I was just looking through Ebay for quilts and realized more and more how many people are assuming the WalMart mentality and giving their beautiful hand pieced quilts away for almost nothing.
It is sad to see how so much hand work is being given away and you know as well as I do, it takes long hours to make any quilt.
So, I decided to look up Amish quilts on Ebay and some of them are going for a decent price and yet others are being given away.
It makes one wonder if quilting has just come to its ending during this tough economy or do people that quilt feel they can't ask for a higher price because their quilt wasn't made by the Amish.
I would like to hear some other opinions on this. While I can find higher prices quilts on Etsy and Art Fire many times those quilts are not selling either. I understand not being able to purchase a $400 quilt when one has bills to pay or is worried about their job...but on the other hand, do people expect those of us who quilt to just give these quilts away?
I call it the WalMart mentality because if you try to compete with WalMart prices, WalMart will continually drop their prices until they put the other company out of business. I don't see the Amish lowering their prices to put the rest of us quilters out of business, but I see other quilters selling their quilts for less than the cost of fabric and batting and I can't compete with those quilters.
I have given many of my quilts away to people in need feeling led by God to give specific quilts to someone who is hurting, homeless or dying, but I haven't at this time felt led to sell any of my quilts for less than the time and money I have invested in them.
If I don't sell them, I put them up and my 'put up' closet is getting full right now. It can overflow onto the floor at this time for all I care, because I feel if we spend all that time making and designing quilts, we shouldn't just give them away, we should hold onto them and see what else comes available.
2 comments:
Perhaps quilting has just come full circle. I think when women first started making quilts it was purely practical and they were not in it to make any money. They had a little of this and a little of that leftover and they were cold.
I know that many many hours go into making a quilt and it seems as if they are worth quite a bit of money. However with groceries, gas, electricity, and everything else going up in price and more and more jobs becoming uncertain or lost all together...I think that folks just cannot afford to pay what a quilt is worth.
It's not so much that they have a Walmart mentality it's just that they have a Walmart budget.
I agree with you on the economic side, but what really has me confused are the people who spend more in making them and selling them than they actually earn.
I agree that quilting has come full-circle and that is why many quilt stores are closing now!
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