A look back at 2008

Wow, what a year.

Unless I did my math wrong (which is entirely possible) I made 93 quilts and sold 71.  The 93 quilts included quilts for the kids, me, the house, etc.  So I came close to selling almost everything I made. This fact is only going to enable me in my horrible fabric shopping addiction.

For those curious about the cost to make a quilt (see the first comment), here is a breakdown for the last video game quilt:

Fabric: $65.  I already had a couple colors in my stash.  Wholesale isn’t a good option for this since most colors only use a couple strips.  Most stores have a 1/2 yard minimum which adds to the cost quite a bit.
Thread: $5.  I got it wholesale.  It took almost 1000 yards of thread to complete.
Batting: $10.  I buy it in 40 yard bolts to help keep costs down there.
Etsy and Paypal fees: $30
Electricity to run the sewing machine, iron, washer, dryer: Who knows but with 93 quilts I’m sure it added up over the year.

So after all that it’s $340.  It took about 45 hours to make the quilt including the time to take and process pictures, list on Etsy and turn Donkey Kong into a workable quilt pattern.  That’s $7.55/hour.  Current minimum wage is $6.55/hour.  Sean says I should take my dollar profit and go buy more fabric.  Perhaps I’ll take him up on that offer.

Then Sean wondered exactly how much time I spent working this past year.  A very rough guesstimate for an average quilt in the shop is about 18-20 hours.  Baby quilts are a bit quicker.  Queen or detailed quilts are much, much longer.  So 93*19 is 1767.  A fulltime job is 2000.  And that number doesn’t even include designing, writing and producing eight patterns.  I think I need a better boss that offers some vacation days.  Or a trip to the spa at least.