"How long does it take you to make a quilt?"

I am often asked that question by non-quilters. It's a bit like asking how long is a piece of string.

So, for this quilt, I've worked out how long it took.

I took one jelly roll and some contrasting fabric; 1/2 an hour...but it would be a whole lot longer normally when pulling fabrics for a quilt if I hadn't used the jelly roll so let's say

1 hour.

To cut into 2 1/2 inch squares and sew a row together took half a hour

There are 26 rows in this quilt x by 1/2 an hour .

13 hours.

It took 10 minutes to sew each row together x 24 seamed rows.

4 hours.

Splice the backing fabric down the middle and add in some left-over 2 1/2 inch squares and seam two rows.

45 minutes.

Quilt it with simple diagonal lines.

1 hour.

Cut a 2 1/2 inch wide binding, press in half, machine stitch to quilt.

45 minutes.

Hand-stitch down.

2 1/2 hours.

So 23 hours to make a quilt measuring just 38" by 38"

Now let's introduce a 'how much' element to the equation.

The minimum wage on the Little Island is £6.15 an hour. Times that by the 23 hours it took to make the quilt and you get to £141.45

Then there is the cost of all the materials themselves.
You'd have to have bought crib size batting (60" x 45") for this quilt - approx £10.
Backing fabric - you'd need about a metre and a half:

Just for interest, this is how much quilting style fabric is per metre on the Little Island...

 ...which is not to say I pay this amount because I don't.
So approx £7 a metre say imported from the USA at a metre and a half.
£10.50
Jelly roll - approx £15 going on the assumption this has also come from the USA.

Then you need to factor in postage for said items to arrive at your front door, thread, wear and tear on your machine, electricity used to give it a spin in the washing machine, time spent clipping off loose threads etc etc
Let's add on another £20 for that.

Now the total is £196.95.

What do I conclude from this?

• That to earn a living from making quilts is impossible
• Non-quilters will never 'get' the amount of hours that go into making a quilt
•  That my hobby is everso-slightly-more-expensive than I first thought
• That giving a quilt is an incredibly generous thing to do...if someone had just had a baby would you have gone out and spent nigh on £200 for a present for baby?
• That I still enjoy doing it despite all of the above