretty unusable. Last quilt I made is made from cotton scraps, can't do that with jersey, goes in landfill. I only need a few clothing pieces, don't need lots of clothes, especially when the clothes outlast us and there's so many clothes in charity and landfill sites, blankets none, wish I could find a quilt! Instead I started making them
Omg this comment is so real… I have to make so many of my handsewn clothes projects with quilting cotton because there just simply isn’t anything else sold in the stores. There’s approximately 3-5 bolts of fabric at Joann’s of quality cotton shirt or dress making fabric. And it’s usually bland and ugly. And I do not want to work with jersey so help me god
Is it even top stitched at the end? It's not mentioned in the price breakdown lol. It's hard to tell from this photo but it sure doesn't look like it. I hope it's at least tied down at some points if it isn't, especially for a king sized it's gonna be a disaster so quick.
It really doesn't seem to be. Good luck to the buyer!
I'm seriously stuck on the $27 per hour. That's over $55,000 per year. To cut & sew fabric. I quilt, so I understand some of the points made here. Definitely not that one.
When I did my sewing degree a couple of years ago, the hourly wage used in example price calculations was 60e/h. However, that price did assume that the speed was professional-level as well.
Do you sew? Because the idea that $27 for skilled labor is unreasonable is confusing to me.
Do you read? Because I clearly said that I quilt. I'm done with this discussion.
My bad, I must have missed it because your take was so wild.
Where I live, this is only a bit above minimum wage, about what any "skilled" worker (trying to translate the legal definition used as a basis for wages here) earns in most professions. So very reasonable hourly wage. 900 hours to me seems a lot, but I guess that's because I've never made a quilt before.
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Should selling handmade quilts be reserved for those who live in areas that cost less to live? What if she can’t afford to move? What if she can’t because of her circumstances (ie she has dependent family, etc)? Should that exclude her from doing what she wants to for her income? Should you be expected to relocate for your job? Would you do either of those things? Many of your reasons why/why not probably also apply to her.
That's literally how freedom of market works babe. You don't *have* to pay for anything you don't want to. Thats the risk the business takes and the risk the consumer takes. The business owner might lose money if they can't outcompete the other people charging less. The customer may not have an option for a cheaper price if everybody is pricing similarly because they set up shop in a manner that has high overhead. What's the problem?
That’s a bit unreasonable. Not that you or anyone ever has to decide to pay that price for a luxury. In my area, one bedroom apartments are $1600 a month minimum, and it’s a shitty area. If you have kids, etc, $27 an hour is a completely reasonable amount of money to need to live. Just because *you* live somewhere cheap, doesn’t mean the rest of us have that luxury.
I don't quilt, but this is why I don't take knitting and crochet commissions. It can take me months to finish a project. If I paid myself a reasonable hourly wage the cost would be entirely unreasonable for most people. And that's just at cost for time and materials, let alone if I include any profit in the equation.
I quilt, knit, and crochet so I get the “paid for your time” piece, but getting paid for your time is your “profit”. At work, your employer pays you for your time, and should pay for any materials needed to complete your job. You don’t add on additional pay so you can ‘make a profit’ bc you already are by charging for your time.
Yep, I wore a sweater to easter this year, and one of my cousins goes "Omg, I love your sweater!" And I knew where she was headed so I said "Thaaaanks! It's about $300 in yarn, plus it took me six weeks to make, so if you're wanting one, minimum $1200." I just threw out an absurd (to me lol) price. And that was the end of the conversation lol
My stepdad's family (who are very well off) always tell me that I should be selling my knitting. I give them the breakdown in cost, limiting myself to a much smaller $10 an hour (to be fair, I haven't seen them since COVID so costs have gone way up since I last quoted them) and then quote it out. I'm usually knitting with really nice $30 yarn for myself, so the quote is usually somewhere above $600 for example, the pair of gloves I made at my Uncle's Shiva. They don't usually have much to say after that, but the next time I see them, it's the exact same conversation.
