Rhonda Bracey: At Random

This is my second go at feathers…

I’d seen the lovely pieces done by other participants in the FMQ Challenge on Facebook. Those that really stood out were stitched on satins and similar shiny fabrics. They photographed really well. So this afternoon I hunted out an ancient (30 years old?) piece of blue shiny fabric (like Shantung silk, but it wasn’t) and created some more feathers.

This time I nested the feathers (perhaps I should call it ‘Feathering the nest’?) and didn’t do any fill other than the echo quilting around each feather. I really liked the effect on the shiny fabric. I’ll probably cut this piece up and make a clutch out of it, similar to those I have in my Etsy store.

The thread I used was Superior Rainbows variegated 40 wt thread in a blue/teal/aqua.

To see a photo in full size, click it.

(the back)

Nothing like throwing us in the deep end! 😉 This month’s FMQ challenge was from Diane Gaudynski, and it was feathers!! Feathers aren’t that hard to do, but they are terrifying for most beginning FMQ’ers — me included — which is why I was surprised they were put so early in the year. However, there could be a good reason for that — I reckon if beginning FMQ’ers can handle feathers, they’ll have the confidence to tackle pretty much anything.

Fortunately, I’ve been doing free-motion feathers in some shape or form for the past 12 months, and nearly all my feathers have been based on Diane’s method. I find them very therapeutic to do, as her method means you don’t have to travel over existing lines or think about ‘where to from here’. I struggled with feathers until I purchased and read her book.

So to this month’s challenge… After a string of horrendously hot days when going into the sewing room would’ve been like entering an oven, finally we had a most glorious day today, with a maximum of about 25C. It was time to follow Dian’s instructions exactly and practice my feathers!

I ended up doing three practice pieces on the one long quilt sandwich — one using a variegated Guterman Sulky rayon thread, one using a dark Robison-Anton rayon thread (so you can see the stitching in the photo!), and one using a neutral Madeira rayon thread. Despite using these different threads, the back shows the quilting much better than the front!

All quilting was done on my HQ Sweet Sixteen.

Here are some of the photos I took after I’d finished (click on a small image to show it much larger):

I had fun practising free motion leaves, the first ‘lesson’ in the 2012 FMQ Challenge.

I think I improved, and I enjoyed trying some thread enhancements I’d never done before.

I used my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen to do the quilting, and except for the final practice piece, all practice sandwiches were done on off-white sheeting, with some offcut cotton or bamboo batting (I can’t remember which as I made these practice sandwiches ages ago!). The bobbin thread in all cases was a soft pink Deco-Bob.

Here are my practice pieces, with a little about each. Click a picture to see it in full size.

Practice piece 1

My first attempt; dark green rayon thread:

Front:

Back:

Practice piece 2

I enhanced this piece with some echo quilting; same dark green rayon thread as first piece.

Front:

Back:

Practice piece 3

I elongated these leaves so they were more like eucalypt leaves, and made them stand out by flattening the background with very tight bubbles (a la Susan Brubaker Knapp’s approach). Dark green rayon thread with an off-white Deco-Bob thread for the bubbles.

Front:

Back:

Practice piece 4

To avoid getting into a ‘leaves are green’ mindset, I used a purple rayon thread (Robison Anton) for the base leaves. I then went around them loosely with a fluoro orange thread (Mettler?), then again with a variegated metal thread with copper, gold, red, and green in it (Guterman?). I then used a lighter green rayon thread (Mettler) to echo the leaves and make them puff out a bit more.

Front:

Practice piece 5

Still sticking with the ‘leaves aren’t always green’ theme, I decided to do some elongated leaves in a blue and tan variegated cotton thread (Superior?), then went around them with an aqua blue variegated thread (Rainbows), then I used a silver metallic thread (Wonderfil) for the stems and veins of the leaves ONLY, then followed that with tiny bubbles in the same silver thread. I quite liked how this turned out and call it my ‘Blue Gum’ piece!

Front:

Triptych of practice pieces — #3, 4, and 5 (right to left); each section measures about 5 x 6 inches.

Practice piece 6

My final piece. I decided to get away from the off-white fabric and used a large scrap of bright pink cotton I’ve had for 25+ years! I just stitched basic leaves, but in silver to show the effect of metallic thread (Wonderfil) on a plain background.

Front:

Back:

Grayscale:

I changed the photo to grayscale to show the stitching in metallic thread as the bright pink fabric doesn’t photograph well.

So there you have it — January’s challenge completed!

I’ve been very slack about putting up screen shots of Etsy Treasuries my items have been featured in. In fact, it’s March 2011 since I put up a gallery!

So here they are (click on a small image to show it full size):

For my most recent quilt, I sort of kept track of my fabric and thread usage and time and got a BIG surprise:

• 16x batik fat quarters (@ ~$7 each = $112; offcuts of this fabric made the binding)
• 2.5 metres backing fabric (@$22 per metre = $55)
• 0.5 metres yellow border fabric (@$22 per metre = $11)
• 1 metre blue border fabric (@ $22 metre = $22)
• 500 metres Superior thread ($15)
• 500 metres bobbin thread (~$10)
• 2.5 metres bamboo batting (@ ~$30 metre = $75)
• Pattern from Four Paws Quilting (~$10)

So, the supplies alone for this lap quilt cost a surprising $310!!! PLEASE NOTE: Australian fabric prices are more than double what people in the US pay. We pay between $22 and $30 a metre for fabric (compared to the US prices of $9 to $12 a yard [2013 prices]), and at least $6 for a fat quarter. Our prices for batting, backing and thread are also much more expensive than US prices.

