Thursday, October 15, 2015

Throw Back Thursday

Because no sewing is going on at my house right now, I thought it would be a good day to show one of my before-blogging-days quilts...about 3 years ago.  This was actually my first commissioned quilt made for a friend of my sister using my old Singer sewing machine.


This quilt is a perfect lesson on what not to do in a commission quilt, I think I made every mistake in the book at least once.

First off, it was my first time trying to pull fabrics and colors for a client.  To make it more difficult, the client was all the way over in France.  With the time change and my client being very non-committal on colorways, this process was long and overly drawn out.  I don't know how many hours I spent sending her pictures of sample quilts and quilt mockups to show her different color schemes.

Once we had finally figured out the color scheme (Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille for Moda Fabrics), I let her pick basically any pattern she found that she liked.  She selected Open Stars by Cozy Quilt which is a great, but time-consuming pattern.  I had already given her a basic estimate on price before the pattern was selected (yes I was an idiot) and so I kept the price the same even though my hours making the quilt just went up significantly.  In addition, the quilt comes in basically every size except for twin which is what she wanted, but I figured that it would not be too hard to change up the number of blocks to wind up with a twin.

I ordered the pattern (and the ruler) and then had to redo all of the fabric requirements and cutting instructions for a twin (taking more time to do this than I would care to admit).


After finally finishing the quilt top and quilting the quilt using a stipple pattern, I then made a bonus pillow with some of the scraps.


So long story short, when I added up all of my materials and hours spent on the quilt I estimated that I made between $1.50 and $1.75 an hour on this quilt  :(

Looking on the positive side, I can say that I really enjoyed making the quilt, at least I did not make enough mistakes that I actually lost money on the quilt (though I came close), and most importantly I never made this mistake with pricing a commission quilt again!

Another positive was that from making a 100+ flying geese I had tons and tons of tiny half square triangles left over.  I sewed a bunch of them together into a bag for my mother-in-laws birthday.


I am linking (for the first time) to Throwback Thursday @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge






24 comments:

  1. Great quilt and I love the bag from the cut offs.
    I never price right for a commissioned quilt that's why I'm wary of making them. I normally just charge for materials and add a little extra for myself. I know that means I've normally lost out somewhere but I wouldn't even know where to start otherwise, especially when it comes to pricing up for time taken to design the quilt. xx

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  2. Great story and lesson learned! I have done the same with custom quilting jobs. I do love the purse that came out of it!

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  3. Wow, thanks for sharing this story. The quilt is beautiful. The pillow is cool, and so is the bag from the left overs.

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  4. It's a great quilt. I love the bag you made with the leftovers.

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  5. A lovely quilt & the bag a bonus!

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  6. Very nice quilt, pillow and bag. I think I'd like to make that pattern myself. In my spare time, of course!

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  7. Lesson learned! There are always things we would do differently! It's a beautiful quilt and pillow and I'm sure it was loved! Sometimes I think the hardest part of a commissioned quilt is picking the fabric!

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  8. Love the fabrics you used! The quilt is gorgeous! Love the pillow and the purse too! I always save my scraps - even the tiny pieces. I like to make miniature quilts with the left over pieces.

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  9. Wonderful quilt, and a great scrappy bag! Hope you are back to quilting soon.

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  10. Really beautiful quilt. Thank you for sharing about your mistakes. I've never made a commission quilt. I always shudder to think of telling someone what it would cost for me to do so. A fair working rate for time, materials, etc.. is beyond what most people I know would be willing to pay.

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  11. The quilt turned out beautifully, Cheryl, and it sounds like you learned a lot about the commissioned work process with it, as well. I think we all have a quilt or two that are like that, and it is great you enjoyed making the quilt, too.

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  12. The colors and design are so happy. You did an amazing job. I think we've all been there at least once while making a commissioned quilt.

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  13. Beautiful finish. I've had the same experience with my first customers too. I still haven't learned though because it seems I have trouble saying 'no' to headache projects. I'm getting better though.

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  14. It sure is a pretty quilt and pillow! Thanks for sharing your story, I think a lot of quilters that do commission work have at least one story like this to tell. :) I hope you're healing and will be back to sewing soon!

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  15. I love the bag, I always hold on to my HST extras as well :) I just am starting my first commission quilt and have already screwed up majorly on costs and such, at least I know what not to do if there is a next time lol... I am making matching pillows for mine too... did you just envelope back it and use binding?

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  16. I hope you wrist is healing well. I am so glad you shared this beautiful quilt. I also really like the pillow and the little bag you made.

    I made very similar mistakes while writing custom coding for someone. Some mistakes are universal :)

    -Soma

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  17. Beautiful quilt. Anything new always has a learning curve, at least you came out slightly ahead.

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  18. A lesson learned. I would have done the same! It did turn out beautiful!

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  19. Beautiful quilt, Cheryl. Thanks for sharing your lessons learned in doing a commissioned quilt. I don't think the general public understand the whole process behind the actual quilt. It's not just the cost of the fabric. Lots and lots of hours of labor go into producing a quilt. And, it's not just the actual sewing. Planning can take a lot of time too. BTW, I love the little "finger" clamps holding your quilt for the photo!

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  20. That's a good lesson to learn, and at least you enjoyed making the quilt! I've only done one commissioned quilt and I've never worked out how little I actually made on it. Here's hoping I do better in the future! I hope your wrist is healing nicely :)

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  21. What a story! It's a beautiful quilt and you learned a lot from the process of this commission. That's all one can really ask for in the end! Thanks for linking up with Throwback Thursday @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge!

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  22. Beautiful!! I LOVE the bonus bag too!

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  23. It is a beautiful quilt and I am sure it really was quite a challenge to communicate between you and France. I love that you made that cool bag from the scraps. It really is difficult to get monetarily out of a piece what you put into it - people want you to make them stuff, but they don't understand how much goes into it - I know it's an oft-discussed subject. But I bet the owner loves it, so good job. And you learned a lot, so good job again, right?

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Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!