Schill93

I have LOTS of fabric, but it seems no matter how much you have, coordinating it can be a bear sometimes. I have a layecake I bought a couple of years ago. It looked a lot better on line. I purchased it after watching a tutorial of Missouri Star Quilts. It looked like it might be cute for my son's bedroom colors.


Well the colors on youtube were much more vibrant than what they actually were in real life. It must be their lighting. Well I could not find a border or backing in my stash that co-ordinated well enough to my liking, so after much time spent I finally caved, and bought from a retailer on line. That set me back $112., pluss my original $42 for the layer cake, then there is batting $26, and I will need to have it quilted, so another $150-$200. That's $330 to $380 for a full size quilt. That's just crazy. Before taking up this hobby, if you told me I would have to pay that much money for a bedcover for a doule sized bed, I'd think you were smoking somethg. (not to mention I would be doing the piecing labor myself)


I can no longer do the quilting myself, as I am bed ridden. I know it would be almost half the cost if I could still do it. I will need to either lower my standards, or give up the ship I guess.

Loralee

I am so sorry you are having to make this choice. It is good to have something you enjoy doing with out having to spend so much money doing it. Hopefully, a solution will work out for you to continue quilting. Good luck, I wish you the very best.

I gave up making large quilts 4 years ago. The last quilt cost a lot as you said for fabric. Our daughter and hubby was having their 27th wedding anniversary. Their house had burned and they lost the first quilt I had made them. It cost me over 500 to make and pay someone to machine quilt it as it was a King Size quilt.

Now I only make table runners, and baby quilts for our grand children. ..

quiltingcotton

Have you thought about doing a QAYG (quilt as you go) That's all I do, as I don't like wrestling a king size quilt under my domestic machine. There are multiple ways to assemble them once each block or section is quilted. With or without sashing.

As for the price of fabric, I usually only shop online sales. Unless it is fabric that is, oh my gosh, I won't pay expensive prices. Same with the pre-cuts I buy - only on sale. And for background fabric, I buy a really good sale prices and usually buy a bolt or more of it at a time. I get emails from the places I usually buy fabric from, so automatically get emails on sales, instead of having to search. This goes for patterns as well. I wanted this pattern in a book that cost 35.00 plus shipping. I found the same book, new as well, on eBay for 12.95 and free shipping. You just have to take the time to look.

Stitches23

Schill93 - I hate that quilting has gotten so expensive for you. It can definitely be costly. But as others have said, there are alternatives that will allow you to keep quilting.

When shopping for backings, I don't always go matching. I like bright colors on the back of my quilts and shop at MDG for wide backings. They are very reasonably priced.

Another alternative to having your quilt quilted would be to use a local person who has a long arm at home and quilts for others. They are usually much cheaper than a quilt store. May not be as perfect, but will be done more affordably.

Snooze2978

I can relate to the price it costs to make a quilt these days. I've put myself on a no buy fabric spree since the end of 2018 though I've found myself having to order backing lately so I order more than I need so the leftover will be used in another quilt in the future.

Also now that I'm getting into the mid 70's, my hands, back, shoulder and neck scream at me constantly so I have to take lots of breaks during the day. Luckily I can still quilt my own quilts when I feel like it but I haven't touched my quilt machine in almost 2 years no and there's been a quilt top attached for that long also.

Yes, I can remember when I first started making quilts and had no idea what I was doing as I'm self taught, fabric was around $2.99/yd back then in the early 2000's. Now, I almost faint when I see what fabric is going for. I find ordering backing is much cheaper in the long run as you're getting 3 yards at a time (108"). I also search at the thrift shops as folks seems to give away what they no longer want or need.

I just cleaned out my stash of fabrics that just didn't sing to me any longer, fat quarters, large scraps, and even orphan blocks. I gave them to a friend whose church makes quilts for the needy and disaster areas. Gave away nearly 25 yards so I made room for the partial bolts I bought at a quilt bus tour back in late 2018 and haven't had room for them all this time. Now I can see what I have on hand again.

LGJARN52

I read this moring that ALL JoAnns have been bought out by a liquidator, even those that were said to stay open during this latest restructure. NO more JoAnns!! With as many charity quilts, pillowcases, kennel quilts as I do, I will no longer be able to afford brink and mortor quilt stores and pay $14 and up a yard. I'll be shopping more and more on line, but with the price of shipping, not sure if I'll be coming out ahead or not. Probably not. But I'll pull up my big girl panties, and be wiser in what I order, making sure I make scrap quilts with the leftovers.

toverly

I totally understand. I recently made a themed baby quilt where I had to purchase everything. Never again. I could have purchased a really great gift for the cost of that quilt. I have started to focus on scrap quilts with a unifying basic white or creme. It helps me use my stash without purchasing more fabric.

Onebyone

You can do big stitch hand quilting with size 8 thread and it looks great. Big stitch is very popular now.

Schill93

Thank you all for your input. I was feeling a little down when I posted my thread. Some of your suggestions I already practice like trying to purchase sale fabrics. However I am finding the availabillity of these sale fabrics offered by my old haunts is getting slimer and slimer and finding attractive fabric that would go well with my quilt top not so easy. Also, I am one of those people who want the back to look almost as good as the front so people would feel good about using either side.

I am familiar with MDG backings, but I just like an actual print fabric with multi colors for my backings. I have ordered from MDG many times, but primarily from their name brand manufacturers, but they get very few fabrics added to these manufacturers now. I know it is a sign of the times though.

I am sure that most people today however are not making quilts for utilitarian purposes. We do it because we enjoy sewing and want to make something pretty that will put a big smile on someone's face. No one who doesn't make quilts knows the amount of time and money that goes into it, so we at least want them to feel it is very pretty. Right??

Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it......