I’ve published a quilting income report for several years now, and am rather belatedly back with my 2024 summary! (Thank you April 15 tax deadline for being the motivation for me to finally close out my small biz financials for last year. Ha.) Here are the previous years — 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 — and, as always, a bit of context up front:
- I have a full-time job, my husband has a full-time job, and we do not rely on quilting as an income source for our family.
- Because my quilting income is supplemental, I may have different priorities and make different decisions than those for whom quilting is a full-time job.
- That said, I firmly believe in being fairly compensated for my time and effort and rarely work for free.
- The income breakdown below is based on gross income.
- Percentages are rounded.
Let’s dive in!
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Income
In 2024, my gross income decreased by 13%. After exceeding $30,000 in 2022 and 2023, I dropped back under that mark in 2024 and grossed around $26,000. The category percentages, which have stayed very consistent for the last several years, are shown here:
Sales – 40% (Last year: 39%)
My gross sales income came from six sources: my Shopify store, my Etsy shop, wholesale orders, distributor orders, royalty payments (for one specific pattern), and in-person sales at lectures/workshops.
“Sales” includes patterns, postcard supply kits, finished items, and courses.
I released 1 pattern last year and now have 17 published patterns available in PDF and 14 available in print. My patterns continue to be carried by Checker Distributors and Brewer Sewing, and I will have at least one pattern picked up by Moda/United Notions later this year.
Looking ahead, I hope to add 3-4 more patterns to my catalog in 2025, and I’m toying with the idea of running a block of the month program in 2026. I’ll be adding an on-demand version of my quilted fabric postcard lecture/tutorial to my shop very soon, and am still thinking about other course/webinar/education possibilities.
Tech Editing – 28% (Last year: 27%)
Ghostwriting & Design – 4% (Last year: 7%)
Tech editing and ghostwriting/design represented roughly a third of my income. I continued to both work with previous clients and picked up new clients via referrals.
My tech editing income held pretty steady, but my ghostwriting income decreased again as I limit this service to a small, curated group of clients. (I prefer not to do full pattern writeup and layout these days, but I still love doing the quilt math and construction instructions. If you have a project you’d like me to consider, you can still contact me.)
Teaching – 26% (Last year: 25%)
In 2024 I presented 11 lectures (7 virtual and 4 in-person) and taught 3 workshops (all in-person). I continue to enjoy teaching and hope to be able to sustain something like 10-12 engagements per year…but that said, I only have 2 lectures currently booked 2025 — so it’s looking like my teaching income may take a big dip.
If I would be a good fit for your guild or organization, I’d love to chat with you!
Publications & Collaborations – 0% (Last year: 1%)
I had no publications last year. While I did two paid collaborations with Spoonflower late in 2024 that fall into this broad category, I didn’t receive payment for those until 2025 so it’ll be reflected next year.
Miscellaneous – 2% (Last year: 1%)
This category is the catch-all for anything that didn’t quite fit into one of the other categories, such as a paid longarming job I did last fall.
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Expenses
My expenses in 2024 totaled over $8,000, which is more than ever for a couple reasons I’ll talk about below. The breakdown below DOES NOT include federal income tax. (And note that I live in Texas, which does not have state income tax.)
Fees & Commissions – 15% (Last year: 18%)
There are three primary sources of fees: Paypal (which I use for invoicing clients), Shopify (payment processing fees), and Etsy (listing and sales fees). Ultimately, these kind of fees are just a cost of doing business.
Printing & Pattern Expenses – 1% (Last year: 25%)
What a change from 2023, right? This category primarily captures the cost for all of my print patterns and the cost of having new patterns tech edited. I printed very little! The one pattern I released (Alpha) was lengthy, so I chose to keep it PDF only, and I already had a good amount of stock of all my other patterns.
Shipping – 13% (Last year: 2%)
I did a couple rounds of postcard supply pack sales last year, and those cost more to ship than patterns. This category also includes the cost of my PO box, which I had previously lumped under “miscellaneous.” I used a virtual PO box for a few years, but last summer the cost of that went up such that it became more expensive than an actual, physical PO box at my local post office, so I switched!
Software – 20% (Last year: 15%)
This includes the monthly cost of the Adobe software suite (Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop), domain and web hosting for this site, and my Shopify store. I renew my web hosting in multi-year chunks, and it came due in 2024 which is the main reason for the increase over 2023.
Marketing – 6% (Last year: 5%)
The biggest expense in this category is my newsletter service (Flodesk) but it also includes promo materials like stickers for QuiltCon and business cards.
Fabric & Making Expenses – 14% (Last year: 14%)
Most self-explanatory! This includes fabric, thread, and pantographs to use with my longarm.
Education & Training – 30%
A new category this year! This is where I’m now tracking things like online courses and professional memberships. After considering it for a couple years and talking with friends, I decided to join the Longarm League last summer. (My hesitation was two-fold: the entry fee is pretty steep, and the League is geared towards those who longarm as a business. Longarming for pay is not something I plan to do at the moment beyond a very occasional project or two.) I found the “rookie season” fairly helpful, and have benefitted from the membership enough that I’m satisfied with my decision.
Miscellaneous Expenses – 1% (Last year: 21%)
The large drop in this category is mainly because I shifted several things that I used to put here to other categories.
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So that’s my 2024 breakdown! It’s always good to look back and think about how I have earned and spent business money this year, along with what is and isn’t working. I’ve also updated my year-to-year income grown chart below:
I am still in the midst of a life stage where time constraints are very, very real! I had more hours available to commit to my quilting business in the past than I do now. And with my family life and full-time job — plus the recent edict from my employer to be physically in the office every day — I don’t see myself magically finding more time.
In 2025 so far, I’ve been focused on maintaining the status quo — or even scaling back a bit more. I am sticking with the steady variety of things that have been working for a few years now, but I fully except that my 2025 income will drop again, and that’s ok.
If you are reading this and trying to draw any parallels to your own creative business numbers, I think it’s important for you — and me!! — to remember that quilting is a small business for me that 1) I greatly enjoy, and 2) I absolutely need to scale to fit around the other important things in my life.
Your business and your business goals are yours and yours alone to set and pursue. Good luck and best wishes to all of us for the rest of 2025!
