Love it Ami

I agree with your ethic – if you are gifting then that’s fine, but they are gifting at your expense then that’s altogether different. In the least they should pay for the materials and a contribution to your time, or if not the time make a gesture!

I’m with you all the way. If you’re asked to make a quilt by someone then you charge. Family member/friend or customer you charge.

I agree Ami, I have made double quilts & baby mats for family, including my parents, step daughters and grand-children. I have also made for my personal friends having children or new grandchildren as a totally surprise gift. As a purely surprise gift I was then under no pressure, as there was no expectation & if I chose to spend my money & my fabric & time that was my choice. I have on a few occasions made quilts for other incoming babies of friends of friends on request, and a sensible discussion about actual costs & timescales has always happened first. They have always been delighted, and often paid far more than actually requested, more often as a personal gift of lunch out, plants for the garden, or a nice bottle of wine in appreciation. I am now making quilts for the Quilts for Care Leavers project, again totally my choice if I want donate my materials and time.

I think you have done well to stand firm on this, and let family and friends know why. I wonder if they even realised that what they were doing was the same as asking you to buy a present (the value of your labour) to give to someone you didn’t know. I personally don’t sell quilts, or even take money for materials, but then I have decided I will not make to someone else’s requirements. I make what I want to make, from fabric that has come from my “hobby budget”, and as I end up with surplus quilts there will be some unexpected lucky recipients or charities.

This happens to my students a lot – they make something for themselves, then get an approach along the lines of “you enjoy this, why not make something for my second cousin’s third wife’s stepson” with no offer of payment. They usually have the common-sense to say no, or at least to ask my advice, at which point they get given a standard “costs” document. Mostly, at this point the requester gets the idea that this is not a favour one should ask quite so freely..
A full bed quilt, from new fabrics, can cost upwards of £600 in materials alone, plus hundreds of hours of work. Yes, I give quilts, quite often to complete strangers, but they are my quilts, in my style, and at my leisure.. So, don’t do it, folks, you will hate the colours, they will buy nasty cheap fabric, you will lose sleep…