Making your Quilting Budget S-t-r-e-t-c-h!
I know that we have all been hit with inflation - more than we’d like to think about.
This is affecting the money we can spend on our fun hobbies - or even ministries - (if your church, for example, makes prayer quilts or quilts for a children’s home, or for a women’s shelter).
My sis and I were thinking of ways that you you can help your quilting budget go farther.
Now, this blog post may sound counter-intuitive to us having a shop - but long before we had a shop, I was a quilter, and on a tight budget. Thankfully since our kids have all left home and finished college - that part of life has gotten a lot easier.
(My mom said in FL that eggs are $5-8/dozen!!!!) That’s UNREAL - ours are $2 for 10 eggs and I thought that was bad.)
So, naturally when things are expensive in one area and something so basic as eggs are high - well, you have to kind of scrimp in other areas.
So, what can we do to make our money go farther so we can Make.More.Quilts?
Use stash. I think this is the first thing that comes to mind, doesn’t it? Most of us have extra fabric at home that is languishing on shelves or in cupboards. Let’s get our quilting bug fulfilled by using up these gems we have collected.
Use thrifted items. As someone who has made a LOT of quilts from second-hand fabrics, it is definitely more work than using new fabrics. However, it can be inexpensive. You can also raid your wardrobe. :) I know this isn’t for everyone - in fact, I believe it really isn’t for many at all - most people just don’t want the hassle. However, it could save you a lot of money if you succeed in mastering this technique. I will assume that most people won’t do this, however, for the rest of the post.
When you do buy, buy things that will work with aforementioned stash. THINK before you buy. If you just want to “sew” - BUY coordinates/things that will make your scraps go together.
Let me give you suggestions. After taking a look at your stash AND finding a free pattern or coming up with your own layout - get these fabrics
— Buy white/off whites/creams - they go with everything.
— Buy blenders in colors that will go with a lot of things such as grays, tans, navy
— Buy black - it goes with everything - like the white
—Buy Grunge - it acts as a very nice blender and adds a lot of spice to your scraps.
When you buy something - have a plan for it.
When you make your project, do not waste fabric! Save the leftovers and put them into your scraps and try to use them. Make MORE Quilts! I have a LOT of simple scrap quilts over on the free patterns page! I mean A LOT.
Consider trading fabrics with other quilters around you. Maybe you don’t want to do a yard to yard exchange, BUT you could certainly do a scrap exchange - leftovers. Maybe trade a 2 lb bag of cotton scraps with a friend for a 2 lb. bag of scraps. Of course, it would be good to trade with people of like mind so you aren’t disappointed because you consider the exchange to be bad for you with regards to quality, brands, etc. This will give you some of those feelings of getting new fabric without actually spending any money.
Let your friends and family know you would love a gift certificate (to us, naturally) for birthdays/ Christmas, anniversaries, etc. This way you can save up for that special project!
Shop with Quilted Twins! (YES!) Here are three ‘hacks’.
Buy backing and use it as regular yardage. Doesn’t matter whether it is Kaffe Fassett or a basic blender - it is going to be cheaper by the square inch if you buy it as backing since backing is so wide and not priced proportionately expensive.
Check out our $6.99/yard fabric which is name brand fabric and sold most often by others at least $11.99/yard and up. They are truly a fantastic deal! We have all manner of colors plus a huge variety of novelties. The solids are even a better deal! Riiley Blake at $6/yard when you buy these cut 6 yard bundles.
If you are a charity quilter, consider buying a panel and adding a few borders to it using your scraps. Make it a piano key border from your scraps. That will really be an inexpensive quilt top. Even if you spend $10-$13 for a panel, by the time you use your scraps to add borders, you will not have spent all that much money on the quilt if you can use your scraps for the borders.
In the end, we don’t you to bankrupt yourself because then you will NOT have ANY money to spend with us. Right? That would then be bad for you AND us.
Naturally, we would like to be your source of fabric or supplies that you need. I follow one You Tuber, and he has a motto - Support Your Friends. He doesn’t mean literally support as in send them money each month, but he does mean, shop at their shops if you can. (He and his wife are resellers - selling thrifted items on Ebay and Whatnot mostly.) I like that idea - and if you can - we’d love to be your source. Please check us out.
I hope that this list of very basic ideas might be some ideas you can use. We want you to be able to continue to sew and create.
There is something therapeutic about it that we would hate to see you have to give up due to money issues.
We are called to be good stewards of what we have. I hope this list of simple ideas helps you just a tiny bit.
And that’s it for today.
Have a great day wherever you are reading! Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!
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