I have talked about the fact that you are wasting money if you don’t do your own quilting on your projects before but I think it is time to do a little math just to see how big the impact can be. As you know, I think there are impacts to not doing your own quilting and direct costs are a tangible place to start. There are essentially two types of direct costs:
Money Paid to Have Someone Else Quilt Your Project
The easiest direct cost to identify is the price you would pay to have someone else quilt your project for you. This can run from $100 to hundreds of dollars depending on how the type of quilting that is done. For this analysis let’s ignore situations where you choose to send an extra special project to a professional for custom quilting. This will be expensive but in certain special situations the results from a professional quilter will be worth the extra expense.
If you know how to free motion quilt, you will find that most of your projects can be successfully quilted by you without a professional’s touch. Let’s take a look at what the cost-savings could be in one year. The cost savings will depend on the number, size, and type of quilting that is done. This will vary considerably between quilters so let’s explore a few scenarios so that we can determine a range of cost savings. For the purpose of the analysis I have assumed that all the quilts would be lap-sized and would cost $100 each for a professional quilter to quilt with an edge to edge design (pantograph).
Your costs will vary depending on the size of quilts that you make and how complex you want the quilting to be. The more creative you become in your project choices, the higher the cost to quilt the project will be. You can see how the annual costs could really skyrocket if you are doing projects that require custom quilting as the cost per quilt could be in the hundreds of dollars.
You may want to do some research locally to see what the costs of professional quilting are so that you can estimate the benefit of doing your own quilting on your type of projects. Once you plug in your own numbers, you will quickly realize that you can save a lot of money if you quilt your own projects. Learning free motion quilting just makes good economic sense.
Money Invested in UFO’s
The other place where money can be wasted is in your stack of UFO’s. Many UFO’s are a result of a quilter stopping after they have completed the top because they don’t know how they should quilt the project. If you are unable to try free motion quilting but are unwilling to get someone else to quilt it, then your project will end up in your pile of UFO’s. The inability to finish the project is a huge waste of effort and money.
Now you could make a case that the money spent on a UFO is not wasted because you will finish the project “someday” so let’s approach this analysis as an assessment of the money you have invested (rather than wasted) in your UFO’s. For the purpose of the analysis I have assumed that all the quilts would be lap sized with a cost for materials ($100 per quilt) and the cost of labour (10 hours *$10/hr) of your effort to complete the top.
As you can see the inability to finish the project is a huge waste of effort and money. In addition to the cost of the “wasted” fabric, it’s tragic to put your creative efforts into a project only to leave it in an unfinished state. This analysis doesn’t include the frustration and of guilt of not completing the project or the impact of having to find somewhere to store the UFO’s.
If you are accumulating UFO’s because you can’t quilt your own projects and won’t send them out to be quilted, then there will be a huge investment in your studio that you or the people that you will give the quilt to are not able to enjoy. If you value your time and your creative work, you need to learn how to free motion quilt so that you unlock this investment for yourself and those that would receive the finished project.
Download a worksheet so you can do your own cost calculations.
The Bottom Line
The costs of paying someone else to quilt your projects or the amount of “investment” stuck in your pile of UFO’s make learning to free motion your own projects a “no-brainer”. Investing in learning free motion quilting will pay massive dividends once you start quilting your own projects.
Download the free Get Out of the Ditch! guide to learn how to start free motion quilting by clicking here.
Now that you know how much money can save by free motion quilting, get more information on my course “First Steps Into Free Motion Quilting” by clicking here.
If you already know how to free motion quilt then you may be interested in “3 Ways to Improve Your Free Motion Quilting” by clicking here.
P.S. Do you strive to improve your quilting skills? Do you want to have fun doing it? Do you want to meet other quilters in a supportive, safe environment? If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. Don’t wait another day! Join now.