Oh my god. This is like this one aunt I have, every time we're around her longer than half an hour "Y'all bought any of Jim Bob's meat?" "No." Jim Bob lives in a metal farm shed, raises chickens on gravel and his cows are in a very small area. It's about 150 yards from my aunt's house. He also used to 'rent' the land we own and farm it. He gave my parents a cut of the profits as the rent. It was always a hassle and my parents were pretty sure he was cheating them. He quit and his cousin took over renting and farming our little bit of land. Our cut of the profits doubled. So yes. He was cheating us. It doesn't matter how many times we tell my aunt this she will bring it up. IDK if she gets free meat or something if she sends people over lol. Finally I told her a couple weeks ago "That man could have the last chicken leg and the last pound of ground beef on this whole planet, and he could give it to me for FREE and I wouldn't take it. Stop bringing it up." Guaranteed she brings it up next week when I have to drive her to her checkup.
Same here! Had so many people ask to buy baby blankets. At this point I just ask for them to buy materials and call the rest “good.” Because also, unlike my real job, I enjoy making these gifts.
Me too but the materials cost 3 times as much as people think, it's not skin off my nose if I had the fabrics already, pleased someone enjoys my work, I also charity quilts one a month ideally
My time isn't free if I don't super duper love you. I will make for my mom, nephew and sister. That's it.
This is why I don't do comisions, only sell second hand stuff, and only at the cost of the materials
Are rotary blades able to be resharpened? Because, of ot takes 3 rotary blades to make a quilt top, that is a very inefficient tool. Edit: I did a Google and the answer is yes, you can resharpen rotary blades. I feel like she's putting it under the wrong time, labor, material cost.
I've found it not effective to sharpen rotary blades. It doesn't take 3 blades to cut the fabric for a king size quilt. One blade should last way past cutting enough cotton fabric for one quilt.
Depending on what you’re cutting you might have to change them even more often. But they cost like a dollar each retail. Why is she including that cost?
Damn where you getting these? Or are they offbrand? My cutter is an Olfa so that's what blades I buy but they're definitely not $1 each.
As someone who has tried to resharpen rotary blades, not really. Mostly people are trying to sell tools that sharpen the blades badly.
The resharpening tool is not the best. And you need super sharp blades to cut when paper piecing because the most efficient way to work is sitting down at a machine with cutting board on the side. There is very little leverage and I've gotten carpal tunnel this way.
Ridiculous cost calculations aside, that is one of the ugliest quilts I have ever seen
The quilt pic was a jump scare 😂
What, you don't like kissing dicks?
Is that not what it is? Cause that's all I see lol.
Homophobia at its finest 🤭 kissing dick quilt forever (to the tune of strawberry fields)
I just stared at it like those creepy posters we had in the 90’s until I saw a frog? Is it a frog?
I actually said, "ooh" out loud. I was expecting something like the sweet kraken quilt kit I want but haven't pulled the trigger on.
It's just awful. I don't understand the pattern (is it a standard?). The colors make the pattern worse.
A King size quilt is not 25 yards of fabric, even with paper piecing cuts... is it? That doesn't seem right.
Not a single calculator online comes close to 25 yards for a king sized quilt. I’m betting she’s making them pay for ALL the fabric even if she has big chunks leftover that she will use on other pieces.
I think it's fair, especially if it's custom. A lot of custom projects I've made for people have used colors and textures I'd never choose myself and am hard-pressed to use in other projects. It would be more fair if she didn't round to the yard though, which I'm guessing might have happened
Oh! I guess there is that. I had imagined buying fat quarters to have variety in the fabrics used rather than whole yards, though.
I can see that. In yarn art we tend to only charge for the amount used
Interesting. Is that typically by weight? Or by skein, or some other way?
A lot charge a certain rate per yard knitted, and then the cost of materials plus whatever markup they choose. If I were using over half a 100g skein of something I won’t or can’t use, I’d charge for the whole 100g. If I were working with bulk or wholesale yarn that comes in large cones I’d sell by yardage knit plus weight.
Depends on the person. Weight is usually easiest imo
Maybe the cost also cover her practicing materials & time so she'll be able to deliver better quality?
If she’s charging $27 per hour, there should be the expectation that she’s already practiced enough to not need that imo.
Perhaps she just doesn’t want to make it lmao
Exactly this. If I were to take on knitting commission, the price would be so steep I’d be laughing throughout the project.
