The thing is, you have to want to run a business, to be self-employed, with all that goes along with it...the good and the not so much. :) If you don't have that desire, you won't ever be happy doing it.
I work in smaller pieces, not full sized bed quilts, so that can make a difference, but none of the self-employed artists that I know, quilters included, consider their work drudgery. They, in fact, light up when they talk about what they do. As I said before, there is nothing better than to get paid for doing what you love to do.