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

State Fair Time

I have always been hesitant to "show off" my work to people. It's not something that comes naturally to me. I have been working on that a lot lately using this blog, twitter, and flickr to show photos of my completed quilts and other projects. It's one thing for me though, to show a photo online and to have people say "oh, how pretty!" and something else altogether to willingly bring in something I have made and have it judged. The thought of someone judging my work terrifies me to no end.

Last year I had a conversation with someone who said to me "you need to put your work out there where people can see it and touch it. You need to be open to criticism and be open to getting you feelings hurt in order to succeed. If you never put yourself out there, no one will ever see how wonderful you are." Granted, this person was a family member so they have to say I'm wonderful, but his words really struck a chord with me. He encouraged me to enter a quilt in my local fair.

Here's the thing about my local fair. It's the Puyallup fair. It's the largest fair in Washington state. It's a tad bit, um, intimidating. I talked to my friend Lizze (who also happens to be my biggest fan) and she encouraged me further. I decided to go ahead and jump in with both feet. I knew right away which quilts I wanted to enter.

I spent the day yesterday hand-stitching labels and hanging sleeves to the back of two fairly large quilts. After church this morning I drove the few blocks to the fairgrounds and my stomach started to knot up. I remembered the message from service and played it over in my mind "Only a fool would wait for the perfect time". I bit my lip, grabbed my bag, and went inside. Phew.

Entry #1 Urban Cabin

Entry #2 Royal Garden

Now comes the nail biting and the anxiousness of waiting to hear how they did. I'll have to keep myself plenty busy so I'm not constantly thinking about it. It's a good thing I have so much sewing to do!