Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Do I Know My Own Worth? Where The Rubber Hits The Road

So, you know about Hunter's Design Studio's We Are $ew Worth It theme, right? Or perhaps you know the concept of We Are $ew Worth It better for Molli Sparkles' post about No Value Does Not Equal Free, where he talks about the cost of making a quilt and does a very handy little spreadsheet to calculate it.

The rubber has just hit the road for me. A friend has offered to buy The Promises Of Spring since I mentioned in another blogpost that I was wondering what to do with it:

Promises of Spring

So, what is this quilt worth?

As noted in the post by Hunter's Design studio, this is an entirely different value to what I can get for it. I can do some rough maths to work out a value for the quilt, probably using Molli's template. However, the sale of the quilt poses a question about how I value myself - which, frankly, is the more challenging question. Numbers are easy; self-worth is difficult.

The question I have is how to approach this. Do I put out a spreadsheet laying out the price of the effort I put in (approximated because I didn't bother to record how long it took)? Do I just give her a number and wait for agreement or disagreement? Do I say "this is how much it cost me to make, this is what I'm happy to sell it for"? The friend is buying it for her daughter, and if she's not rolling in it, she's not destitute either.

I'm more than happy to gift a large portion of it - I've given quilts before and not said how much they cost; I've indicated how much quilts cost in casual conversation, but I've never had to have the conversation about how much my quilts are WORTH. And it's one thing to know that my 'hobby work' should be valued as much as my 'office work' (for which I am paid in easy excess of $50/hr) - certainly my 'hobby work' has brought considerably more pleasure to myself and others than my 'office work' tends to - and yet another to actually sit down and value my efforts.

It won't be easy. But maybe it's time.

4 comments:

  1. Good luck!! I think it would be a harder conversation with a friend than a random and I know I would struggle to ask for what it was worth. But this quilt is a treasure!! All that beautiful quilting....

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  2. I've sold quilts in the past to ransoms .... And have added a ghastly price to it ... I know I wouldn't pay that but people pay. It gets harder when it s a friend. Few of my friends actually know the value. I have found it it's easier to gift the quilt and they have to gift me something in return. Something I would use . Like a box of fabric, a roll of batting etc something of substance as they should understand that I box of choices won't cut it. That way they understand some of the costs involved . And then you only gift your time. At least it's to a friend. Good luck with this

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  3. Excuse all the bloody spelling mistakes lying in bed trying not to wake the dog

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  4. aghhhhh....I find it easier to gift then to sell. Having said that Take the cost of materials (today and not on sale) times 3. dose not cover time but its a start.
    Also, I have been know to "teach" someone to make a quilt for free and I send them to a quilt shop with a list of how much fabric they need for a quilt. With a side note for batting and backing in the future. In 30 years of quilting I have taken 2 people thru from start to finish. It was a great time for me and them.

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