Somethin' for Nothin' and your Quilts for free...
 

Oh, man, I think I really did myself a disservice. Agreed to make 2 quilts for 2 little sisters.
However, no discussion of payment (other than the cost of the materials) was mentioned.
The materials cost more than $300. It took more than 35 hours of machine and hand work.

In all fairness, I'm not going to bring up any payment above and beyond the materials.
I'm going to adopt a wait and see attitude.

But my question is: Who among you have experienced this and what happened to you?

Learned not to open my big mouth!! (Sorry) It seems when I do, that it costs more in time and money than I have and I end up stressing more about it.

I am right now. My daughter asked me to make two baby quilts for friends of hers at work. I am almost finished with one. Did not expect her to pay me to do the work but materials would have been nice! Not a word from her about the cost and not sure I want to have upset over it, but still just not right. Money does not grow on trees.

I think that people sometimes assume that because you like quilting, and do it as a hobby (presumably) that they need not pay you for your time and skills. They also mostly likely underestimate how much time goes into a quilt. And faced with a $300+ total for two quilts, they are likely to think that is a lot of money for two "blankets", and never once think that really, for skilled custom quilt making, they should be doubling that figure.

So, take it as a lesson learned, and in future, if you want to do a quilt for pay, talk specific numbers from the get-go, and get it all in writing. If you don't mind occasionally doing a favor for appreciative recipients, then so be it -- take pictures of your work so you can enjoy them, and think happy thoughts about two little girls who have nice new quilts. And tell them that this is a one time thing just for them, otherwise all their friends will think they are doing you a favor by giving you that same kind of "business".

RST

RST

This comes up pretty regular on here and honestly it always confuses me. My family and friends all know I sew, quilt, whatever and none of them would ever expect me to provide my skills like this. nor would I expect anything like that from them.

Before I do a quilt for anyone I explain how much fabric and batting costs nowadays. I find that people that don't sew think it's cheaper to make things than to buy it from the store and they still think that fabric is $2.00 a yard. I took my friend to the store with me and let her pick out and pay for her own fabrics and then she realized that things don't come cheap! I also let them know that I'm not a factory and making a quilt takes precious time. By the time I finish all of that, they are either glad to pay me or decide that they really didn't want anything so expensive after all. That saves a lot of hard feelings for me in the end.

This reminds me when my dad and mom owned a trendy nightclub years ago. Everyone (including me and my brother/sister) always paid the cover charge and for the drinks and food. It was understood that this was the way everyone did it. When I am asked to sew a quilt for somebody as a gift that they will be giving. We set up an excursion to the LQS to pick out the fabric for the pattern they like, or I give them a list of fabric requirements and ask that they pick out what they love for the gift. Usually when they realize how expensive the fabric costs - their desire to have me make a quilt lessens. Non quilters have no idea the love, time, and $$ go into a quilt. I brought in a quilt kit to show a woman at work what I will be making for my first dgd college graduation - and her remark was "You can buy 4 quilts at macy's for that much money!!! Why make it!!!

I recently had listed some quilts of mine for sale on Craigslist. They were all lap sized quilts that I pieced and machine quilted (in quite a lot of detail, if I do say so myself). One person e-mailed me to say she was interested in the quilts and asked for the price, I told her $85. She said that was "way more than she expected". I really wondered what on Earth she did expect to pay for a handmade lap quilt.....$20? People who don't quilt really have absolutely no clue how much the materials alone cost, nevermind the time and effort involved.

When we continually sell things in this country made in China, at slave labor costs, they don't get why things cost so "much." I had a woman I know from Facebook, she asked me to make her a quilt from some fabrics I had posted. I sent her the links to buy them, and haven't heard from her about it since. :)
Nancy