A Revelation

I got a very welcome, yet totally unexpected convo from Etsy last night. You may remember my quilts I dropped off at the fair last week. I don't know how you could forget since I've been blabbing about them non-stop... I'm so annoying. Anyway, a lady in Alabama found my quilts listed for sale (Lizze and I have many others on the website and she just happened to choose these two) and wanted to buy both of them. That's right, BOTH. The only quilts neither one of us has in our possession at the moment. They are at the fair until the end of the month. No interest whatsoever in the 6 months they've been listed and them BAM! As soon as I send them out they're flying off the shelves. What in the world? We should enter quilts into the fair more often apparently.

Thankfully, she is willing to wait for them to be returned to me and she is buying them for her husbands grandmother. How sweet is that? I am so excited. After having not sold a thing in months, this is a wonderful turn of events. I was getting ready to start boiling shoes for dinner.

I will be kind of sad to see them go if they win any ribbons, but I'll make sure to take lots of pictures of them hanging up in the Hobby Hall next week.

This whole experience has made me see that other people love and value handmade items. Lately I have been feeling a bit, well, unsure of how to price some of things I make. Yes, I spend a lot on quality fabric to make my quilts. And I spend a great deal of time cutting, piecing, quilting, and binding (by hand). My sister commented on a picture of one of my quilts recently asking how much it was. My palms started to sweat and I began having heart palpitations. I was ashamed to tell her how much I wanted for it. I feel like people don't understand what goes into making something like this. When all is said and done, after factoring in my time and costs, I'm making much less than minimum wage. But still, when a person can buy a "quilt" at a big box store for less than fifty dollars, they don't understand what is so special about mine. At least that's what I thought until last night.

There are people that get it. There are people that see the difference between a good quality handmade quilt, and one you might find perusing the clearance aisles at Target. There are people who understand the value in supporting the handmade culture, and supporting artists in the country in which they live. I will no longer be ashamed to tell someone the price of my quilts, or bags, or anything else. The people I want to buy my things are the ones who "get" it. The saying "you get what you pay for" comes to mind. I'm certain that my quilts will still be around for my great grandchildren to snuggle up in someday and that makes me smile.

Wandering Stars Etsy Shop