Goofed Up

I made a mistake on a customer billing. I forgot to give her the 20% first-time-customer discount and she had to email me to point out the discrepancy. I have NEVER done that before. Well, that's going away after July 1st anyway, so hopefully it won't happen again.

Yeah, my pricing is being restructured after July 1. No new customer discounts, my e2e and custom prices are being increased by a penny per square inch, but I'm eliminating the thread charge. So, it's not really a whole penny I'm increasing.

But there are other things being added to the invoice: "Please pick up your quilt within 30 days of notification upon completion". There is a $30 minimum charge no matter the size. There will be a $30 "push" charge if a deadline isn't within a reasonable time. By reasonable I mean a month or more. A few weeks is not reasonable since I'm already four months out right now. 

Batting prices are now posted on the heater right behind Bernie where customers face at the planning table to give them a visual, and I've made batting samples so customers can make informed decisions on which batt to choose.

Whew...I sound all business-like, don't I? Andrew called last night and my pricing/changes were discussed. He's my business manager and is pretty strict with me since I have a tendency not to be. 

Here's what I'm working on DW today...

Laura R's beautiful log cabin

The pic doesn't do this quilt justice. The colors in this are so rich. I'm thinking feathers in the light areas and some swirls in the dark. But I'm still thinking about it.

I finished Rae's second quilt and am re-loading Deb B's onto Bernie. While Jim was strawberry jamming I worked a little on Foster...until Andrew called. Then I moved over to Ellie to piece 27 more blocks in the green scrappy quilt. I'm over a 100 blocks but still need to make more. I'll probably be fiddling with that over the weekend.

Commissions

I've often been asked about doing commissions for people, but when the price is worked up, they generally back out. Why do people think making a king-size quilt should be around $250? The supplies alone would run considerably more than $250. If your budget doesn't allow for a hand made heirloom quilt, go to the big box stores and purchase a piece made in China that 1,000,000 other people have access to and pay the $129 you were expecting.

But some folks appreciate the art and handwork that goes into a one of a kind piece and are willing to consider quilts as art. Because they are. I put just as much time into a quilt as my "real" artist mom does when doing one of her paintings. In fact, probably more time actually. 

This is a testament to some people believing. While I was unable to grab a full pic of this before delivering it yesterday, here is a snippet of what was created for an art lover.

Flying Cardinals from the Call of the Wild line

Today I have visitors coming; a new quilt client and I think mom is supposed to come over. She wasn't feeling well on Sunday and I'm not sure if she is still experiencing lingering effects of her yucks. 

I loaded the Little Buckaroos onto the frame yesterday before going to work and did some edge-to-edge quilting on it before leaving. I'm hoping to get it bound before the day ends.