Time taken (approximately):

• Choosing main fabrics and ironing them prior to cutting: 1 hour
• Figuring out pattern instructions: 1 hour
• Cutting main fabrics: 3 hours
• Sewing top together: 8 hours
• Choosing, ironing, cutting and sewing on border and binding fabrics: 3 hours
• Sewing extra blocks into backing fabric: 1 hour
• Laying out the three layers and pin basting: 2 hours
• Quilting on the HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen: 10 hours (some 84,000 stitches!)
• Final ironing, squaring up, trimming ready for binding: 1 hour
• Adding binding (all by machine): 1.5 hours

Total time (approximately): 31.5 hours

I didn’t count electricity usage (sewing machine, quilting machine, iron, room lights) or amortisation of the costs of the sewing or quilting machine, or factor in annual servicing for both, or attendance at courses/retreats to learn new techniques.

If I charged $20/hour for the time taken (that’s less than a cleaner makes in Australia!), the base cost of this quilt would be $940 ($630 labour + $310 supplies), before looking at any profit. Adding a 25% profit margin would make this quilt $1253! I just can’t see anyone paying $1250 for a lap quilt.

Let’s do some more sums, assuming fixed costs for the supplies ($310) and a fixed profit margin (25%) but changing the labour rate:

Wow! I’m charging WAY too little for my quilts on Etsy. That said, people still baulk at more than $100 for a lap quilt. As you can see from the above, the supplies alone cost more than $300, without factoring in time or profit.

After all that, this quilt is going to a friend as a gift. That’s my choice.

But I tell you what, after looking at the real costs of making a quilt, I won’t be quitting my day job any time soon. I’d be going backwards trying to compete with some of the prices on Etsy, and would be getting nothing for my time, let alone any profit margin. I can’t see how someone can make a lap quilt and sell it for $100, unless they are getting the fabric for nothing and have a team of slaves elves to help them.

It’s all so very depressing… How can an artist/craftsperson make a living doing their craft? How can they charge a fair price for their labour, so that they aren’t in the poor house, yet the customer feels they are getting value for money?

See also:

• http://huntersdesignstudio.com/2012/11/08/whats-it-worth/
• http://huntersdesignstudio.com/2013/04/04/whats-it-worth-part-2-a-bigger-picture/
• http://www.whyquiltsmatter.org/welcome/discussion-guide-qa-with/quilts-matter-question-answer-caryl-bryer-fallert-part-2/
• http://www.sewmamasew.com/2014/01/placing-a-value-on-your-quilting/
• http://www.mollisparkles.com/2013/12/tgiff-cost-of-cushion.html
• http://www.mollisparkles.com/2013/11/tgiff-no-value-does-not-equal-free.html
• http://www.mollisparkles.com/2014/03/tgiff-costing-sheets.html
• http://www.mollisparkles.com/2013/11/no-value-does-not-equal-free-some.html
• http://huntersdesignstudio.com/ew-worth-it-2/
• http://danajoforseth.com/2014/um-yeah-im-worth-more-than-two-bucks-an-hour/
• https://www.yahoo.com/makers/never-say-this-to-a-knitter-really-just-dont-do-108914213375.html
• http://www.mooreapproved.com/2015/02/quiltonomics-the-real-cost-of-quilts/
• http://kathleenquilts.com/2015/11/11/the-business-of-longarm-quilting-charge-what-youre-worth/
• http://katiesquiltingcorner.com/2013/08/sell-quilts.html
• http://loridunnart.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/how-much-is-that-artwork.html

Today I finished a lap quilt that I started last weekend. I used a pattern I’d been meaning to try for some time — it reminded me a little of a Gustav Klimt painting. (The pattern is ‘Surrounded’ from Four Paws Quilting: https://fourpawsquilting.com/pages/patterns.html)

I haven’t made a quilt from a pattern for ages, so this required a bit more discipline than I’m used to 😉 That said, I did adapt and modify a little… The pattern required 8 different fabrics in half-yard pieces, but I didn’t have much in half-yard lengths, so I used 16 fat quarters instead. All batiks (except the border and backing fabrics, which were cotton). I chose a blue/yellow/green theme and I’m quite pleased with how it came out.

To echo the very geometric nature of this quilt, I free motion quilted the main top with squares/rectangles in one continuous line using a pastel variegated thread in yellow, pinks, greens and blues, then did a sort of curly grass motif in the yellow border with the same thread, and a large meandering stipple in the blue border in a dark blue variegated thread.

When I finished making the blocks, I found I had two left over, so I incorporated them in the back of the quilt. I like that they add a touch of interest to what would otherwise be a pretty boring back!

Click the thumbnails below to see an image in larger size, then click again to zoom in to see the stitching etc.

This quilt is going to a friend, but I kept track of my costs and got very depressed…