Jane Quilter

Try spoonflower for science fabric. I've bought a lot of chemistry fabric for my daughter with a chemistry degree.

Jane Quilter

So, I've read all these stories, and enjoyed everyone of the. What a hoot! I don't know if I am insulted or not, but no one has asked me to make a quilt for them. Except my married daughters, kind of hinted, and I have made them for them. The only question I get from people is "How long did it take you to make that (I hand quilt). I tell them each quilt takes a year to 18 mo, not steady, but start to finish (I mostly only make king size/queen size or double bed quilts.) The go "oh, wow", but nobody asks me to make one for them. Great thread. Keep the stories coming. I need a good laugh.

ptquilts

I remembered another story, I may have told this one before. DH used to make tiny piece quilts (finished squares about 3/8") . One time he brought one to a flea market type event we were set up at, just to see how people would react to it. No price. A lady was interested and he said he was accepting offers. She said, how about $25? He said, you should know it took me over 400 hours to make this. She thought very seriously, and said, Well then, how about $30? We had a good laugh about that later.

GingerK

I have a 'magic wand' story--We were invited to our dear friends' daughter's wedding and DH asked if I was going to make them a quilt. I said 'No, not enough time' but once the seed is planted....I got up early, stayed up late, and managed to make a queen sized top in 2 weeks and my favourite LA'er squeezed it into her schedule as a favour. I machine embroidered the binding with the wedding info and several sayings about love and marriage. The wedding was beautiful and we had a lovely time. The bride and groom did not open their gifts until a few days later when I got a phone call from the bride telling me how wonderful our gift was and how they would treasure it. Her mother has said several times that they use it constantly and that made all my time and effort worthwhile. Sometimes we are lucky to have that magic wand.

On the other side of the coin my sister in law wanted me to make them a king sized 'heirloom' quilt. When I told her an approximate cost of just the materials, she said that was not a problem. But knowing her, I figured there would be an uh-oh in there somewhere. Turned out that she wanted an exact copy of the wedding quilt I had made our niece (her daughter) right down to the same fabric. I could not denigrate our gift to our niece by copying it for her mother. I gave my SIL all the info--pattern, fabric line etc. and suggested she contact a LQS to find someone else to make it if that was what she wanted. We will be seeing them this summer. Wonder if I will see a familiar patterned quilt on her bed.

sprice

Thanks for the youtube video. So cute and gave me some cheer on a cloudy day!

madamekelly

I have a new story for you- same dear sister as above, asks me to help her make a small quilt for her grandson who is the older brother of the baby mentioned above. I said sure and let her shop my stash to find fabrics, got her set up and schooled on reading the pattern, and how to use the rotary cutter. We spent about four hours the first day practicing cutting on some scraps, then cutting the strips for her quilt. She had it about 1/3 of cutting done when she had to go home to make her family dinner. I did not see or hear from her for several days, and when she does come back over, she has a large basket of clothes with her. (?) I asked her how long she could work that day, and she thrust the basket into my hands and says "This is the mending I need done, and I am sure you won't mind finishing the quilt for since it is too hard and too much work for me." She has been my sister for 48 years, has never seen me take in mending, has watched me over the course of months work very hard on other quilts, and still acts clueless? I told her my expensive quilters sewing machine will not do mending, and she would have to settle for a store bought (with her money) quilt for little William. {For Easter, I did make little William a double sided fleece snuggly with the satin edging he seems to love petting. She actually looked at his gift and said "No, I mean a real quilt!".} Just so you know, she asked to use my quilters sewing machine to do her mending since the other machine I Gave her does not do all the nice things automatically like mine (the one I said would not do mending) does. Um.....No.

Boston1954

I once had a man offer me $400.00 for a quilt of mine he had seen. As it happens, I had kept track of the cost of materials, and the hours it took to make it. I did some figuring and the next time I saw him I said "I am nearly positive that I can do better than 83 cents an hour!!"

Would you work for 83 cents an hour? Yikes!

cathyvv

The best response to stuff like that that I have been able to come up with is,"No. but I'll be glad to teach you how to make one!"

It always gets a no - either immediate verbal, or the subject never comes up again.

Except that sometimes a child will take me up on the offer. Not often enough, though.

cathyvv

And, I hope, love.

cathyvv

Mom was jealous of you. You did a wonderful, welcoming thing.