Geometry of Circles wasn’t the only quilt I’ve finished in the last couple days — I also wrapped up the baby onesie quilt I was making for an old coop friend. I’ve already written about it a couple times and I think it turned out great! The best news is that she was very happy with it, and excited to get it just in time for Mother’s Day with her boys.
I did end up quilting lines about 1/4″ on either side of each seam for a sort of “double cross hatch” look, and that turned out nicely. It was also very quick to quilt since I had nice seam lines to follow! I glue basted and then machine stitched the binding, since I feel like machine stitching is more durable for something that will likely be washed many times. Although the binding will never be absolutely perfect with that method (much to my chagrin), I’ve finally gotten to the point where I can make it look good enough to be satisfied.
I’m now motivated to make one of these for myself with Emma and Charlotte’s baby clothes, which have been in a box under my sewing table for a while now. I wasn’t sure I wanted to use them for a quilt, ironically enough, but now I’m convinced. I can’t wait to see something like this in the clothes that have such sentimental value to me! I hope to get to that one soon. And now for a somewhat related tangent…
This was the first time I have ever made a commissioned quilt; everything else I’ve made has been either for my own purposes or given as gifts. As I expected, I learned a couple lessons.
The first and most valuable is that I need to be up front about pricing and schedule. While I was pretty clear from the start back in February that it would be a couple months before I could get to this one, I was NOT clear about pricing. We discussed things in broad terms, but not specifics. This led to a lot of internal debate on my part when the end arrived and my client said “how much do I owe you?” I didn’t want to water down the value of my time, but I also didn’t want to hit her with a bill far larger than she might have been expecting based on our earlier conversations.
(One interesting addition to this discussion is the fact that I never hesitate to quote prices for the graphic design and editing work I now occasionally do. I’m always up front about my rate and provide an estimate of total price for any proposed work before I even begin. I suppose it felt different this time because I’d never done it for quilting before?)
I ended up quoting her a price that was the average of what I saw online for well-made quilts like this — but then gave a 50% “friend discount,” mainly for her willingness to wait 3 months. That was the labor price; she also paid the $65 I spent on the materials for batting, backing, binding, and interfacing, and another $25 for the embroidery (which was done by one of my guild-mates). With the discount, she still got an excellent deal, but I felt like it was fair for our arrangement.
The second thing is less of a lesson learned and more of a reminder of what I already know about myself — I don’t usually like to make the same thing over and over again. Another friend asked me recently if I’d be interested in doing the same thing with her boys’ clothes, and I hesitated for this reason. Onesie quilts in particular can feel pretty tedious due to the amount of prep involved with cutting the clothes and applying interfacing to everything before you even sit down at the sewing machine. So I told my friend I’d think about it, but wouldn’t be able to start for at least a few months.
This gets at the heart of an ongoing discussion I keep having with myself and Jose — is quilting simply a serious hobby, or do I want to let it be more? So far, my answer continues to be a mixture of both. I have a limited amount of time that I can use for quilting, and I definitely want to make sure I have enough time to indulge my own desires. But I also enjoy new projects and new challenges, and it’s certainly nice when I can make a bit of money doing it.
The challenge (since the only other t-shirt quilt I made was 10+ years ago before I knew anything about quilting) and the money were both factors in why I agreed to make this onesie quilt — I would not have done it for free because of the time involved. Same with design and editing — I enjoy doing both, but have rarely done it for free.
I have a full-time job that pays me quite well, so I don’t NEED to earn money on any of this. But I do strongly believe that if I’m doing skilled work for someone else, I deserve to be compensated — whether someone “needs” the money or not has zero bearing on whether they deserve it in exchange for their skill or time or labor. (And it’s also nice to have some extra cash to put towards fabric and other fun things, like the iPad Pro I bought myself for my birthday!)
I also like getting recognition and acknowledgement, whether it’s for my work or just a funny thing I said, whether it’s big or small. That’s why I’m active on social media and why I have a blog. That’s why I’ve written some patterns for my own shop and for Craftsy kits. It’s why I entered a show for the first time and was so thrilled when I won an award. (I could talk about being a “gold star junkie” all day, and how it’s not so great, but it remains part of my personality for better or for worse.)
So at the end of all this — do I know what I want to be doing with my quilting? Sort of yes, and sort of no. It’s an evolving thing for sure, and I will probably continue to make decisions that go in either direction. I will almost certainly do more commissioned quilts if I’m asked, but I probably won’t make it a regular occurrence.
For now, I suppose, you can continue to find me hanging out here on the hobby/business line!
I can understand your thoughts on business versus hobby all too well. To be perfectly honest, it was never really a life goal to try to turn quilting into a business, but then I desperately needed a change from my job because the stress was starting to have very serious health implications (I had a breast cancer scare, I had basically non stop anxiety / panic attacks, etc.), so I left my full time job. Because my husband also worked at the exact same place and he continued his job, I couldn’t just burn my bridges and storm away (and because the aerospace industry is crazy small – like 3 degrees of separation at most), I decided to say I was going to start a quilting business. At that time I thought I would just make baby quilts for friends and do commission work. The more time passes and the more things evolve, the less interested i am in commission work. Even when you are very up front about pricing, people are way more reluctant to pay labor cost for a quilt than they are for a service like design/editing, which I find fascinating. Anyway, clearly, this is a very personal choice and I wish you lots of success and fun as you continue to navigate the path that is best for you.
Thanks for this heartfelt comment, Yvonne!
I left a really long comment that got eaten by the interwebs, haha. Bottom line is that I relate to this so much and wish you success and joy as you navigate the path that works best for you.
Oh yay – it did show up!