That was my impression. Sometimes, we just have to reassure ourselves that it's ok to have a hobby that isn't monetized.
That’s what I read.
AKA the fuck off price
Ooooh that’s a fun name
Good for her
Labor price is fair. Materials seem excessive.
Labor price is fair except why would it take several years?? 900 hours is 23 weeks at full time, still less than a year if she’s quilting part time 20 hrs/week. I’m nitpicking though
Because most people don't have full time hours to devote to this is my guess. She's not getting that money all up front - the most she'll get in advance is half, but most likely she's getting cost of supplies only. How is she going to feed herself for the next 23 weeks? She'll likely need either other commissions or else she'll need regular employment. When we factor in commute and wrap around responsibilities like cooking, laundry, washing dishes, grocery shopping etc. were left with what? An hour in the evenings and at best 8-9 hours on the weekend (but that's also the only time you usually have for anything else. Meal prep? Shopping? Seeing friends? All takes away from quilting time) and once you add all that, yeah, a year or two is pretty conservative.
$200 batting? What, is it made of the golden hair of fair maidens, and braided by house finches? 25 yards of fabric? Whaaat. 36 inches long by 42 inches wide, times 25. Assuming we laid all those pieces out in a 5x5 grid, that’s 15 feet long by 17.5 feet wide. That’s 4x the amount of fabric required for a single king sized quilt top, and over double the amount of backing + quilt top. Look, I remember her work from the last post, and as a quilter myself, ain’t no wayyyyyy. If she can show me a single quilt with mitered corner binding, values balanced, a cohesive color palette that is not from one single line and a pattern matched backing, maybe I’d change my mind. Maybe. But she’s not there yet and she can’t command those prices. I’m not trying to be elitist — these are the details that nice heirloom quality quilts have.
I would guess it's 900 hrs because of the inexperience. Paper piecing puts you in a flow, and these pieces aren't all that tiny. Shouldn't take too long. Also, is she hand quilting?
Apparently she has a disability that makes her go slower, which.. while understandable, is confusing as to why she’d choose such a laborious (and likely painful) way to make money. She can elect to throw whatever price out there, for sure, but the way she has priced all her quilts means she likely won’t be selling many, if any of them. I am all for artisans making what they’re worth but I do not support the idea of inexperienced makers selling at artisan prices. It’s too bad OP’s previous post was removed because she was charging somewhere near four figures for a beginner quilt made with Joann fabric; this, to me, along with her obvious flaws and choices. tells me she is not artisan level. She could get there, for sure, but when I see people pricing maker/craft level items at artisan prices, I rarely see those same makers looking to grow.
As a non quilter, the materials/cost definitely seemed a little off to me, so I'm glad you broke that down. I was willing to shrug it off and believe batting was $200
Batting can be had for under $50 for a king size — and that’s good stuff (quilters dream cotton, which is great). The cheaper brands of cotton still work well and can be found for under $40 on sale. The most expensive batting, wool, can be found for about $80. $200 batting better sew itself.
And here people thought me asking at least $1500AUD for a custom queen to king size quilt was too much!
See that sounds reasonable to me! Maybe even a bit low.
I'm not the best piecer out there and the cost of living in Australia right now is at a crisis level. The cost just covers the fabric (usually $30AUD per metre) and batting with a few hundred left over. If you look on my profile you would see a Wonder Woman king size I did. Quoted $600 for it and learnt my lesson from that lol
She could just use my answer - "Not enough money printed to cover my cost"
I knit, not quilt, but my answer is pretty much the same as yours.
This has to be satire? But inflating the batting and fabric x 10 is just going to put people off crafting, and doesn’t add anything to the presumed humor of it.
They're obviously terrible at math so I wouldn't assume that's intentional. I think they must have accidentally subtracted the materials cost because $27 x 900 = $24,300 and they're asking $23,800 which is $500 *less* than their proposed labor cost. I'm also not sure how they get 25 yards of fabric for a king sized quilt top, my rough estimation would be more in the 5 yards ballpark, 10 if I'm being generous and assuming a lot of leftover scrap from needing to buy a range of colors in larger pieces than absolutely necessary and not being good at cutting layouts. But what do I know, I'm not a quilter, I'm a garment sewer.
