Today I’m sharing a breakdown of my 2019 quilting income. I did this last year as well and found it interesting!
But before I start, the caveats from last year still apply:
First and foremost, my husband and I both have a full-time engineering job. Quilting is something I do for fun, and I do make some extra money, but we don’t rely on it as a primary income source for our family at all. (But maybe someday??)
My level of effort in seeking out opportunities is low to moderate. I rely on a few specific online communities to pitch my services, and word of mouth. After the last couple years, I now have a small group of “regular” clients and others who have worked with me on more one-time projects.
So! Let’s break it down, shall we?
In 2019, my total quilting income increased by 38%! Woohoo!
Pattern Sales – 3.1%
This is income from online sales of my own patterns, through my Bluprint and newly-created Etsy shops. The total actually went up a bit from last year, but the overall percentage came down. I did essentially nothing to promote my shop, so the bulk of this came from my Shake & Bake pattern release a couple weeks ago. To be honest, that pattern has not sold as well as I had hoped. We shall see how things go in 2020! I’d like to build up a shop with at least 6-8 patterns.
Contract Patterns – 52.6%
This was by far my biggest income source this year, and there are two categories here. One is patterns that I wrote and were published in my name, but under contract/agreement with Bluprint. The other is ghostwriting work, where I was paid to write a pattern that was published under someone else’s name.
This work tended to be a little feast-or-famine in 2019. I had a lot of these projects in February/March, and again in November/December, but not much through the summer.
Editing/Design – 26.2%
This is where all my tech editing, graphic design, layout, and illustration work falls. I did this consistently throughout the year, but the overall income is lower than the contract patterns because a lot of this work is done small amounts of time — two hour here, two hours there.
Awards – 0%
I didn’t win any awards this year so it was zero! Ha!
Quilt Sales/Samples – 2.8%
There was only one thing in this category this year — a sample I made for a Bluprint pattern still to be released.
Teaching – 4.1%
I taught several classes at a local sewing shop, so my income here went up. I plan to continue this — at a rate of one class every couple months — in 2020.
Other – 11.1%
I threw in an “other” category this year for a small job I picked up serving as a technical consultant for a series of kids books about space. This isn’t quilting, but does fall into the category of design/editing/freelance so I decided to include it. (My overall income went up by 23% instead of 38% if you don’t count this.)
So that’s it — a breakdown of my “side hustle” last year!
p.s. I’m doing a 31 day blogging challenge.
