I can't believe how long I haven't written a blog post. I think it's probably a pretty obvious sign that I had been struggling with my quilting and that I have not beeing very productive.
I had lost my quilt mojo completely, questioning why I am doing this. The shop is pretty much dead, nobody is buying anything and I honestly have no time to invest in some serious marketing which is probably what it would take to make some sales at all. And even if I had some time to work on the shop I wouldn't even know where to start.
And I think all of us quilters ask ourselves sometime, what am I gonna do with all these quilts? Of course some of us have large families and constant birthdays and celebrations to make quilts for but everyone I know already has at least one quilt or more and many people are just not that keen on quilts, they are maybe not modern or trendy enough to show off in a home and I can understand that my family and friends just roll their eyes if I present them with yet another quilt.
Besides, only quilters really understand what such an item is actually worth. Of course, everything is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. But considering the amount of money we spend on the materials, the sewing machines and the hours upon hours upon even more hours we spend on making our quilts, not having our work appreciated is heartbreaking. I guess it isn't always obvious how much goes into a quilt.
Recently, a friend of mine asked me to make a quilt for her unborn baby. She sent a specific image of a quilt set she found on Argos and said she can't afford the 75 pounds they are asking for that quilt (plus bedding, sheet etc. - the poor quilter who made that set was what I was thinking but I kept my mouth shut). In the same sentence she said she would of course pay me the 'going rate'. Ha, I thought someone had punched me in the stomach. I guess she had never seen my shop and the 'going rate' I normally charge. I guess that puts it all into perspective. When our own friends think a quilt might be worth 20 or 30 pounds and we invest a lot more than that in fabric alone not even counting how much our time is worth, then we need to reevaluate. But it's not their foult how would they know, right? I keep telling myself that all the time.
So you can understand I had taken it quite slow lately with quilting as I have so many, and I mean SOOOOOO MANY quilts already and don't know what to do with them. I was getting to the point where I thought I needed to find something to do that does not cost so much money time and effort and I need to stop creating things, large things that take up lots of space in our tiny house.
So that was my frame of mind, you see I was not in the best quilting moods, and then Katy Jones of ImAGingerMonkey came along and asked whether I'd make something for her new magazine Quilt Now! And bang, all of a sudden I felt I had a purpose again.
I am sure you've seen the magazine, it is gorgeous and taking the quilting world by storm right now. Issue 3 featured the first cushion I had made in years out of Kaffe Fassett scraps. I love how Katy posed the cushion and how nicely it fits into the magazine amongst amazing quilts and features on quilters and designers I have admired for years.
So please go check out the magazine, you won't regret it, it's awesome.
Lots of love and happy crafting.
Nadine