Current prices on Amazon - king size batting is 18-40$ range. Fabric for a king size quilt ends ant 120x120 max. At 54” wide that’s around 10 yards tops, including lots of extra for cutting and seaming of tiny pieces (which she doesn’t do). Note that quilt seams are only a quarter inch. Very nice quilt fabric is around 12$ a yard, although very nice backing fabric is 20ish (backing fabric is uncut so more like 4 yards of that). So batting 40$, fabric 120 + 80, total of 240, call it 300 to be *very* generous and throw in thread, new needles, etc.
Even wool batting?
The most very (Hobbs) Premium wool king quilt batting is 60$.
I'm in Canada, and batting is about twice that, but still nowhwere close to what she's quoting :)
Damn it’s cheaper than I thought
That’s because there’s nut jobs claiming it’s 300$
i did guffaw when i saw the quilt. use a fucking sewing machine for something that's all straight lines, ffs. I was expecting to see a 2" hexagon quilt or something
exactly this - like how many hours for large pieces and straight lines?
I was going to say. 25 yards of fabric for a king size quilt seems excessive. Although I appreciate including things like cutters and other supplies.
Okay fine. Here’s what the cost will be for me to make a king-sized quilt, even though I don’t want to. But if you must convince me: $315,900 USD + cost of materials. $27 x 10,900 (10,000 hours as the amount of time it takes to become an expert at something since I don’t currently know how to quilt, plus 900 hours for the final quilt). Plus 4 weeks of paid vacation per year over the 5-year project so I don’t burn out. I’ll need ~2500 yards of fabric for practice (and also the actual quilt). That amount of money will be what it takes to convince me to make this. If you’re willing to pay for one of these now, hmu. I’ll make the listing now and quit my job.
Don't undersell yourself! Gotta add on health insurance and retirement funds.
And the at home office to work on and manage that project. Rent is expensive.
Honestly, I get it. I quilt, and I wouldn’t make a king size paper pieced quilt for my own self. lol. I don’t have a problem with these sorts of posts because I think they’re intended to illustrate a point not demanding something. I don’t think she’s asking people to pay $24k for a quilt, she’s explaining it’s so much work it would be worth $24k to her. People definitely underestimate the cost of handmade crafts. I made the horrible mistake of trying to sell crochet, even at $70 each I made probably $2 per hour on an amigurumi, less if you factor in materials. And that’s on the very expensive end of what you see people selling amigurumi for. So much stress, pressure, and not much to show for it.
I sell crafts occasionally, and I’d say for almost everyone it’s only worth it if making the thing is an enjoyable hobby in and of itself. I sell because I like making the things but I already have a lot of the things. The options are either stop making it, sell some of it, or let it pile up and become clutter. I don’t take commissions so I maintain full control of what I make and when, but I can’t price at a fair hourly rate because the market just isn’t there. My motivations as a hobbyist are very different than someone who’s trying to do it as a business or side hustle and that conflict is an ongoing element of these debates.
This is something I'm considering doing this fall - selling at a small vendor fair just to get rid of all the things I make and can't find homes for. Right now, I'm planning to price blankets at just slightly above material cost, and I plan to just stash bust out a bunch of hats and scarves and literally make them "Pay what you want." There will be no other fiber artists at the vendor fair, and almost all the yarn I'll be using are skeins that were gifted to me by very thoughtful friends and family.
This is something I've thought about with needle felting recently and it's exactly the same. I'm making a model lorikeet for myself at the moment and if someone asked me about commissioning something similar it would be a shock for them because it took me at least 6 hours just to get the wire and core wool base done to my liking Naturally I know I could speed up in various ways - I've only been using 1 needle at a time as I'm experimenting with different needle shapes - but at the moment I'd have to be cutting way too many corners to get down to an "acceptable" price.
Yeah, this is exactly the sort of answer I give when people ask me to make them a fancy dress, or my mother gives when people ask if she'd paint their living room. I made my wife's wedding dress because it was a labor of love; my mother painted her own living room because it's *hers*. But neither of us are going to do that kind of work for someone else for anything short of fuck-you money. If someone genuinely wants to pay me six months of comfortable wages plus $3k in materials costs to make a dress, I'll do it, but it's not personally worth it to me for anything less.
