Are you making quilts for Christmas?

let’s start holiday crafting
November 18, 2018
close to crunch time-easy gift
December 13, 2018
Show all

Are you making quilts for Christmas?

Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

Have you ever spent hours making a quilt for someone only to find that they have no appreciation of the value of what you’ve made? I know that once you give the quilt away, you’re supposed to relinquish all ownership claims, including any parameters for its use. Hard to do sometimes.

This morning I came across this post which really works out the value of a quilt, versus the blanket that some folks equate them to. One of the commenters to this post says she is going to print it out and include it with any quilt she gives away. Not a bad idea.

I had another thought while reading the post. I often see quilts and quilted items for sale for less than the cost of the materials it takes to make them. Doesn’t the quilter value her own lovely work?  I’ve been told when I bring this up for discussion that people won’t pay what it’s worth. My reply is in two parts: 1. If you don’t charge at least the cost of the materials, then you are in effect paying the customer to buy your project, and 2. If we quilters don’t start to educate customers on the value of our art, it will never get the respect it deserves.

Okay, I’m climbing down from my soap box now. Here’s the link to the post. Click here.

3 Comments

  1. Joann L. McGowan says:

    Great info Thanks for sending this. Would love to print out just the important parts – not all the ads. Perhaps this should go in our newsletter ?

    • Mary Ellen says:

      Due to copyright concerns we can’t print this in our newsletter without the author’s permission. I’ll see if I can contact her and ask if we might share it with our guild.

  2. Helen Slominski says:

    That’s a very assertive letter, with great information. I especially liked the end, which emphasized how valued the recipient is who receives a real quilt. Of course, that comes after all the facts and figures of costs and time and skill spent, but I am glad the author included it.

    Thanks, Mary Ellen, for sharing it with us.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *