Taking a donated quilt top and making it a finished quilt is fun and stress free. If the thread breaks a million times, or the foot makes a hole in the top, there are lots of ways to fix it. But, what if that happens to some else's quilt top? What do you do?
A friend brought this quilt top over to me to quilt for her. She asked how much I charged and I said nothing. Besides the tax issues of charging someone, there's the unneeded stress that goes into making sure the quilt is perfect. I love quilting and always want it to be fun.
This is the first of the two quilts she asked me to do (well, I made the offer to quilt something for her and she happened to have two finished and ready to go so I said bring them both!). Normally she sends them down to a friend to quilt, but rather than pay shipping both ways, makes sense to bring them to me. More money for more fabric and batting. I think I will even try and get her to start binding quilts for us. Win, win, win!
See, you sucker them in with the offer of free quilting, but is anything in life really free? Hey, I will quilt for you and when you pick up your quilt, oh, wait, here's 10 more quilts that need binding, do you mind? They are so happy to have their quilts done, they don't notice the extra quilts they are taking home. Then, they feel guilty and just have to do the binding.
I'm a sneaky one aren't I? And you thought I was just being nice :)
I wonder how many other 'friends' I can offer FREE quilting to? That is before they figure out it's all a scam and I lose all my friends.
Do you want to be my friend? I have a pile of quilts waiting. Come to think of it, I haven't heard from my binding buddies in a couple of weeks. I wonder if they went into Witness Protection or something...
2 comments:
You are so funny. I don't have a long arm, but when people have asked me how much I charge I tell them to give what they feel it is worth and then....it all goes back into Layers of Hope! You are sneaky!
Great post, Marilyn. I haven't made very many quilts for hire, and I agree that there's a lot of pressure for perfection when you're getting paid. I've decided that I enjoy making quilts for friends, loved ones and for charity. Those quilts don't have to be perfect, and they aren't. There are a lot of Oh, Wells in each one. But it's okay. The love that goes into the quilts comes through.
Keep up the great work!
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