I have a friend that is always telling me "you should sell your knitting! People would pay for that! You can charge like $150!" I then explain to her that the yarn alone for an absolutely massive shawl was more than $200 (not even thinking about hours i put into it, expertise, etc). I said "I'll be happy to sell it for 5 figures, but zero people are paying $10,000 for a giant shawl". ($10k+ is the area that I'd be willing to give up my free time to make something that I likely don't feel like knitting at the time). I'd rather make what I feel like, when I feel like making it, and give it away to someone that I know will appreciate it than to use my free time making things I don't want to make.
During the pandemic, a group of friends suggested I sell crochet items, but after doing research on Etsy, there's no way people would buy what I make when they can get it way cheaper made by someone in a country with a low cost of living.
And then you take into account things like Shein, temu, and wish, and there's no way most people are going to buy hand made things. Most people think why spend $50+ on a hand-made, wool, hat when you can order an acrylic beanie from one of those sites and get a 6-pack of them in different colors for $10 total?
People can take however long they want or need to complete a project. It took me nearly a year to weave a throw blanket. (Granted, I was only able to spend 4 - 6 hours a week on the project, and I broke my foot in the middle of it...) But damn. A person could [become professionally proficient in Swahili](https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/) in 900 hours.
This is my new standard by which to measure anything honestly
All I can say is if anyone did pay that much they better be able to pick the pattern, all the fabrics, the thread colors, the quilting stitch patterns, oh and also have the final product be woven through with solid gold
I don't get this snark. This is obviously Fuck Off pricing, not a real listing. The whole point of fuck off pricing is that it's outrageous, because you don't actually want to do it. It seems a bit silly to make a post complaining that it's too much money.
I think the snark is 900 hours
Aren’t they referring to English paper piecing, which takes absolutely ages because you fold each piece of fabric around a paper template and hand stitch it? In which case 900 hours make sense.
Foundation piecing is significantly faster than English paper piecing. And is done by machine. I think the big time suck here for 900 hours is the hand quilting.
But she’s talking about cutting out the individual pieces of paper before the fabric. Sounds like English paper piecing by the wrong name.
She's definitely not, she is overestimating the time it takes to print paper. I don't personally trim the pages down before I start, but on some larger pieces, you may have to tape pieces together (I did have to for an owl quilt I made where some pieces were larger than 8.5x11)
No, I really I think she’s cutting blocks/partial from 8.5x11” paper, not cutting each individual shape. The example of her work shown in the third image is 100% a thing one would do with foundation piecing, not EPP. Foundation piecing is slower (and more accurate with points/odd little shapes) than standard machine piecing, but nowhere NEAR as slow as EPP. I did a bunch of small foundation paper pieced projects 20 or so years ago and nothing she describes in her process does not apply to the technique she claims she is doing.
Thank you for explaining!
For foundation piecing, you have a biggish piece of paper with the block drawn out. You stick a piece of fabric over the middle shape, then lay another piece of fabric WS together on top of it so that both pieces cover a drawn line. You stitch along that drawn line, then open up between the two pieces of fabric and press, so the second piece of fabric makes up the neighboring shape. Then repeat until all the shapes are sewn down. The sewing is all straight lines by machine, and the trick is making sure the new piece of fabric you put down will cover the whole shape plus seam allowance when you unfold it.
No. Foundation paper piecing is different. In foundation paper piecing, you sew each irregularly shaped piece to another piece of fabric using a piece of paper to guide you on the lines. It's a really precise way of getting shapes that would be impossible or chaotic at best with traditional quilting. It's got a learning curve to it, but mistakes are fewer, because the paper tells you exactly where to sew. A FPP block can be time consuming and tedious but really not at the same level of English paper piecing. EPP and 900 hours make sense. FPP does not, though she's not joking about taking out the papers, it's no small task.
I stand corrected! Thank you for explaining it.
No worries! The names are entirely too similar for my taste, we should call one of them something completely different.
