My Quilting Manifesto
 

This is just to create conversation. I never sell my quilts and I never intend to; that would make my hobby my job, and I already have one. But seeing people’s stashes so big that they will likely outlive their owner’s life expectancy and people who have analysis paralysis, I do have some things I've done from a business point of view. I’m an engineer with a business degree and a quilter, so I may have a unique perspective.
• Fabric is inventory, and while some may think of it as an asset, it is booked as a liability. You want to have enough on hand to make product (quilts) without downtime due to lack of inventory.
• Fabric is somewhat trendy (remember when grey and chevrons were in? Not so much now) and therefore an asset that has a shelf life. Do FIFO (First In, First Out) when possible. Get a small amount of something you like, but don’t go cray cray. Just because it’s going out of print doesn’t mean it’s great-make like Elsa and Let It Go
• Fabric inventory is costing you a lot that may be keeping you from upgrading needed equipment (sewing machines) that could increase your output.
• Take inventory-go through your stash, write down what you have and separate it into projects. In factory terms, this is called kitting. See how many projects you have, determine your output based on the last two years of quilts you made, and see how many years it’ll take to use up your inventory. If it’s more than 5, get rid of some of it, especially if you intend to continue buying more. See more on 5S
• 5S-this is Japanese system used in business to organize a work space (your sewing room) for efficiency and effectiveness by identifying and storing the items used, maintaining the area and items, and sustaining it. Check out Wikipedia for more information-this is critical. Do you need five 2.5” square templates? No, you don’t.
• Go some period of time, I suggest a year, and don’t buy fabric unless it’s one to finish a project you’re currently working on. Don’t watch fabric porn, delete that Hancock’s of Paducah email without opening it for a period of time.
• Don’t take fabric just because it’s free-inventory is still a drain on your assets if it won’t be used, it’s taking up floor space and space is money. I got a lot of free fabric from a pre-estate sale and most of it I’ll never use. I’ve sorted it, I’m selling some on EBay and giving some to Goodwill. Just think, you may wind up as that old lady with a BASEMENT of fabric and people pawing through it. Don’t be that person.
• Equipment (sewing machines) that you don’t use is a drain on assets-sell it, unless it’s your grandmother’s then give it to your grandchild or family member.
• Preventive Maintenance-oil your machine, learn how to take it apart and trouble shoot it-buy a book on this, it’s a great investment.
• Output-You are not going to make every quilt in the world-don’t kid yourself. Stick with your core competencies, i.e. great eye for color, awesome piecing skills-play these up and enjoy it. You’re not in a competition to make things as difficult as possible for yourself and anyway, New York Beauties look like Venus Flytraps. Depending on how many you can do in a year, do one or two that stretches you, like a more difficult one or an applique when you typically don’t do them.
• Branding-don’t make poor quality quilts for charity. Your quilts are your products and you should take pride in your work, regardless of who it’s going to. If you can’t make a nice, happy, pretty well-made quilt for a charity, don’t bother.
• Branding-you shouldn’t want a quilt exactly like what everyone else is making. Try designing one or put a twist on a pattern you’ve seen.
• Quality-Put your name on your quilt, and make the best quilt you can make every time. As the founder of John Deere said, “I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me.” You should do no less.

My quilting is a hobby and my only one. Fabric go out and they come back in. I see how many of the Marcus Bros reproduction fabric are being reprinted. I just look at it like having my own private quilt store in my 2nd bedroom. I wouldn't want to think of anything negative with my hobby. But some interesting facts. I TOTALLY agree with your statements regarding charity quilts. They should be good enough to give to a friend or a relative.

Such a business-like approach to quilting would not be fun for me.

Good points. But I doubt I'll change. I look at my fabric collection much like my art collection. It can be there without my looking at it each day, but when I do look, I admire the beauty in it.

I enjoy making quilts even more now that I've done this. This is meant for the people who are overwhelmed-I'm on a lot of groups on Facebook, and they have messy rooms full of ugly cheap fabric and they wonder why they can't get anything done. If you're happy with your method, enjoy it.

There are some posts that make wish we had a "like" button and this is one of those times. Excellent post! It made me look at some things in a way I never considered. I have a difficult time buying fabric unless I have a certain quilt in mind. There are many times when I've said to myself " Oh that's so pretty but what am I going to do with it?" I've been fortunate that I've seen it as a money sitting around doing nothing when it might be needed elsewhere. The scraps leftover from projects are what I consider stash. Some day I may have enough to make a quilt.

This is such a helpful post for me! Thank you! I do want to open an etsy store (my goal is April 5th). and I've been doing a lot of research on workflow and pricing, especially pricing models. I hadn't thought of the inventory in these terms and its super helpful. In fact, I've been feeling a little overwhelmed by all the fabric I have, and I definitely like the idea of planning and storing inventory in the kitting process. It will make future projects go so much more smoothly, as a chunk of the planning time will already be done.

How would you suggest organizing and storing the kits?

Thanks penny and husky! Organizing and storing the kits-keep in mind, I only do this for my personal sewing. Here is a picture of my sewing room, these Rubbermaid containers are what I use to store my fabric, I open them up a lot to look at them, use them, etc. I limit my buying to what will fit in these bins. Each bin has 3-6 projects, and each bin is a basic category like “baby” “juvenile” “30’s reproduction” “60’s”, but I just list the project in the front on those index cards I have in each bin. Some examples are “Pink Elephant Parade” “’Summer Breeze’ JR”. I put my pattern in the box if I know what one I’m using, and I have a list for patterns w/o fabric and fabric w/o patterns. Mostly I know what pattern I’m going to use on each quilt. I have a couple of bins that are just “Civil War” or “Vintage Calico” that I haven’t broken down into projects yet. It's not always this clean, but I clean up after each quilt and put everything up.
I think it’s important to spend some time thinking about how your mind works and that can help you determine how your workplace should look. I don’t want a quilt store (fabric displayed by color or genre), I want a warehouse. You might visualize something completely different, and that will work perfectly for you.

thanks for an insightful post

I love your birds!

I currently have rubbermaids of various sizes, totally unorganized, except for one that is the 'aqua' bin (I have a thing for aqua, and have banned myself from obtaining any more of it). I do have my notions fairly well organized though, so that's something! :)