I found these blocks during a sewing room clean out. I had completed them as some Block-of-the-Month a while back, but never figured out how to set them all together as a quilt.
(Etsy listing: HERE)
Rather than let them sit any longer, I put them together into two baby quilts / playmats. I think they'd be a great gift for someone expecting twins!
Gray and Blue together somehow always looks so sophisticated and classic.
One of the most common questions I (and others who sell quilts) get is...
"Why is this so expensive? I can get a blanket at the store for like $60..."
It's true, you can - but let's break down what goes into a quilt made by a person running a small business. For an example, I kept track of what went into making this very simple, green patchwork baby quilt. Quilt is available for sale: HERE
Materials:
Quality quilting fabric is currently $10-$12 per 36" x 42" piece. Occasionally, a sale fabric will help, but for this calculation, I'm going to use $10 as the fabric cost. A quilt also includes batting between the front and back. I use Warm & Natural, which I buy in bulk. This works out to about $5 for an equivalent sized piece of batting.
So for this quilt measuring 34" x 43" , we're looking at $9.67 for the front, $12.38 for the back, $2.63 for the binding, and $5.63 for the middle - not even accounting for all the fabric that gets lost in the seams as it gets sewn together.
Total material cost is $30.31
Labor:
Yes, I do this mostly for a hobby. However, all labor should be paid a living wage. For my area, according to livingwage.mit.edu, a living wage is $13.15 per hour assuming no children and just one adult in my household.
I kept track of all the time required to make this quilt - cutting, sewing, quilting, binding - and it added up to 5.9 hours. Note, this was a very simple quilt, with a simple quilting pattern, all done on a home machine.
Total labor cost: $77.81
Other Costs:
Additional costs go into making a quilt - but these aren't always captured. What about the electricity I used to run the sewing machine, the upkeep required, the thread cost, the time spent staging and photographing, posting to a website and creating a listing...I did not capture these in the pricing.
Let's talk a bit about posting to a website. I currently use Etsy to sell my quilts. This means that I also have to account for their fees when setting a price. Also, this site prioritizes listings with free shipping - but we all know that free shipping isn't actually free. I have to account for this cost when setting a price as well.
Finally, if I want to make a profit on this - I need to add this in. The profit is the money I can actually use to invest back into my business. Profit means I can continue to buy fabric, I can upgrade my camera, I can buy a new quilt pattern for sale...
So, adding all these costs in, and rounding up a bit to be consistent, we come to a final price listing of $140.
Many shoppers will say this is too high and pass on the quilt, choosing the mass produced version instead. And that's a choice you can make. But before you do, please think about the numbers above and what corners a corporation would have to cut to be able to shrink the numbers.
Also know that I appreciate every single sale, and love being able to provide a quilt that will be a family heirloom for years to come.
(This quilt is for sale: HERE)
I've been participating in Gnome Angel's 100 days, 100 blocks challenge. I made this last year in a controlled palette of blue, white, and sneaks of color. This year I'm going full out with scraps and color.
I have only one rule. Every piece in the block must be a different color. I'm attempting to use only scraps for this. Sometimes when it makes 2 half-square triangles I reuse them, but not always. It's going to be a riot of color.
Since I started this during the all the quarantines and shutdowns, I'm calling this one my corona virus scrap vomit.
I backed this one in my hard-to-use fabrics, you know the ones - with so many colors they end up matching nothing. Binding was a mismatch of scrap fabrics and the remnant bindings of previous projects.
Quilting was my new go-to stitch, a zigzag about 1-2 inches apart. It takes some time, but it's totally worth it for the amazing texture.
I absolutely love how this one turned out, and it will always remind me of the days we were all stuck in the house together.
Flashback Friday!!
This one is an old project, but I wanted to document it here anyway. I used the pattern from Don't Call me Betsy's BOM club.
I think I started this one in late 2015. I finished the top in May 2017, and finished the quilting this January. This one took a while for sure!
This one is not for sale, but if you're interested in a custom quilt, please contact me.
I needed a bright project to work on after some neutral projects. I grabbed all the Anna Maria Horner fabric I had in my stash. It was more than I expected...
I then grabbed seven fabrics with the following criteria:
Background - lights
"X" legs - Pinkish
Plus arms and extension - Blues and greens.
I'm sure I mixed some up, but that just adds to the scrappy goodness of this quilt.
The outer blocks measure 24" x 24" and I used the measurements here.
The inner blocks are 12 x 12".
It's even backed in Anna Maria wideback - which is awesome, I highly suggest it, especially for such a large quilt. It was great to not have to piece a backing together.
This one isn't for sale, but if you're interested in a custom quilt, please contact me!