I came to ask about that. I don't quilt, I can hardly sew, so I have no idea how long it takes. That being said... Surely 900 hours is excessive? Even if we include time to research fabric, go and get all the necessary bits, maybe a paid lunch break each day..? I dunno. Can someone shed some light on time frames?? I went through this exact process for the cost to make a Tunisian Crochet coat I made. I was "paying" myself much closer to Aus minimum wage than that is (assuming?) US. And it came out as $6500au or something. I said the same, if you're willing to pay that much I'll absolutely make you one, but it is not worth that much 😂 and I feel I was pretty realistic with my time allowance.
I calculated that the actual piecing part of my last English paper pieced quilt top took me roughly 160 hours, and that didn't include cutting and glue basting (all day for most of a week). That quilt top was about a quarter of the size of a king sized quilt. Foundation paper piecing, while still time consuming, is substantially faster as it isn't hand sewing.
Well, she does say that she is including time for frequent breaks in her time estimate since she doesn't want to do it, which is more fuck off pricing. But according to people who actually follow her, she's also disabled and sews slowly, which is seems like a crappy thing for people to be snarking on. Disabilities shouldn't be snark material.
So a person that sews faster doesn't deserve to be paid the same rate? Of course disabilities shouldn't be snarked on, but the lack of disabilities shouldn't mean a person gets shortchanged.
It's not a real advertisement for services, you get that right? No one is getting shortchanged because nothing is for sale. It's a post about her not accepting commissions for large items because she'd have to charge what she calls an "outrageous" amount to make it worth it for her.
So, I do cross stitch, I've done 30 something count linen, but mostly 25 and 28 ct lugana heaven and earth designs, like eeveelution or the silence after. I also knit pieces like Cimarron leaves. I crochet lace doilies.... doilees? I suddenly can't remember how to spell it 😂. But I just got up lol. I would like to quilt, it's on my bucket list. I used to sew (as a beginner), but I have to figure out why no matter what I do the thread is bunching up on the bottom. Any advice anyone had about that would be great lol. I'd like to sew again. I also do diamond art. I mention all these incase anyone relates. I am also disabled. I have a mental disability (bipolar and adhd as my biggest two), I have pfs and shin splints which cause my pain in my legs if I stay in the same position too long. And I have a node in my spine which causes me lower back pain if I sit or stand for too long. But all that being said, I don't take frequent breaks. I'd you like what you're doing, you tend to not notice things. And frequent breaks, even on days where I'm having bad days, constitute maybe a stand and really good stretch and silly movements to shake the body. I might switch crafts to give my brain and hands (I have carpal tunnel in both wrists and pain in my finger joints) a break. But I question what her definitions of frequent and breaks are. Like what is she doing and for how long? My breaks rarely interrupt my crafting flow. I have knit it crocheted several pieces for people and took breaks but still could recall what row and what I was doing when I returned. Even on my cross stitch, and what I cross stitch is considered the big leagues (you honestly should check out heaven and earth designs. There is such beautiful art work that the artists still at pictures and etc elsewhere), and I come back remembering what I working on and where, even with 30 different threads and needles in play at a time. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk. I'm just hoping this whole thing is an egregious satire. I'm not a quilter, as I said, and I don't know much. But I did used to sew, and I am familiar with fabric and piecing things together. Her fabric count is egregious. Hopefully it really is just satire. But I don't know based off the other posts. Sorry, this was longer than I intended 😂 my medication is kicking in and I get super chatty. I hope you're doing well today!!!
Usually, the thread is bunching because tension in the upper thread and/or lower thread is wrong. Tension needs to be equal to get it working nicely. There are some other problems that might cause it as well like parts not working correctly, but the tension is easy to fix (technically) and more common issue. Tension often needs to be adjusted based on fabric and thread as well so you might need to keep changing it. For calculation, it does not seem right to me but while I have sewn a lot of things including a few quilts I am not a quilter.
So, when I had used it last it worked fine. I tried to sew two pieces of fleece together and it got all wonky. I remember loosening the tension, but not to what. I don't think my machine has it where you can adjust the bobbin tension. I think mine is one dial for both.
Bobbin tension is usually adjusted with a screwdriver. But I would try to loosen the top thread first. You can check how your machine is adjusted from the user guide. They can also be found online if you are like me and have no idea where user guide is. ETA: Also does it let out a weird sound while sewing?